EDUCATION IN NAVAL ARCHITECTURE.
On the Course of Study in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, by Mr W. H. White: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xviii., 1877.
On the Royal Naval College and the Mercantile Marine, by Mr Wm. John: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xix., 1878.
On Local Education in Naval Architecture, by Mr William Denny: Trans. Inst. N.A., vol. xxii., 1881.
CHAPTER V.
PROGRESS IN METHODS OF SHIPYARD WORK.
Since the early days of iron shipbuilding, when hand labour entered largely into almost all the operations of the shipyard, the field of its application has been gradually narrowed by the employment of machinery. The past few years have been uncommonly fruitful of changes in this direction, and many things point to the likelihood of manual work being still more largely superseded by machine power in the immediate future. Such changes, however, have not, as might be assumed, had any very sensible effect in diminishing the number of operatives generally employed. The influence has rather been absorbed in the greatly increased rate of production, and the elaboration and enhanced refinement of detail demanded by the much more exacting standard of modern times. The need for skilled handicraftsmen may not now be so general, but the skill which is still indispensable is of a higher character, and has called into existence several almost entirely new classes of shipyard operatives.
The extended employment of machinery has given impetus to, and received impetus from, the system of “piece-work” now so much in vogue in shipyards. In several of the operations, such as riveting and smithing, the nature of the work peculiarly lends itself to the system, and piece-work has consequently been in force, as regards these operations, for many years. In several other departments, however, such as plate and bar fitting, joinery, and carpentry, piece-work is only contemporaneous with and largely the consequence of improved modern machinery. Reference to “piece-work” here is not made with the intention of discussing its effects on the labour question—concerned as this is with such large issues—but simply of showing what effect the system has had on the character of shipyard workmanship. It was a favourite argument some years ago, when piece-work was being rapidly extended, that the system was bad because it would lead to and foster scamp-work and bad workmanship. The results of the past dozen years’ experience disprove this completely, and for reasons which, as early as 1877, were pointed out by Mr William Denny—to whose spirited advocacy and adoption of the system its present degree of acceptance with workmen is in no small measure owing. In his admirably written pamphlet on “The Worth of Wages,” published in the year named, Mr Denny says:—
“As to piece-work leading to bad workmanship, this would certainly be the result were no special arrangements made to prevent it. These special arrangements include a rigid system of inspecting the work, and the rejection, at the workman’s cost, of all bad and inferior work. There is no difficulty in carrying out such a system, for foremen, freed from the necessity of watching the quantity of the work—which is looked after by a special clerk—and of checking the laziness of their men, can give their whole attention to the matter of quality. In fact, piece-work compels so thorough an inspection, that we find the work done under it in our iron department much superior to what used to be done some years ago on time. It is very curious that trades’ unionists never have been very anxious as to the quality of their work till they had piece-work to contend with, and I have never known workmen produce such good work, as after a few experiences of having their workmanship condemned for its bad quality, and the cost taken out of their pockets. Under the old time wages no such effective stimulus urged a man on to make his piece of work up to a proper standard.”
What was true of the system as exemplified in Messrs Denny’s experience previous to 1877, holds equally good for all the yards in which piece-work is now the rule. Under it work is done quicker and better than by the old system, and so popular is it amongst workmen that a deep-rooted dislike for “time-work” prevails where piece-work has once been instituted and efficiently managed.