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Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 6., chapter 2 (search)
when the tallow on the ways was in danger of being melted under a meridian sun. The ships were usually built by contract, but the builders often made sub-contracts with individuals or clubs to do certain parts of the work, and those subcon-tractors, by very earnest work and sometimes even prolonging the customary ten-hour day, usually made their jobs very profitable. To construct the patterns for the ribs in the ship's frame required much skill, and, at the time of which we write, Elisha Stetson and James Ford had the monopoly of making them. Ships, especially the larger ones, were usually launched when the moon was new or full, and consequently near the noon or midnight hour, as the tide was then the highest. To make the launching easy they were built on an inclined plane. In their construction the first act was to lay the keel, a very large, well-smoothed hard wood timber (rock maple being the favorite) extending from stem to stern. It was supported by blocks placed a fe