SHIP-BUILDING

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22031, 2 August 1941, Page 6

SHIP-BUILDING

Port Chalmers Yards Good Progress To Date “When the minesweepers now under order have been completed at the Port Chalmers ship-building yards, it will be possible to undertake the construction of larger vessels, such as are used in the coastal trade,” said Mr James Fletcher in an interview in Dunedin. When the establishment of the industry at this port had first been considered, he said, the possibility of expansion had been taken into consideration. Now that the necessary arrangements had been completed, it was possible to announce that provision was being made for the construction of a large slipway suitable for the building of the type of craft mentioned. It would be considered beside the slipways now under construction for the minesweepers. “There is no question that the yards will be large enough to handle the work immediately In front of us,” Mr Fletcher said. . Work Ahead of Schedule There had been some criticism of the rate of progress and of the suitability of the slipways now being built, Mr Fletcher continued, but he was in a position to say that the work was proceeding at a very satisfactory rate. Indeed, the contractors were, if anything, a little ahead of their time-table. "The present plans,” he said, “allow for the building of a special type of craft, and are more than adequate for the purpose. When this work is done and other work is put ta hand, suitable arrangements will be made. A larger slipway will be constructed, and the present ones will be turned into machine shops, in which the travelling gantries with which they will be equipped, will be able to move raw material from machine to machine and deliver the finished parts for use.” Loftsmen to Commence Mr Fletcher said the work had now advanced to the stage where the special construction of the minesweepers could be undertaken. The first task was that of the loftsmen, who made the templates from which the parts of the ships themselves were patterned. Messrs Thomas and John McFadgen, two loftsmen of considerable experience in the Old Country, had been engaged for this and had commenced work at Port Chalmers.