_From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._] With these different types before us, we may now go on with our main subject. Having settled the question as to the type and character of the steamship to be built, the next thing is to design the midship section, which shows the general structural arrangements and scantlings of the various parts. In the drawing-office the plans are prepared, and the various sections of the ship worked out by expert draughtsmen attached to the shipbuilding yard. This necessitates the very greatest accuracy, and the building is usually specially guarded against those who might like to have an opportunity of obtaining valuable secrets. The plans having been worked out on paper, there follows the “laying off” on the floor of an immense loft, called the “mould floor,” where the plans are transferred according to the exact dimensions that are to be embodied in the ship. In many cases the future owner insists on a wooden model being submitted in the first instance, by the builder, so that a fair idea may be obtained of the hull of the proposed ship. Each vessel is known at the shipbuilder’s by a number and not by her name. The keel is the first part of her to be laid, which consists of heavy bars of iron laid on to blocks of wood called “stocks,” and the line of these slants gently down to the water’s edge, so that when, after many months, the time arrives for the launching of the great ship, she may slide down easily into the sea that is, for the future, to be her support. After these bars have been fastened together, then the frames or ribs are erected, the ship being built with her stern nearest to the water, and her bow inland, except in the few cases (as, for example, that of the _Great Eastern_), where a vessel, owing to her length in proportion to the width of the water-space available, has to be launched sideways. These ribs are bent pieces of steel, which have been specially curved according to the pattern already worked out. Let us now turn to the accompanying illustrations which show the steamship in course of construction. These have been specially selected in order that the reader might be able to have before him only those which are of recent date, and show ships whose names, at least, are familiar to him. [Illustration: THE “GEORGE WASHINGTON” IN COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION. Showing Framing from the Stern. _From a Photograph. By permission of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Co._]