Seen in Germany . soled shoes, each workingat his own minute task, — the beveling of the rawedge of a plate, the driving of rivet holes one byone, the stirring of white-hot forges, the endlessstriking on red metal with sledges, lifting, fitting,fastening, and in twenty months time there standsforth a great ship,— a thing of matchless beauty, sym-metry, power, speed, so coherent and perfect that oneman by a turn of the wrist can control the move-ments of all her vast mass. The River Oder at Bredow is only a narrow streamwithout tides or perceptible current. When I saw itfirst the water was a mu
Seen in Germany . soled shoes, each workingat his own minute task, — the beveling of the rawedge of a plate, the driving of rivet holes one byone, the stirring of white-hot forges, the endlessstriking on red metal with sledges, lifting, fitting,fastening, and in twenty months time there standsforth a great ship,— a thing of matchless beauty, sym-metry, power, speed, so coherent and perfect that oneman by a turn of the wrist can control the move-ments of all her vast mass. The River Oder at Bredow is only a narrow streamwithout tides or perceptible current. When I saw itfirst the water was a murky brown blotched with bitsof rotten ice. Where the Vulcan works spread alongits shore, the bank rises at a gentle slope, and herestands the scaffolding for seven ships. So narrow isthe river that three of these cradles have been placedat a sharp angle to the water in order that when the 254 Seen in Germany greatest ships are launched they may not crush intothe opposite bank. A ships scaffolding at a distance. The ^^ Deutsc/iland^six months after her keel nvas laid. Shoaving thekeel, ribs, the second, or false ^ bottom, and the girders ^uhich areto support the decks resembles a gigantic basket, one end of which restsin the edge of the water, while the other reaches How the Germans build Ships 255 high up on the bank. On nearer approach, thesides of this basket resolve themselves into an intri-cate maze of timbers of enormous the ship is born. The interior of thebasket has been cunningly fashioned by the artificeruntil it follows the lines of the future vessel,—asort of huge wooden mould. At the bottom runsa long low ridge of stout timbers, called the bed,sloping down to the waters edge. This is to sup-port the backbone or keel of the ship. In oneof the cradles the keel-pieces of a new warship hadjust been laid. A crew of riveters were at work,fastening the vertical keel-piece to the horizontalkeel. Imagine a machine as tall as a man, andhaving the shape
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgermany, bookyear1902
