Sourdough,

Driving the wedges between the cradle blocks on the ways lifts the hull to free the keel blocking. The cradle rides with the ship down the ways when the trigger mechanism is pulled. The ways are convex or bowed to allow the ship to float off the cradle as she rides down the ways into the Kennebec River. Grease is applied to the ways under the cradle before the cradle blocking is put in place and the hull segments are lifted into place on the keel, a year and a half for some sections before the launch. It takes from three to four days after a launch at Bath Iron Works for the launch grease to float down river and wash up on Popham Beach 12 miles down stream. Popham Beach is the location where the first ship built in America, The Virginia of Sagadahoc, was launched in 1607. Many of the decendents of these first shipbuilders have worked in shipyards on the Kennebec for generations and some of their decendents buit the USS Mason and were present at the wedge driving ceremony and the last sloped launch at Bath, Maine, on June 23, 2001.

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