THE FABRICATED SHIP

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 222, 7 June 1918, Page 5

THE FABRICATED SHIP

HOW AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING IS BEING REVOLUTIONISED

WHAT STANDARDISING MEANS

Mr. A. 11. Beard has contributed to tho iim York rOutlook" foil informative article.on the extensivo and revolutionary; shipbuilding ■ programme of the . United States. Suljiiiarino warfare was depleting , shipping at a rate which, if continued, spoiled ruin. America, when Bho entored the war, promptly faocd the problem. Contracts were lot for 77 steel ships of 642,000 tons ami 3i5 wooden hulls of 1,215,000 tons. This did not includo tho steel ships already under construction. This tonnage amounted to 2,800,000, and was requisitioned. All possiblo existing facilities-for shipbuilding Jiftd been pre-empted. .Altogether 3,0(10,000 tons had been arranged for tho year's programme. Previous /American shipbuilding hod been at the rate'of -100,000 tons per annum. Wo were preparing an tho. current, year to multiply' this figure by eight! Previous shipbuilding an Great' Britain, mistress of the seas, had boen less than 2,500,000 tons per year. Wβ wero-Roinjj to better this by 25 per cent.! Previous world shipbuildiDß had been upwards of 4,000,000 tons. We were attempting to build ourselves in ono year three-fourths tho amount of" tonnage that in less stirring days all tho shipyards of tho world could produco! But,unprecedented as this programme •was, it was eecu long before July that tho maximum aleug these lines would not meet the crisis. As early as Maj--11 the Shipping Board announced-that, in addition to all Hie construction it TTfts providing for, it was imperative to .'conriruct another .1,000,000 tons! Think what this meant! With every available shipyard, old and new, pushed to the limit, there had somehow got to be built simultaneously an additional fleet of 3,000,000 tons! No yards existed where finch a. fleet could be built; in fact, there were not sufficient skilled shipbuilders,to ■work in such yards had they existed. Ah. undertaking to build ships on tho staggering scale desired by the United States Government involved such great responsibility, was so revolutionary in character, needed such enormous' facilities, that- only the largest and most powerful corporations could possibly .attack the problem' with, any chance of successfully handling it. To produco the largest possible number of first-class steol ships' in tho shortest possible time —this was the problem. There must bo ■cargo ships of ample carrying capacity and satisfactory speed. In the answer to this problem three entirely newMdeas 6tood out:—

1. The designing of a vessel so radically simplified that all the. vessels to be built could be made ae exact'reproductions. Thus to standardise l construction meant that every possible variation in size and shape of material must be eliminated. : .• • .■' '

2. Tie mobilisation throughout the entire country of all- that ..portion of our industrial resources that was germane to shipbuilding; the adaptation of these resources to the new purpose. This included, first and foremost, the bridge and structural steel industry; then the builders of engines and boilers; finaljy, •the forges, machine shops and lactones capable of producing any piece of equipment tlhat goes into a ship , from a pro?eller shaft down, to an anchor, chain, 'his meant the pre-empting of tho output of plants of all kinds in.many parts of the United States. Most important of all, it meant that the labour engaged in that output would be utilised right where it was instead of br precarious and disorganising concentration' at- a single point-the eftipyard. , 3. [The reproduction of vessels in largo numbers, every one of exactly the same construction, thus permitting the. use of the factory methods in which America is pre-eminent. It was as if the new' shipyard were to .become thn assembling floor of a, colossal ship factory, whose machinery was made up of all the interrelated wheels of American industry; jyhose employees were the entire body.of American labour, and whoso conveyer belts were the American railways. Standardisation had been attained to a slight extent in England, but on nothing like the scale that tho present programme demanded. In reacting this solution several, large organisations co-operated. As a result of this co-operative effort 'three ■ types of standardised vessels were evolved-a 6000 tonnor, a 9000-tonner and a 7500-tonner. •-The 5000-ton boat was to be undertaken by the Submarine Boat Corporation, that of 9000 tons by the Merchant Ship Building Corporation, while the 7500-tonner was to bo built by the American International. A design.of boat was worked out, with a view to suppressing all nonessentials. . Curvature of plates, particularly that requiring multiple bend-' >ng, was, as far as possible, eliminated. .No.camber, no shear; straight sides also,' and a flat bottom. It was a design of boat which carefully combined the best shipbuilders and bridgebuilders' practice, embodying the latter, where possible, tor the reason which shall shortly appear. Furthermore, maximum' car"o Bpaqewas adjusted to maximum safely,. ™l ls ">g the principle; of a multiplicity of bulkheads, which had saved more than one torpedoed oil tanker from going to the bottom.

• In this revolutionary programme of standardisation, the essence of the noVe y h ? 8 ■ I}een -suggested, was large quantity output; on this depended, all the rest. _ The Submarine Boat Corporation and the American International Corporation were each to construct ah enormous tiovemment shipbuilding plant, in which each would eventually build 200 vessels, to bo completed within eighteen to twenty-four months. This largo number wu m ?<k possible the "fabricated" ship. ■The fabricated" idea einiply means that you have a "manufactured" ship instead of a "made-to-order" ship just as you have a, manufactured automobile and not a made-to-order automobile Wo Bhonld smile- to-day at the idea of a madc-to-order automobile. We take it as an accepted fact that all automobiles constructed by ono concern should bo made after one or two standard-models, with consequent quantity uutput and duplication, even interchangeability, of parts. It would seem ridiculous to us that a firm malting motor-cars, on receiving an order for a number of cars, •should makeup fresh sets of specifications for these cars and of all the machinery and parts going into them, and then construct oil of this lequipment according to these now designs, possibly different from every car they had.made before. Then, if they should later recoive another order from a. different Bourco, and in filling' this order should Troi'k up still other designs of automobiles, wo should not only say that this was a big economic waste, but we Bhonld expect it to take a long time to deliver these cars. Yet such was the position, of the shipbuilding industry ti,p to to-day. But the very magnitude of tho work of building; a single ship and the length of time it requires to complete one diverted attention from the old-fashioned made-to-order methods which prevailed. Furthermore, there never was a demand for enough boats at. one time from a single yard to focus thought upon tho development of factory methods. Orders would come for one, two. or three vessels at a time, and tho clients of shipbuilding were accustomed to demanding special features in the boats they ordered. lemand was hand-to-mouth; 6upply, naturally, was . the same.

If we. examine conventional shipyard practice, tho situation become.9' clear. After tho vessel Jias been designed and the specifications made up in accordonce with the agent's desires, the steel find iron required in the form of plates, shapes, angles, etc., nfid all other materials, aro delivered from the mills'to tho shipyard. There at tho yard the plates are shaped mid punched, the frames bopt and punched and bevelled, and all the riveting done; stern posts, connecting rods, etc., aro fowed; the boilers and engines built-in fact, every component part of tho vessel especially worked up. Every boat stands by itself as an individual piece of workmnnship. They avo all fine vessels, but. they are an economic luxury. Most important of all, they dopend upon a trained force of skilled shipbuilders. Obviously those time-honoured methods, though speeded up to tho limit, would not produce the 3,000,000 tona additional desired by the Government within twenty-four months. Even had there beon yards available in which to build oMra In, this way, there wore not 6ufß-

cient experienced shipbuilders to man them. Tho evolution of a new method was inevitable. This w\is tho "fabricated" ship, or, in other words, the application of quantity methods to shipbuilding. . :

.Shipbuilding being such a largo scale industry of itself, the application of quantity methods inado tho scope of a single plant nation wide. The shipyard became merely tho assembling point. The key to tho situation was. tho great shops throughout tho country of tho structural ond bridge industry, "first cousin" to shipbuilding. They" were specialists in the line of-fabricating' steel, with all the special tools and labour-saving devices nl their disposal, They had already strong organisations of skilled workers. Thny were accustomed to turning our large quantities of structural steel, little different from the frame .work and plating of a ship. A little adjustment and these workers could be- turning out .M the component parts of a ship's hull, to lie shipped ready inado to the seaboard, there to bo eot up and riveted'into a unit on the. ways. An arrangement was made with the important structural, bridge and tank shops, obtaining prioritv of their output. The rest-was in the adjustment. This was chiefly through the introduction of an elaborate system of templets, developed beyond anything known in bridge or shipbuilding. This insured accurate reproduction of all details. The templet makers were recruiter! from both the bridge .shops and the shipyards. Thus -the punching, shaping, and to some extent the riveting, were done in the shops. Tho multiple duplication of parts enabled tho manufacturers to produce rapidly the plates and shapes to exact size as 'required. The shipyards job ,was erection, riveting and assembling. But the distribution of labour was not confined to the luill. Orders for the engines -for the first fifty vessels were placed with outsido engine builders, expert in their line; for boilers, with outside boiler-makers., All the necessary forgings, such as sleni posts, connecting roils, etc., w6re tentatively contracted for, and, in fact, every .item of cquipmont goins into tlio 'finished ship was started in the process of manufacture somewhere in the country. '

To take an example. , tho largest.contract was with the American International Corporation. It was signed on September 13 last, and it called for the construction at Hog Island, near Philadelphia, of a shipyard with fifty building ways. It called for the completion within thirteen and a half months of fiffy fabricated steel ships, each of 7500 tons capacity, and capable* of a speed of 111 knots an hour. It-foreshadowed the ultimate construction of 200 eteel ships, alt to be delivered within twenty-five months. Tho cost of this huge fleet, amounting to 1,500,000 tons dead weight, would be approximately' 200,000,'000 dol. Subsequently, on October 23, under the terms of an option, contained in tho.contract of' September'-13, this programme was amplified to provide for the construction of another type of vessel, suitable for use as a transport. This boat was to have a speed' of fifteen j knots, and was to be a combined cargo aiid troopship, with a dead-weight capacity of SOOp tons, instead of , 7500 tons. The design of this vessel was a modification of the original 7500-tonner, and, while slightly larger nnd embodying certain new features, was made "equally adaptable to reproduction in largo numbers. The Government order now called for seventy of these foster steamers, while the original contract for, fifty 7500-ton vessels stood. Deliveries of the two types wore to be made inalternate groups of twenty-five. This entire fleet rf 120 steamers is deliverable within, twentytwo months from the date of signing the original contract, September 13, 1317. The total of tonnage is about - 1,000,000. The cost will be not less tthan 170,000.000 dol.

The shipyard in which this enormous programme will.be pushed through will ba unique. Work on its construction is rapidly going forward. An idea of its magnitude is given. by some of the figures. The tract of land on and near Hog Island, which forms the site of the plant, is 900 acres in extent. To provide the foundations for tho shipways 100,000 piles will have to bo driven. On these foundations are being erected sido by side, in groups of 10, no fewer than 50 building ways. In just one of these groups of ten ways are represented the counterpart of somo of tho world's largest shipyards—Fore Hiver, the Cramps's, or, say, Harland and ■Wolff's, at Belfast. Fifty ways in the new yard means that at least 50 steamers will be building simultaneously. They will bo ranged in line along tho waterfront for one mile. Still others, already launched, will be fitting out in the finishing basins adjoining, which will extend for another mile. Thus thero will stand at one time, side by side, two miles of merchant steamers.

To convey materials to the shipways, an immense railway switching system is being provided, which will aggregate some 75 miles of track. This system involves a comprehensive arrangement of classification and storage yards, to facilitate smooth and accurate distribution. The importance of''this in rapid assembly is readily seen from .the fact that thero aro 20,000 parts going into every ship, and the total amount of steel required for the fifty 7500-ton boats is 130,000 tons, and for the seventy SOOO-ton boats 250,000 tons. ' t The first type of vessel to be built is the 7500-tonner. She is a cargo steamer of 1U knots speed, single screw, with engines amidships. Her general arrangement is of what is known as the "well deck" or "three-island" type. The transport will be a combined freight and passenger steamer, and will have a speed of 15 kuots. She will have a cargo capacity of SOOO tons. A.i in tho ciise of the 7500-tonner; she will bo a> single-screw vessel with engines amidships. Unlike the .7500-tonner, she will bo of the shel-ter-deck type. As has been stated, both vessels have been designed without shear or deck camber,' and without much of that rounded sweep of line which is'traditional in tho ocean-going craft. Traditional i* the word fop this, for it is a curious fact that this elaborate curvature has beon handed down in tho shipbuilding 'art almost from tho ti'mo of tho ancient Phoenicians; yet it bears no moro relation to utility in tho modern steel steamer tha-i the graceful figure-' heads which'the Phoenicians themselves wrought on their slender, galleys. Looking beyond tho welter of the present struggle, what is the augury for tho tuture? What does the "fabricated" ship mean, to shipbuilding, not only of America, but of the world, and what docs it promise for the merchant marine of the United > States? When U-boat warfare shall havo gone tho way of the Monitor and the Merrimac, will the vital impulse that arose to overcome it pass away as well? It does not seem likely. As the .Monitor-and the Memmac revolutionised the navies of the world, making them iron instead of wood, so the "fabricated ship eeems destined to revolutionise shipbuilding. It does not seem likely, when onco a way has been demonstrated of building ships both moro economically and more oxpeditiously than the .old way, that the old way can survive. Ihe new ships are in all respects as good as tho old. In fact, it,would tiecm in many ways that they should provo better, .every component part is produced by a specialist in his field.. The assembling is supervised, not only by experts in shipbuilding, but by experts in the manufacture of the parts. The finished ship is the product of the-maxi-mum combination of efficiency. It seems likely, then, that the country that leads the world in factory efficiency; that has become pre-eminont in tho manufacture of structural steel, having adapted these two national assots to tho building of ships, will'become preeminent in that field also. It is difficult to see how shipyards in any part of the world can hereafter afford to build an appreciable number of vessels in tho old-fashioned way. The ships that carry the bulk of the world's cargoes; that aro seen in every harbour and roadstead from New York to tho Cape of Good Hope, will bo the "fabricated" steel freighters. For a time the fast' passeiiger liners and other special types will continue to bo built from special designs. But probably even theso will later yield to the now wa.. Jii tho meantime, and long after the war is over, America will bo called upon to make up the tonnago deficit of tho world. With '.ho disappearance of tho niade-to-ordor method, tho artvantago in cost to the European buiMm-s through u, c j r clipamir lnbour is liable to disappear. Higlior American wages may bo otfsot by this greater efficiency. The initial advantage of the new method will certainly bo ours; by all that is American it should bo permanent. i