Home › S › Ship (Most general sense)
Ship (Most general sense)
in the most general sense, a In contradistinction to boat, which is the most general term for a navigable vessel, it signifies a vessel intended for distant voyages. Ships are of various sizes, and fitted for various uses, and receive various names, according to their rig and the purposes to which they are applied, as man-of-war ships, transports, merchantmen, barks, brigs, schooners, luggers, sloops, xebecs, galleys, etc. The name as descriptive of a particular rig, and as roughly implying a certain size, has been used to designate a vessel furnished with a bowsprit and three or four masts, each of which is composed of a lower mast, a top mast, and a top-gallant mast, and carrying a certain number of square sails on each of the masts. These masts are named, beginning with the foremost, the fore, the main, and mizzen masts; and when there is a fourth it is called the jigger mast. The principal sails are named according to the masts to which they belong.
There were two primitive types of shipbuilding from one or other of which, or rather perhaps from a joint development of both, all the improvements of modern times have proceeded. These were the raft and the canoe. In like manner there have been from time immemorial two distinct modes of propulsion, by oars and sails. many other arts, was lost in the over- The ancient art of ship-building, like whelming tide of barbarism which overthrew the last of the great empires of antiquity.
Z-Cyc Shipbuilding made little progress in Vol 8 SHIP Europe till the discovery of the compass, which was introduced in a rude form in the 12th century, and had been improved and had come into common use in the 14th century. The opening up of the passage to India and the discovery of America made another epoch in its progress. In the building of large vessels the Spaniards long took the lead, and were followed by the French, who specially distinguished themselves in the theoretical study of the art. In the early progress of the art of shipbuilding the English took little or no part. When Henry VII. built the "Henri Grace a Dieu," which is regarded as the parent of the British navy, the English were greatly inferior to the nations of southern Europe both in navigation and in shipbuilding. In the reign of Elizabeth the English fleet proved its superiority to that of Spain in respect of fi fighting capacity, but it was afterward rivaled by that of Holland. The first three-decker was built in England in 1637. She was called the "Sovereign of the Seas" and was deemed the best man-of-war in the world. In 1768 the French adopted threedeckers.
In the early part of the 19th century the lead in improvement was taken by the United States. English builders were at first skeptical as to American improvements; but in 1832 Scott Russell theoretically established the principles on which speed in sailing depends-principles which had already been practically applied not only by the Americans, but by the Spaniards. From the time of their theoretical establishment they were rapidly adopted in England, and a race of improvements began between Great Britain and the United States. The true principles of construction both in build and rig were exemplified in the celebrated Baltimore clipper schooners, which were sharp in the bow, deep in the stern, of great length, and lying low in the water, with long, slender masts, and large sails cut with great skill.
A great change came over the art of shipbuilding when steam was introduced and wood gave place to iron and then to steel. The first steamer built expressly for regular voyages between Europe and America was the "Great Western," launched in 1837. She was propelled by paddles, but about the same time Ericsson invented his screw propeller, which was soon adopted in sea-going ships, and the British Admiralty possessed a screw vessel in 1842. Iron vessels were built early in the 19th century for canal service, then for river service, and later for packet service on the coasts. In 1838 the first vessel of this material was built for ocean service, but the first ocean-going SHIP steamship in its present form, built of iron and propelled by the screw, was the "Great Britain," launched in 1843. As early as 1855, iron was substituted for wood in the yards on the Clyde; and on the Mersey, the Tyne, and the Wear, iron shipbuilding was in general adoption by 1863 or earlier. Puddled steel was used as early as 1862, and since 1870 Great Britain has led the world in steel shipbuilding. Before 1890 steel had displaced iron in British shipyards.
In the United States, the transition from wooden to iron ships took place at the commencement of the Civil War.
Among the shipbuilding yards that survived the change was Cramp's at Philadelphia, and the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., at Wilmington, Del. Though the building of merchant vessels was interrupted (allowing England to acquire the leadership she still maintains), the American shipyards promptly turned out warships. The "New Ironsides," a pioneer type for coast service, was built at Cramp's yards and went into action at Fort Sumter. The lack of efficient yards in the Confederate States was an important factor in the Civil War. The "St. Louis" and the "St. Paul," two ocean liners built by the Cramp Co. between 1892 and 1896, were constructed entirely of domestic material, thus marking a new era in American shipbuilding. American yards now receive orders not only from foreign firms for merchant ships, but from foreign governments for warships.
During the World War and especially after the United States joined the Allies in 1917, there was a great increase in shipbuilding. In 1919 the sailing vessels (exclusive of canal boats and barges) of the United States, numbered 4,260, tonnage 1,199,661; steamships 7,397, tonnage 10,027,400; gas vessels 10,254, tonnage 358,257; including canal boats and barges 27,513, tonnage 12,907,300. See SHIP- BUILDING; SHIPPING; NAVY; etc.