NEW BRITISH SHIPYARD.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 September 1924, Page 9

NEW BRITISH SHIPYARD.

TIIMI. -UAlisir UKCI.AI.MKI) for industry. .

A shipyard which promises to he one fine - ie + S i reat shl Pyards of the future Inn i eei ] °Pf ned 011 tile ‘north-e-ast of Eng and, says a correspondent °f the Manchester Guardian. The site of about 80 acres abuts 011 Greatham Cieek, qn expanse of tidal water that runs some distance inland from the fees Letuary. The yard is only a few miles from Middlesborough and Stockton, and on the other side from'the Hartlepools. Originally' the tide washed unchecked over the . actual site on which the new yard stands. , It was a great task,. buT modern engjneernig methods almost make miracles possible, and the extensive area now occupied by the numerous large permanent buildings of the shipyard, by its fine building berths and 'slin- + a oc u ' S ! b. een inised to anything up -o. 26 feet above the original level. This luge undertaking., was achieved by Ppoipmg a mixture of water and sand from dredgers into a vast basin, the sides of which were banked with day. Jhe water was, of course, allowed to drain off, and there reinained. the foundation or sand, which makes one of the fiuiiest foundations possible when closely packed and properly confined. The slope ;for the slipways was constructed by the natural laws which lead to the formation of a shelving sea beach being artificially brought into p . As the jHixture of sand and water was being ptimpe^on--this'.particular, aieathewatcr was dammed at levels that varied- with the progress of the work, and thus, automatically, the wide slope, falling away at an average i ate oi hair an inch to the foot, uva? created.

At piesent there is one graving dock, to which access is gained from the bead of the tidal basin; but a great deal of the work 'necessary for" the construction of a second dry dock parallel with the first has been done. Indeed the entrance has been virtually completed, and a large part of the excavating work undertaken, whilst plans are drawn for a third similar leek ine present graving dock is 500 feet in length, the second will be 630 feet il;’ a iooo t} f e ’ t hird eould be ailvthill &

Ihe large pumping station, built next to the enrance to' the second graving dock, will serve all three, and as one descends'to it'by long flights nf concrete steps, there one sees the two powerful 42m. centrifugal pumps that' are at present installed, and whose number will. be increased as the aclditional graving docks arc constructed. W ith no ship in the dock, one of these pumps will empty it at the rate of r.»e loot m five minutes, that rate being doubled when both pumps are wording. H ith. a shin in the dock the speed with which the water can he got out is of course, even greater, and within ’th~ space of about half-an-hour the dock can be dry.

The u-bc.le establishment is worked by electrical power, the only steam used in the yard being that which drives the sma[|_cranes and locomotives.