There is on the opposite wharf of the dock a 20-ton travelling electric crane, and throughout the Works there are many portable and hydraulic cranes, in addition to the hydraulic and other cranes commanding the machine tools.
Reference may here be made to the Company's graving dock, illustrated on Plate XLV., adjoining page 101. The length is 360 ft., and it is largely used for docking ships for repair, as well as for cleaning ships preparatory to trial. Our view shows a torpedo-boat destroyer in the dock. The pumps for the emptying of the dock are electrically driven.
We may return now to our narrative of the construction of a ship, and deal with the supplementary departments, including those of joiners, smiths, plumbers, sheet-iron, and other workers.
Wood-work forms a large and important item in most of Scotts' ships, as many of them are for passenger service. We illustrate on Plate XLVI. one of the saw-mills. It is self-contained, having its own power plant, including a compound engine, having cylinders 15-1/4 in. and 27-1/2 in. in diameter by 44-in. stroke. There are four vertical saw frames, the largest having a 36-in. frame, six rollers, and two bogies to take in the heaviest logs. In addition, there are circular saws, ranging up to 6 ft. in diameter, a swing cross-cut saw, special planing, moulding, and turning machines to do heavy work, and saw-sharpeners, grindstones, punching machines and anvils to carry out all repairs and fettling of the blades, etc. There are also large steam-heated drying stoves, and a timber-drying yard of about three acres in extent. The overhead travelling cranes range up to 5 tons capacity, and the rails on which they run are extended on columns across the yard. The saw-mill is the largest and best-equipped in the district, and does the sawing and planing of timber for three of the largest shipbuilding yards, as well as the general work for two other firms.
[Illustration: Plate XLVI. THE SAW MILL.]
[Illustration: Plate XLVII. TWO VIEWS IN THE JOINER SHOPS.]
The joiners' and cabinet-makers' shop, as we have already indicated, occupies two floors of a building 240 ft. long and 52 ft. wide; while the fourth floor is utilised for the French polishing work, as well as for storing the completed wood-work until the vessel is ready to receive it. Provision is also made in the same building for the model-making department, in which replicas of nearly all ships are produced, and, being works of art, because of their completeness, accuracy, and beauty, have earned high awards at many Exhibitions.