Starship Construction Techniques In The Honorverse ...

SWM wrote:
I suppose there might be cranes and such in a yard slip. But I think small construction flitters probably take the place of cranes in a lot of cases--maybe small 3 or 4 man short-haul ships with massive manipulating arms. They would be used to maneuver the larger objects into and around the partially-constructed ship.

I imagine most of the larger equipment is normally put in place before the hull itself is finished.

Actually, this is the main difference between Manty (Hard yard) and Grayson (soft yard) building practice. The traditional Manty practice would have the fixed framework with the cranes and arms - all the tools needed for the assembly would be part of the dock. In Grayson practice, the needed tools would move from jobsite to jobsite as needed - if a Crane was needed (Tractor/Pressor device), a appropriately sized construction cutter with the device would be called over to assist in that phase of the construction..

Vince wrote:

Annachie wrote:With regard to the Dorado, I'd take the story with a large grain of salt.

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Not too large a grain. The story was written by Timothy Zahn, who in addition to writing the two 'Charles' short stories (of which With One Stone is the second), has co-written two of the Travis Long books (other co-authors Tom Pope and David Weber) and is currently working on a third.

That's why I mentioned the salt

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SWM wrote:I imagine most of the larger equipment is normally put in place before the hull itself is finished.

And certainly before the armor is installed / grown.

I do wonder if they use any of the modular construction that the USN now uses for many of it ships; where an entire section, potentially including hull plating, all interior bulkheads, most of the equipment, the piping and eletrical runs, etc, etc is completed and listed as a unit into an in-progress ship build.

Jonathan_S wrote:

SWM wrote:I imagine most of the larger equipment is normally put in place before the hull itself is finished.

And certainly before the armor is installed / grown.

I do wonder if they use any of the modular construction that the USN now uses for many of it ships; where an entire section, potentially including hull plating, all interior bulkheads, most of the equipment, the piping and eletrical runs, etc, etc is completed and listed as a unit into an in-progress ship build.

It was mentioned that the modular method was the traditional Havenite practice, pre-bolthole, whereas Bolthole uses the traditional Manty method.

Jonathan_S wrote:

SWM wrote:I imagine most of the larger equipment is normally put in place before the hull itself is finished.

And certainly before the armor is installed / grown.

I do wonder if they use any of the modular construction that the USN now uses for many of it ships; where an entire section, potentially including hull plating, all interior bulkheads, most of the equipment, the piping and eletrical runs, etc, etc is completed and listed as a unit into an in-progress ship build.

Theemile wrote:It was mentioned that the modular method was the traditional Havenite practice, pre-bolthole, whereas Bolthole uses the traditional Manty method.

That makes sense SWM. I don't know why I didn't consider that. Sort of analogous to the ship in a bottle puzzle. Thanks for clearing my vision of the entire ordeal. My main disconnect stemmed from not knowing that hulls and ships are one and the same.

Theemile, the modular method clears up another unclear area of shipbuilding. IIRC, storyline implies that "laying down hulls" is the time consuming area of ship construction. That everything else proceeds fairly quickly afterwards, in comparison. I always thought it should be the other way around in Honorverse shipbuilding. I envision huge mechanical arms fitting and welding by computer control. Which should make the entire process so much faster compared to today's standards. Virtually reversing the bottleneck.

But alas, I am in error. And construction times mirror my industry -- building and construction. Regarding bridges, buildings, etc. once the foundation/footings are laid (out of the ground - construction jargon) everything else is smooth sailing.) Relatively.

Many years ago I used to be a telephone tech. For us it was always the wiring that was the time sink. But then we couldn't use too many premade wiring harnesses. Too much variability in what was actually installed and layouts and crap.
Even with the, well lets call them an exchange in a box, it was still the wiring. But then it was the wires to the houses that really took the time.
I remember once spending a week double jumpering some 2000 lines into new equipment.

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