PLANS OF BATTLESHIPS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14038, 22 October 1909, Page 3

PLANS OF BATTLESHIPS.

EVERY DETAIL SET OUT. It is commonly said that " a battleship must first be built on paper." There appears to be more truth than exaggeration in the expression. According to .1 well-known naval authority, when the Government decided to build a warship of the battleship class, there must be drawn up over 1200 plans and specifications, to be approved liy the Government, before the actual construction of the vessel can begin. Ihe cost of plans is no mean item in the general estimate; for instance, in one recent- case they cost the buijders some £16,000. In the matter of the steel plates for the hull—taking a single item for the purpose of illustration—it is stated that as many as 500 wholly distinct nnd cenarate plans are imperative. The 800 or 900 plans necessary to aid in the construction of the hiill as p whole range from a small sheet of paper aljnut 12in square to an im-

incn.se slioefc lift in length by some 2ft and a fraction in width. Furthermore, each plan must he duplicated in at least a dozen prints. Thus over 18,000 sauare feet of papar will be covered with drawings before the yard begins the construction of the hull. This calculation does not, of course, take into account the 10,500 square feet of paper that will be covered by the preparation of the schedules of materials by which the yard will order the numerous supplies necessary for the work of construction. Then, too, the engine arid electrical departments are in the meantime preparing their plans on ;i similar scale of detailed liberality. But these hundreds of plans are not, as fit first might be supposed, made one after another until a result is reached that meets with the Government's approval and its word to proceed with the construction. On the contrary, the overnment has a mostdefinite idea of what is going to be done in every detail long before the draughtsman of the contracting shipbuilder begins his work. The shipbuilder's work is, as a matter of fact, based on still another set j of prints, bearing all sorts of cabalistic marks that come from the Government. The first plans for all classes of war vessel, with the exception of ■; torpedo boafa and destroyers, are drawn up in the offices of the Government before any of the big shipbuilding firms are invited to submit proposals for their construction. They are merely a statement of the type of vessel wanted, and are accompanied by a book of specifications, which may consist of some 300 pages. Nothing could be more exact than the specifications. As an instance, take the .small item of a canvas guncover. When the Government draws up its specifications, it is definitely stated how many stitches to an inch are to be taken in sewing the canvas: and there must be no "averaging" in this work —there must be so many stitches to the inch, no matter at what point the inspector may choose to count them. Every plate of steel, of which no two are exactly similar, has its in« dividual position in the scheme of the ship, every rivet hole lias its individual place n the steel plate, and every plate must, therefore, have been carefully planned- on paper before it hecomes part of the ship's construction. Still another series of delicately complicated plans are those that provide for the installation of tubes, wires and other means of connecting every part of the ship with every other part. Finally, when the huge vessel lias actually been built and slides from the ways, ready to receive her ordnance and go into commission, the Government files a duplicate of every plan, not of the original draft, but of yet another set, containing all the changes developed in the course of construction—from the smallest hammock hook to the biggest engine. Then, whatever may happen to the vessel, the Government is prepared immediately to r.rder the material necessary to repair the injury.