McKay: The Practical Shipbuilder, 1839.

[p 63] When working a streak of the plank it is not necessary to put in any more spikes than are actually necessary to keep the streak in its place. There should be two treenails in each timber, and in every streak, except where they come narrow forward. If they are usually wide in the bottom, there should be six trunnels through the streak in each frame, and no allowance should be made for a spike. Half or more of all the trunnels should be driven through the ceiling and clamps, and wedged on the inside. The best trunnel is the eight square one, fitted with a drawing-knife or axe. In addition to this fastening, one or more butt-bolts are driven through the timber nearest the butt, and clinched on the inside. The butt-bolts in the hooden-ends should be composition and spike-pointed; and when the streaks are wide, there should be two in each plank. The breast-hooks may be fayed either before you plank the ship or after; but the better is to drive the largest portion of all the bolts through the knees and hooks before the vessel is planked, and the remainder afterward; for if you drive them all through the streak, it is more than sufficient to hold it to its place, and if the streak is narrow, it is all cut to pieces with auger holes. The knee-bolts, being iron, are more exposed to the wet, and they soon rot the streaks. Moreover, the iron rust is always running down the side of the ship, which materially injures her appearance. The fashion of plugging the bolts has been an improvement to the latter; but as the plug hole has to be one and a half or two inches in diameter, to receive the head of the bolt, it weakens the streak still more.

The best trunnel is the eight square one, fitted with a drawing-knife or axe.

Lauchlan McKay: The Practical Ship-Builder: Containing the Best Mechanical and Philosophical Principles for the Construction Different Classes of Vessels, and the Practical Adaption of their Several Parts, with Rules Carefully Detailed. Collins Keese & Co, New York, 1839. Oblong 4to, 17x20 cm, (2), 107, (4) pp, ill., 7 fold. plates.

Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius

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