Modern Shipfitter's Handbook
New York: Cornell Maritime Press, 1940.
SHIPBUILDING FROM THE SHOP FLOOR.
A practical prewar handbook of steel ship construction written by a working master shipfitter. Swanson explains the shipfitter's trade through photographs, working diagrams, technical drawings, and large folding plates, moving from the basic structure of a vessel through fabrication, assembly, erection, welding, and related shipyard practice.
INSIDE THE AMERICAN SHIPYARD.
Published in 1940, the book is particularly evocative of the American shipbuilding industry immediately before the enormous expansion of wartime production. Among its illustrations is the newly constructed S.S. America, then the flagship of United States Lines.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: A WORKING TECHNICAL HANDBOOK.
Flexible maroon cloth-covered boards with gilt title to front. Small octavo, approximately 5 by 7.5 inches. 269 pages, followed by 8 pages provided for notes and sketches. Extensively illustrated in black and white with photographs, technical drawings, diagrams, and numerous folding plates. The fold-outs include detailed sectional views of hull framing, decks, bulkheads, floors, and structural members. Photographic material includes shipyard construction and the S.S. America. All folding illustrations are present.
CONDITION: COMPLETE AND SOUND. Very Good. Bindings tight and square. Text clean with light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf handling wear to the flexible covers, with rubbing at edges and spine extremities and some fading and rubbing to the gilt lettering. Folding plates complete and well preserved, showing the expected folds from storage within the volume. The 8 pages designated for notes and sketches remain clean and unused.
INDUSTRIAL AND MARITIME SIGNIFICANCE: ON THE EVE OF WARTIME SHIPBUILDING.
The timing of the first edition gives the handbook particular historical interest. Published in 1940, it records American steel-ship construction methods just before the United States entered World War II and shipyards shifted toward unprecedented levels of standardized merchant and naval construction.
Swanson wrote from the perspective of the skilled tradesman rather than the naval architect. His acknowledgments specifically credit shipfitters and welders as well as companies including Ingalls Shipbuilding, Bethlehem Steel, Dravo, Lincoln Electric, and United States Lines for supplying practical assistance, photographs, and technical material.
THE S.S. AMERICA UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
The use of the S.S. America as a photographic example places contemporary American shipbuilding directly within the handbook. Launched in 1939 and entering service in 1940, the liner appears here not simply as a finished passenger ship but as an example of modern steel construction.
SUBJECTS: Shipbuilding, Shipfitters, Naval Architecture, Steel Ship Construction, Shipyards, Welding, Maritime Engineering, S.S. America, United States Lines, Industrial Trades, Prewar American Industry, Maritime History, Shipbuilding, Technical Manuals, Industrial History, Engineering, Vocational Manuals.
Item #22433
Price: $45.00
Other books you may like
