review of the relevant classification rules was unable to help. The class rules and various old text
books that have been consulted are very clear on the shape of the rivets and on the treatment of the rivet holes for various plate thicknesses. However, the Medway Queen was not built to class and the 1915 guide to surveyors published by the then Department of Trade, under which she was built, is proving very difficult to trace. In view of this, it was decided to use a structural rivet to the appropriate British Standard, which is still manufactured and readily available, as seems to best fits the required criteria. Te next problem to be addressed is how
to drive the rivet. Hand-held rivet gun, a form of pneumatic hammer, to drive the rivets home are fine for small numbers of rivets and for getting into awkward corners, in the quantities needed for the Medway Queen hull they are potentially vulnerable to infringement of health and safety regulations covering both noise and vibration. Well known photographs of the building
of the Titanic and her sister ships reveal a number of rather large G-clamp like objects suspended from the Arrol Gantry or lying on the berth floor. Tese are hydraulic riveting tools and were used by shipyards to achieve the levels of productivity and consistency necessary to achieve the build schedules and profit margins they needed, by reducing the overall rework and wastage by virtue of their consistency in application of rivets. Tey could be quite readily manoeuvred once suspended, although may not have been able to reach all parts of the hull. In some cases therefore the hand-held gun was still used. Abels has built a modern version of this tool and is now experimenting with the pressures and the design of the tool head to ensure the
Original Medway Queen hull
structure with main deck removed (credit: Frazer Nash Consultancy Ltd).
Internal corrosion of machinery (credit: Frazer Nash Consultancy Ltd).
Ship & Boat International March/April 2009 41
Feature 6
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48