182 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SHIPYARD PLANTS. 



with a clear opening of 51 feet, allowing for a double track, standard gauge system 

 running through it. It is proposed to install the crane on the center line of a pier 

 of 100 feet width, giving a clear reach of 65 feet at 350 tons capacity, and 140 feet at 

 50 tons capacity. The crane will be installed 400 feet from the outer end of the pier 

 1,000 feet long, the location being based on allowing the handling of weights on any 

 point of a vessel 1,000 feet long, and for giving the most convenient handling of 

 weights for vessels of lesser lengths. So far as we know, this will be the largest crane 

 that has yet been built for the shipbuilding industry. Located as outlined, the crane 

 will give equal service on both sides of the pier, and can take the heaviest loads 

 from barges on one side and place them on board vessels secured on the other side. 



TURRET SHOP. 



One of the serious problems connected with the building of large naval vessels 

 is the completion and installation of the turrets within the period of construc- 

 tion of the vessel. With comparatively limited weight handling facilities, the con- 

 struction of the turret cannot proceed beyond the assembly of the bare structural 

 work until after the vessel is launched, the heavy structure being handled in separate 

 pieces to be assembled on board the vessel. The large amount of fitting and in- 

 stalling then remaining occupies the entire time until the vessel is completed. A 

 method of construction which offers much brighter prospects for rapidity, but in- 

 volves large initial expenditures for equipment, is to build the turrets complete in a 

 shop, to then remove the armor and guns and strip the turrets to a weight that can 

 be handled by the fitting-out crane, and to lift the turrets on board in this condition 

 soon after launching. With a crane of the capacity described above, this process is 

 entirely feasible, but involves the provision of a turret shop. The work to be done 

 in such a shop is a combination of work such as is done in the structural shop and in 

 the machine shop, and involves very heavy crane service and great height of build- 

 ing. In order to get the maximum benefit of the fitting-out crane, the capacities 

 . of the shop cranes should be equal to it, and designs have been prepared for a shop 

 of this type which is to have a height to the under side of roof trusses of 94 feet 

 and span of 100 feet, and to be fitted with two 150-ton bridge cranes, giving a com- 

 bined capacity of 300 tons. With a shop of this character located on the water front, 

 it will be feasible to extend the crane runway over the water a sufficient distance to 

 permit the placing of a turret on a barge, which in turn will deliver it within reach 

 of the fitting-out crane. 



Owing to the great height of the completed turret structure, it is necessary 

 either to provide a deep pit for the lower portion of the turret to extend into, or to 

 provide an excessively high roof; or, what appears better, to combine the two 

 methods, which can be done, with a height of 94 feet to the roof trusses and depth 

 of pit of about 16 feet. These dimensions are sufficient to allow the complete as- 

 sembly of a number of turrets and their removal from the shop as completed. A 

 length of shop of about 60 feet per turret will be required. 



