Ship-BUILDING

Plate III

They proceed next to plank the quarter-deck and forecastle, and to fix the partners of the masts and capsterns with the coamings of the hatches. The breast-books are then bolted across the stern and bow within-board, the step of the fore-mast placed on the kelson; and the riders, exhibited in the MIDSHIP-FRAME, fayed on the inside of the timbers to reinforce the sides in different places of the ship's length. The pointers, if any, are afterwards fixed across the hold diagonally to support the beams; and the crotches stationed in the after-hold to unite the half-timbers. The steps of the main-mast and capsterns are next placed; the planks of the lower-decks and orlop laid; the navel-hoods fayed on the hawse-holes; and the knee of the head, or cutwater connected to the stern. The figure of the head is then erected, and the trail-board and cheeks fixed on the sides of the knee.

The taffarel and quarter-pieces, which terminate the ship abaft, the former above and the latter on each tide, are then disposed; and the stern and quarter galleries framed and supported by their brackets. The pumps, with their well, are next fixed in the hold; the limber-boards laid on each side of the kelson, and the garboard-strake fixed on the ship's bottom next to the keel without.

The hull being thus fabricated, they proceed to separate the apartments by bulk-beads, or partitions; to frame the port-lids; to fix the cat-heads and chess-trees; to form the hatchways and scuttles, and fit them with proper covers or gratings. They next fix the ladders whereby to mount or descend the different hatchways,. and build the manger on the lower deck, to carry off the water that runs in at the hawse-holes when the ship rides at anchor in a sea. The bread-room and magazines are then lined, and the gunnel rails, and gangways, fixed on the upper-part of the ship. The cleats, kevels, and ranges, by which the ropes are fastened, are afterwards bolted or nailed to the sides in different places.

The rudder, being fitted with it's irons, is next hung to the stern-post; and the tiller, or bar, by which it is managed, let into a mortise at it's upperend. The scuppers, or leaden tubes, that carry the water off from the decks, are then placed in holes cut through the ship's sides; and the standards, represented in the MIDSHIP-FRAME, bolted to the beams and sides above the decks to which they belong. The poop-lanthorns are last fixed upon their cranes over the stern, and the bilge-ways, or cradles, placed under the bottom, to conduct the ship steadily into the water whilst lanching.

Reference Works