LANDING BARGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25428, 8 January 1944, Page 4

LANDING BARGES

LARGE REET CONSTRUCTED SUCCESSFUL DUNEDIN ENTERPRISE It is expected that the contract for the building in Dunedin of landing barges for the use of the Allied forces in the Pacific will be completed by the end of the present month. The contract was let by the Government to the Love Construction Company, Ltd. which was asked to construct a fleet of 60 barges urgently, and in completing the work according to schedule, the company has demonstrated that Dunedin has the organisation and workmen capable of handling an industrial undertaking of great importance in the war effort. More than 100 men—49 carpenters, 51 unskilled workers, two boilermakers, four welders, and four caulkers—have been working! a full 48hour week on the undertaking. Nearly 1,000,000 feet of timber has been supplied by the Government, 150 tons of steel have been used, 120 tons of bolts, 20 tons of caulking material, 2800 gallons of tar, and 460 rolls of building paper. The total cost will be approximately £BO,OOO, of which timber will account for £20,000 and labour and materials for £54,000. Details of Construction

The barges measure 50 feet by 20 feet, and they are constructed in four watertight sections of 20 feet by 12£

feet. Each section or unit weighs six tons, and the barge, when the sections are interlocked ready for action, weighs 24 tons. The construction is steel, framed with 12 by 3-inch rimu, the lower section being sheathed with totara placed over tarred paper. It is nearly six months since the first barge was delivered from the assembly lines ready for shipment, anct in the meantime the company has kept rigidly to Its schedule to deliver three barges each week. It was found impossible to secure the quantity of seasoned timber that was required for the work, but the difficulties of drying the newly-cut timber were overcome after consultation with the Fprestry Department, upon whose advice salt water treatment of the timber was adopted. The red pine planks were soaked in a concrete tank, which was made available by the Otago Harbour Board and was filled with salt water. After 14 days the timber was racked in the open to dry before being used. The treatment reduced the natural shrinkage to a minimum and made possible the use of newly-cut timber. Time has been of outstanding importance in the fulfilment of the contract, and precision cutting has been an important factor in the success of the undertaking. After drying, the timber had to be cut to length and angle in the factory, which is equipped with modern appliances for the work. In a series of operations, the various sizes were cut, each operation forwarding the material until it finally reached the point of assembly, where three men assembled the steel frame and the wood frame on a cradle mounted on wheels. The cradle, running on rails, moved forward as the separate gangs caulked, sprayed, papered, sheathed, and decked the unit up to the final tar spraying.

Interesting Operation One of the most interesting operations on the line has been th 6 overturning of the unit. The construction was commenced bottom side up, and when the bottom sides and ends were placed in position and caulked the seven-ton unit had to be turned over for decking, an operation which takes only a few minutes. The unit is raised and pivoted over and lowered again into position on the travelling cradle.

Caulking has been the “bottle neck’’ in ship construction, but the demand for speedy delivery did not permit of the delay that would have been entailed by the ordinary method of hand caulking, even if caulkers had been available, and they were not. The problem was solved by making an airdriven hammer with a caulking tool attached, and this enabled one man to do work which would have required eight men by the old method. The four caulkers employed have been able to caulk 5000 feet in a day. The lack of the standard caulking material, cotton, has been overcome by the use of linen flax, grown in New Zealand and spun into yarn. It has proved an excellent substitute. The steel work has been done on the premises, and the same progressive process has been employed in the operation involved. Four men have done five and a-half miles of welding. Welders could not be obtained, but, with the assistance of a tradesman, labourers were selected and trained, and they have turned out excellent work to schedule time.

The managing director of the company (Mr J. Y. Love) said yesterday that the completion of the contract according to schedule would not have been possible without the fine spirit of team work and co-operation that had been shown by the men employed. Difficulties regarding man-power, materials, and equipment were faced at the outset, but they had been successfully overcome,, and under the direction of the foreman (Mr L. Griffin) the men had done a fine job. Their average age was 48 years. He added that the contract had made necessary the construction of a special building, extra plant, and special machinery.