BUILDING SHIPS

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 994.

BUILDING SHIPS

UNIT I

Прочтите текст и ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. Where are ships designed and where are they built?

2. What society are the final plans approved by?

3. At what stage is the newly-built ship and her equipment tested?

TEXT

The building of a ship follows a well-ordered sequence of events¹. After the vessel has been ordered, the plans are completed in the drawing office. Next, the final plans must be approved by a classification society. While the ship is being built, constant checks are made to make sure she is being built to the standards of the so­ciety. Classification will show that the ship is seaworthy and able to carry the cargo she has been designed to carry².

Nowadays a shipyard is organized so that each stage in the buil­ding of a ship is done in a continuous chain of shops³. Each shop is linked by conveyor rollers and moving cranes on rails. First of all, steel plates and bars are taken from the stockyard to the preparation shop. Here they are cleaned by grit blasting. Then, they are coated with a primer paint to prevent corrosion. Later, they are cut and shaped automatically by machines. Cutting is done by gas torches and shaping by giant presses. After that, the pieces are wel­ded together in prefabrication sheds to form sections. Welding is now used instead of riveting for joining pieces of metal together, because riveting increases the weight of the ship without increasing the strength. The prefabricated sections are then transferred to the building berth. Eventually, they are lifted into position by giant cranes.

When a ship is ready, she is launched. Some ships are built on a slipway and slide into the water. Others are built in a dry dock.

Notes:

¹ to follow a well-ordered sequence of events — (зд.) проводить строительство судна, строительные операции в строго определенной последова­тельности.

² to be designed to carry cargo — предназначаться для перевозки груза.

³ continuous chain of shops — мастерские/цеха, связанные между собой последовательными операциями.

The dock is then flooded with water and the ship is floated out. After being launched, she is towed to the fitting-out basin by tugs and completed.

A completed ship goes for sea trials before she is handed over to her new owners. During these the snip and her equipment are thoroughly tested.