UNDER SIX MONTHS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 February 1942, Page 5

UNDER SIX MONTHS

CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS. WINNING RACE AGAINST U-BOATS. Britain’s shipbuilders are winning the race with the U-boats. Large steamers and motorships of 10,000 tons are now being completed, from the laying of the keel to the final coat of paint, in just under six months. Indeed, by making parts of the hull and so on in distant workshops inland and assembling them at the shipyard, the six months have been reduced to five and a half. Never before has Great Britain turned out ships at such a speed; and it is speed that has decided the peacetime controversy about whether the hulls of big merchant ships should be rivetted or welded. Welding is not only quicker but it saves steel, so welding has won. More steel is being saved by the use of concrete for small craft. Hundreds of ferro-concrete barges have been built, releasing hundreds of skilled shipbuilders from the barge building yards to work on ocean-going tonnage. There they are concentrating upon the well-tried standard “economy” types of vessels which many famous British shipbuilders had already evolved. The shipyards were prepared when war came for an expanding production. The Admiralty passed the word to them for so many tankers, refrigerated cargo liners, coasters, deep-sea tramps; and standardisation has triumphed.