SINGAPORE DOCK.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19258, 13 March 1928, Page 9

SINGAPORE DOCK.

TOWING CONTRACT FOR DUTCH FIRM. BIG TRANSPORT PROBLEM. (BT CABLE-PBZS3 ASSOCIATION-COPrRIGHT ) UrSTRALIAS A. ND „. z CABLI ABSOCUTIOH J

LONDON, March 11. The "Morning Post" says the Admiralty has placed a contract for towing the 50,000 tons floating dock to Singapore with a Dutch firm. The task presents the greatest problem of sea transport ever undertaken. British firms admit that the Dutch Company « the only firm in the world capable of undertaking the proposition at a reasonable irice. The dock will be taken in two sections, with four of the most powerful tugs to each section. An idea of the size is offered by the statement that there is sufficient space within it comfortably to house the world's biggest liner. 6

There is floor space for 60,000 men, and more than 100 miles of electric cable.

. The most hazardous part of the journey will be the Suez Canal, which will be entirely cleared of traffic, because the highest speed possible is three miles an hour.

[The Singapore floating dock of 50,000 tons has been constructed for the British Admiralty by Messrs Swan, Hunter, and Richardson It contains 20,000 tons of steel, and 3,500,000 rivets, and had to be built and launched in seven sections. It was realised before the dock was constructed that the task of towing it over a distance of 8500 miles to the Far East would be a feat calling for masterly seamanship, and) before the dock was completed the Admiralty intimated its intention of placing the towage contract with the well-known Dutch firm, Smit, of Rotterdam, who had had much experience of that kind of work of an international character. It was estimated the journey would take from three to four months. The passage of the Suez Canal, it was realised, would form the most hazardous part of the voyage' (storms excepted) as there would be but a small margin to port and starboard—the completed dock covering an area equal to a football ground. It was intended that a considerable marine and engineering crew should be towed with it, and live on its steely sides.]