The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-31
VESSELS LAUNCHED sIDEwIsE.
A Peculiarity of Ship Launching on the
 Great Lakes

The plan followed by the shipbuilders
 of the great lakes of launching vessels
 sidewise was not adopted because they
 considered it superior to the method
 which has always been used on the
 coast; they merely made a virtue out
 of necessity. The shipyards of the
 great lakes are not situated on the
 banks of the lakes, but upon rivers or
 artificial slips None of these water
 ways is more than half as wide as a
 modern lake cargo carrier is long, and
 so, instead of sliding the vssel into the
 water endwise as Is the custom all over
 the World it is let down monster
 slide, and takes the water broadside
 on.
 To say that the launch of big ves-
 sel on the great lakes is more pie
 turesque spectacle than similar event
 at a shipyard on the seaboard would
 be, perhaps rather a rash assertion,
 but it is more suggestive of the im-
 mensty of the work. First one sees
 the broad, high wall of steel slipping
 with accelerating speed downward,
 then comes the crash of splintering
 timber as the ponderous mass tumbles
 from the easy incline, followed by the
 tremendous splash of the water divld-
 ing under its hull
 The impetus of the plunge from the launching ways, which look for all the world like a bather's running board
 magnif1ed a thousand times. hurls the | top-heavy vessel over With tremendous | force. Often 1t would turn completely
 over, turn turtle as the marine men | say, were it not for the ropes, as large
 around as a mans arm, which extend from the shore to stem and stern and
 bring the ship up short when gravity
 would cause her to overstep the bounds of safety Then. with sudden revul- sion of energy the vessel pitches vio- lently in the other direction and thus she remains for time rocking heavily
 this way and that as if chafng under the bondage of the creaking cables which bind her to the shore.
 The original plunge of the vessel into the water makes a big wave. Very frequently the wave will climb the op- posite bank to a point from 30 to 60 feet beyond the regular water bound ary. The receding wave plays the same prank, of course, on the opposite bank, and as the vessel rocks to and fro in mid-stream, pillows are pushed alternately to one shore and then the other with gradually diminishing force. People who have miscalculated the force of the onrushing water are often drenched and sometimes injured by the sudden flood.
 It is the custom, at the launching of great ocean-going vessels, to make much of the event. and usually a large number of guests are invited to be on board when she takes her first dip Not so on the Great Lakes. No one is permitted on board save few work men necessary to the carrying out of the operation.
 No person who has ever witnessed a lake launching at close range will be at all surprised at these precautions. The performance of the individual on board a lake carrier as she takes her maiden plunge very rnuch resembles that of the man tossed by the catapult in the circus except that instead of be- ing thrown forward into the air, the | man clinglng tn a post on the vessels | deck must hang on her for dear life | while the vast mass beneath him jerks | and bucks and rolls. Should the man | lose his hold he would almost certain | ly be dashed to death against the sides. |
 There appears to be no limit to the | size of the vessel which may be suc- cessfully launched In the manner fol- lowed in the plants along the northern boundary of the United States. A doz- en years ago, when the largest ships on the inland seas were not 300 feet in length, many men declared that the limit of lake ship building had been reached, since it would be impractlca- ble to launch broadside vessels of greater length and weight, but now steamers 800 feet in length are placed In the water by this method as satis- factorily as were the craft not half as ong
 Many of the vessels are tumbled into the water when they are not more than .wo-thirds completed, and when none If the machinery has been placed lboard but others are launched with engines, boilers and every detail of equipment complete, so that the vessel nay sail away on her maiden voyage a ,ery few hours after she first touches he water.
 That this is possible might appear Ill the more strange when there Is talk n into consideration the arrangement if q lake steamer of the present day. 4ong, lanly craft they are by reason # the narrow channels through which hey must pick their way. Tn order to i've uninterrupted play down through he center of the boat to the machn- " which loads or lnloads the coal or ron with amazing rapidity, the naval = rchitects and the shipbuilders showed :, he engines and boilers compactly to- ether at the stern of the boat, and 1 erched the pilot house and deck house t the extreme forward end of the hip. Doubtless the weights are dis rbuted evenly enough when the ves- el has digested several thousand tons f cargo but there Is, of course, no argo aboard when the vessel is aunched and the uniniated spectator very apt to harbor suspicion that will be pure luck if the craft does ot break in two, or if the heavy rear nd does not gather greater momentum nan the other portion.
 The plan of naming a new vessel as )llowed on the great lakes necessarily some notifications of the cus- nm in vogue elsewhere. The young oman who smashes the bottle of over the bow of vessel unched in the ordinary manner must ield her ribbon wrapped souvenir as