STEEL SHIPS

STEEL SHIPS

The building of a modern steel ship is a very complicated engineering accomplishment. It requires the skill of scientists, engineers, designers, and workers in dozens of trades to create even the smallest ship.

Long before actual construction can begin, hundreds of plans must be drawn up. There must be a blue print for every unit that goes into the ship. It takes a large staff of draftsmen several months just to turn out these detailed blue prints from the general designs furnished by the engineers.

Curiously enough, the advance planning must be much more complete and detailed for a steel ship than for a wooden ship. The reason is that wooden parts are often cut only to approximate size and then are trimmed to fit in the actual process of assembly. But steel parts must be cast and machined to fit accurately before they reach the hands of the assembly gangs.