The Singapore Base

Northern Advocate, 3 January 1941, Page 3

The Singapore Base

The establishment of a British naval base at Singapore (which is again in the news) is an indirect outcome of the Washington Treaty of 1922, which effected reductions in the naval armaments of the chief Powers, and particularly of Great Britain, the United States and Japan. Previous to the Washington Treaty, the strongest British naval base in the East was at Hong Kong, which is noted for tis magnificent harbour; but under the terms of the treaty Great Britain, the United States find Japan agreed hot to build new fortifications or increase existing fortifications within specific areas of the Pacific. Hong Kong lies within the prescribed area (i.e., eastward of the meridian 110 deg. east, which is known as the“ Washington line”), but Singapore is 370 nautical miles outside it. Singapore is 1350 nautical miles south of Hong Kong, and therefore is that much farther south of Japan.

The island of Singapore, situated off the . southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, is 26 miles long and 14 miles broad. It is separated from the mainland by a narrow strait, about a mile in width, which is traversed by a causeway. The port of Singapore, on the south-east coast of the island, is a free harbour, at which practically all lines trading from European ports to the Far East, as well as from Indian, Australian and New Zealand ports, call. The extent of its shipping trade places it among the greatest ports in the world.

Completed in Time.

Although the British Admiralty decided in 1922 to establish a naval base at Singapore, when further improvements to the base at Hong Kong were barred by the Washington Treaty, it was not until 1923 that a start was made on any of the mam works. Almost immediately afterwards work was slowed down, in the expectation that the successive international conferences on disarmament would produce some practical results. It was not until February, 1938, that the base was completed and formally “opened” with much ceremony. Its total cost is given in round figures as £20,000,000.

The site of the naval works is on the north coast of the island, about 12 miles from the city of Singapore. An artificial harbour has been made by enclosing the eastern half of the strait which separates it from the mainland. A dry dock, 1000 ft long and 130 ft wide, with a depth of 44ft of water over the sills, has been constructed. It is able to accommodate the longest ship in the British Navy, i.e., the battle-cruiser Hood, which has a length of 860 ft. Other repairing facilities at the base include a floating dock 860 ft long with a width of 172 ft. Among the other features of the base are extensive repair shops, numerous large sheds for housing naval stores and an oil plant, with the necessary facilities for fuelling ships. Near the city arc a number of commercial docks, and three dry docks for the repair of merchant ships. King’s Dock, which was opened in 1913, is 879 ft long and 100 ft wide, with a depth of 34ft of water, and is the largest commercial dock east of Suez.

A Long Tow

The large floating dock at the Singapore naval base was towed from the Tyne, England, to its destination in 1928. As already stated, it is 860 ft long, and therefore can accommodate the longest ships in the British Navy with the exception of the Hood. Her sister ships, Renown and Repulse, have a length of 794 ft. The floating dock is composed of seven pontoons, which are riveted and bolted together. More than 3,000,000 rivets were used in the construction of the dock. The side walls, which extend the whole length of the structure, are 50ft in height from the pontoon deck. The three central pontoons are 25ft in depth, and the dock requires about 70ft depth of water in which to operate.

This dock was built at Wallsend on Tyne by the well-known shipbuilding firm of Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, in the comparatively short period of 10 months. It was towed from England to Singapore in two parts, by a Dutch firm, which had considerable experience in heavy towing for long distances, and had constructed a special type of vessel for the work. One part consisted of the three central pontoons, and the other of the two ends, which had been temporarily joined together. Four tugs were allotted to each part of the dock —two towed the structure and the other two guided it from the stern, with tow ropes 21 ins in diameter. As the dock drew only seven feet of water, and towered 75ft above the surface, the task of towing was very difficult in rough weather. For several days the weather outside the Strait of Gibraltar made it impossible to tow the dock through.

Through the Canal

The passage through the Suez Canal was also a matter of some difficulty, as the dock almost filled the canal. In some places the clearance between the dock and the walls of the canal was only threei feet. The task of towing the dock through the 87 miles of the canal occupied four days. As it was impossible for ships to get through the canal while the dock was being towed, the huge structure was moored aside at night, at places where the waterway provided accommodation. The longest delay to shipping while the dock was in the canal was nine hours. This dock is the largest structure ever passed through the Suez Canal, and its passage through such a narrow, windswept waterway without hitch or damage was a highly creditable bit of work.

The long tow of 8600 miles from the Tyne to Singapore w;as successfully carried out. The first part of the dock, which left the Tyne on June 21, 1928, reached Singapore on October 12, and the second part arrived four days later.

This is not the longest voyage of a floating dock. Mr Ellison Hawks, in his book, “Wonders of Engineering,” mentions that a floating dock has been toWed from the east coast of the United States to the Philippine Islands, a distance of 14,000 miles. Another dock of . 7000 tons, which was built on the Tyne, was towed round Cape Horn, safely negotiating the hazardous passage of the Magellan Straits. It was then towed northwards to Callao, Peru, completing a voyage of 11,000 miles. ■ '

The bottom of a floating dock consists of steel pontoons which can be filled With water; thus causing the dock to Sink, so that, the ship to be docked can be manoeuvred into position over the pontoons. Pumping machinery, which may be driven by

steam or electricity and is located in the walls of the dock, empties the pontoons of water, and the dock gradually rises, lifting the vessel with it. The ship rests on keel blocks, and is supported in a vertical position by shores, as in the case of the ordinary dry dock. When repairs to the ship have been completed the dock sinks by allowing the water to enter the pontoons; the ship floats again, and is hauled out oij dock by a tug.