Building a Battleship.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 39, 22 May 1917, Page 2

Building a Battleship.

Do you know how many hours’ work it takes to build a modern Dreadnought ? Probably you have never given the matter a thought, so it will interest you to learn that a big battleship entails about 7,200,000 man-hours, or labour equivalent to the work of one man working that time.

The making of the turbine machinery absorbs some 1,850,000 man-hours, and the mountings of the big guns can easily acquire two years’ work, while a single armour-plate may take nearly three months to finish. None of these processes can be unduly hurried, as the very best work must be put in, the least scamping making all the difference between victory and defeat.

Between forty and fifty per cent, of the cost of a Dreadnought’s hull goes into labour. Curiously enough, far less is spent on labour when constructing a turbine engine than when making one of the old reciprocating cylinder type. Much of the material is made by machinery, leaving only 28 per cent, of the cost for labour, whereas 45 per cent, went in wages when the older kind were in use.