Building Ships of Cast-Steel 



Six million tons of such vessels could be turned out in a year 

 By Joseph Brinker 



NOW comes the cast-steel ship. The 

 purpose behind its proposed con- 

 struction is* to enable a large ocean- 

 going tonnage to be built rapidly without 

 further straining the much-overtaxed steel 

 rolling mills of this country. According to 

 its inventor, Myron F. Hill, a New York 

 city patent attorney, standardized cast- 

 steel ships can be built in much less time 

 and at a much smaller cost than the ordi- 

 nary fabricated steel-plate type. He fur- 

 ther predicts that 6,000,000 tons of such 

 ships could be turned out in one year if 

 built according to a standard plan. 



While the use of cast-steel in ship con- 

 struction is entirely new so far as merchant 

 vessels in any part of the world are con- 

 cerned, it has been stated by Lord Yarrow 

 of the British Admiralty that the latest 

 U-boats are being rushed to completion at a 

 surprising rate by the use of standardized 

 cast-steel sections put together in much the 

 same fashion as Mr. Hill proposes for the 

 cast-steel cargo boat. 



According to the present plans, which 

 have been recommended for trial by the 

 ranking naval architect of the Shipping 

 Board and are now being drawn up for a 

 rating by the Lloyds, the standard cast- 

 steel cargo steamer will be a vessel four 

 hundred and two feet long, fifty-three feet 

 beam and thirty-four feet molded depth. 

 She will have a displacement of approxi- 

 mately twelve thousand two hundred tons 

 when fully loaded and a 

 cargo capacity of nine 

 thousand, one hundred 



Employing the Electrical Welding Process 

 The inventor proposes to use the Wilson electric process 

 for welding together the various sections of the cast- 

 steel ship. Above is shown a workman with the weld- 

 ing tool, used in this process, in one hand, and a 

 wire screen guard to protect his eyes from the 

 intense light and heat in the other. He is welding 

 the tubes of a locomotive into the boiler headsheet 



tons. She will not differ from the ordinary 

 cargo steamer in shape, propelling engines 

 or other machinery but simply in the hull 

 and the bulkheads, all of which will be made 

 of cast-steel sections welded together by the 

 special Wilson process, which has proved 

 very successful in commercial work and is 

 now being extensively employed in restor- 

 ing the damaged and broken parts of the 

 many German ships taken over by our 

 Government. 



The straight-sided portion of the cast- 

 steel ships, or that central three-fifths of the 

 length of the vessel amidships, will be made 

 up of sections from ten to twelve feet wide 

 in the lengthwise dimension of the ship. 

 For an ordinary two-decked vessel, each of 

 these sections will be formed of five steel 

 castings welded together at six points in the 

 same transverse plane in addition to the 

 welding required to join one section to those 



Before and After the Welding 



At the left, a cracked bell with the 

 crack cut into the form of a V to 

 admit the welding material. At the 

 right, the same bell after the crack has 

 been repaired. Note the laminations 

 of the welded material and its rough 

 surface. The roughness may be ground 

 almost entirely away. In the center 

 above, is the Wilson welding tool 

 showing the bar of manganese alloy 

 which is welded in the grooves 



fion 



