Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume VI, Number 1, 4 May 1933 — HOW BIGGEST SHIP WAS LAUNCHED [ARTICLE]

HOW BIGGEST SHIP WAS LAUNCHED

By setting afl<Mit the 75,000ton Normandie—almost a fifth of a mile long and the largest iiner ever i)uilt—at St. Na2aJre, France, a iew weeks ago, shipbuilders enacted on recordbreaking scale a drama that is repeated every time a new merchantman goes down to the sea.

Piaiming the laimchlng way is the fix?t step in building a vessel. A double track of wood, leading to the water's edge and, extending a short distance beneath the surface—called the "standing ways"—serves as a runway for a pair of cradles known. wlth their platforms as "sliding ways." These support the vessel's bow and stem during launching. .

During construction, the ship has rested on temporary cribs/ Qn the day of the laiu\chlng, workmen transfer ifc.to the ways, Oak wedges are first driven into the sliding platforms. This does not lift the hull bodily td the ways—a eommon popuiar error—but simply takes up ,all slack between sliding ,ways. and liuU. When temporary cribs and shoring are now removed, the vessed's entire weight settles downward -upon the ways, whieh ha?e been lubrlcate<f copiously with tallow and grease.

Hydrauiic oiggers or other apparatus hold the sliding ways until a signal shows all is ready. TnA the triggers are reteased ajid the vessei sMdes dovm to the sea, at a speed of nihe to 12 miles an hour—a brisk running gait. % minimize the crushing weight on the launching wayiS, heavy machinery and fittings, including the massive engines, are nbt installed untU after the vessel is safeiy afloat.

Forty tons of iallow lubricant were useo 011 the ways at the reeeat iauncmng ol the Nc«m£<oāie.—P&M. ;