Shipyard

Claim 1

An assembly-line type of shipyard comprising: a. an elongated horizontal conveyor travel path upon which work piece components of a ship''s hull may be carried; b. conveying means movable on said travel path in a direction longitudinally of and transverse to said path for moving work piece components between and into discrete work stations; c. a material collecting shop station at one end of said path; d. a discharge shop station adjacent the other end of said path; e. a plurality of discrete separate work shop stations situated on both sides of said path intermediate its ends within which sequential work on a ship''s hull may be performed, each shop station having an entrance facing said path and of such size as to accommodate said conveying means with work pieces situated thereon; f. means in at least one work shop station for joining together at least two work pieces; g. means in another work shop station for applying a protective coating to the work pieces previously joined; and h. a spare shop station for temporarily storing joined work pieces in the event that a subsequent work shop station is occupied by work piece components.