Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1895 — LAUNCHING A GREAT VESSEL. [ARTICLE]

LAUNCHING A GREAT VESSEL.

An Army of Mon Start tha SMy Down the Greased Ways. Describing the launching of a great vessel, Franklin Matthews says In St. Nicholas: All the props have been taken down except a few that reach only a little way up the sides. A platform with a railing, on which the stalwart workmen may rest the stoat pieces of timber they use as battering rams when they are driring home the wedges, has been erected along the sidesof the ship. There are nearly six hundred workmen distributed along the sides in gangs of foareach. Each gang has five wedges to look after. The time set for the launch is usually just before high water, where the stream has a tide. A dredge has been used directly in the path the vessel will take when she makes her plunge, so that she may strike no obstructions. Every part of the ways has been inspected. If the weather is cold, lard-oil has been mingled with the tallow to make it soft; and if the weather is warm, stearine has been mixed with it to make it hard. It is about an hour before the time for the ship to move. The workmen are summoned and the signal is given for the first “rally.” All at once a groat din arises. It is as if an army of street pavers were at work beneath the ship. If you peer through the crowd you will see the men drawing back the battering rains and then projecting them sharply against wedge after wedge. This work continues for four or five minutes, and then an inspection is made. It ia necessary that the wedges be driven in uniformly. The effect of thia rally seems imperceptible It haa resulted, however, in driving tha packing close up against tho sides of the ship, and, when that was accomplished, has driven the sliding ways down hard upon the stationary ways, squeezing out the fallow here and there. But the ship still rests upon the keel-blocks. After a rest of fifteen or twenty minutes a second rally comes. This Is more spirited thnn the first. In go the wedges, and the great hull seems to tremble just the least bit She Is beginning to rest on the launching ways. At last she is raised the smallest fraction of an inch abovo the keel-block 9. Now comes the time for quick work. Here is whore the “pioneers" begin to swing their axes. One gang of men rushes up to the sow props that, are still resting against the sides of tho hull. Quick blows aro given, limbers and chips begin to fly. and prop after prop falls to the ground Another gang of men is rushing after the pioneers. They are the painters, and with long brushes on the ends of polos, they daub over the planes whore tho props rested, which could not be painted until tho props wers taken away, llndorneabh the ship anot her gang of men is making havoc with the keel-blocks. Sharp chisels are being inserted on the sides of the blocks, and sledges are used ns the workmen come up from the river toward the bow, knocking this way and that the blocks which have been the support of the ship ever since she was first Jnid down. At last, apparently after much confusion, but’really In accordance with a careful system, all the kool blocks are knocked away, and tho supremo moment has arrive*!. All the wedges have been driven home, and their outer edges are in a lino as straightas a file of soldiers on dress parade The ship rests on an entirely new foundation, and a very treacherous one. There are no side supports to keep her from toppling over. The toboggan slides are ready for work, and they must be true in their inclination, and in their horizontal position, or the ship will bo wrecked as she goes sliding down toward the water. She is held entirely by the stout piece of timber that clamps the stationary and slid. Ing ways together just underneath the bow.