WORLD'S LARGEST DRY DOCK.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20919, 28 July 1933, Page 11

WORLD'S LARGEST DRY DOCK.

OPENING BY HIS MAJESTY, ! IMPORTANCE OF SHIPPING, ! ;* j (BRITISH OFFICUIt WUUHiSS. 1 '< (Received July 27, 7.10 p.m.} I RUGBY, July 26. j His Majesty the King opened th« world's largest graving dock at Southampton, the Queen and the Duke and Duchess of York accompanying him in the Royal yacht. Victoria and Albert. The bows of the yacht broke the red, white, and blue ribbon across the entrance as she entered the flower-strewn waters of the dock to the accompaniment of the cheers of the crowd and the music of massed bands. Overhead aeroplanes were circling round. In declaring the dock open, the King expressed special satisfaction in inaugurating a splendid addition to the dock system of the port. "It is as true to-day as ever that the welfare of this country is largely bound up with the prosperity of sea-borne traffic," he said. "Realising the vital need for efficiency in our ports, as in all other requirements of our merchant navy, T look upon the opening of this, the largest graving dock in the world. as a good augury for the future of Southampton." The Queen christened the dock by pouring into the water Empire wine from a silver cup. [The new dry dock at Southampton, which cost more than £2,000,000, is part of the Southern Railway Company's £13,000,000 dock extension scheme. It holds 260,000 tons of water, and the sea is kept back by a huge steel door which weighs 4€ot tons.]