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[ 69 ] incinnati’s waterfront was busy in late 1862. Joseph Brown and McCord & Junger had finished the wooden-hulled riverine ironclad Chillicothe in September, and were building the similar Tuscumbia and Indianola. As winter approached, both Greenwood and Swift were working hard to begin their monitors; their experiences illuminate the problems faced at one time or another by all of the monitor builders. Greenwood had rented John Litherbury’s boatyard as a construction site. It was little more than a lot with a few sheds, and Greenwood needed many things to build an iron ship that were not needed for wooden construction. Like the frames of wooden ships, the frames for iron vessels were laid out full sized in a “mold loft” (one of Litherbury’s sheds was such a mold loft). Many of a wooden ship’s structural members would be hewn from wood that already possessed the proper curves; others would need to be scarphed together and a few pieces would be steamed and bent. Iron frames, however, all had to be bent to shape. To do this, the shipbuilder needed a “bending floor” or “bending table.” Bending tables were large, heavy plates in which holes were arranged in a regular pattern. Metal blocks of appropriate curvature, called bending blocks, were secured to the table with pins inserted into the holes, and the heated iron beams or plates were forced into shape around them using sledgehammers or, occasionally, hydraulic rams.1 The bending process required a good deal of lead time. First, drawings had to be made for the bending blocks. Wooden patterns then had to be made from the drawings and iron castings made from the patterns. Only then could the iron frame be properly bent. After bending, it had to be punched or drilled for rivets before being erected. Nathaniel Thom’s diary notes that Greenwood was preparing bending tables in mid October; Swift probably did so at about the same time.2 MobilizationontheOhioRiver C H A P T E R 4 C The shipyard itself also needed preparation. The first requirement was a shiphouse, a large shed that more or less protected the ship and the workmen from inclement weather. Litherbury’s shipyard included a small shiphouse, but it was not large enough to hold a monitor, and Greenwood had to build a new one. At their site, Swift and Niles had only a lot; they had to build two shiphouses, one for each monitor. The shipbuilders also needed to grade and level the areas in their yards where their ships would be built and begin to make the blocks upon which the keels would be laid down. Once the general plan of the ships was received , the keel blocks could be finished and set in place.3 Besides specialized tools, each shipbuilder needed general-purpose tools to build the ships’ machinery. The Swift/Niles consortium, with access to Niles Works’ shops, had plenty of machines such as shapers, planers, mills, and lathes. Greenwood found he needed more generalpurpose tools, and his superintendent, Thom, had to arrange in December 1862 to rent a large planer, boring mill, and engine lathe. He got the use of the tools, a blacksmith’s fire, and two pattern benches for $12 per day.4 Organizing a network of subcontractors and suppliers was a key element in the shipbuilders’ preparations. (In overly simple terms, suppliers provide material or equipment, such as a pump, to the shipbuilder, while subcontractors provide the labor to perform a task.)5 Among Philadelphia shipbuilders, a single wooden steamship usually involved twenty to thirty subcontractors.6 In this area, the western firms had to start practically from scratch. Few subcontracting relationships are evident in the construction of the western harbor and river monitors, although Greenwood had more than Swift. Swift & Co. and Niles Works accepted the contracts for the Catawba and Oneota as partners rather than as contractor and subcontractor ; although Swift appears to have dominated, it is difficult to determine from surviving documentation exactly what percentage each firm contributed , and contemporary correspondence refers as frequently to Niles Works as to Swift. Swift’s bookkeeper, Edward A. Jenks, later stated flatly, “There were no sub-contractors on those two boats [the Catawba and Oneota].”7 In Greenwood’s case, the machine shop was part of his own firm; while he rented John Litherbury’s shipyard, Litherbury’s involvement with the Tippecanoe’s construction was vanishingly small.8 70 • Civil War Ironclads [3.131.110.169] Project...

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