The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1918-07-19

wooden freighers each of 400 tons deadwegbt
capacity
year ago had in this country only hand
full of qualified shipwrghts, and the yards en-
gagged in the building of wooden vessels few
and far between, of modest equipment and any
thing but up to date compared with their steel
competitors. How, then, has 1t been possible to
undertake so imposing a program and to prom
fse deliveries within periods unprecedentedly
brief? The story is to make every American
feel proud. for 1t is record of Yankee ingenu-
ity and native adaptability 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 or to train new men in the art with
In the time available. The shipwright in his fin
ished form is the evolution of long years of prac-
teal application and this means acquired
ming in the of a very few hand tools.
Just the same launching timber
sells after very short building periods and these
undeniabe results 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 could
be 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 turning out by the 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 studied effort to
cut out lost motion all the way from the forest
to the building plant and thence upon the finished
product.
Where the shipwright used to hew and cut and
patiently the various curiously formed
structural units out Of relatively material,
his less expert brothers. the house carpenter, the
Joiner, the wooden bridge builder and the like
now accomplish astonishing things through the
agency Of the sawmill. The sawmill In fact rep
resents today to the wooden ship what the steel
mill stands for in the case of the fabricated
freghter.
By means of planers that can be set at any
angle and saws that will operate when tilted to
different degrees, 1t Is possible for the present
day substitutes of the master wood worker, the
shipwright, to shape and to bevel pieces of all
sizes and thicknesses and, besides, to do this in
a few minutes, where the ship carpenter re-
qured probably many hours.
The pneumatic drill commonly used in struc-
tural steel work has been modified that 1t
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 pluners and kindred
air or electrically operated tools finish of sur
faces and smooth joints that the adze and the
other tools of the shipwright are wengh dis
pensed with. Further, these portable power.
driven aids doing their work at a speed ut
terly unattainable by the traditional ship car
penter and his fellows.
AS yet the concrete ship is too much of a nov
city for predictions to be made to the ultimate
maximum Of practicable tonnage, are we
yet that the big concrete freighter OF 1900
tons and Is going to prove enduring and
economical However, concrete craft Of mors
modest proportions have already established
their durability their technical correctness and
the feasibility of constructing them rapidly.
The Emergency Fleet corporation. bearing these
facts in mind Is going right ahead to supple
ment mercantile sQuadrons by substantially
encouraging the building Of some scores Of freight
ers and other Rrsnolithic boats.