A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921.
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ORDER XV.—WORKERS IN WOOD AND FURNITURE

Sub-order 1.—Workers in Wood

482.—Shipwrights and Boat and Barge Builders (Wood)



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barge builder
(i) general term for any man engaged in constructing wooden barges, e.g. making framework, riveting on sides, caulking;
(ii) a man capable of building barge throughout, with assistance of unskilled labour.
boat builder, boatwright
a shipwright q.v. who builds a boat throughout, i.e. cuts, shapes and bends, in steam press or with clamps, keel and main timbers of boat; constructs framework of boat and rivets to it with metal rivets, thin overlapping strips of wood; constructs rudder, makes and fixes seats, stretchers, etc.; works entirely by hand, using hand tools.
carpenter
term is used in Scotland, in sense of shipwright q.v.; cf. ship joiner (474).
caulker, wood caulker
a shipwright (carpenter in Scotland ) q.v. who opens seams between planks or timbers with a hammer and chisel, and fills them with oakum, which he drives in with a hammer and chisel; pours marine glue into seams, after caulking, to make them watertight; in caulking boat seams, fills with cotton instead of oakum, and fills in with putty, instead of marine glue, the whole being then painted over.
ship carpenter (North of England)
see shipwright.
shipwright (wood) ; ship carpenter (North of England)
fits together prepared pieces of timber, according to drawings or plans provided, to form framework, or structural part of ships and boats, by hand, with hand tools; puts side planks and deck timbers on framework, and secures them by hammering in copper rivets, with bolts and treenails, i.e. wooden nails, with a hand hammer, having first bored holes, if necessary, to receive rivets, bolts or treenails with an auger; caulks seams in sides and in deck; shores up ship in dry dock or on slipway (or superintends its shoring up by labourers); superintends hauling of ship on to slipway.

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From: A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921,
Ministry of Labour, 1927. Digitised by Peter Christian, August, 2016.   This text is in the Public Domain.