Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE BUILDING OF SHIPS. 273 DRILLING- BEAM KNEES WITH ELECTRIC TOOLS. (Photo supplied by Messrs. Gray &■ Co., Ltd., West Hartlepool.} keel of one just laid on the blocks, the gaunt skeleton of another beginning to show, a third partly plated, and a fourth in all the glory of its first covering of paint. But our concern had better be with one vessel only, because in the contemplation of half-a-dozen there is almost sure to be confusion. For this and-by every detail of the vessel is in the hands of the right people. Brass-workers, plumbers, and other minor tradesmen are at the fashioning of fittings, and joiners at the woodwork for saloons and cabins and deck- houses. The boiler-sheds reverberate with the roar of the riveting hammers, and the engine-shops aic all a-bustlc with the press of work there is to do. And if time is precious and machinery is needed in a hurry, the roar of the engines and the clatter of the hammers last through the long night, squad succeeding squad when the sun sets and the day breaks. 1 he frame squads reproduce the lines, which the scrieve board shows, on the perfor- ated iron floor around the furnaces, and then twist the incandescent angles into the desired curves. When the great ribs of steel cool they are taken on trucks to the building- bei ths and handed over to the shipwrights, who place them in position and “ fair ” them to the keel. Beams and other contributions to the rigidity of the structure follow, and the way is clear for the plater. I he platers until now have been preparing' their work for fitting, using powerful hydraulic tools, which roll and punch and shear the cold steel as if it were cheese. Every plate has its appointed place in the shell, and has to be as carefully adjusted as part of a particular vessel truck- loads of plates and angles and beams arrive daily by rail, and are sorted out or stacked on end in the yard. The ship- wrights have laid their keel-blocks by this time, and along the narrow-gauge railways, which skirt the building berths, come the “ black squad ” in their wake with keel-plates and so forth. The shops begin to waken up in the interest of the firm’s newest client, and by- 35 BENDING- FRAMES FOR TURRET VESSEL. (Photo supplied by Messrs. Doxford <S- Sons, Sunderland.}