The sun., 1918-07-28
Proves Apt at Even
Such Hard Tasks
as Rlvetting, but
Muscular Strain Is
Severe


"The assembly yard got NV back, the
riveting paralyzed my arms. the mould
loft gave me housemaid's knee, for every
bit OF the measuring and marking had to
be done kneeling on the floor. i did lot
of painting and helped to eamoufage 4
ship, which was fascinating work, but I
got paint in my eye and nearly lost my
sense Of smell.
The worst job that l ever tackled,
Mrs Harrison continued, was rivet pass
ing on one Of the hulls. / was part of a
gang that was working between decks.
There were several others working in the
same small space and the noise was deaf
ening. For twenty-f four hours afterward
was stone deaf and the hammers pounded
in my head until l thought l should go
wild
Speed Contests of Little Use.
"There was one definite conclusion that
| reached from watching the riveters'
work, and that is that speed contests, ex-
eept as they serve to rouse rivalry between
shipyards, are not good things. A riveter
who drives several thousand rivets in q
day is not fit for work for several days
after.
"The most trying part of my work on
the ships was the climbing. A ladder at
an angle is bad enough, but the ships
ladders were perfectly perpendicular. At
times there weren't any ladders at all and
we went up and down the shelves.
"The shelves are formed by the hori-
zontal frames that strengthen the shell
plating and they are about three feet
apart-sOme distance for any one not
man or a monkey. However, learned a
neat little trick about those shelves. By
going up and down in spots where there
were also vertical frames / had something
more to hold on to- 1t wasn't bad going
up, but it was awful going down.
1.-The two hardest things are to pull
yourself up with drift pin stuck in
rivet hole when you are climbing a ladder
set back foot or so from the edge of the
dock, and to step off a ladder across a
space of couple of feet, with hatch
thirty feet deep under you. The meanest
thing about climbing is when you take
hold of loose bolt and it slips in your
hand.
"There was always an audience watch
ing me, however, and I'd have died rather
than let those men see | minded it. Soon,
as a matter of fact, / didn't 1t is all
practice and certain amount of deter
mination.
Shop Work Especially Interesting.
Il had two wonderful mornings in the
joiners' and sheet metal shops. In the
former l found the work particularly in
teresting for woman. All the machines
are electrically run and comparatively
simple to operate.
"The foreman of the shop gave me a
number of different jobs to do and / mar
yelled for the thousandth time at the labor,
skill, ingenuity and millions of parts that
90 to make ship. For instance, all the
panelling, furniture and fittings that 60
into a ship have to be adjusted TO the
sheer from bow to stern and curve athwart
ships This means that they must be con-
structed on a certain bevel that makes
them set true when they are put aboard
ship. One of the foremen told me he
thought women could easily learn the
trade and make good workmen.
81 am glad to see woman working
down here he said, and i believe there'l
soon be women In shipyards just the same
as in munition plants
81 kept the regular hours, starting work
at 7:25 A. M. and knocking off at 5:25
P. M. For the most part, except for
visits of inspection to shops such as the
boiler shop, the blacksmith shop or the
copper shop, where there is little woman
can do, was actually working"
The National Service Section of the
United States Shipping Board Emergency
Fleet Corporation proposes to publish as