862 



Popular Science Monthly 



How the new wooden ship, capable of carrying five thousand five hundred tons of freight, will look 

 when it is finished. In each ship 1,500,000 board feet of southern yellow pine made up into 



hundreds of such vessels to be built 

 simultaneously at various plants throughout 

 the country. This will increase our ton- 

 nage rapidly — which is what must be ac- 

 complished if we are to aid in circumventing 

 the submarine. It is understood that the 

 recently-created Shipping Board of the 

 United States has placed its stamp of 

 approval on the Donnelly design and that 

 it will supervise the construction of a large 

 number of such vessels for use in our 

 trans-Atlantic trade. 



Making the Ship Rigid 



In construction, the Donnelly boat 

 differs from all previous shipbuilding prac- 

 tice in that it has a heavy wood longitudinal 

 centerline bulkhead which extends clear 

 from the stem to the rudder post. This 

 bulkhead acts much 



Two electric 

 generators 



as a girder in a railroad bridge and provides 

 the greater part of the rigidity which has 

 been lacking in previously-constructed 

 wooden boats of the length of 350 feet. 

 The bulkhead is made up of timbers laid one 

 on top of the other, suitably tied together 

 by vertical members. 



Another particular departure from pre- 

 vious wooden shipbuilding practice is the 

 manner in which the frames are made from 

 straight mill stock with no hewn or tapered 

 sections. Note the illustration of typical 

 section of old construction, in which frames 

 are shown tapered from keel to rail. As 

 shown in the accompanying illustration of 

 the new construction, the frames or ribs of 

 the vessel are made up of a straight part 

 extending across the bottom from bilge to 

 bilge and a vertical member forming each 

 side from the turn of the bilge to rail. The 



The use of the center longitudinal bulkhead makes it necessary to have side instead of center hatches or 

 openings through which the cargo is deposited in the hold. No cargo can be shifted once it is in the hold 



