CONCRETE SHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 5

CONCRETE SHIPS

CONSTRUCTION IN BRITAIN IMPORTANT ADVANTAGES CLAIMED. GREAT TECHNICAL PROGRESS SINCE LAST WAR. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 3. Reinforced concrete is being' used for building British ships. The Admiralty has recently ordered a number of concrete barges. Larger sea-going vessels may also be built by this method, which has been made practicable because of the revolutionary progress made by British engineers and scientists in the technique of reinforced concrete.

It is being claimed for concrete ships that they are sometimes as much as 35 per cent cheaper to build and repair than steel vessels. They do not require such heavy building equipment or as much skilled labour. Their speed is equal to that of comparable steel ships. They can withstand buffeting from heavy seas better than their steel counterparts. Another enormous advantage in wartime is that steel is released for other vital purposes and Britain herself has unlimited quantities of chalk, stones and sand for making concrete.

During and after the last war, when there was a shortage of steel and general shipbuilding facilities, about 100 concrete ships, totalling 150,000 tons carrying capacity, were built in .Britain, Norway, the United States. France, Italy and elsewhere. Some of these vessels were as large as 6500 tons and proved quite'successful. None have been built since 1922. Since those days British concrete research has been unceasing. The compressive strength has been increased threefold, great improvements have been made in the steel reinforcement, and a tensile strength of 27,0001 b to the square inch is now possible, compared with only 16,0001 b in 1918.