#Shipbuilding History

[seashorepics]

Day 20: The History and Construction of the Waverley Paddle Steamer

The Waverley Paddle Steamer is one of the most iconic ships ever to sail the waters of Britain. Built in 1947, it is a celebrated symbol of maritime engineering and a cherished link to the era of steam-powered vessels. As the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world, its legacy is deeply intertwined with the history of shipbuilding in Scotland and the broader narrative of…

[upennmanuscripts]

Today's manuscript is LJS 473, a 15th century Italian treatise on ships and shipbuilding. It includes information on cartography, construction and use of the compass, types of ships, and meteorology and astronomy for use in navigation, and has two maps of the earth - one of the earth and the spheres surrounding it (representing the sky and the Zodiac), and the other that divides the earth into temperate zones (hotter around the middle and colder on the ends).

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[lindahall]

Donald McKay – Scientist of the Day

Donald McKay, a Canadian/American shipbuilder, died Sep. 20, 1880, at age 70. 

read more...

[lonestarbattleship]

USS KRAKEN (SS-370) being launched at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co, Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She was sponsored by Mrs. John Z. Anderson (wife of Congressmen Anderson of California).

She had a cool name and insignia.

Date: April 30, 1944.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 72319, NH 65248-KN

[ltwilliammowett]

Naval Architecture War Vessels, by Frederick Chapman, c. 1770

Frederick Henry Chapman (1721-1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist, naval officer and manager of the Karlskrona shipyard for 11 years.  Enjoying considerable support from King Gustav III, he is deemed to be first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and his books ‘Architectura Navalis Mercatoria’ (1768) ,and ‘Treatise on Shipbuilding’ (1775) are considered to be pioneering works.  They were intended for an international audience, available with text and measurements in Swedish, French and English. His work had a huge influence on international shipbuilding and designs of that time.

[scotianostra]

On September 26th 1934 the Liner Queen Mary launched at John Brown’s shipyard, Clydebank.

The construction of still the unnamed Cunard Queen Mary ship began in December 1930 (the ship’s keel was laid down on 31 January 1931) in the yard of “John Brown & Co” at Clydebank. The launch was scheduled for May 1932, but the work on the ship was suspended in December 1931 due to the world economic depression. A loan of 9.5 million pounds from the Government was granted to the Cunard Line with enough money to complete the Queen Mary ship and to build a second liner – the Queen Elizabeth.

As a direct result of this most advantageous deal, the Cunard Line merged with its main rival White Star on 10th May 1934 into Cunard White Star Ltd. The Queen Mary construction resumed in April 1934, the liner was completed by August and launched on 26th September at a total cost of 3.5 million pounds sterling.

The work was completed in March 1936. The Queen Mary ship sailed out for preliminary trials and after being painted in Southampton, the liner was handed over to Cunard White Star Line on 11th May 1936. RMS Queen Mary ship first sailing was on 14th May with its Transatlantic itinerary being Southampton-Cherbourg-New York. By May 1937 the liner had carried a total of almost 57,000 passengers.

The main speed-rival of the QM ship was SS Normandie – a liner built in France and operated by the French Compagnie Generale Transatlantique line. The Queen Mary took the Blue Riband (the prestigious award given to a ship with the speed record for a transatlantic crossing) from the French liner SS Normandie in August 1938, with record speeds for both west- and eastbound crossings of the Atlantic Ocean – the average speeds was, respectively, 30,63 kn (35m25 mph, 56,7 km/h) and 30,14 kn (34,68 mph, 55,82 km/h).

In 1937, the Normandie liner was refitted with new propellers, enabling her to take the Blue Riband, but in 1938 the Queen Mary ship reclaim the honour for best speeds in both directions – westbound 30,99 kn (35,66 mph, 57.39 km/h) and eastbound 31,69 kn (36,47 mph, 58.69 km/h). This record was beaten by the SS United Sates liner in 1952.

The last commercial sailing of the ship Queen Mary was on 30 August 1939 departing from Southampton and then berthed at New York until the end of 1939. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers for the duration of the war.

Following the war, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and along with Queen Elizabeth commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were initially built. The two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was ageing and, though still among the most popular transatlantic liners, was operating at a loss.

After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line, Queen Mary was officially retired from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States, where she remains permanently moored. Much of the machinery, including one of the two engine rooms, three of the four propellers, and all of the boilers, were removed. The ship serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum and a hotel. The ship is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has accepted the Queen Mary as part of the Historic Hotels of America.

RMS Queen Mary remains in Long Beach but recently it has been reported it is in need of significant repairs according to assessments and photos in 2019 and 2020. An estimated $289 million in repairs are needed after years of decline and the most recent operator going bankrupt.But even to “retire and recycle” the liner could cost up to $190m. One of the suggestions are to dismantle and sink the liner, although no long term plans have been finalised as yet.

The Queen Mary is due to open again to visitors next month, let’s hope someone can come up with a rescue plan to save her.

It has been mooted that it could return to the Clyde but the eyewatering amount of money it would take surely rules this out.

[clove-pinks]

HMS Trincomalee, at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool.

A Leda-class frigate like HMS Shannon, she was built in Mumbai (Bombay) by master shipbuilder Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia, who lived c. 1754-1821 (Wikimedia Commons).

It was Wadia who ceremonially hammered a silver nail into Trincomalee's keel, following Parsi Zoroastrian tradition. I'm fascinated by the melding of global maritime traditions.

[quatregats]

I will say I am entirely unclear on how I ended up in the Boat Media Corner because I continue to not be deeply invested in the actual ships themselves (bro idk either - we're working on it and getting there but it may take years to develop) but apparently the one place that this is absolutely not true is anything about the Indian Ocean. I become completely and wholly obsessed with boats if you put them in Indian Ocean contexts. I went to a presentation today where they were talking about shipbuilding in the Gulf of Kutch and the networks and worlds it's a part of and I was enthralled by those ships.

[ochipi]

I just got back from a little road-trip through the Netherlands. Checked a few boxes of must see things. With a dad who’s been a seaman for 20 years and me as an art historian/archaeologist, our trip was surprisingly boat-themed.

“De Amsterdam” replica of the 1749 ship that wrecked on the coast of Hastings and who’s still visible sometimes. And little me next to it. The ship below is even bigger.

The “Batavia” from 1628. This ship was involuntarily part of the first Western settlement on Australia. Mutiny caused the ship to sail too far East and wreck on the coast of Australia. Captain Cook would only arrive in Australia more than 100 years later.

There’s no surviving guidelines on how the build a Spiegelretourschip/East India men from the 17th century. The father to son craft had disappeared. Until a river boat maker in the 1980s decided to follow his childhood dream and make an East India Man. All he knew about the original ship was how wide and how long she was. And he had enough with that. His experience did the rest. And he just began building in a Frisian field with his son. He took in people left out by society and taught them wood and metal working so they could go on in life. And similarly to the original ship, after she was released from the shipyard, she sailed perfectly.

[eltristan]

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio #1900, the only Ingalls Shipbuilding 4-S locomotive ever constructed. Operated from 1949 to 1966 by the GM&O. A postwar effort, ran a 1500hp V8 marine diesel on top of apparent AAR type-B trucks. Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, is still a leading supplier of ships for the US Navy — not so much a supplier of railroad locomotives tho.

[bygonely]

Building the Unsinkable The Story of the Titanic's Construction and Rise to Fame

[upennmanuscripts]

LJS 473 is a treatise on ships and shipbuilding by Benedetto Cotrugli, composed in 1464-1465, including information on cartography, construction and use of the compass, types of ships, and meteorology and astronomy for use in navigation.

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[fuckyeahinternetarchive]

This winter’s storms have destroyed the wharf in Aptos, California leading to the S.S. Palo Alto, a ship made out of cement in the 1920s. The Palo Alto was also toppled by the waves and is now a pile of rubble.

The life of the ship is documented in this 100 page book that was sold at the wharf.

Personal note: The author of this blog once went fishing off of the cement ship in the 80s and is saddened at its decline and inevitable loss.

[lonestarbattleship]

Launch of USS Saipan (CVL-48) at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey.

Date: July 8, 1945

source

[ltwilliammowett]

Oak

Why were british warships built of oak ? Oak was expensive and did not grow everywhere. And yet a first rate needed 5750 mature oak trees. This meant that oak was also imported and in occupied areas, whole forests were replanted and even in England the planting of oak was given high priority.

The bombardment of Algiers, 26-27 August 181, by Martinus Schouman, 1823 (x)

But why ?  Oak is a particularly robust wood and was well suited for shipbuilding. Because it was more stable, more weather-resistant and not as susceptible to rot and pest infestation as other woods, and oak did not splinter as much. In a battle, splinters were a great danger and because the oak did not oak did not splinter as much and was much more unforgiving, it was the wood of choice.

This was demonstrated by HMS Impregnable, 98-guns, which, after the bombardment of Algiers in 1816, had 233 heavy shots in her hull without causing her much damage.

[scotianostra]

On 20th September, 1967, the QE2 launched from John Brown’s yard in Clydebank.

By the end of the 1950s, discussion over the replacement of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth was taking place. The decision to replace the ‘Queens’ was deemed to be of national importance and as such a special committee, known as the Chandos Committee was created to advise the Government and to determine whether such a project was economically viable. Originally Cunard had wanted to build two new liners with the help of a Government subsidy, however the committee’s report proposed that the Government loan Cunard £18 million towards the construction of one vessel. The project became known as ‘Q3’ and six British shipyards were asked to tender – this prestigious project was a huge opportunity for home based shipbuilders to construct a transatlantic liner.

The new ship, code-named was built by John Brown & Company Ltd, Clydebank (later Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd) and scheduled for May 1968. On 20th September 1967 the keel was launched by Queen Elizabeth II and the ship was named Queen Elizabeth 2. She was the last Atlantic Ocean Liner of it’s kind to be built in the UK.

QE2’s maiden transatlantic crossing set sail on 2 May 1969. She was well received by the American public, and became a profitable ship in her early years of service. During her first season, Cunard were able to repay £2.5 million of the Government loan. Her dual purpose design had allowed QE2 to thrive where her transatlantic counterparts could not.

In January 1971 while cruising in the Caribbean, QE2 received a distress call from the French liner Antilles. Antilles had run aground off the coast of Mustique in the Grenadines and caught fire. Being a fast ship in close proximity to the Antilles, QE2 went to her assistance.

However, by the time the QE2 arrived the passengers had been taken ashore. Antilles passengers and crew were brought aboard QE2 and taken to Barbados. As a testament to the quality of service offered aboard QE2, some of the Antille’s passengers booked subsequent cruises on the Cunarder.

In May 1972, while at sea during a transatlantic crossing, Captain William Law received notification that there was a bomb aboard QE2. Cunard took this threat very seriously and alerted the British Government who sent a bomb disposal unit out to the ship. Bomb disposal experts parachuted into the sea close to the ship and were brought aboard by QE2’s tenders. After a full sweep of the ship, the all clear was given as it turned out to be a hoax.

Later the FBI arrested the culprit for making similar threats against Pan American Airways. The bomb disposal teams were awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct.

As QE2’s cruising popularity increased and in response to the ongoing decline in shipping traffic on the North Atlantic, Cunard reduced the number of transatlantic crossings that QE2 took. The company maintained a strong summer presence on the Atlantic, however shifted the focus for the ship towards cruising. This saw QE2 undertake her first world cruise, an event that was well received – QE2 undertook a further 25 world cruises during her career.

Queen Elizabeth 2 was retired from active Cunard service in November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of Dubai World, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

Following a multi-million-dollar investment programme, the 13-deck ship has been restored to her former glory and today serves as a world-class entertainment, tourism, hotel and dining destination in Dubai.