The era of metal shipbuilding was from the middle of the 19^th century - onward. As the technology advanced, shipyards needed a qualified staff of workers and engineers. Shipyards were transformed into large ship-building firms with construction shops, docks and assembly slips. The building slips is a vast area in which ships are built. In the slip - scaffold of the building slips, the foundations (keels) are laid, from which a new vessel is constructed from the ground upward. There is usually a ramp or skid-way on the water side, which facilitates the launching of the vessel. In the dock are high-powered, high-capacity cranes, which are used to install the deckhouses and various other heavy equipment.

Before a vessel is constructed, the designers make models, plans and blueprints. Previously, in some shipyards, the details of a vessel were traced full-scale in a loft, a special place with a wooden floor. There, templates of details of the hull, deckhouse, etc. were constructed from tin plate and wood. When the shipyard shops received the templates, they transferred the designs to the building materials to produce parts from these materials for the project. In recent years, the process has advanced. Now, the designers draw the plans, make photographs of them and project them onto sheets of steel, and then cut the parts along these lines. In shops of shipyard on obtained templates produce details from materials stipulated for the project.

1.Mooring line 2. Storehouse 3. Metal working shop 4. Shops for manufacture of sections and units 5. Mounting shop 6. Assembling area 7. Cranes for sections assembling

At the end of the 19^th century, pools for the research of vessel models were developed. Placement of deckhouses and equipment, and designs of the hull and screws is now an outcome of tests in model basins.

In modern shipbuilding, joining of sections (modules) is widely used.

High-power cranes transfer the sections to building slips and dry docks, where welding completes the task of building the ships.

The construction of large-tonnage, ships displacing up to 1 million tons, vessels such as oil tankers and dry-cargo ships, is conducted in huge facilities - dry docks.

Thus, distinctive features of modern shipbuilding are the continual technical perfecting of vessels, broad use of welding, adaptation of new materials, development of ship propulsion engineering and finally, creation of new navigational devices and equipment.