LARGEST FLOATING DOCK

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 March 1934, Page 8

LARGEST FLOATING DOCK

JAPANESE MAY PURCHASE. SOUTHAMPTON, January 21. The Southern Railway Co.’s 60,000 tons floating dock is no longer required at Southampton. The company are willing to dispose of it, and they have already received inquiries from Japan and Brazil. The floating dock, which, with an over-all length of 960 ft, is still the largest in the world, arrived at Southampton in 1924. It was built by Sir W. G. Armstrong. Whitworth and Co., at New-castle-on-Tyne, and was towed to Southampton by powerful tugs. It has since held all the most famous ships of Britain’s merchant fleet, the Majestic, Berengaria, Aquitania, Olympic, Homeric, Mauretania, and Empress of Britain. The dock is redundant for two.

reasons. The first is the new King George V. graving dock, now completed, which has a length of 1,200 ft, and will accommodate ships with a displacement of 100,000 tons. The second is the Trafalgar graving dock, which was opened in 1905, and afterwards widened and lengthened. This dock can take all vessels afloat except the Majestic and the Leviathan.