The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-07

gines and pumps are in the side walls
from the tops of which the smoke
stacks project.
Should a ship draw one or two feet
more of water than the capacity of thu
dock as stated, the structure could be
made to float with the deck awash, and
the tops of the walls are ordinarily suf-
ficiently high above the water to per-
NIT the dock to be sunk the additional
distance necessary to take IN the craft.
Another remarkable fact concerning
the dock is that it Is able to dock itself
for cleaning and painting. The three
pontoons are connected with the sides
by means of joints that are bolted to-
gether There are two sets of these
joints, one above and one below. Sup
posing it to be necessary to clean and
paint the bottom of the center pontoon,
the joints are disconnected so as to re-
! lease it from the side walls. Then the
two other pontoons and the walls are
sunk until the lower joints of the CEN
ter pontoon are on level with its up
per joints in the side walls.
The lower joints of the center pom
! toon are coupled with the upper joints
( in the side walls. after which the water
( is pumped out of the other pontoons.
and the whole structure Is thus raised
until the center pontoon stands away
up out of the water, and it can then be
easily cleaned and painted. The bot
toms of the side walls can be reached
by pumping all the water out of the
compartments on the side OF the dock,
which 1t is desired to raise, and then
filling those on the other side. The re-
suit of this is to list the dock so that
one side of it stands clear out of water
Had the dock not been made so 1t could
not have been cleaned, for the reason
that there is no other dock large
enough to hold her.
The design of the dock was originally
made by Messrs. Clark g. Standfield Of
London, who, in publication upon
dry docks, acknowledged that the
American system of docking vessels Is
the best The designs were afterward
modified at Sparrow's Point to conform
to American practice. The dock Is fur
nished with electric lights, water sup
ply, &C., and has comfortable accom-
modations for eight men. When it
reaches its destination at Algiets. La,
1t will be moored to the shore by heavy
cables, and from the openings In the
walls large booms will form connection
with the shore. The pointed ends Of
the forward and rear pontoons will
cause the dock to be little affected by
the current Work is now being done
at Algiers sinking steel columns for the
booms and preparing wharf facilities.
In repairing ships materials are con-
veyed to them through the openings in
the dock walls
1t is stated by experts that floating |
dry docks possess several advantages |
over the familiar form of timber dry |
dock, one of them being that the float |
ing dry dock is often less expensive to |
build and another that it has the |
quality of portability and can be towed |
from place to place, as occasion may
for its use. Although the
present dock will cost $4,000, the big
timber dock at the League Island navy
yard, of equal capacity. cost $4,000,
but that was exclusive of the cost of
the land the latter OCCUPIES. The con-
veying Of the dock to New Orleans Is
not expected to be q troublesome mat
ter, for the ten thousand ton Havana
&c ating dry dock was towed across the
Atlantic from England, where it was
Sun.