/24-7PressRelease/ - KINGSTON, WA, May 31, 2007 - First published in 1918, the course was conceived by Van Gaasbeek at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in response to the desperate need for new ships on the eve of the United States' entry into World War I. Van Gaasbeek developed the program "to assist the great army of house carpenters and other woodworkers in transferring from their usual occupations to the wooden boat and ship building industries." He saw the book "as a response to the demand caused by shortage of skilled labor in these industries."
The book charts a course of basic rules and techniques that apply to both boat and ship building "for whatever the size or type of the vessel, the general principles of construction remain very much the same in all cases."
The opening chapters explain the initial operations required for vessel construction, large and small, "as they were performed on the job and explaining them in a way that the average mechanic can understand." Chapters V through VIII show typical ship construction and give a reader "an idea of the methods of handling and fastening heavy timbers." The author finishes up with a chapter on basic tools and a glossary of terms specific to wooden ship building.
This new edition includes all of Van Gaasbeek's original photographs, drawings and tables, including the offset tables for building "The Standard American Wooden Steamship," a wooden cargo vessel which Van Gaasbeek helped develop through the Emergency Fleet Corporation which was built for war-time use by the United States Shipping Board whose photographs of the process are used extensively in the book.
The new paperback edition will be available online in June 2007 from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other online sellers, or by special order through local booksellers.
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