What do you understand by a shipyard? What are the step by step process on how to build a shipyard? If this are questions that you have no answers to, luckily for you, you have gotten to the right destination.
Shipyards are the primary shipbuilding facilities for naval and commercial vessels. According to Wikipedia, Shipyard (also called a dockyard) is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships.
The terms are routinely used interchangeably, in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles.
Shipyards are often considered as classic coastal industrial sites that provide jobs in an otherwise economically depressed region. There are many different types of shipyards and each have their own specialized maritime industry.
This article will discuss all you need to know about how to build a shipyard. It will also provide instructions on how to create a buildable shipyard. The first part of the article will give further explanation on the required materials, while the second part of the blog post will go into specifics on each item and method for constructing them.
What Is A Shipyard?
The world’s earliest known dockyards were built in the Harappan port city of Lothal circa 2400 BC in Gujarat, India. Lothal’s dockyards connected to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert was a part of the Arabian Sea.
The name of the ancient Greek city of Naupactus means “shipyard” (combination of the Greek words ναύς naus ship, boat and πήγνυμι pêgnumi, pegnymi builder, fixer). Naupactus’ reputation in this field extends to the time of legend, where it is depicted as the place where the Heraclidae built a fleet to invade the Peloponnesus.
Ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, in the Venice Arsenal, Venice, Italy. The Arsenal apparently mass-produced nearly one ship every day using pre-manufactured parts, and assembly lines and, at its height, employed 16,000 people.
In modern times, a shipyard is a large facility where ships are repaired and built. Such a facility includes docks (usually dry docks), slipways, cranes, and other infrastructure.
An important part of a shipyard is the “drydock”, where ships are overhauled. A drydock is actually a basin where the hulls of watercrafts can be repaired and rebuilt as necessary. A dry dock refers to an enclosure designed to be flooded to allow a load to be floated in above the surface line without damaging the vessel underneath.
The loading dock, often called the “garage” or “slip”, is connected to the drydock by a set of inclined ways, often with a hoist so that heavy items can be lifted into or out of the hold.
Shipyards are constructed adjacent to or on rivers and other navigable waterways. Often they are built near an industry zone which provides an anchor customer base. The combination of ships and industry gives shipyards economies of scale and unique flexibility on the timing of production.
Shipyards can be categorized by where they are located. If they are near a populated or industrial area, it is called a “coastal shipyard”. If they are located inland, it is called a “river shipyard”.
Which one of these you have depends on what type of work is done in that shipyard. In some countries there may be government regulations about which type of shipyard you can use to build certain types of ships.
Shipyards and naval ports are also major sources for ship-related architecture. Shipyards often have related industries that serve to support the shipyard’s development. For example, oil refineries are common in coastal areas as the need for large fuel capacities and slow speeds necessitate general ship maintenance.
Furthermore, naval architecture or naval engineering is the science of designing boats and ships under an engineering system, which include structural integrity and stability, propulsion, maneuverability and utility.
Heading towards the net topic which is how to build a shipyard, let’s take a look at some of the materials needed to build a shipyard.
The Materials Needed To Build A Shipyard
There are two types of material when it comes to building your shipyard. The first type is permanent materials, which are more durable than their temporary counterparts. The second type has to do with modularity of the construction material itself. These materials are similar in that they both have their own sets of requirements for use.
The following list is a guideline for the materials asked for in this tutorial. Not every material listed here is necessary to build a shipyard, but it is highly recommended that you have all the items listed.
- large cranes(such as a parts crane or shipyard crane), 1 small crane(such as a pierside crane), and 2 harbor cranes are needed. The cranes are placed all around the shipyard and are used for loading items on to ships, offloading items from ships and also picking up blocks from inventory to be used during construction.
- Concrete blocks are needed in your shipyard. This can be obtained from the concrete 2-6 block chest, which is placed near the concrete foundations of your dock. Alternatively, you can use a large block of cement to make your own concrete block building blocks, and then simply add them to your shipyard.
- A set of mason’s tools and some quick-lime are also required for this. Use about 1/4 of each for every two blocks needed for construction (so if you want to build 4×2 bricks, you will use 4 stacks of 6 in total). Mix the quick-lime with water, and then dump it on the assembled wall.
- You need plenty of iron to build your shipyard. The easiest way to acquire so much iron is to use the player economy system, as it is extremely easy for players to get tons of iron ingots.
If you prefer more creative methods, you can try mining some iron ore and smelting it in a furnace (make sure you have a lot of coal) or trade items with other players that can make this process much faster than mining and smelting yourself.
- A solid supply of wood is needed to build the shipyard. Make sure you have your infinite trees off, otherwise the shipyard will eat up all of your wood very quickly. You should have at least 20-50 stacks depending on how large you want your shipyard to be.
The materials listed above will allow you to build your shipyards, but that’s not all you need. You must have enough resources to have your pioneers, engineers and architects work for a considerable amount of time.
Moving on, let’s discuss on the step by step processes on how to build a shipyard.
Step By Step Process Of How To Build A Shipyard
- A large piece of flat land. The size of the area depends on how large you want your shipyard to be, but the length should be at least one continuous section(For example, 1932×132). Note that if you use different sized sections of land, they will not connect together properly and will be obvious when you view it from above or far away.
If the land is cluttered with trees or rocks, cut them down so that there are no tall objects in your desired shipyard area. After you have cleared the land, put down the Concrete Foundations (only use one per block) and place an I-beam on top. Then you can start building your shipyard on top of that foundation.
- The next thing you need to do is supply power. Remember that your shipyard requires a lot of power, so be sure to have a large supply of fuel generators or other recharging devices. Place the power poles around the whole shipyard and link them with the power cables.
- You now need to supply your pioneers, engineers and architects with a source of water. Build 32×32 flat blocks(or any size depending on how big you want your shipyard to be) with water taps on each side, one water tap for every two blocks. Your pioneers, engineers and architects can now sustain themselves off of this water supply.
- Start building your dock! A few key points to note are that you need to start building a pier, and then build the blocks around the outside of your dock. Since you have already supplied power, engineers and architects can now work on this dock’s construction.
Note that even if you have limited resources, they can still work on your dock’s construction. Be sure to keep an eye on their progress so that you know when it is done.
- If possible, start building your shipyard crane. To prevent your pioneers from drowning, raise the land around where your crane will be built so that it is high enough off of the water to allow the pioneers to work without needing a ladder. Build up a few supports onto the ground first and then place the crane there. Your pioneers can now continue building on top of your shipyard crane.
- Make sure you have a stockpile nearby so that you can grab resources easily from it at any time! You can use this stockpile to store all of the items needed for construction such as Quicklime and cement, iron ingots etc.
- You can start to build the blocks for your shipyard now. Build them so that they fit together, and make sure that a single continuous link of blocks is built. The idea is to build the block foundations first, and then place I-beams on top of those foundations.
- The last thing you need to do is supply enough materials for your architects and engineers to work on constructing the inside of the shipyard (For example, putting in tables and seats).
Conclusion
After being built, you can strategically place your shipyard cranes and harbor cranes in key locations so that it will take less effort to move materials around. Remember to use your shipyard as a hub for trading with other pioneers, as it will make construction much easier!
You can build a guest shipyard in any port made by yourself for other player to visit and use or rent out for money.
By following these steps carefully, you will have your own shipyard in no time. You can now start building ships for yourself and other players in the games economy, or simply use the shipyard to build your own ships and send them out on with your crew.
This is an incredibly useful shipyard mod that will enable you to create large structures quite easily even with a small amount of resources.
Hopefully this guide has been helpful and helped you understand how to build a shipyard.
