The Shipbuilding Industry in Belfast 15 



In certain cases the plating is punched in the shed, and 

 holes which are to be matched are marked upon wooden templates 

 after the companion plate is in position. For some holes it is 

 impossible to woi'k in this way, and the portable electric drill is 

 used under such circumstances. Heavy shores are fixed by the 

 shipwrights to keep everything in its ])lace until plating and rivetting 

 has proceeded far enough to hold beams and frames immoveable. 

 The deck of this ship is about one-sixth of a mile long. The 

 plates used for the sheerstrakc, the upper part of the skin of the 

 ship, run up to about 36 ft. long, 6 ft. 6 in. broad, by Ig in. thick, 

 and weigh over 4 tons. Including great and small, there are 

 aljout 3,000,000 rivets in a ship of these dimensions, weighing 

 about 1,200 tons. 



In many cases holes have to be cut in the plates after they 

 have been rivetted in their places. Much of this work is now 

 done by the oxyacetylene jet, which melts its way through the 

 steel plating as a hot knife goes through butter. 



Through all the decks pass the necessary hatchways. Figure 

 IV shews the men working at the coamings of a hatchway. 

 Among the men employed on the " Island " hobbies of different 

 kinds are very commmon. Some of the men take to breeding 

 terriers or poultry, whipi^et racing, politics, literature, botany, 

 geology and zoology, ^c. 



Among the men shown in this photogra])h, for example, is 

 one, Robert Bell, who is an expert geologist and mineralogist and 

 has been tAvice thanked by the Geological Survey for his services. 

 He has discoAei-ed several species of fossil mollusca, which have 

 been called after him, and some very rare minerals. 



When the ship upon the stocks nears completion, the launch 

 ways are prepared. These consist simply of a line of heavy 

 timber, usually oak or greenheart, resting on the ground or on 

 hardwood blocks, and sloping down to the water with a declivity 

 of about half an inch to a foot. On these rest the sliding ways, 

 consisting of another row of similar heavy timbers. While the 

 ways are being got ready these two lines are held asunder an inch 



