When all is ready, but a short time before the hour appointed for the launch, a curious operation is performed. Between the main part of the cradle and the part which actually slides upon the ways wedges are inserted, hundreds of them, and they are all driven in simultaneously. Their purpose is to make the cradle slightly higher and so to lift the ship off the blocks upon which it was built. If they were driven in one at a time each would only dig its way into the timber and nothing else would happen, but being driven all together a most powerful lifting action is produced which actually raises the mighty ship. So hundreds of men stand, each with his hammer ready to strike a wedge, while the foreman stands by with a gong. At a stroke on the gong the hundreds of hammers strike as one, and so the ship is raised off the blocks, which can then be removed, to facilitate which they too are built of wedge-shaped pieces which can easily be knocked apart. The shores, too, have ceased to serve any useful purpose and can be taken away until at last all shores and all blocks are gone and the vessel rests upon the cradle only. Meanwhile tons of grease have been put on the ways, and the ship, urged by its own weight, is straining to get down the greasy slope into the element for which all along it has been intended. At this stage the only thing which restrains it is a kind of trigger arrangement on either side which locks the cradle in its place. In some yards elaborate mechanical catches controlled by electricity are used for this, but in many the old device of "dog shores" is still used. These are simply two stout wood props which fit between a projection on the ways and one on the cradle, there being one dog shore on either side. Just over each dog shore there hangs a weight. The person who performs the ceremony cuts the cord which holds the weights, the weights fall, the dog shores are knocked away, and the ship is free. Slowly at first, but gathering speed every moment, she moves majestically downwards into the water, being ultimately brought to rest by means of chains. Whether done by the simple dodge of cutting a cord or by the more refined method of pressing an electric push, the launching is generally preceded by the breaking of a bottle of wine against the bows and the pronouncement of the vessel's name. Once safely afloat, the vessel is towed away and berthed alongside a wharf whereon are cranes and other machines which lightly drop on board of her the massive turbines and boilers which in time will propel her, and the guns with which she will fight. All the multitudinous little finishing touches are here put into her until at last she sallies forth on her trial trips to show what she is capable of, after which follow trials of her guns, and then she takes her place in the fleet. Thus, briefly sketched, we see the history of the warship from her inception in the minds of her designers till she is ready to meet the foe. CHAPTER XVIII