The Cape Girardeau Democrat., 1896-01-11
LAUNCHING A GREAT VESSEL.
An Army of Men Start the Ship Down the
Creased Ways.

Creased Ways.
All the props have been taken down
| except a few that reach only little
way up the sides. A platform with a
railing, on which the stalwart work.
men may rest the stout pieces of tim
Der they use as battering-ramS when
| they are driving home the wedges, has
been erected along the sides of the
ship. There are nearly six hundred
| workmen distribted along the sides,
IN gangs of four each. Each gang has
five wedges to look after. The time
set for the launch is just before high
water, where the stream has a tide.
A dredge has been used directly in
the path the vessel will take when
she makes her plunge, so that she may
strike no obstrnctions. Every part of
the ways has been inspected. If the
weather is cold. lard-oil has been min
gled with the tallow to make it soft;
and if the weather is warm, stearine
has been mixed with it to make it hard.
1t is about an hour before the time
for the ship to move. The workmen
are summoned and the signal is given
for the first rally" All at once a
great din arises. 1t is as if an army
of street-pavers were at work beneath
the ship. If you peer through the
crowd you will see the men drawing
back the battering rams and then pro-
jecting them sharply against wedge
after wedge. This work continues for
four or five minutes, and then an in
spectiOn is made. 1t is necessary that
the wedges be driven in uniformly.
The effect of this rally seems imper-
ceptible. 1t has resulted, however in
driving the packing close up against
the sides of the ship, and, when that
was accomplished, has driven the slid
ing ways down hard upon the station
airy ways, squeezing out the tallow
here and there. But the ship still rests
upon the keel blocks.
After a rest of fifteen or twenty min
utes a second rally comes. This is
more spirited than the first. In go the
tremble Just the least bit. She is be-
ginning to rest on the launching ways.
At last she is raised the smallest frac-
ton of an inch above the keel-blocks.
Now comes the time for quick work.
Here is where the pioneers" begin to
swing their axes. One gang of men
rushes up to the few props that are
still resting against the sides of the
hull. Quick blows are given, timbers
and chips begin to fly, and prop after
prop falls to the ground. Another gang
of men is rushing after the pioneers
They are the painters, and with long
brushes on the ends of poles, they daub
over the places where the props rested,
which could not be painted until the
props were taken away.
Underneath the ship another gang
of men is making havoc with the keel
blocks. Sharp chisels are being in
serted on the sides of the blocks, and
sledges are used as the workmen come
up from the river toward the bow,
knocking this way and that the blocks
which have been the support of the
ship ever since she was first laid down.
At last, apparently after much confu-
sion, but really in accordance with a
careful system, all the keel-blocks are
knocked away, and the supreme mo-
ment has arrived. All the wedges
have been driven home, and their outer
edges are in line as straight as file
of soldiers on dress parade. The ship
rests on an entirely new foundation
and a very treacherous one. There
are no side-supports to keep her from
toppling over. The toboggan slides
are ready for work, and they must be
true in their inclination, and in their
horizontal position, or the ship will be
wrecked as she goes sliding down to-
wards the water. She is held entirely
by the stout piece of timber that
clamps the stationary and sliding ways
together just underneath the bow
Franklin Matthews, in st. Nicholas