"TAILOR-MADE" SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 150, 22 December 1945, Page 7

"TAILOR-MADE" SHIPS

BRITAIN GETS ORDERS

The demand for British merchant ships, from both foreign and British owners, is greater today than at any time in the past 15 years, and naval architects, estimators, and drawing office departments are fully employed, writes the shipping correspondent of the London "Sunday Times."

British shipbuilding is both economically and scientifically planned. Every new type of ship built today is designed on the basis of experience gained in experimental tank-testing—with the result that the experimental tanks at the National Physical Laboratory have such a large programme on hand that many shipbuilding firms are having to build their own models, which they send to the laboratory for testing. FOR SPECIAL NEEDS. This scientific approach to new construction and concentration on individual designs as against mass production methods is having a favourable effect on the export drive, since shipowners know that British-built ships will be designed for their special needs. Moreover, the designers are incorporating many improvements in hull form. This was indicated by an eminent Clyde shipbuilder, Mr. H. M. Macmillan, chairman of the Blythswood Shipbuilding Company, Glasgow, at a launch from his yard the other day, when he said that shipbuilders were looking forward again to striving to produce the ever-elusive perfect ship for her job.

This activity among designers and drawing-office staffs is. not, however, reflected by similar activity in the shipyards. There is an inevitable gap between the cancellation of warship work and the beginning. of post-war construction. But this situation will be only temporary, and, in view of the variety of work now on order,, there should soon be full employment for every class of shipyard and marine engineering shop worker. MANX CARGO LINERS. The bulk of the tonnage now on order is for cargo liners, some designed to carry a limited number of passengers, oil-tankers, and small craft of special design, such as trawlers and coasting vessels. A feature of recent orders is the number of ships for service in the Indian and Pacific trades, tonnage that embodies . many special I fittings. The outlook for the shipbuilding and marine engineering industry is encouraging, and the variety of work on hand should provide valuable opportunities for the training of vmm? men new coming forward.