Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-17
HAND-ME-DOWN BOATS
ARE QUICKLY BUILT
Made in Parts, by Standard Sizes,
Enables Constructors to
Break Speed Records.

Enables constructors 10
Break Speed Records.
When the 5,5O0-ton steel freight
steamer Tuckahoe was put into govern
ent service the other day, thirty-seyen
days after the first plate Of her keel was
put in position, she not only broke all
records that had been standing since the
Romans, in the FIRST Punic war, built
fleet in forty days which inflicted an
overwhelming defeat, upon the Cartha-
ginians, but she demonstrated one aspect
of the so-caIled fabricated ship program
that has been pretty generally overlooked,
but which none the less forms one Of the
principal elements in the success Of
America s shipbuilding effort.
The popular idea has been that the
essential difference between the fabri-
Gated ship and the ship constructed ac-
cording to the old methods. was that the
parts Of the oId-fashioned ship were con
structed right in the shipyard, whereas
those of the fabricated ship were turned
out wholesale in steel mills all over the
country, shipped to the yard by rail, and
assembled there This idea is Just near
enough right to be wrong, but It was
because Of this that illusions have been
made 10 the ruckahoe rs a ship of the
old type. and p ople have wondered how
the marvellous speed Of her construction
had any relation 10 the hopes which are
entertained at Hog Island and Port New
ark, where they are beginning to talk OF
a ship day at each yard
NEW AND OLD sTYLE
The essential difference between the
fabricated ship and the old-fashioned
one s not the distance from rolling
mill or plate and angle shop 70 ways, but
in the treatment of the material before
and after it gets 10 the ways. II IS essen
tiallv the difference between a tailor
made and a ready-made suit Of clothes.
The old type Of ship was built 70 plans,
but, while those plans were "faired"
beforehand, they only gave general idea
Of the kind Of ship she was going 10 bc.
The actual building and the form If the
ship were determined on the ways them
selves
The steel plates and frames and beams
were shaped roughly 10 the form tho ship
builder proposed TO fit them 10 and then
taken down the wavs and tned on the
unfinished ship If they didn't fl exactly
they were taken back 70 he bending foor
and bent little further this way or that
or perhaps Strengthened out a triIe and
tried on again # they fitted this time
they were riYoted in place and then the
next piece IN turn fitted to them and 80
the ship grew So il was that many ships
great liners battleshlps or big freighters
constructed to identical plans none the
less differed when complete by few
feet here or there IN their final measure
ments.
NOTABLE CASES CITED.
The Iusitania and Mauretania for
instance were built To identical plans
but when completed differed in length
sightluy in beam and IN other particulars.
The same thing was true Of the Olympic
and Titanic Of the lmperator and the
Yaterland now the Levathan
But American shipvards began gradu
ally even before the war to eliminate
tho lost time and lost motion involved IN
fitting the steel together on the ways
bv drawing the patterns for each part
accurately beforehand And this way
Of going about it to distinguish from the
old method Of fitting on the WAYS came
TO be known in the shipyards rs 'fabrl-
eating long before the general public
had heard of the word.
At first the shipvards only attempted to
fabricate the midship sections Of ships
leaving the fine curves Of the bow and
stern 10 be nodded bv the skilled ship
tallors on the ways. But little by little
shlDyard men all over the country were
pushing the fabrication idea bIt further
forward and further aft along their ships
hulls, until presently fully % and IN some
cases 90 per cent of the ship came from
the shop ready to fit together. The gam
in speed OF construction and the savings
IN cost Wcre tremendous
NtsR rtBRICATED BUILDER.
1Gei p . the American-trained
M and engineer was 50 OBJ
i is not sure even now Just
il Grst. rs nearly as the writer
a abI TO ascertain 1t was {. 2. VI
(. now consulting engineer for the
hester ShipbuIlding Company and the
Merchants Shipbuilding Corporation,
which operates the new Bristol fabricatlng
ward. who first put INTO practice the idea
of building fabricated ships in wholesale
lots. and ordering his plates and frames
made for him in steel mills miles away from
the yard itself where they were to be
assembled.
Mr. Jacks first effort was line Of
standardized tank steamers. They prov
cd successful, but the Chester plant
it was originally the old John Roach ship
ward. one of the most famous In the
United States, in which the first steel
ships of the United States Navy were
built proved inadeqGately equipped for
the full development OF the standard
lied ,hip idea Soon after the United
States declared war, and the immense
fabrication program MAS worked out
by the Emergency Fleet Corporation,
the ward came INTO the control OF W.
Ayerill Hartman, who has since made
considerable additions 70 1t and installed
much new equipment - that it Is now
turning out both standardized freIghters
and tank steamers.
sutPS ~ WHOLESALE Lots
THIS may be by way of depression, but
it is necessary TO make clear that the
idea of constructing ships in wholesale
lots in rolling mills thousands Of miles
from blue water, and shipping the parts
by rail, to be assembled at the coast, no
matter how vividly it has captured the
popular imagination, IS neither 50 new
nor SO important IN the minds of ship
builders, as it has been made TO appear.
And us far rs standardization goes, 1t
has been applied III the so-called old
fashioned shipyards as completely as
in the big new yards. The sole differ
enCe is that in one case the tabucauug
shop, that IS the plate and angle shop
and bonding floor, are within bowshot OF
the ways, and in the other they are many