EFC Design 1008: Notes & Illustrations

Notes: The press reported in January 1918 that the Allen Shipbuilding Co., a new concern established by Frank V. Allen and located in the Ballard portion of Seattle at the junction of Salmon Bay and the canal to Lake Union, had completed two ways and planned to build four more. (The four do not appear to have materialized.) In May 1918 the press reported that the keel had been laid at the Allen yard of a wooden steamer for the EFC of a special type of construction, which was due for delivery in six months. Its general arrangement was like that of the Ferris design and it used the same propelling machinery, although the Allen vessel was slightly larger than the Ferris ship. The plans were drawn by the Seattle naval architects Lee & Brinton and introduced a type of construction which this firm had previously used with success in small craft and was now adapting for use in larger vessels. The ship had single frame instead of the usual double frame construction in the parallel midbody, which occupied 45 percent of the length of the ship. Each single frame was made up of only three pieces: a deep floor timber that ran in one piece from side to side of the vessel and two side timbers, to which the floor timber was attached by a special method of bilge construction. The result was a midship section with curved bilges approximating that of a steel steamer of the same size. At the ends the floor timbers were cut at the center line of the ship and rose on each side to meet the side frames. As the side frames converged on the center line towards the ends the radius of the bilge curves increased to produce a fair shipshape form of under body. The architects stated that the advantages of this type of construction for rapid building were apparent and claimed that the construction was stronger than the ordinary type.

Allen laid down his first ship, Bosworth, on 30 March 1918 and followed it on 17 June 1918 with a second, Allenhurst, for which he did not have a contract or an EFC number. This was remedied on 1 July 1918 after an appeal to top EFC management. The yard launched Bosworth, the first and ultimately the only Allen type steamer to be completed as such, on 26 August 1918. The end of the war intervened before the other three vessels for which Allen had contracts could be launched, and of these two were ordered to be completed as barges and one was cancelled. In December 1919 the EFC offered for sale the two Allen barges.

Specifications: Design 1008 (Allen). Wood hull. Deadweight tons: 3650 designed, 3750 actual. Dimensions: 287.0' oa, 274.5' pp x 44.8' ext, 43.7' mld x 26.3' depth mld, 23.6' draft load. Propulsion: 1 screw, 1 triple expansion engine, 2 standard water tube boilers, IHP, 8 knots. Configuration: 1 deck, 4 holds.

Selected Sources: The Marine Review, May 1918, p. 214; International Marine Engineering, May 1918, page 275; and testimony to the House Select Committee on U.S. Shipping Board Operations by H. G. Cosgrove on 25 August 1919.)

EFC Design 1008 (Allen type): Notes & Illustrations