108 STRUCTURAL STEEL STANDARDIZED CARGO VESSELS. 



This seemed a large amount of checking, but it must be remembered that in each 

 case this had to be done only once, as the majority of shops, after getting their tem- 

 plate exactly as required, used it to lay out one steel plate or section which was used 

 as a template for all duplicate operations. A tolerance of 1/16 inch was allowed on 

 all punching, this being the amount of reaming that is done when the material is 

 being erected. 



Not only is the hull material all fabricated outside but also the material for ma- 

 chinery installation such as piping, valves and innumerable fittings. The piping 

 comes bent, with flanges attached, to exact shape, requiring only assembly in the 

 ships. All joiner work and wood sheathing is fabricated in a shop at Detroit, Mich- 

 igan, and shipped to the yard in complete ship sets, and as it is received completely 

 finished, painted, varnished and with hardware attached, it is merely a matter of 

 assembly when the ship is ready to receive it. 



Before the work started, the idea of fabricating ships on such a large scale was 

 further questioned, on the ground that the structural steel worker could not drive 

 a tight rivet, and that his work would not be satisfactory or pass inspection. Quite 

 the contrary has been the result, as the work has been entirely satisfactory, equal in 

 every respect to work done in the established shipyards, although the question of 

 labor has always been a most difficult problem and could only be obtained by a sys- 

 tem of training which has been very thoroughly developed. Over a thousand skilled 

 workmen a month are being turned out by our training department. 



Our success is in no small part due to the layout of the shipyard. As the plan 

 view (Plate 80) and Plates 82, 83, 84 and 85 show, there are 28 building ways, occu- 

 pying a water-front space of substantially one-half mile. Electrically operated der- 

 ricks, each having a maximum lifting capacity of 3 tons, are placed between alternate 

 ways and arranged with a reach which will enable them to deal with the materials 

 for a pair of ships. Eighteen miles of railway track insure a steady flow of steel 

 and other material by the shortest possible routes to the points of incorporation in the 

 ships when on the ways or at the fitting-out dock, the latter having a length of 

 nearly one mile where 22 vessels can be berthed at one time, served by a 400-ton 

 gantry crane with a lifting capacity of 50 tons. By an overhead structure, electric 

 and steam cranes serve for minor lifts and place on board the ships directly from 

 adjacent storehouses the equipment and material with the least amount of handling. 



Between each companion pair of building slips and beneath the tower derricks 

 is located an administrative building for the superintendent and foreman in charge 

 of the two ships. Within this structure is kept a complete set of plans and all other 

 necessary data. With the exception of the rivet forges, which have their blowers op- 

 erated electrically, all of the other power tools are driven by compressed air supplied 

 from seven direct-connected electrically operated compressor plants. 



The fabricating plant at the shipyard is divided into two sections, the north and 

 south shops, as shown on the plan (Plate 80), where bending floors are located, also 

 punch shops, rolls and forges. The bending floors are fed from eight furnaces, all the 

 curved sections fore and aft being bent on these floors. These shops fabricate 4 



