172 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



© Committee on Public Information 



KEEP PLATES OP A STEEL MERCHANT SHIP: THE VERTEBRAE OP ONE OP OUR 



CARGO-CARRIERS 



The need for hurrying our shipbuilding program is being emphasized daily from scores 

 of quarters. Not only must our growing armies in France be supplied, but we must continue 

 to help feed our stalwart Allies. The Federal Food Administration announced recently that 

 its shipment of foodstuffs to Europe during 1918 will total 10,000,000 tons, but that in 1919 

 this amount must be increased to 15,000,000 tons. 



outbreak of the war many of them were 

 engaged in making copper kettles and 

 worms for breweries, alcohol stills, and 

 turpentine plants. A large percentage of 

 the brewery coppersmiths were either 

 Germans or Austrians, and therefore 

 could not with safety be employed in our 

 shipyards; but the really American arti- 

 sans were quickly mobilized for the es- 

 sential labor of hammering out the cop- 

 per kettles for our new ships' galleys, of 

 rolling from sheet metal the vitally nec- 

 essary copper pipes for all the parts of a 

 ship's machinery that come in contact 

 with salt water ; then of installing those 

 pipes. Working at forced-draft speed, 

 for which they are paid from 85 cents to 

 $1.50 an hour, two coppersmiths become 

 pacemakers for 1,000 men working on 

 other parts of a ship. 



Before the steel plates of a ship can be 

 rolled to varying thicknesses and cut to 

 certain dimensions, be that ship fabri- 

 cated or specially built throughout, two 

 groups of artisans of great skill and long 

 training must pave the way. These are 

 the loftsmen and the shipfitters. 



The labors of the loftsmen are of pri- 

 mary importance. To them come the 

 plans of the ship designer, drawn to a 

 small scale. It is the loftsmen's duty to 

 translate those drawings into terms of a 

 full-size ship. 



These experts work in a great mold 

 loft, ideally lighted and provided with a 

 vast expanse of smooth flooring, suggest- 

 ing a gigantic, low-ceilinged, rough-raf- 

 tered dancing pavilion. Each plate of 

 the future ship is represented in the mold- 

 ing loft by a template — a light wooden or 



