Battleship USS Washington BB56 Index 3 www.usswashington.com

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While here a drill team drills holes in armor plate for riveting and weld construction.

In the Forge Shop huge pieces of hard steel alloy are heated in a giant furnace.

And pounded into shape by a mighty forge hammer. This piece will be part of a catapult for dispatching airplanes.

In the Woodworking Shop a model of a giant propeller for a battleship is made, exact to the tinist fraction of an inch. It is planed, sand-papered, checked and re-checked. From here it is taken. . . .

To the Foundry Shop, where the model is used to construct a mold in a pit. This mold, of brick construction, must also have the finest accuracy so that a minimum of propeller surface will be machined.

In the Foundry Shop puddlers heat and skim the bronze which will go into the propeller.

And the molten bronze is poured into the giant mold. The propeller cools, after which . . .

It is taken to the Inside Machine Shop where it is bored and machined.

Meanwhile, on the Sideways a heater heats rivets . . .

And a riveter rivets two sections of bulkheard together upon the ship.

While this work was progressing, the Supply Department has purchased and stored a number of high-pressure turbines . . . .

And other parts which are transported to the ship for installation.

A crew from the Pipe Shop cuts, buffs and planes a section of pipe to be used for drainage, water circulation, or a dozen other purposes aboard. . . .

While nearby a piece of deck plating is cut with a special acetylene torch and made ready to be fitted into the general pattern of production.

Transportation facilities play a vital part in the Yard efficiency. Here a railroad crew, trained to be on time so that the work will keep progressing, brings the main drive shaft of the mighty battleship into the yard. . . .