Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-07-25

ship out of the way and with a force of care
fully chosen workmen, the keel of the collier was
laid and assembling rushed.
The men keen to make good and they
labored with unfiagging zeal. Not only that. but
they worked in three shifts and speeded up the
building continuously night and day. There
fore they were able at the end of 81 days put
, the craft overheard.
This makes 1t plain why ordinary times
three or four months were required to- advance
ship far enough to warrant launching and why
it took two three months to install her
gines and boilers and to get her otherwise out
fitted and finished for active service. In the
case of the Tuckahoe her builders found it pos
sible to accumulate all of the materials needed
and once she was started to forge ahead to her
semblingS without hitch.
But even though the pace set by the West
Lianga and the Tuckahoe cannot be maintained
generally by oldlne shipbuilding plants still
most of these are In position today to produce
faster than heretofore because of mechanical aids
at their disposal. And what done at
Camden In turning out the Tuckahoe is doubly
interesting because the practice there may be
Nkened In measure to what is termed the
fabricated ship.
The fabricated ship offered as a solution of
a very vexatious situation that had a number
of angles First. for ship construction 1t
.needful TO. draw upon steel workers and allied
labor who were quite unfamiliar with ship
building. Next. 1T essential that steel
plants that were capable of producing the
terials for bridges, the framework of great Office
buildings and the steel parts of other land struc-
lures should be made available and their
mage utHzeQ IN the CONSTRUCTION OF the man11OI0
parts for oceangoing cargo carriers. Finally.
venient points on deep water had to be chosen
for the assembling of these elements, which were
manufactured far and wide and delivered at the
places of building In a less advanced
stage of fabrication.
The fabricated ship is not strictly speaking
type of vessel but rather standardized order
construction which depends primarily upon
a measure OF advanced preparatory work done
at plants remote from the shipyard and done
well and accurately that similar parts fden-
teal and can be put In amy of group OF
type hulls of corresponding dimensions. Inter-
changeability Is the paramount requirement.
The three distinctive fabricating yards on the
Atlantic seaboard the Newark bay plant
land plant OF the American International corpor-
alton. and the yard of the Merchants Shipbuild-
ing corporation at Bristol Pa. Because OF the
way In which these establishments laid out
and because they receive their materials ninety
odd per cent ready for erection and assembling
the spot per ship than otherwise would be
Quired. 1t Is practicable for them to handle at
one time an unusually large number Of vessels.
While the materials manufactured at some
score of different steel mills they true
to dimensions. thanks to drawings Of. excep-
tonal accuracy and fullness of detail and pat
terms that are exact In every particular that the
Independent concerns be relied upon to fur
nish just what is wanted.
Chairman Hurley of the Emergency Fleet cor
poration has told that should be able to
turn out annually quite 100000 tons of wooden
craft This means not only exceptional indus
try on our part, but 1T represents the surmount-
his confidence is 80 far Justified In the scores OF
our old and new timber plants that he has 70
Gently ordered approximately 200 additional