The Cellar - Ship building.

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HMS Prince of Wales hull weighing 11,000 tonnes moves out dock hall.

http://s13.postimg.org/648c8spef/HMS...e_of_Wales.jpg

An 11,000-tonne section of one of the Royal Navy's under-construction aircraft carriers has been moved out of its dock hall for the first time.

The largest section of HMS Prince of Wales was driven out of the hall at the BAE Systems shipyard in Govan at 1mph using nearly 2000 wheels and a single remote control.

Over the weekend the large hull section will be moved on to a barge, where it will remain until late August when it will set off on a sea journey around the north of Scotland and down to Rosyth in Fife for assembly.

The Aircraft Carrier Alliance began construction work on the structure at Govan in December 2013.

HMS Prince of Wales is the second Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier being built for the Royal Navy.

Its sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was the first to begin construction and could have jets flying off it by the end of 2018.

Those behind the project, which is estimated to cost more than £6bn overall, say the QE Class will be the centrepiece of Britain's naval capability.

Each 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier will provide the armed forces with a four-acre military operating base which can be deployed worldwide.

The vessels are designed to be versatile enough to support war efforts or provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

The Scotsman

Now, I am neither a naval architect nor an engineer, but seeing the manner in which this vessel is being constructed gives rise to the suspicion that it is being built to a budget and not to a specification..
I assume that the sections will be bolted and welded together which must be a less than optimal solution.
It surely will result in a hull that is weaker than one constructed by laying down a keel, building ribs and hot riveting steel plates to the basic structure.
Anyway, that’s just my observations on the subject.
You will probably find the BBC report somewhat more interesting.

BBC

That is the way ships are built these days. The components are usually built closer to the ways.

Yes, keel+ribs+plates went out with sword fighting and knickers. During the Big One, WW II, the need for ships, and lot's of them, prompted US shipyards to build ships in sections, then join the sections together as drydock space became available.

Now big ships are a series of waterproof compartments joined together. Computer simulations verify the desired rigidity/flexibility for rough seas, plus damage control for various types of attacks.

To build that carrier in one spot would take either many, many years, or a labor force so large they'd have to recruit around the empire. Then when you break the champagne bottle and wave bye-bye, what do you do with that huge labor force that resettled into that community? For that matter what happens to the community that expanded to accept the huge, now unemployed, labor force?

Just think about that poor Wheel#1005 in the center that needs to go pee.

No problem wheel #1005, like his bros, has a bladder that will hold probably 90 psi. :haha:

The wiki article on building the WW II Liberty ships describes how the US redesigned the UK model, changing construction from riveted to welded plates and a different propulsion system eliminating the need for difficult to build reduction gears.
The welded plates became problematic, but was ironed out in later construction techniques post Liberty program.

Quote:

The first ships required about 230 days to build (Patrick Henry took 244 days), but the average eventually dropped to 42 days. The record was set by SS Robert E. Peary, which was launched 4 days and 15½ hours after the keel was laid, although this publicity stunt was not repeated: in fact much fitting-out and other work remained to be done after the Peary was launched. The ships were made assembly-line style, from prefabricated sections. In 1943, three Liberty ships were completed daily.

In addition, during WW II we built concrete ships because of steel shortages.

from Wikipedia:

Quote:

Kaiser Shipyards was known for developing new methods of ship building,
which allowed his yards to outproduce other similar facilities and build 1,490 ships,
27 percent of the total Maritime Commission construction.

Kaiser's ships were completed in two-thirds the time and a quarter the cost of the average of all other shipyards.
Liberty ships were typically assembled in a little over two weeks.[3]
Kaiser Shipyards shut down at the end of the war.

During these times, Henry Kaiser saw the need for health care for his workers and their family.

Such was the beginnings of the Kaiser-Permanente Health Plans of today.

Or he found there was more money in health care than shipbuilding. :haha:

Yeah, that was then, this is now.

The shipyards on the Columbia and Willamette River are now high-rise condo's and fitness centers.

... and the half-life of the fitness clubs is about 7 months.

There were several shipyards on the Delaware River in Philly and Camden, NJ, as well as a big Navy base. All gone now.
Now both sides of the river, down as far as Wilmington, DE, are huge refrigerated warehouses that unload billions of bananas, and other tropical fruits, for distribution up and down the East coast. Just one, Penn Terminal, moves 260,000 tons of bananas annually. :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 935573)

There were several shipyards on the Delaware River in Philly and Camden, NJ, as well as a big Navy base.

A Jones Act tanker was constructed in the Philly Naval yard. It set the record for most expensive tanker of its size. It is currently in operation between Alaska and various west coast ports. I believe it was called Liberty Bay.

Building ships and large planes in sections is a best way to build them. Since construction is easier. And now made so easy usnig computers. Even the old Ohio Class nuclear missile submarines were constructed this way.

Some cruise ships have been cut apart and had sections added to expand those cruise ship facilities and passenger capacities.

Here's the steering wheel for that eight Billion dollar carrier. :eek:

Ten and two it is, then.