 |
|
|
Ships & Shipbuilding:
Maine Shipyards |
|
Wooden shipbuilding in Maine in the nineteenth century required little capital expense for a physical plant. It needed only space to build and store materials, the right slope to the shore for the inclined ways to launch the ship, and enough deep water at high tide to float the vessel. After the introduction of steam power many shipyards had a building for sawing in addition to one for lofting the vessel’s lines, but these were not absolutely necessary for small yards. Some shipyards had a steam shed for steaming planks to make them bend more easily, and some yards had an on-site blacksmith.
|
|
The 1880 census of manufactures showed that the average wood shipyard had $6,200 of capital investment.
On the other hand, steel shipyards in 1880 had an average of almost $470,000 expended to build all of the facilities necessary to work with steel. It wasn’t until the mid-1880s that Bath Iron Works was founded. On Penobscot Bay, investors chose not to build in iron. Thus, the wood shipyards kept on doing what they knew how to do best, for as long as possible.
|
|
Woods for Shipbuilding
Ship builders chose woods based on availability and characteristics, matching species to the needs of the vessel. Keel, beams, and frames, or ribs, of the ship are best made with white oak. White oak is hard, strong, relatively inflexible, and rot resistant. More common red oak isn’t as good for shipbuilding because it is not as rot resistant as white oak. The preferred wood for planking was longleaf yellow pine, shipped north from Georgia or South Carolina. Yellow pine is harder than Maine’s white pine, and it has long fibers that bend with the shape of the hull, while keeping its strength. Locust treenails, or trunnels, fastened planks to the frames and the frame pieces to each other.
|
Locust is a hard wood that withstands pounding with a mallet, yet it can be cut into round pegs easily. Wooden ships have knees: pieces that follow a 90° angle naturally. Most knees are made of hackmatack, also called tamarack or larch. The largest are cut from the trunk and root of the tree. White pine, originally used for masts, is also good for decking and for interior woodwork, or joinery. Nineteenth century mast and spar woods include Sitka spruce and Douglas fir, both from the west coast. These woods have the advantage of being bendable without breaking, an important characteristic of masts and other spars.
|
|
|
Shipbuilding Work and Tools
Shipbuilders operated much like general contractors. The master carpenter subcontracted work to different trades or skill groups, including [ship's carpenters], sawyers, dubbers, fasteners, caulkers, ship smiths, ship joiners, riggers, and painters. A blacksmith was sometimes part of the shipyard operation or the builder might contract work out to an independent blacksmith.
Shipbuilders used a variety of hand tools for sawing, cutting, drilling, and planing wood. These tools included saws, axes, adzes, drawknives, augers, and planes. Fastening the ship required mauls and other hammers to drive fastenings. Caulking, which filled the seams between planks, required caulking irons and a mallet. Not until late in the nineteenth century did powered saws and other tools become common in larger shipyards.
|
Workers typically earned $1.50 to $2.50 per ten-hour day. Shipbuilding was seasonal, especially in smaller communities: most work went on between fall and spring. By the end of the nineteenth century, reduced demand for ships and consolidation of wooden shipyards meant that shipbuilders might find work only 8 or 9 months of the year.
|
|
|
Related Links and Downloads:
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
