The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-09-12
OUR DEFENSE

y
the navy yard ways. Or it goes
to one of the private shipbuilding
companies that have the hard
won know how" experience in
building a vessel of this size.
The plans come to rest in the
mold loft, a huge open room
where the outlines of the ship
are laid down full size on the
floor. Over this floor swarms a
small army of loftsmen, men who
have spent their lives on their
knees, building up wooden temp
lets. Temples are full-size
models of every stringer, every
plate, every piece that makes a
ships hull. These templets en-
body every hole, every twist,
every bend that goes into the
curves of a ship.
Then, with the aid of the Ma
tional Defense Advisory Commits
sion, nation goes to work. In
the heart of mountain in Min
nesota, a man pulls a lever. A
plume of steam shines in the sun
as the shovel bites into the ore,
train clanks $50 miles to the
docks. The ore SlitherS into the
belly of ship. A thousand miles
to the east, it joins the coal, up
from the blackness that is under
Pennsylvania. In the binding
heat of the furnace it becomes
iron. More men pull, haul, heat,
and tuSSle it into steel 1t screams
through the rolling mills. Huge
scissors shear it down to size In
the shipyard, a man at a punch
press, guided by the templet,
punches holes all over sheet
half as large as a tennis court.
1t is again seized by the rollers,
bent into shape, given special
number all its own, and set to
wait till it slides snuggly into
place in its destined position.
What Makes a Ship?
A ship is 90 percent steel. But
it is also copper. aluminium, lead,
zinc. 1t is wood and cork. 1t is
cement, glass, plaster
wall board, and insulating board
1t is awnings, mattresses, and
window sash. 1t is heating and
ventilating equipment. And it is
that little. pump, tucked away %
feet below the deck, that delivers
three squirts of oil every minute
to some vital portion of the ma
chinery.
The Navy needs all those thou
sands of tons of material and mil
lions Of items promptly. The Ma
tional Defense Advisory Commits
sion gets busy and finds where
and when and how that material
can be obtained. What shops can
turn out armor plates, what other
shops can make thousands of tiny
castings and structural frames.
1t is the Defense Commission
that has to see that this material
is turned out economically and
on time, so the Navy gets its
ships.
When all the material for the
and one different parts is
assembled. construction can be-
gin. To see a ship being built
figure on settling down at the
yard for two or three years.
Building ships IS not a production
line job. 1t is a job involving the
skills of thousands of men ap-
piled TO putting together the most
complicated moving object that
man can build
The job starts with the cere-
mOnial laying of the keel. with a
frock- coated. high-hatted. white
gloved Honorable" jack hammer
operator. That is about the last
glimpse of the riveting hammer.
for today more and more welding
is being used in ships Not that
a Shipyard is the quietest place
on earth, for in the ordered bust
ness Of the boiler shop, the ham
bell of travelling crane
Will echo the thunder of sledge
on metal. as hundred men beat