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84-599: The Boston Navy Yard , originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard , was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy . It was established in 1801 as part of the recent establishment of the new U.S. Department of the Navy in 1798. After 175 years of military service, it was decommissioned as a naval installation on 1 July 1974. The 30-acre (12 ha) property

168-601: A solar barque . Early Egyptians also knew how to fasten the planks of this ship together with mortise and tenon joints. The oldest known tidal dock in the world was built around 2500 BC during the Harappan civilisation at Lothal near the present day Mangrol harbour on the Gujarat coast in India . Other ports were probably at Balakot and Dwarka . However, it is probable that many small-scale ports, and not massive ports, were used for

252-640: A 1943 World War II -era Fletcher -class destroyer serving as a museum ship , is also berthed here. The museum area includes a dock which is a stop on the MBTA Boat water transport system. Among local people in the area and the National Park Service, it is still known as the Charlestown Navy Yard. The South Boston Naval Annex was located along the waterfront in South Boston , an annex of

336-426: A broad beam and heavily curved at both ends. Another important ship type was the galley, which was constructed with both sails and oars. The first extant treatise on shipbuilding was written c.  1436 by Michael of Rhodes, a man who began his career as an oarsman on a Venetian galley in 1401 and worked his way up into officer positions. He wrote and illustrated a book that contains a treatise on shipbuilding,

420-410: A curved, progressive joint could not be achieved. One study finds that there were considerable improvements in ship speed from 1750 to 1850: "we find that average sailing speeds of British ships in moderate to strong winds rose by nearly a third. Driving this steady progress seems to be the continuous evolution of sails and rigging, and improved hulls that allowed a greater area of sail to be set safely in

504-407: A fore and aft sail on the mizzen. Ship-building then saw a steady improvement in design techniques and introduction of new materials. Iron was used for more than fastenings ( nails and bolts ) as structural components such as iron knees were introduced, with examples existing in the mid-18th century and from the mid-19th century onwards. This was partly led by the shortage of "compass timber",

588-573: A given wind. By contrast, looking at every voyage between the Netherlands and East Indies undertaken by the Dutch East India Company from 1595 to 1795, we find that journey time fell only by 10 percent, with no improvement in the heavy mortality, averaging six percent per voyage, of those aboard." Initially copying wooden construction traditions with a frame over which the hull was fastened, Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's Great Britain of 1843

672-547: A group of 14 ships discovered in Abydos that were constructed of wooden planks which were "sewn" together. Discovered by Egyptologist David O'Connor of New York University , woven straps were found to have been used to lash the planks together, and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams. Because the ships are all buried together and near a mortuary belonging to Pharaoh Khasekhemwy , originally they were all thought to have belonged to him, but one of

756-499: A high degree of commercialization and an increase in trade. Large numbers of ships were built to meet the demand. The Ming voyages were large in size, numbering as many as 300 ships and 28,000 men. The shipbuilders were brought from different places in China to the shipyard in Nanjing , including Zhejiang , Jiangxi , Fujian , and Huguang (now the provinces of Hubei and Hunan ). One of

840-474: A launching each day, then two ships a day, fulfilling the building program undertaken by the Maritime Commission. Our shipbuilding program - not only that of the Maritime Commission, but of the Navy - is one of our answers to the aggressors who would strike at our liberty. I am speaking today not only to the shipworkers in the building yards on our Coasts, on our Great Lakes and on our Rivers - not only to

924-621: A memorable day in the emergency defense of the nation. Today, from dawn to dark, fourteen ships are being launched - on the Atlantic, on the Pacific and on the Gulf and among them is the first Liberty ship, the Patrick Henry . While we are proud of what we are doing, this is certainly no time to be content. We must build more cargo ships and still more cargo ships - and we must speed the program until we achieve

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1008-406: A range of sailing rigs that included the crab claw sail . The origins of this technology is difficult to date, relying largely on linguistics (studying the words for parts of boats), the written comments of people from other cultures, including the observations of European explorers at the time of first contact and the later more systematic ethnographic observations of the types of craft in use. There

1092-534: A significant number of workers, and generate income as the shipbuilding market is global . Liberty Fleet Day (Victory Fleet Day) Liberty Fleet Day was first observed on 27 September 1941, the day that 14 merchant ships were launched in shipyards across the United States under the Emergency Shipbuilding program . Among the ships launched was the first Liberty ship , SS Patrick Henry . Some of

1176-863: A similar design. Austronesians established the Austronesian maritime trade network at around 1000 to 600 BC, linking Southeast Asia with East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and later East Africa. The route later became part of the Spice trade network and the Maritime Silk Road . The naval history of China stems back to the Spring and Autumn period (722 BC–481 BC) of the ancient Chinese Zhou dynasty . The Chinese built large rectangular barges known as "castle ships", which were essentially floating fortresses complete with multiple decks with guarded ramparts . However,

1260-411: A single piece of hollowed-out log. At the sides were two planks, and two horseshoe-shaped wood pieces formed the prow and stern . These were fitted tightly together edge-to-edge with dowels inserted into holes in between, and then lashed to each other with ropes (made from rattan or fiber) wrapped around protruding lugs on the planks. This characteristic and ancient Austronesian boatbuilding practice

1344-441: A telling blow at the menace to our nation and the liberty of the free peoples of the world. They struck fourteen such blows today. They have caught the true spirit with which all this nation must be imbued if Hitler and other aggressors of his ilk are to be prevented from crushing us. We Americans as a whole cannot listen to those few Americans who preach the gospel of fear - who say in effect that they are still in favor of freedom of

1428-518: A treatise on mathematics, much material on astrology, and other materials. His treatise on shipbuilding treats three kinds of galleys and two kinds of round ships. Shipbuilders in the Ming dynasty (1368~1644) were not the same as the shipbuilders in other Chinese dynasties, due to hundreds of years of accumulated experiences and rapid changes in the Ming dynasty. Shipbuilders in the Ming dynasty primarily worked for

1512-467: Is a famous example). Later Great Britain ' s iron hull was sheathed in wood to enable it to carry a copper-based sheathing . Brunel's Great Eastern represented the next great development in shipbuilding. Built-in association with John Scott Russell , it used longitudinal stringers for strength, inner and outer hulls, and bulkheads to form multiple watertight compartments. Steel also supplanted wrought iron when it became readily available in

1596-724: Is a matter of history that a large part of the capital which in the middle of the past century went into the building of railways and spread like a network into the new undeveloped areas across the Mississippi River, across the Plains and up into the Northwest, was money which had been made by American traders whose ships had sailed the seas to the Baltic, to the Mediterranean, to Africa and South America, and to Singapore and China itself. Through all

1680-654: Is a possibility that they may have reached the Americas . After the 11th century, a new type of ship called djong or jong was recorded in Java and Bali. This type of ship was built using wooden dowels and treenails, unlike the kunlun bo which used vegetal fibres for lashings. The empire of Majapahit used jong, built in northern Java, for transporting troops overseas. The jongs were transport ships which could carry 100–2000 tons of cargo and 50–1000 people, 28.99–88.56 meter in length. The exact number of jong fielded by Majapahit

1764-539: Is administered by the National Park Service , becoming part of Boston National Historical Park . Enough of the yard remains in operation to support the moored USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") of 1797, built as one of the original six heavy frigates for the revived American navy, and the oldest warship still commissioned in the United States Navy and afloat in the world. USS  Cassin Young  (DD-793) ,

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1848-600: Is known as the " lashed-lug " technique. They were commonly caulked with pastes made from various plants as well as tapa bark and fibres which would expand when wet, further tightening joints and making the hull watertight. They formed the shell of the boat, which was then reinforced by horizontal ribs. Shipwrecks of Austronesian ships can be identified from this construction as well as the absence of metal nails. Austronesian ships traditionally had no central rudders but were instead steered using an oar on one side. Austronesians traditionally made their sails from woven mats of

1932-571: Is noted in the works of Ibn Jubayr . The ships of Ancient Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty were typically about 25 meters (80 ft) in length and had a single mast , sometimes consisting of two poles lashed together at the top making an "A" shape. They mounted a single square sail on a yard , with an additional spar along the bottom of the sail. These ships could also be oar propelled. The ocean- and sea-going ships of Ancient Egypt were constructed with cedar wood, most likely hailing from Lebanon. The ships of Phoenicia seem to have been of

2016-499: Is only a small body of archaeological evidence available. Since Island Southeast Asia contained effective maritime transport between its very large number of islands long before Austronesian seafaring, it is argued that Austronesians adopted an existing maritime technology from the existing inhabitants of this region. Austronesian ships varied from simple canoes to large multihull ships. The simplest form of all ancestral Austronesian boats had five parts. The bottom part consists of

2100-411: Is unknown, but the largest number of jong deployed in an expedition is about 400 jongs, when Majapahit attacked Pasai, in 1350. Until recently, Viking longships were seen as marking an advance on traditional clinker -built hulls where leather thongs were used to join plank boards. This consensus has recently been challenged. Haywood has argued that earlier Frankish and Anglo-Saxon nautical practice

2184-571: The ghe mành . Early Egyptians also knew how to assemble planks of wood with treenails to fasten them together, using pitch for caulking the seams. The " Khufu ship ", a 43.6-meter vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC, is a full-size surviving example which may have fulfilled the symbolic function of

2268-579: The k'un-lun po or kunlun bo ("ship of the k'un-lun [dark-skinned southern people]"). These ships used two types of sail of their invention, the junk sail and tanja sail . Large ships are about 50–60 metres (164–197 ft) long, had 5.2–7.8 metres (17–26 ft) tall freeboard , each carrying provisions enough for a year, and could carry 200–1000 people. The Chinese recorded that these Southeast Asian ships were hired for passage to South Asia by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and travelers, because they did not build seaworthy ships of their own until around

2352-702: The Abbasid period. Mughal Empire had a large shipbuilding industry, which was largely centred in the Bengal Subah . Economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates shipbuilding output of Bengal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at 223,250 tons annually, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771. He also assesses ship repairing as very advanced in Bengal. Documents from 1506, for example, refer to watercraft on

2436-550: The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The Charlestown Arsenal of United States Army was established in 1794. Shortly thereafter, in 1800, the land for the Charlestown Navy Yard was purchased by the United States government and the yard itself was established. The yard built the first U.S. ship of the line , USS  Independence in 1814, and at least twelve small vessels for the American Civil War , but

2520-533: The Napoleonic Wars were still built more or less to the same basic plan as those of the Spanish Armada of two centuries earlier, although there had been numerous subtle improvements in ship design and construction throughout this period. For instance, the introduction of tumblehome , adjustments to the shapes of sails and hulls, the introduction of the wheel, the introduction of hardened copper fastenings below

2604-463: The Persian Gulf . Evidence from Ancient Egypt shows that the early Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull as early as 3100 BC. Egyptian pottery as old as 4000 BC shows designs of early fluvial boats or other means for navigation. The Archaeological Institute of America reports that some of the oldest ships yet unearthed are known as the Abydos boats . These are

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2688-453: The Sierra Leone river carrying 120 men. Others refer to Guinea coast peoples using war canoes of varying sizes – some 70 feet in length, 7–8 feet broad, with sharp pointed ends, rowing benches on the side, and quarterdecks or forecastles build of reeds. The watercraft included miscellaneous facilities, such as cooking hearths, and storage spaces for the crew's sleeping mats. From

2772-579: The museum ship USS  Cassin Young  (DD-793) are tied up at Pier 1 and open to the public. The Navy Yard also hosts the USS Constitution Museum . Dry Dock No. 1 is still used for ship maintenance for Constitution and Cassin Young . In May 2015, Constitution entered the dry dock for three years of repairs. The Yard is toward the north end of the Freedom Trail . The MBTA Boat stops at nearby Pier 4, providing easy visitor access to

2856-461: The 14 ships dates to 3000 BC, and the associated pottery jars buried with the vessels also suggest earlier dating. The ship dating to 3000 BC was about 75 feet (23 m) long and is now thought to perhaps have belonged to an earlier pharaoh. According to professor O'Connor, the 5,000-year-old ship may have even belonged to Pharaoh Aha . The Austronesian expansion , which began c.  3000 BC with migration from Taiwan to

2940-536: The 17th century, some kingdoms added brass or iron cannons to their vessels. By the 18th century, however, the use of swivel cannons on war canoes accelerated. The city-state of Lagos , for instance, deployed war canoes armed with swivel cannons. With the development of the carrack , the west moved into a new era of ship construction by building the first regular oceangoing vessels. In a relatively short time, these ships grew to an unprecedented size, complexity, and cost. Shipyards became large industrial complexes, and

3024-590: The 8–9th century AD. Austronesians (especially from western Island Southeast Asia ) were trading in the Indian Ocean as far as Africa during this period. By around 50 to 500 AD, a group of Austronesians, believed to be from the southeastern coasts of Borneo (possibly a mixed group related to the modern Ma'anyan , Banjar , and/or the Dayak people ) crossed the Indian Ocean and colonized Madagascar . This resulted in

3108-731: The Admiral Zheng He . Six voyages were conducted under the Yongle Emperor's reign, the last of which returned to China in 1422. After the Yongle Emperor's death in 1424, his successor the Hongxi Emperor ordered the suspension of the voyages. The seventh and final voyage began in 1430, sent by the Xuande Emperor . Although the Hongxi and Xuande Emperors did not emphasize sailing as much as the Yongle Emperor, they were not against it. This led to

3192-499: The Chinese vessels during this era were essentially fluvial (riverine). True ocean-going Chinese fleets did not appear until the 10th century Song dynasty . There is considerable knowledge regarding shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient Mediterranean. Large multi-masted seafaring ships of Southeast Asian Austronesians first started appearing in Chinese records during the Han dynasty as

3276-648: The Chinese, from the Old Javanese parahu , Javanese prau , or Malay perahu – large ship. Southern Chinese junks showed characteristics of Austronesian ships that they are made using timbers of tropical origin, with keeled, V-shaped hull. This is different from northern Chinese junks, which are developed from flat-bottomed riverine boats. The northern Chinese junks were primarily built of pine or fir wood, had flat bottoms with no keel, water-tight bulkheads with no frames, transom (squared) stern and stem, and have their planks fastened with iron nails or clamps. It

3360-561: The Han dynasty junk ship design in the same century. The Chinese were using square sails during the Han dynasty and adopted the Austronesian junk sail later in the 12th century. Iconographic remains show that Chinese ships before the 12th century used square sails, and the junk rig of Chinese ships is believed to be developed from tilted sails . Southern Chinese junks were based on keeled and multi-planked Austronesian ship known as po by

3444-695: The Harappan maritime trade. Ships from the harbour at these ancient port cities established trade with Mesopotamia . Shipbuilding and boatmaking may have been prosperous industries in ancient India. Native labourers may have manufactured the flotilla of boats used by Alexander the Great to navigate across the Hydaspes and even the Indus , under Nearchos . The Indians also exported teak for shipbuilding to ancient Persia . Other references to Indian timber used for shipbuilding

Boston Navy Yard - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-651: The Marine Barracks Boston. When ideas were floated for redevelopment of the yard, one of the people's popular idea was to have the yard turned into a construction yard for oil tankers . Ultimately, these plans fell through, and the site became part of the Boston National Historical Park . Its mission is, "to interpret the art and history of naval shipbuilding". The Boston Navy Yard hosts many attractions, including Charlestown Naval Shipyard Park . The fully commissioned USS  Constitution and

3612-760: The Navy Yard from 1920 to 1974. Other annexes of the Navy Yard during World War II were the Chelsea Naval Annex (formerly the Green Shipyard, now the Fitzgerald Shipyard), East Boston Naval Annex , and Boston Naval Yard Fuel Depot Annex . The earliest naval shipbuilding activities in Charlestown, Massachusetts across the Charles River and Boston Harbor to the north from the city of Boston , began during

3696-647: The Navy began expanding again bringing into service new modern steel-hulled steam-powered warships and that brought new life to the Yard. In the first years of the 20th century, a second drydock was added. During World War II (1939/1941–1945), it worked to fix British Royal Navy warships and merchant transports damaged by the Nazi Germans when crossing the North Atlantic Ocean . On 27 September 1941— Liberty Fleet Day —Boston launched two destroyers , USS Cowie and

3780-755: The USS Knight . Even before the U.S. entered the Second World War after the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941, a month before in November, Boston was one of four United States naval shipyards selected to build Captain-class frigates under the Lend-Lease military assistance program for the Royal Navy. Since the United States was at war when these ships were finally completed, some were later requisitioned and used by

3864-524: The United States Navy as destroyer escorts . In the post war period, the shipyard modified World War II ships for Cold War (1945–1991) service through Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM). The Korean War (1950–1953), and Vietnam War (1964–1975) did not bring much work to the yard since it was so far from the fighting. The Yard closed after the Vietnam War. It was also the location of

3948-428: The United States in a 15-year period just before the war was a grand total of two. During the war, thousands of Liberty ships and Victory ships were built, many of them in shipyards that did not exist before the war. And, they were built by a workforce consisting largely of women and other inexperienced workers who had never seen a ship before (or even the ocean). After World War II , shipbuilding (which encompasses

4032-576: The United States' participation in World War II . President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech at the first "Emergency" launch in Baltimore that morning. At the remaining 13 launches a recording of the President's speech was played. The White House released the following transcript of President Roosevelt's speech: My fellow Americans: This is a memorable day in the history of American shipbuilding -

4116-458: The Yard. The campus of the MGH Institute of Health Professions occupies seven buildings in the Yard, including classroom, office, and clinical space. Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and multiple Massachusetts General Hospital research laboratories occupy the perimeter. Shipbuilding Until recently, with the development of complex non-maritime technologies, a ship has often represented

4200-460: The bottom planking of cogs . The north-European and Mediterranean traditions merged in the late 15th century, with carvel construction being adopted in the North and the centre-line mounted rudder replacing the quarter rudder of the Mediterranean. These changes broadly coincided with improvements in sailing rigs, with the three masted ship becoming common, with square sails on the fore and main masts, and

4284-472: The cities a hundred or a thousand miles from salt water. Since 1936, when the Congress enacted the present Merchant Marine Law, we have been rehabilitating a Merchant Marine which had fallen to a low level. Today we are continuing that program at accelerated speed. The shipworkers of America are doing a great job. They have made a commendable record for efficiency and speed. With every new ship, they are striking

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4368-564: The development beyond that raft technology occurred in the "nursery" areas of the Mediterranean and in Maritime Southeast Asia . Favoured by warmer waters and a number of inter-visible islands, boats (and, later, ships) with water-tight hulls (unlike the "flow through" structure of a raft) could be developed. The ships of ancient Egypt were built by joining the hull planks together, edge to edge, with tenons set in mortices cut in

4452-559: The early United States frigate Constitution was inaugurating the first naval drydock in New England designed by prominent civil engineer Loammi Baldwin Jr. The ropewalk supplied cordage used in the Navy from the time it opened in 1837 until the Yard closed in 1975. After the Civil War (1861–1865), the Yard was downgraded to an Equipment and Recruit Facility. In the late 1880s and 1890s,

4536-445: The end of the Ming dynasty in 1644. During this period, Chinese navigation technology did not make any progress and even declined in some aspect. In the Islamic world, shipbuilding thrived at Basra and Alexandria . The dhow , felucca , baghlah , and the sambuk became symbols of successful maritime trade around the Indian Ocean from the ports of East Africa to Southeast Asia and the ports of Sindh and Hind (India) during

4620-412: The government, under command of the Ministry of Public Works . During the early years of the Ming dynasty, the Ming government maintained an open policy towards sailing. Between 1405 and 1433, the government conducted seven diplomatic Ming treasure voyages to over thirty countries in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Eastern Africa. The voyages were initiated by the Yongle Emperor , and led by

4704-507: The infrastructure required to transport the trees from their point of origin to the shipyards. Shipbuilders were usually divided into different groups and had separate jobs. Some were responsible for fixing old ships; some were responsible for making the keel and some were responsible for building the helm. After 1477, the Ming government reversed its open maritime policies, enacting a series of isolationist policies in response to piracy . The policies, called Haijin (sea ban), lasted until

4788-417: The introduction of outrigger canoe technology to non-Austronesian cultures in the East African coast. The ancient Chinese also built fluvial ramming vessels as in the Greco-Roman tradition of the trireme , although oar-steered ships in China lost favor very early on since it was in the 1st century China that the stern -mounted rudder was first developed. This was dually met with the introduction of

4872-422: The island of Luzon in the Philippines , spread across Island Southeast Asia . Then, between 1500 BC and 1500 AD they settled uninhabited islands of the Pacific, and also sailed westward to Madagascar. This is associated with distinctive maritime technology: lashed lug construction techniques (both in outrigger canoes and in large planked sailing vessels), various types of outrigger and twin-hulled canoes and

4956-432: The keel, the hull was made by overlapping nine strakes on either side with rivets fastening the oaken planks together. It could hold upwards of thirty men. Sometime around the 12th century, northern European ships began to be built with a straight sternpost , enabling the mounting of a rudder, which was much more durable than a steering oar held over the side. Development in the Middle Ages favored "round ships", with

5040-470: The latter half of the 19th century, providing great savings when compared with iron in cost and weight. Wood continued to be favored for the decks. During World War II , the need for cargo ships was so great that construction time for Liberty ships went from initially eight months or longer, down to weeks or even days. They employed production line and prefabrication techniques such as those used in shipyards today. The total number of dry-cargo ships built in

5124-478: The mating edges. A similar technique, but with the tenons being pinned in position by dowels, was used in the Mediterranean for most of classical antiquity . Both these variants are "shell first" techniques, where any reinforcing frames are inserted after assembly of the planking has defined the hull shape. Carvel construction then took over in the Mediterranean. Northern Europe used clinker construction , but with some flush-planked ship-building in, for instance,

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5208-475: The merchant ships were subsequently converted to other purposes, including as troop transports and a Royal Navy aircraft carrier. In addition to the merchant ships launched, the US Navy launched two destroyers at the Boston Navy Yard . President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the first liberty ship, SS Patrick Henry , at the yards of Bethlehem Steel , Baltimore , Maryland, giving a speech as he did so. 27 September became known as Victory Fleet Day during

5292-407: The most advanced structure that the society building it could produce. Some key industrial advances were developed to support shipbuilding, for instance the sawing of timbers by mechanical saws propelled by windmills in Dutch shipyards during the first half of the 17th century. The design process saw the early adoption of the logarithm (invented in 1615) to generate the curves used to produce

5376-445: The most famous shipyards was Long Jiang Shipyard ( zh:龙江船厂 ), located in Nanjing near the Treasure Shipyard where the ocean-going ships were built. The shipbuilders could build 24 models of ships of varying sizes. Several types of ships were built for the voyages, including Shachuan (沙船), Fuchuan (福船) and Baochuan ( treasure ship ) (宝船). Zheng He's treasure ships were regarded as Shachuan types, mainly because they were made in

5460-491: The naturally curved timber that meant that shapes could be cut without weaknesses caused by cuts across the grain of the timber. Ultimately, whole ships were made of iron and, later, steel . The earliest known depictions (including paintings and models) of shallow-water sailing boats is from the 6th to 5th millennium BC of the Ubaid period of Mesopotamia . They were made from bundled reeds coated in bitumen and had bipod masts. They sailed in shallow coastal waters of

5544-416: The resilient and salt-resistant pandanus leaves. These sails allowed Austronesians to embark on long-distance voyaging. The ancient Champa of Vietnam also uniquely developed basket-hulled boats whose hulls were composed of woven and resin - caulked bamboo, either entirely or in conjunction with plank strakes . They range from small coracles (the o thúng ) to large ocean-going trading ships like

5628-551: The seas but who would have the United States tie up our vessels in our ports. That attitude is neither truthful nor honest. We propose that these ships sail the seas as they are intended to. We propose, to the best of our ability, to protect them from torpedo, from shell or from bomb. The Patrick Henry , as one of the Liberty ships launched today renews that great patriot's stirring demand: "Give me liberty or give me death." There shall be no death for America, for democracy, for freedom! There must be liberty, world-wide and eternal. That

5712-556: The shape of a hull , especially when scaling up these curves accurately in the mould loft . Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both commercial and military, are referred to as naval engineering . The construction of boats is a similar activity called boat building . The dismantling of ships is called ship breaking . The earliest evidence of maritime transport by modern humans is the settlement of Australia between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. This almost certainly involved rafts , possibly equipped with some sort of sail . Much of

5796-450: The shipbuilder learned the techniques of shipbuilding from his family and is very likely to earn a higher status in the shipyard. Additionally, the shipbuilder had access to business networking that could help to find clients. If a shipbuilder entered the occupation through an apprenticeship, the shipbuilder was likely a farmer before he was hired as a shipbuilder, or he was previously an experienced shipbuilder. Many shipbuilders working in

5880-429: The ships built were financed by consortia of investors. These considerations led to the documentation of design and construction practices in what had previously been a secretive trade run by master shipwrights and ultimately led to the field of naval architecture , in which professional designers and draftsmen played an increasingly important role. Even so, construction techniques changed only very gradually. The ships of

5964-422: The shipyard were forced into the occupation. The ships built for Zheng He's voyages needed to be waterproof, solid, safe, and have ample room to carry large amounts of trading goods. Therefore, due to the highly commercialized society that was being encouraged by the expeditions, trades, and government policies, the shipbuilders needed to acquire the skills to build ships that fulfil these requirements. Shipbuilding

6048-433: The shipyards, the marine equipment manufacturers, and many related service and knowledge providers) grew as an important and strategic industry in a number of countries around the world. This importance stems from: Historically, the industry has suffered from the absence of global rules and a tendency towards ( state - supported ) over-investment due to the fact that shipyards offer a wide range of technologies, employ

6132-649: The site of Portus in Rome revealed inscriptions in a shipyard constructed during the reign of Trajan (98–117) that indicated the existence of a shipbuilders guild . Roughly at this time is the last migration wave of the Austronesian expansion , when the Polynesian islands spread over vast distances across the Pacific Ocean were being colonized by the (Austronesian) Polynesians from Island Melanesia using double-hulled voyaging catamarans . At its furthest extent, there

6216-478: The stronger flushed deck design derived from Indian designs, and the increasing use of iron reinforcement. The flushed deck originated from the Bengal rice ships, with Bengal being famous for its shipbuilding industry at the time. Iron was gradually adopted in ship construction, initially to provide stronger joints in a wooden hull e.g. as deck knees, hanging knees, knee riders and the other sharp joints, ones in which

6300-454: The thousands who are present at today's launchings - but also to the men and women throughout the country who live far from salt water or shipbuilding. I emphasize to all of you the simple, historic fact that throughout the period of our American life, going way back into Colonial days, commerce on the high seas and freedom of the seas has been a major reason for our prosperity and the building up of our country. To give you one simple example: It

6384-599: The treasure shipyard in Nanjing. Shachuan , or 'sand-ships', are ships used primarily for inland transport. However, in recent years, some researchers agree that the treasure ships were more of the Fuchuan type. It is said in vol. 176 of San Guo Bei Meng Hui Bian (三朝北盟汇编) that ships made in Fujian are the best ones. Therefore, the best shipbuilders and laborers were brought from these places to support Zheng He's expedition. The shipyard

6468-603: The waterline, the introduction of copper sheathing as a deterrent to shipworm and fouling, etc. In the early decades of the Industrial Revolution (1760 to 1825) western ship design remained largely based on its traditional pre-industrial designs and materials and yet greatly improved in safety as "the risk of being wrecked for Atlantic shipping fell by one-third, and of foundering by two thirds, reflecting improvements in seaworthiness and navigation respectively." The improvement in seaworthiness has been credited to adopting

6552-463: The years after the American Revolution your Government reiterated and maintained the right of American ships to voyage hither and yon without hindrance from those who sought to keep them off the seas or drive them off the seas. As a nation we have realized that our export trade and our import trade had a definitely good effect on the life of families, not only on our Coasts but on the farms and in

6636-525: Was much more accomplished than had been thought and has described the distribution of clinker vs. carvel construction in Western Europe (see map [1] ). An insight into shipbuilding in the North Sea/Baltic areas of the early medieval period was found at Sutton Hoo , England, where a ship was buried with a chieftain. The ship was 26 metres (85 ft) long and 4.3 metres (14 ft) wide. Upward from

6720-539: Was not the sole industry utilising Chinese lumber at that time; the new capital was being built in Beijing from approximately 1407 onwards, which required huge amounts of high-quality wood. These two ambitious projects commissioned by Emperor Yongle would have had enormous environmental and economic effects, even if the ships were half the dimensions given in the History of Ming . Considerable pressure would also have been placed on

6804-600: Was primarily a repair and storage facility until the 1890s, when it started to build steel ships for the "New Navy". By then, it was called the Boston Navy Yard. On 24 June 1833, the staff and dignitaries including then Vice President Martin Van Buren , Secretary of War Lewis Cass , Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury , and many Massachusetts officials, witnessed "one of the great events of American naval history":

6888-444: Was the first radical new design, being built entirely of wrought iron. Despite her success, and the great savings in cost and space provided by the iron hull, compared to a copper-sheathed counterpart, there remained problems with fouling due to the adherence of weeds and barnacles. As a result, composite construction remained the dominant approach where fast ships were required, with wooden timbers laid over an iron frame ( Cutty Sark

6972-426: Was under the command of Ministry of Public Works . The shipbuilders had no control over their lives. The builders, commoner's doctors, cooks and errands had lowest social status. The shipbuilders were forced to move away from their hometown to the shipyards. There were two major ways to enter the shipbuilder occupation: family tradition, or apprenticeship. If a shipbuilder entered the occupation due to family tradition,

7056-414: Was unknown when the Chinese people started adopting Southeast Asian (Austronesian) shipbuilding techniques. They may have been started as early as the 8th century, but the development was gradual and the true ocean-going Chinese junks did not appear suddenly. The word "po" survived in Chinese long after, referring to the large ocean-going junks. In September 2011, archeological investigations done at

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