The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-12-27

watchfulness for and prosnptness in adopting
| whatever in method or material Is an improve
ment in the art of ship-building. In another
column is description of the ship John Nc
DoLald, just launched, wherein the peculiar
! ity OF diagonally laid iron straps in her con-
struction is noticed. This method was first
| tried at Thomaston dozen or more pears ago.
| on the ship Pactola After she had been in
service ten years she underwent some repairs
which required the removal OF q part OF her
| planking. 1t was found that iron rust bad not
| injurously affected the wood in contact with
| the straps. Another fact was shown when she
was in the dry dock. In building a ship it is
| usual to make the lower line of the keel slight
| ly convex, SO that when her frame yields to
| the tendency TO settle at the forward and after
| ends, something short OF a hollow line will be
produced. In the Pactola the convexity had
| amounted to six inches, but so rigidly did the
| iron straps hold her frame that she did not
yield, and after 10 years the original line of
the keel remained. Bath now adopts the inn
provement, not only In the Mcdonald, but some
other vessels constructing by other builders.
The shipyard of William Rogers is q good
place for an old-fashioned shpw right to study
the progress of recent Yeas. The axe and the
adze are not there wholly dispensed with, but
workman of the old school would think it
matter of wonderment, until he had observed
the process, how the hands there employed
could so rapidly turn out work of unexception-
ablesquality. This yard is furnished with a
planer, said to be the largest in the world, cap
able OF working keel piece of timber sixty
SIX feet long five feet wide and q feet deep.
The keel comes out of the machine ready for
laying on the blocks and perfectly smooth and
true on all sides. A bevelling saw is another
caDacious machine, which turns out timber
sawed at any desired angle from the horizon
tai. and by it curved timber and Ship-knees
can be worked true to the line. The engine
which runs these machines runs also q bolt
cutting machine which will nip off round iron
OF any diamater up to two inches also large
and small circular-saw, "a machine for making
tunnels, and, in the finishing shop, band and
circular saw, planer, moulding machine and
plug and wedge machine The waste steam
Is used in QendiDg timber.
The firm of Goss, Sawyer & Packard also
have various labor saving appliances, but the
senior member, Captain &. G. Goss, has in
mind bigger scheme than anything which
his present extensive "plant" can show, name
~, an establishment for the construction of
iron ships He is at the head of company
which is low erecting building for this work.
zoo 1eet long, 90 feet wide and 20 feet high
Adjacent IS a brick engine-house, "a by 80. The
grounds comprise about seven acres, and have
water front of 600 feet, with 20 feet depth of
water at low tide. 1t is expected that the first
iron vessel for Bath will be begun here next
May A single other fact may be given in il
lustration OF the vim with which business is
done in Bath. The firm of Arthur Sewal &
Co., launched on the 18Th instant the three
mast schooner Alice Archer. She was rgged
OdildotSu anu pIOFiSiOucu Wuou vi bu0 STOCKS.
Her captain and crew were on board when she
was launched. The hour wss before sunrise
When she got into the water a tug.boat took
her hawser and towed her to the mouth of the
river at once, and thence sailed Immediately to
Brunswick, Ga, for cargo of yellow pine.
There has usually been published about the
beginning of the year a semi-official statement
of the ship building of Bath, and other districts
compiled from the books of record of the Gus
tom House. Such statement comprises the
vessels launched and registered during the pre-
ceding year, and the record gives ia each
Case the number of tons and fractions of a ton
So compiled the totals will inevitably vary
somewhat from those given below, which have
been made up from figures obtained from the
builders, which in some cases are approximate,
and all cases exclude fractions. The endeavor
has been to attain reasonable accuracy, and the
general result may be taken as substantially
correct summary of the years doings. For a
more perfect apprehension of the magnitude
of the industry subsidiary statement is made
of vessels on the stocks These stand in vari-
GUS stages Of advancement, and some of them,
being upon the eve of launching, may properly
on the first proximo be numbered in the list of
completed vessels of 1882.