This was an exceptionally strong form of construction, very rigid and thoroughly watertight, and used timber of smaller scantlings than the traditional method. The frames were smaller and more widely spaced, and the space between the frames was sometimes filled with an additional la yer of planks running vertically, making four skins in all ; and a very difficult job to repair (22) .
Samuel White of Cowes specialized in this construction for small vessels, as well as for one or two tea clippers, and it had also been used successfully in America on river boats. Usually with this system, for efficient caulking of the garboard to the keel rabbet, two or three strakes from the garboard outwards were normal full-thickness longitudinal planks. The outermost of these strakes was arranged with a rebate which overlapped the ends of the diagonal planks and thus kept them secure against springing out. Similarly the upper ends of the diagonals were secured under a full-thickness longitudinal strake below the sheer strake.

  The Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert II was built in this fashion in 1855. In a few instances the treble thickness of plank did meet the keel with three separate rabbets. Had it not been for the increasingly advantageous use of ironwork in the hull this diagonal system would probably have superseded the traditional wooden hull.

Many of the shipyards devoted to wooden construction lay in remote areas where the majority of the townspeople were employed in the yard and took a great pride in their inherited skills. There was a minimum of shipyard equipment in the way of machinery. Sawing oflogs was done by hand with pit saws; blacksmiths or brass finishers were the only metalworking men in the yard; and along steam chest was the only aid for shaping planks. When one of these yards closed down, there was little left after awhile to indicate that there had ever been an establishment capable of building these complicated structures, apart from maybe a small brick-built general office and some wooden shacks. There were no overhead travelling cranes or steam engines to move material about in those days. Sternframes, plating, etc. for iron ships were swung into place by rough tree trunks lashed together into a tripod and equipped with hand-working tackles, a system used well into the 20th century in many yards. Material was moved by hand bogies which were sometimes on rails. A large ma sting crane or derrick, possibly with a steam winch, would be in the area for general use if the yard did not have one of its own.

  With educational facilities no more than a local schoolroom, which, however, taught well the basic three Rs, there was little opportunity for the working man to learn anything beyond his inherited trade. In consequence, although the introduction of iron shipbuilding had been effected quite early in the 19th century, and its merits had become fairly obvious, many shipyards could not undertake to make iron hulls because of the lack of experience of the workers, who were also naturally reluctant to give up their trade of wooden shipwrighting.