JUBILEE DOCK ARRIVES

Evening Star, Issue 20987, 29 December 1931, Page 6

JUBILEE DOCK ARRIVES

ROMANCE OF LONG TOW NEW ZEALAND'S FIRST FLOATING DOCK [Pjeb United Phess Association.] WELLINGTON, December 28. Completing its 13,000-mile voyage, Wellington’s huge Jubilee Dock arrived off Pencarrow a little before 5 o’clock this afternoon. Favourable winds bad made easy the final stages of the journey, and the dock with its two small but powerful attendants, the Zwarte Zee and the Witt© Zee, swung into Port Nicholson with only the slightest breezes momentarily stirring the surface of the harbour. Two aeroplanes from the Rongotai Aerodrome sailed in the haze of a summer sky. Along the wharves strolled hundreds of people, while every vantage point on the nearby hills had its small group of persons whose imagination had been stirred by the romance of the long tow. The massive bulk of the dock made a striking mark in the harbour seascape. A number of launches and yachts sailed round the dock as it moved slowly in the direction of the mooring site. The ferry steamer Muratai, packed with passengers, made the trip to the Heads to accompany the dock up the harbour. The Harbour Board tug Toia met the voyagers and escorted them in. On the Government steamer tender Janie Seddon were doctors, officials, and guests. The small harbour tug Natone also acted as an escort. The inspection of the crews of the dock and tugs by the doctors was made as the craft came up the harbour. At 7.10 p.m. the huge anchors of the dock were dropped several hundred yards from the Jubilee wharf at Thorndon, where the dock is to be permanently moored. This work will begin tomorrow. There will be no official ceremony in connection with the arrival of the dock until it has been actually delivered to the Harbour Board by the contractors, which will be about the end of February. It is hoped that it will then be possible to have one of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liners actually in the dock so as to enable the function to take place. in fitting circumstances on the ship itself. Although they appeared uniformly happy that the end of the long tow was reached, the Dutchmen on the two tugs, as well as those on the big dock itselr, were neither excited nor talkative when the dock was travelling slowly up the harbour on the last stages of its journey. Altogether there were eighteen Dutchmen, on the Zwarte Zee, fifteen on Witte Zee, and ten on the dock, including ,tbe three respective skippers—Captain B. L. Hart, Captain B. Weltevrede, and Captain Jan Van Brast. They had brought the dock 13,627 miles at an average speed of four knots since leaving England, on July 15. The trip was a summer one all the way and passed without a serious incident. Captain. Hart and many of the others speak English. The police took in charge two stowaways who had travelled from Nelson on the Zwarte Zee. SOME PARTICULARS The contract price for the Jubilee Dock, delivered jn Wellington by the builders, is £196,125. The price quoted by the builders was the lowest or twelve tenders, and was . only £125 above the consulting engineer’s estimate. The dock had to be completed in Hi months from the commencement of the work, and delivery had to be effected by March, 1932. Following are details of the tenders for the bunding of the dock: — Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson Ltd., Wallsend, £196,125. Harland and Wolff Ltd., Belfast, £200,265. " , „ Ti , William Hamilton and Co. Ltd., port Glasgow, £211,500. Vickers-Armstrong Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness, £211,690. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co. Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, £212,095. . , „ Ti , Hawthorn, Leslie, and Co. Ltd., Hcbburn-on-Tyno, £218,500. , Six other tenders, ranging from £219,900 to £281,000, . were also received from the following firms.: —William Beardmore and Co. Ltd., Dalmuir; Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. Ltd., Govan, Glasgow; Furness Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Haverton Hill-on-Tees; Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company Ltd., Hongkong : John I. Thornycroft and Co. Ltd., Southampton; Walsh Island Dockyard and Engineering .Works, Newcastle, New South Wales. The remarkable closeness of the British firms’ tenders is evidence of the keen competition for the . work. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson Ltd., builders of the famous liner Mauretania, and, incidentally, of the Union Company’s Tamahine and • the Shaw, Savifi, and .Albion Company s motor ship Zealandic, have had many years’ experience in the construction of floating docks, including the huge Singapore dock. , It was mentioned at the launch or the Jubilee Dock that of 100 docks designed by Clark and Stanfield, the consulting engineers, the Tyne firm had built no fewer than thirty-three, the owners had built twenty, and l Swan, Hunter’s nearest competitors had built ten and nine respectively. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson have built more floating docks than anyone else in the world, and of all types and sizes, the lifting capacities ranging from a few hundred tons to that of the famous Admiralty dock at Singapore, which can lift a ship of 55,000 tons displacement. They have been building such docks for forty years, and have delivered them to Callao (Peru), Para (Brazil), Durban, Bermuda, Lagos (Nigeria), the Falkland Islands, and many other parts of the world. JUBILEE DOCK’S DIMENSIONS. The Jubilee Dock has been planned to meet the needs of Wellington and to accommodate the largest ships trading to New Zealand for many years to come. It has a lifting power of 17,000 tons, and is therefore capable of raising such ships as the Rangitiki and her sisters, and even heavier ships. The main dimensions of the dock are

The dock may be described as an immense steel box, minus ends and with hollow bottom and sides, 'technically, it is described as a doublesided self-docking floating dock of sectional box type. The bottom part, or pontoon, is divided into seven sections, all fitted 1 jvith valves and pipes

by means of which the pontoon can be flooded to sink the dock to take a ship or pumped out to raise the vessel., NEW ZEALAND’S DOCKS COMPARED. With the advent of the Jubilee Dock,New Zealand will possess five docks,of which the new arrival will be the largest. The Jubilee is, of course, the first floating dock built for the dominion, the others being dry docks - of stone and concrete. They are the Calliope Dock at Auckland, the .Lyttelton Dock, and the Otago Dock, and its smaller fellow at Port Chalmers., The Calliope Dock has an overall 1 length of 566 ft, the length on the bottom being 521 ft; width of entrance,, 66ft; depth on sill at high water, 0.5.,33ft. The Lyttelton Dock is 481.6 ft long overall, and 450 ft on bottom ; width ot entrance at vessel’s bilge, 54W; width inside, 62ft; depth on sill, 23ft. It, can take a ship 462 ft long and 54ft wide, and with a draught of The Otago Dock is 528 ft long overall,, and 500 ft on bottom; width, 70ft;' depth of sill, 21ft. The smaller dock at Port Chalmers is 328 ft long overall and 300 ft on bottom; width, 50ft; depth on sill, 18ft. The following table compares the main dimensions of the five docks: —

a follows: — Ft. ins. Overall length over platforms 584 0 Overall length over pontoons Overall width • •• 527 0 117 6 Clear width between fenders 88 0 Depth of pontoons 14 0 Height of keel blocks 4 0 Draft of water over keel blocks 26 0 Depth of water at dock site 46 0

Length Width overall. at entrance,' Feet. Feet. Wellington ... 584 88 Auckland ... 566 66 Lyttelton ... 481.6 54|-' Port Chalmers (Otago) ... 523 Port Chalmers 70 (small) ... 328 50