1A Conducted Tour Through a Shipyard: Steam Hammers whilie Cause Minor Earthquakes Liege steam hammers. pounding away. at massive pieces of white for metal, ned bot sivers being driven into ships hulls, " thousand fud one ear-splitting noises and ames containing many. more col-Sure, than contained in a rainbow. This was the scene which confronted the writer as he entered the Kiang-hen Dock and Engineering Works
Whangpoo sbout six miles from Rented on the west Dank of the Settlement. Six. keels "had been flown and hundreds of men were Swnich in due course will be fashion-ged in. adding to, structures
tal into ocean going vessels. A scene St the greatest activity here. was {powerful crane hauling a ladle of molten metal, a hile tater to. poured into moulds: the resulting Tnass forming itself into the base Of a marine engine. At the water sla, men clinging to the mast fan American gunboat engaged tracting a Tadlo. aerial Inauguration of Dock About sixty years azo, when' Shanghai was a small port, the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works was inaugurated for the purpose of repairing vessels of the Chinese Navy, and some twer years later when Shanghai began to develop into a great shipping: contre and the increasing tonnage shipping demanded additional ies for docking, the Ministry of Navy of the Chinese Government decided to operate the Kiangnan Dock as a government-controlled commercial enterprise. The docks, shipbuilding berths and shops cover 260 mow oF 43 acres of land. About one-half of the extensive waterfront-age is used for wharves where vessels undergoing repairs are Derthed and the remainder is used for entrances to two modern dry docks and for shipbuilding berths. Buoys in the harbour abreast of the dock property afford moorings for five Inrge vessels at one time for the purpose of either discharging cargo or undergoing repairs. The two dry docks are of the following Aimensions>—No. 1. Length on. breadth 62 £t,, depth No, 2. Length on Dlocks, 502 foet, breadth, O1 ft depth on sill, 23 ft, Both these dry. docks have modern equipment such as sheer logs of 7 tons eapacity, floating sheer legs of 40 tons capacity, pneumatic tools, tug boats, lighters," pile drivers, diving sear and the hundred and one things necessary for dealing with ship-Duilding and ship repairs.
The Plant The machine shop adjacent to the dry docks is equipped with modern. machinery and adjoining is the pat tern shop and moulding shop in connection with a foundry which has five cupolas of eight tons capacity each and also an electric steel furnace of 1) tons capacity. 'A blacksmith shop equipped with steam hammers which relentlessly [pound away at masses of metal Which require powerful cranes to guide them into place, boiler shop, carpenter shop, pipe and ship-fitters shops, electrical shop, paint shop, a department where kerosene and Diesel engines are built and repaired, a large galvanizing plant,' the only plant of its kind in the Orient, these all make up a shipbuilding plant which has built ships of nearly 15,000 tons displacement.
Over 600 vessels of various types have been built by the Kiangnan Works including four steamers for the United States Government of 14,150 tons"displacement each, which' are the largest vessels ever built in China or Hongkong. These four vessels are now in successful opera-_ tion between ports of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The entire!
essels including the large main triple expansion engines were mainufactured at the dock plant. The dock has alt designed and_built over G0 steamers for the Upper Yangtze trade, the first being the; An Lan which' went into service in 1917. The last and largest vessel; built for the Ichang-Chungking service is the I. C.-S. Kiawo the fastest vessel navigating the Upper Yang-
At the present time the Dock ix constructing six gunboats for the US. Navy for use in the Yangtze patrol. These vessels are built entirely of galvanized steel and the amount appropriated by the United States Congress for same is U.S..84,200,000. This is the secon time' that the U.S, Government has selected the Dock to do important work. The other case being when the United States Shipping Board, requiring ships for emergency use during the Great War, had about $39,000,000 in value of caro steamers built by the Dock.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.