Freight-ship Construction at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

"King Cotton" furnished the impetus for a flourishing business in freight-ship construction. Usually smaller and cruder than the packets, freighters made up nearly 50 per cent of the American- Merchant Marine in the 1850's. The lion's share of the construction for this market went to the yards in Maine, making that state the center of American shipbuilding.

Usually on the night before the launching, the work of transferring the weight of the ship from the keel blocks and shores, which supported it during construction, to the launching cradle is begun. This is accomplished by driving in the wedges between the cradle and sliding ways with sledge hammers until the cradle lifts the ship off the blocks and shores. The sliding ways are shored to prevent the ship from moving before the appointed time.

The corporation began its labors by taking over a number of the existing yards and entering upon the construction of new ones. The new yards were primarily ship-assembly plants, components being obtained from other indu capable of fabricating them. The larger ol firms confined their efforts to far more cc cated tasks of naval construction, their reason for existence.