ship house

Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)

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I always imagined these ships were built on a slipway along side a river or bay outdoors with scaffolding all around the ship. This is may be the case BUT not always ships as far back as 1800 were built indoors in a ship house these houses were as large as 300 X 100 X 110 feet, huge buildings.
does anyone have historic examples of a ship house?
I wonder how these houses can have a clear span from side to side of over 80 feet without interior supports

President Fillmore at Navy Yard Philadelphia - L1994.051.020.JPGPrinceton - steam frigate - launch - 1992.035.038.JPG


here you can see the ship houses

Navy Yard from River - 1987.035.100.jpg

4f41ba8d2c286331c06a5cfffbaab4e0.jpg

HW1861P534399.jpg

h51928k.jpg
 
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Just by looking at the photos I should imagine it's because of their Cathedral like construction, ie tapering in towards the top, also in the pic of the ship being launched, I should imagine there were upright timbers that went straight up to the top of the shed, as they would only have to be apart enough to be clear of the ships sides, it's an interesting subject,
Best regards John,
 
Just by looking at the photos I should imagine it's because of their Cathedral like construction, ie tapering in towards the top, also in the pic of the ship being launched, I should imagine there were upright timbers that went straight up to the top of the shed, as they would only have to be apart enough to be clear of the ships sides, it's an interesting subject,
Best regards John,

I thought the same thing then consider the frames must of been built along side the hull plus storage of timber being used. I wonder if there was some sort of cranes built into the structure or a gantry system.
i recall reading a post on another forum that said how "primitive" these shipwrights were and how inaccurate the building of a ship was. I am thinking that is not so just look at the immense size of these structures not only the house but also the ships.
The builders were engineers and well educated imagine ships around the wilderness of the great lakes built in a few months from standing timber to a ship. moving trees 50 feet long weighting tons moved from the forest to ship yard. These ships were built with no drawings and no plans, they were built by the numbers and erected by surveyors. By 1830s steam ships had engines that were over 100 tons. I have been reading about the ship yards and it said the structures were built by German imagrents.

ship building is indeed an interesting subject
 
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I agree Dave, they knew what they were doing, in this photo that you posted you can see them using some sort of block and tackle in the construction,


HW1861P534399.jpg

Did they have some sort of scribing platform that the frames were put together on and then when complete they lifted them into place on the keel, I know that the Dutch used a different system, laying the keel and then the floors and planking on the way up, as the British were different by erecting all the frames and then planking,

,
 
I do not know how far back ships were built in houses, what ship houses I found so far were naval yards I found no examples of private yards using such indoor construction.

I did find out the indoor ship building in huge houses started around the 1820s in US naval yards. so far i am still researching if such houses were used in any of the Royal shipyards in England.

this is an example of the biggest wooden steam powered US ship Mississippi1839 and the US battleship Mississippi 1906 i know the wooden 1839 Mississippi was built in indoors the 1906 version maybe not.

mississippi size.jpg
 
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yes it is a fun hobby building boats out of a box as plank on bulkhead models but that does not really give you a sense of the actual construction and what went into the design and building of these wooden ships.

what's more is also the history and how these builders did what they did so long ago. The supporting industries, the buildings, the shipyards, the massive cranes used, the lumbering industry that supplies the yards. There is so much more to add to our forum.
The foundries that cast the guns, and fittings.

the membership is growing in leaps and bounds but so should the content, what about all the work boats, the merchant ships, the war ships oh my so much to learn.
 
DAVE IS SO RIGHT, OUR MEMBERSHIP IS GROWING AT A SUPER FAST PACE, CREDIT DUE TO OUR ADMINISTRATORS AND MODERATORS, GREAT WORK ALL, BUT A WORD OF CAUTION TO ALL, AS MOST OF US HAVE SEEN EXCELLENT FORUM SITES WIND UP DEAD, DEAD IN THE WATER, WHY? RESTING ON ITS LAURALS, NOT KEEPING UP WITH THE TRENDS, JUST SAME OLD, SAME OLD STUFF, WE HAVE SEEN SOME INTERNATIONAL SITE ALSO GO DOWN THE TUBES, AS A MEMBER WHO CAN REMEMBER THIS SITE WITH A MERE 500 MEMBERS, NOT MUCH ACTIVITY, USING THE RIGHT SUBJECTS, INOVATIVE BUILDS, BUT NOT ATTRACTING ENOUGH NOVICE AND INTERMEDIATE MEMBERS FOR THE FUTURE OF THIS WONDERFUL FORUM, AS IS HUMAN NATURE PEOPLE GRAVITATE TO WHAT IS POPLAR AT THE TIME, NEW METHODS, NEW BUILDS etc. TO BE RELAVANT WE MUST INCORAPERATE NEW IDEAS, MAYBE A HOW TO SEGMANT MAYBE AS A STAND ALONE SUBJECT, TO ATTRACT NOVICES AND INTERMEDIATE BUILDERS NOT JUST A ONE TIME AND GOOD BY TYPE THINGS, WE CAN GO DOWNHILL JUST AS FAST AS WE ROSE UP, WE DESPERATLY NEW NEW IDEAS, NEW METHODS, FAR THINKING AHEAD TO SEE WHAT WORKS, MY IDEAS ONLY, HOW ABOUT A GOOD DISCUSSION TO GET STARTED, NOT NEGITIVLY BUT CONSTRUCTIVE DEBATE, LET US KEEP MOVING AHEAD AND KEEP THIS GREAT FORUM GOING. THANKS Don
 
digging deeper into these big houses I found this illustration it is a factory. As more and more iron was used in ship building the buildings kept improving until a gantry crane was installed and this system is used to this very day. I would guess the first gantry and buildings had wooden beams and not the iron beams in the illustration.
What powered these early gantry cranes is a ???

ship gantry.jpg
 
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