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In French
This extremely rare work is the
best mid-19th-c. treatise of its kind: a compendium
of all the practical information necessary for the
design, construction, and arming of a commercial
ship. Its author, Adrien d'Etroyat, was taught by
naval construction engineers from 1825 to 1839; he
then turned his attention fully to the building of
commercial ships in Lorient, as he put it in his
own words, "the construction of about one hundred
commercial ships was guided by my long experience
directing the out-fitting of numerous ships."
This work in three parts is invaluable to modern
readers who have no use for outmoded theories but
who are seeking knowledge of the methods,
practices, and techniques of shipbuilders in the
19th century.
The first part covers the plans for the ship:
drawing implements (instruments and planning
tables) - Scales - Projection - Sections -
Development - (illustrated by plates 1,2, & 3)
- Drawing estimates - Molding Room - Cant timbers -
Raked bars - Beveling of timbers - Comparative
forms - Steamers - Types of boats. The entire
section is illustrated by example with the plans of
coastal lugger , a from Vannes (plates 2,3, &
4), a round stern brig, a decked launch, a
discovery lugger (plates 5,6, &7), a square
sterned lugger (plates 8,9, 10, & 11). Plate 12
reproduces the plans of the corvette the Naiade;
plate 13, an 800-ton cargo corvette; plate 14,
steamers; plate 15, a 142-ton merchant brig; plate
16, a launch and a skiff for vessels and
frigates.
Part Two covers ship's reckonings, a somewhat dry
but indispensable section illustrated by the
computations for a 24 meter commercial brig (plate
18) and a three-masted merchant ship (plates 19 and
20). Several comparative tables illustrated by
plates 21 to 25 explain how problems were presented
by the fitter-out to the builder, and how the
latter resolved these problems through computations
of gauge and displacement.
Part Three, illustrated by plates 26 to 29 covers
specific details of construction. Based on the
estimate for the construction of an 800-ton
three-masted merchant ship, the author successively
describes: - Building the construction site in the
yards - working the keel - positioning the masts -
Building the bow: gripe, stem, counter-stem,
connecting knees, cut-water, and knightheads -
Building the stern: the stem-post, dead wood,
transom, and fashion piece - building the ribs -
timbering - building the deck - topsides. A special
chapter covers the guide vane.
An indispensable tool for the naval carpenter and
the builder of historical ship's model - of use to
the sailor as well as the yachtsman - this
practical work, the most complete in its period,
should be found in every naval enthusiast's
library.
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