STRING BBS

437

flange of the angle providing the means of getting a rivet connection
between the stringer plate and each reversed frame.

A Stringer Plate is fitted to the lower deck (Fig. 13), its chief purpose
being to further strengthen the connection between the beams and the
frames and to keep the beams square to the shell. Incidentally the
stringer plate forms a narrow side platform, to walk upon as a deck has
not been laid on the lower deck beams.

This, briefly, is a very general description of the framework in the
type of ship illustrated. The skeleton having been built up we can
easily imagine the skin or shell plating being put on, the sunk strakes
first and then the raised strakes. It will be observed that the "sheer"
strake, which is the strake at the upper or strength deck of this ship,
extends a little above the level of the beams. This is done in order
to get a watertight connection between the deck plating and the sheer
strake and to offer a landing for the bulwark plate. A continuous
stringer angle is riveted to the sheer strake and to the stringer plate;
the stringer plate is the strake of deck plating next to the ship's side
and it is invariably thicker than the other deck plates.

Fig. 18. — Weather Deck Stringer Plate.

When a wood deck is laid as shown in Figure 18, a "gutter** angle is
riveted to the deck plating to form a strong boundary for the planking,
and also to make a gutter, into which water drains from the deck
before it runs out through the scupper holes,
The strakes of shell plating are not all of the same thickness, the
sheer strake is the thickest, the bul wark strake the thinnest, and, curiously
enough, the thickest and thinnest are riveted together in our sailing'