Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1918-08-02
TaIEZZzIrC ONO IT wax -


wooden freighters each of 400 tons lightweight
capacity.
A year ago We had in this country only hand
full of qualified shipwrights. and the yards en-
gagged in the building of wooden vessels were few
and far between, of modest equipment and any
thing but up to date compared with their steel
competitors. How. then. has it been possible to
undertake so imposing program and to prom
Use deliveries within periods unprecedentedy
brief? The story is one to make every American
feel proud. for it is record Of Yankee ingenu-
ity and native adaptabity at their best.
1t was plain to the men concerned in direct
ing the Emergency Fleet corporation that 1t
would be quite out Of the question to recruit
shipwrights to train men In the art with
ished form is the evolution of long years Of prac-
teal application. and this means acquired cum
ming in the use of a very few hand tools.
Just the same launching timber ves-
sells after very short building periods. and these
undeniable results are the consequence Of skill
fully directed efforts following lines. The
Emergency Fleet corporation first set about
recruiting labor from wide range of wood work.
ing trades. and they showed how these men could
he employed. by reason of already existing me-
chanical aids and others developing. to do virtu-
ally what had previously been done only by the
expert ship carpenter.
We are turning out by the new method ocean,
going timber cargo carriers to which the under
writer's do not hesitate to give Al rating. This
achievement Is the outcome of a studied effort to
cut out lost motion all the way from the forest
the building plant and thence upon the finished
product.
Where the shipwright used to hew and cut and
patiently carve the various curiously formed
structural units out of relatively raw material.
his less expert brothers. the house carpenter the
joiner, the wooden bridge builder and the like
agency of the sawmill. The sawmill in fact rep
resents today to the wooden ship what the steel
mill stands for I'm the case of the fabricated
freghter
BY means of planners that be set at any
angle and saws that will operate when tilted TO
different degrees il is possible for the present
day substitutes Of the master wood worker the
shipwright. to shape and to bevel pieces of all
sizes and thcknesses and. besides to do this in
a few minutes, where the ship carpenter re-
quired probably many hours
The pneumatic drill commonly used in struc-
tura steel work has been modified so that II
will answer for the boring of holes In the tim
bers of wooden ship pneumatic hammers.
adaptations of steel riveters. driving the
bolts treenails. plugs. etc. that bind timber
craft together and portable planners and kindred
air or electrically operated tools finish of sur
faces and smooth joints so that the adZe and the
other tools of the shipwright welInigh- dis
pensed with. Further. these portable power
driven aids doing their work at a speed ut
terly unattainabp by the traditional ship car
pentpr and his fellows.
As yet tn. concrete ship is too much of a nov
city for predictions 10 lie made as to the ultimate
maximum "t practicable tonnage are we
Yet sure THAI the big concrete freghter of 4,UOt
tons au' more il going 10 prove enduring am
economical However concrete craft of more
modes: proportions have already establiShe,
their durability. their technical correctness ;nt
the feasibility of constructing them rapidly
The Emergency Fleet corporation' bearing thes.
facts in mind. going right ahead to supple
incnt our mercantile Squadrons 10y substantially
encouraging the building of some scores of freight
and other grunolithc boats.