18 Alec Wilson on 



ship. Anchors and piles of chain had been sunk in the mud of the 

 river bed beforehand, and steel hawsers were attached to the 

 vessel's side, so that it appeared to the spectator as if the gi-eat 

 ship had been stopped by some sort of invisible magic. 



Tugs now take charge of the hull and bring her round to the 

 fitting-out Avharf, where she is invaded by a swarm of men 

 who have to perform the seemingly impossible task of completing 

 the ship in six or eight months, during which time the great hull 

 will haA^e been converted into a luxurious sea palace. Of course, 

 while the hull was building, the cabin fittings, the engines and 

 boilers, and all the thousand and one things necessary, were also 

 in various stages of construction. The ideal to which the system 

 is approaching very close, is to have everything made before the 

 launch that can be so made, and all these fittings stored, as they 

 are made, in a special place devoted to that particular ship. Two 

 advantages will probably be found to accrue when this system is 

 fully matured : a shorter time between the date of the launch 

 and the day of delivery, and a lessened fluctuation in the rate of 

 employment in certain trades. Sometimes several thousand men 

 are employed in finishing oft' a large boat, and it will be a distinct 

 gain if they can l)e taken on at once on work for another boat, 

 even though she be not nearly I'eady for launching. 



Meantime the engine-works have also been busy. For heavy 

 and continuous work the main boilers are usually of the well 

 tried Scotch type, which, for the merchant service, have not yet 

 been equalled. An " Olympic " or " Britannic " may have more 

 than thirty of such boilers, each weighing anything up to 126 

 tons, empty. The fitting and erecting shops have been working 

 night and day upon the main engines as well as upon 

 the multitudes of accessories. Figure VI shows half of the casing 

 of the low pressure turbine of the ""Britannic" the " stator " 

 as'it is called, as distinguished from the "rotor," or portion which 

 rotates and thus communicates motion to the shaft and propellor. 

 In the figure can be seen the grooves into which fit the hundreds 

 of thousands of small cui'ved blades by which the turbine is driven. 



