Ship-BUILDING

The pieces, by which this complicated machine, is framed, are joined together in various places, by scarfing, rabitting, tenenting, and scoring. See those articles.

During the construction of a ship, she is supported in the dock, or upon a wharf, by a number of solid blocks of timber placed at equal distances from, and parallel to, each other, as may be seen in the article LANCHING; she is then laid to be on the stocks.

The first piece of timber laid upon the blocks is generally the keel. I say generally, because, of late, a different method has been adopted in some of the royal dock-yards, by beginning with the floor-timbers; the artists having found that the keel is often apt to rot during the long period of building a large ship of war. The pieces of the keel, as exhibited in plate I. are scarsed together, and bolted, forming one entire piece, A A. which constitutes the length of the vessel below. At one extremity of the keel is erected the stem. It is a strong piece of timber incurvated nearly into a circular arch, or, according to the technical term, compassing, so as to project outwards at the upper end, forming what is called the rake forward. In small vessels this is framed of one piece, but in large ships it is composed of several pieces scarsed and bolted together, as expressed in the explanation of plate I. PIECES of the HULL, and in those terms separately. At the other extremity of the keel, is elevated the stern-post, which is always of one entire strait piece. The heel of it is let into a mortise in the keel, and it's upper-end hangs outwards, making an obtuse angle with the keel, like that of the stem: this projection is called the rake abaft. The stern-post, which ought to support the stern, contains the iron-work or hinges of the rudder, which are called googings, and unites the lower-part of the ship's sides abaft. See the connexion of those pieces in the ELEVATION, plate I.

Plate I

Towards the upper-end of the stern-post and at right angles with it's length, is fixed the middle of the wing-transom, where it is firmly bolted.

Reference Works