HUGE FLOATING DOCK

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6537, 20 February 1928, Page 5

HUGE FLOATING DOCK

BIG AS FOOTBALL FIELD. .VOYAGE TO SINGAPORE. . Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Richardson have almost completed the monster Singapore floating dock of 50,000 tons for the British Admiralty, and this has been done within 11 months of laying the first keel plate. Before the war the firm built an 11,000ton dock for the Medway, but the new giant beats all records in rapidity of constructions for it contains 20,000 tons of steel and 3,500,000 rivets and had to be built and launched in several sections. During September, rivets were worked into the dock by an army of workmen at the rate of 140,000 a week. Now comes a task of another character, and that is the towing of this mighty structure to the Far East, a feat calling for masterly seamanship and likewise unending anxiety, over a distance of 8500 miles, including the passage of the Suez Canal. It is stated that the Admirality intended placing the towage contract wih the well-known Dutch firm—Smit •of Rotterdam —who have much experience in this kind of work of an international character. There is no disputing the ability of the Dutchman to undertake these long towage jobs most efficiently, and this particular journey will probably occupy three to four months. Not fewer than eight tugs must be employed, but before the ardous voyage can be undertaken it is necessary to complete the electrical installation which operates the completed dock, one portion of which involves the connection of cables of a total length of over 100 miles. The sinking and raising capacity of the dock has also to bo tested, so that it may well be May before the mighty structure passes out of the mouth of the'Tyne and turns southward for the Straits of Dover and then for the Mediterranean. The passage of the Suez Canal will form the most hazardous part of the voyage (storms excepted), as there will be but a small margin to port and starboard (it must be borne in mind that the completed dock covers an area equal to a football ground). The danger however, would not be from grounding, but from touching the banks. Traffic through the Suez Canal must be stopped while the dock makes its way to the Indian Ocean at a. speed that cannot exceed a mile an hour. It is understood that the voyage will bo undertaken with the dock in two sections, the whole structure intact being too unwieldly. • .

The builders state that the doock itself culd accomodate over 60,000 persons standing upon its bottom, and a .considerable marine and engineering crew will bo towed with it and live on its steely sides.