Caulking
Introduction
shipbuilding or ship construction refers to all activities aimed at manufacturing boats, from the smallest boats to large ships.
From a technical point of view, the manufacturing of a boat can be analyzed according to three sections:
Regarding the economy, shipbuilding can be studied as an industrial activity (with investments, jobs and profits) that affects many other sectors.
History
The first archaeological evidence of the use of boats dates back to 50,000 or 60,000 years ago in New Guinea.
In Ancient Egypt there is evidence that the techniques for joining flat wood to form a helmet were already known, assembling them with wooden dowels and pitch for caulking. The ships of the 25th Dynasty were 25 meters long and had a single mast.
The development of navigation in Greco-Roman times led to the construction of extensive triremes and quinqueremes.
In the Middle Ages, navigation suffered a setback that was not recovered until the century when new ships (Urca&action=edit&redlink=1 "Urca (ship) (not yet written)")) and the reactivation of maritime trade routes once again promoted sea travel.
At the time of the discoveries, these new models, created to sail the Baltic and the Mediterranean, were replaced by galleons and caravels, designed for ocean crossings, moving maritime activity and shipyards to the Atlantic coast (London).
The oldest boat-building techniques were probably of the type of hollowing out logs to form a canoe, or assembling logs, reeds, etc. to form rafts "Balsa (boat)") (such as Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-tiki "Kon-tiki (expedition)") or wooden or cane structures covered with animal skins.
The first technological leap was made when boats began to be built from wooden planks. There are two techniques: wood superimposed from the keel "Keel (nautical)"), without frames (in the style of the Viking longships) or wood joined and caulked on keel and frames. Caulking") consists of introducing tow&action=edit&redlink=1 "Tow (nautical) (not yet written)") and pitch between each two boards, so that water cannot enter through the gaps between two planks.
The first metal constructions did not begin until the century, during the industrial revolution the first artificial dry docks were created with bricks, while plastic materials and composites of fiberglass or carbon fiber") with epoxy resins began in the century.