Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-24
THE SHIP KNEE TREAD
IT STILL SURVIVES, DESPITE THE
DECLINE OF WOODEN VESSELS.
Some Business Survives in Fashioning
the Pieces From Hackmatack-
Spruce and Bark. .

Noah, as the first mariner, is said to have
started the industry In ship knees. He dis
covered that the tough bend where root and
tree trunk join was the best thing to brace
the timbers of his ark and guarantee safe
voyage through the flood. Afterward If
not sooner the Chinese and Egyptians used
the same system in shipbuiIding
The invention of iron vessels with steel
supports brought about change, and to-
day the picturesque ship knee trade is be-
coming relic of the past The state of
Maine, which used TO turn out ship knees
by the million, does a comparatively
small business and one must search the
New York waterfront thoroughly before
coming across ship knee merchants ward
There are only four or five such merchants
Maine has only three dealers in these once
indispensable goods.
The lumber is cut from hackmataek or
iarch, spruce and oak, which last was used
more formerly than now According to the
purpose for which il is designed, the ship
knee must be from six inches to two feet
In diameter, with the proportion of three
and a half feet of root to five feet of trunk
1t can be readily seen that this angular
olase, meant by nature to support trees
against the gale. is also unsurpassed as a
sliHener OF wooden ships amid the pound
ing waves No thickness of hull plank or
pienltude OF ribs could make up for the
lack or the knotty and gnarled bracers I'm
the old-fashioned craft Binding heavy
tinbers together and upholding the decks.
the knees saved many China sea trader
from the straining wrath of the tvnboon
anu many whaler from the relentless grin
of the Arctic icefioe eH
give me ship with solid timber knees
anu IL sail to hades in her." said an old
sait VINO lounged near the Greenpoint ard
y GU can see the strength and Won know,
~ there What do you know, except the
oui,aef say-so about the iron boat? Yes,
| a timber craft? He knew the ice u5a,,i IA
squeeze him and he trusted to them logs ~
Name ~ ioe" u
Hackmatack Swamps.
Inc pest hackmatack trees are found in
sWampy land, while the spruce grow on
high ground Sometimes in prospecting for
snip knees the careless operator digs AWAY
TOO much moss and thereby kills an entire.
grove of trees the roots being exposed TO
the rigorous winter of'the north. An ex
perlenced man can tell the ayailabI traes
without much digging There must he ono
large root extending out at nearly a right
angie and IN its absence the tree Is left
atone Having located the specimen. the
man digs around the tree and cuts off all
put the selected large root There is no
tap root with these evergreens which
spread their many shallow supports about
ana the leverage of the lofty trunk soon
brings the tree to earth Then the rink
is sawed off from three to five feet above
the base
In the old way man would carve ont
toui snip knees day with the adZe load
Iheih on MS OK cart and take them to the
dealer. Now revolving steel belt which
Is a d saw and an automatic planer finish
L'o knees a day. The planning and suuar-
ing OF the rough timber to market dimen-
slons reduce 1t about e-third A further
reduction occurs In the shipyard
The ship knees from Maine New Rruns-
WICK ano Nova Scotia are sent here by sea
while consignments from interior states
come by rail The merchant prefers the
speedy rail service, but Iaments the freight
Dill owing to the weight of green timber
Inc green wood, be it known, is easier to
shape at the mill
Besides building wooden ships knees are
used in railroad floats, ferry and tug boats
pathhouses and derricks, always as brac-
ers' Inc navy yard drydocks contain a
NUMBER OF them A fvemasted sailing
vessel requires some five hundred knees
The same ship in the old days used a thou
sand, because of the upper deck and poll
ICY of surplus strength. 1t was thought best
then to prepare for icebergs and lee shores;
now knee pieces and good insurance are
held more economical Also it is said that
the old system took up too much space.
Value of the Braces.
A three-inch brace is worth SIS cents, a
twelve-inch diameter is valued at S14 and
the sizes still larger mount up to fancy
figures. The very biggest are used in the
New England shipyards for some belated
sail-propelled leviathan Sometimes thin
sections serve for ribs in rowboats and
the seafaring men even build their houses
with them SO as to gain a coy nautical
effect.
At these prices, which have remained
pretty constant for half a century the knee
is often worth more than the entire tree
proving the geometrfc axiom of a part be-
ing less than the whole not ALWAYS correct
They tell up in Maine OF man who be-
gan life with peddler's pack but he dis
covered the gold mine in ship knee timber.
and by wise investments has become
wealthy. Many forest acre looked at
askance by the ordinary lumberman yields
handsome revenue to the ship-knowing
expert The farmers put in their odd time
digging out knees and take them to the
storekeeper in payment of grocery bills; the
storekeeper, IN turn, sells them to the
dealer, and thus the farmers homely toll
Is linked with the Straining craft that sail
the Seven seas.
Usually the dealers representatives lease
forest land and pay the owner % per cent
of the value of all knees cut. This is
called stumpage, which has nothing to do
with the fact that few stumps are eligible |
for the purpose. A lumber stump is usually |
too short, and begins to decay after a cou-
pie of years. The science of the dealer |
comes in play when he makes a survey or
estimate of the rough hewn knees. for the |
payment is made upon estimate of Sizes |
Neither party cares to be mulcted by acct
dent device. Sometimes the dealer wins |
In the guess, and sometimes the farmer.
Since the wearing out of the older fields |
Michigan and Minnesota have been sought |
as good ship knee territory. The Adiron- |
dacks in this state also supplying the |
timber. and the south furnishes the oak
variety Nothing SO combines strength with |
preservation does the hackmatack.
Uncle Rufus the principal ship knee
in Maine, and perhaps in the country |
handles 5000 to 5000 timbers In a year |
Despite his eighty years he Is as spry as a |
youngster attends to his business at home |
and travels all over the country twice a |
year, looking after lands and contracts He |
is a forty-niner who went to California
around the Horn. He attributes his hale
age to q life In the open and abstinence
from all stimulants When he began deal |
Ing in ship knees the iron vessel was a
novelty, predicted soon to disappear, and
also predicted to extinguish the demand for |
wooden braces. Neither has happened.
A glance at a messy strip of bark on a
knee timber Is enough for Uncle Rufus to |