a diversion - concrete ship patent drawings.

I thought members might enjoy these relatively early and very beautiful, detailed patent drawings, filed by Frederick Jordan, for construction of substantial ships in concrete, which I came across through the work of my friend Chris Marsden. Chris has researched tirelessly the early development of concrete in the second half of the C19th, especially 'Concrete Cottages'.

Frederick Jordan was a colourful figure. His early life was in Britain, working on the construction of concrete cottages, and filing patents for this developing method, usually based on preceding patents. He then spent some time in South Africa before moving to Vancover, where he worked as a draughtsman for a sewerage company, and then got involved in gold. Subsequently he moved to Cement city, WA (latterly 'Concrete') presumably attracted by the industry (and the name!) where he started to get into trouble. He was charged with attempted murder after shooting someone over a land dispute. There was at least one bankrupcy, and he eventually moved to Spokane. His wife divorced him after some 40 odd years of marriage, due to his drunkeness, but he survived into his 80s.

Here's the patent: Frederick G Jordan concrete ship construction patent

edited to clarify a little.

 

Beautiful drawings!
It all does look very complicated, with a lot of fiddly steelwork involved.
But this was long before welding evolved, and it must have appeared to be a viable alternative to riveting steel plates.