The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-01
TEN PHANTOM VESSELS
They VIII Be Shipped Piecemeal From
Here to the Siberian
Coast.

Ten phantom vessels, without shape
without name and without tangible exist
ence. are soon to be shipped from the
Union Iron Works to the North Seas.
They lie around the yards nova rib here,
a plate there, pile of stanchions in that
corner and heap of beams in this-but
they are all ready to spring into shape as
soon as a master hand lays hold of their
bones.
There are now on the ways of the Union
Iron Works the hulls of four vessels-an
oil boat and three barges. Two OF the
barges are for the Panama trade. The
other is probably the most peculiar thing
that has been turned out from the
shipyards of this coast. She is built for
the Russian Railroad Company, that is
soon to run its lines OF steel across the
dreary plains of Siberia. The one under
construction is, however, only a type, for
nine more are to go from the Union Iron
Works and thirteen more are to come from
other yards.
The barges are all to be for the sole pur-
pose of carrying rails, although after the
road is built they may be used for any,
thing else. They are all light draft boats,
about $50 feet long, SO feet in beam and s
feet from the top OF the bottom to the
deck.
The boat on the ways is the only one on
the ten which will be put together in the
shipyards of the Union Iron Works. It's
starboard side Is gray and the port side
red, and the barge is now nearly COM
pleted.
Before the skeletons of the ten barges
are completed, however, the same mystic
colors, red and gray, will be put upon
them, on some plates the red, on some
others the gray; on some floor beams and
deck beams both red and gray, where thew
are to pass over the keel and on the
stanchions and ribs either color, according
as they go to the right or left side, for these
colors, throughout all the ten barges, will
mark the side of the vessel where the piece
so colored will fit.
ALI pieces will also be numbered. the
number indicating just where in deck or
side or bottom it viii go, and as its color
will show at once whether it belongs to
port or starboard, there will be no fear of
q miX-up even when the ten barees are
dumped in a heterogeneous mass upon
some far-away Siberian wharf. Every
piece will fit in its proper place on anv one
of the ten barges which will be built, and
the workmen will only have to pick out
one with the proper number to make a fit
at once. More than this, where the deck
plates do not taper off, or where the side
and bottom plates are straight, one plate
will fit as well as another, and not even
number or color need be consulted. In
short, the barges are built exactly alike,
and a plate or beam that will fit in its
place in one will fit in the same place in
any one of the ten. Even the rivet-holes
fit one to the other, ready for any one of
the hundreds of thousands of rivets which
will be sent along with these ten phantom
ships which will go to the north sea.
The barge now upon the stocks is a low.
broad, dish-shaped boat, with a fiat deck,
fat bottom and a steering wheel set high
above the deck level. Sockets to support
the posts for skeleton rail are let into the
deck around the sides, and cargo ports are
let into the sides at frequent intervals.
The bow is straight and knife-like, and the
entrance lines are such as to make the
barge take easily any sea she may meet in
the north. She will carry $50 tons of rails
when fully loaded, and these will be
drawn through the cargo ports in the side
and laid athwartships. The cargo ports
are small, not more than two feet horizon
tally and one foot in the vertical. Inside
there will be a bracket bearing a steel
roller and upon this the rails will be run
in. On the deck are several large matches
to admit light and air. Fully loaded, the
barge will draw four feet.
The barges will be ready soon, and will
be sent north without delay.