for which their foundry was very efficient. addition built lighters of all kinds.
The yard in
3.Wooden motor landing craft are fitted out at small yards in
Ngauchiwan, Hongkong. The hulls and 115 h.p. engines are built by the Kin Sun Dock and the propeller shafts are ground at the Kowloon Dock which had supplied 100 by last September.
4.The construction if diesel-engines in Java for standard-type
vessels is showing an increase, and already many have been delivered to the shipyards for installing in ships. It is planned to extend the facilities of the factory and to build a shipyard to increase the production of diesel-engined ships. (Broadcasts).
5.In an article written by a Japanese in March 1943, mass production of wooden vessels is discussed. It states that this can only be successful if without interfering with the present main shipbuilding programmme there can be assembled the requisite timber, machines and workers. The first essential of mass production is complete standardisation of types, and the writer advocates that one type only should be selected which will not interfere with the present shipbuilding plans. Parts should be limited to 1/2,000 standard firms so that less skilled labour can be trained to produce them in a shorter time.
The question of substitutes for shipbuilding material is touched on. Plastics and synthetic resine, as used in motor car bodies etc., would not encroach on the shipbuilding programme, but to purchase sufficient quantities would interfere with other industries.
The use of a synthetic resin binder for glueing together short pieces of timber or narrow boards, not normally suitable for shipbuilding, is suggested, but this substance, although it can be waterproofed, after long immersion in water loses strength. This can be overcome by suitable paints. The glued ship's material can be made with a comparatively simple hydraulic pressure apparatus, and is said to be resistant to shipworms. The possibility of coating the ships' bottoms with rubber to prevent leakage and to delay rotting is also mentioned. Parts should be produced by division of labour among specially trained workmen.
The manufacture of the main engines, propeller shafts, propellers and auxiliary machinery for a mass building programme involves mobilisation of industry on quite a large scale. For wooden ships a system of manufacture which will not impede this mobilisation must be devised. Special machines should be built to produce simple parts. Examples given are:-
(1) To produce a main engine having three cylinders,
a special machine to bore these cylinders to a standard type could be built, but this machine would be able to produce nothing else.
(ii)
The problem of overcoming a bottleneck in production of crankshafts could be overcome
by making the crankshaft on a piece system and then joining the pieces. Some fine cutting work would be involved, but could be done
without large sized lathes which are in short supply. (iii) Large size propeller shafts could be built up
like masts although they are not necessary for wooden ships. In shaping a large propeller shaft an especially long lathe is required, and there is a bottleneck, in the forging of blanks for these shafts. (Press).
/6.