The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-30
UTILITY OF FLOATING DOCKS.

Successful Docking of a Heavy Eng
 fish Battle Ship.
 The lower heach of the Medway was yesterday the scene of an experiment
 which is without parallel in the records
 of the Royal navy, so far, at any rate,
 as British waters are concerned. A l line-of- -battle-ship in commission, with all her armor, guns and stores in posi- | ton, was lifted bodily out of the water. 1 The feat formed part of the official trial l of the New Bermuda floating dock, which has recently been brought round 1 from the Tyne. where it was construct | ed by Messrs. c. S. Swan and Hunter, of Wallsend The dock was described in the Times at the time of her launch, in February last when particulars of
 it's construction were given. The struc- ture Is. it will be remembered, four hundred and forty-f1ye feet long, and
 the side walls are flfty-three feet three
 inches high. It is capable of lifting
 vessel, If needed of 17.500 tons in
 weight, and drawing thirty-two feet of
 water. The contract was to lift l5,-
 200-ton ship.
 The design has been carried out un-
 der the drectioH of MT. A. F. Richards,
 of the Director of Naval Constructors
 department, and MT A. Spyer, of the
 department of the engneer-in-c chief,
 The plans have been prepared by
 Messrs Clark and Standheld of West minister. The two chambers formed by of ai in n considerable quantity of machinery,
 which has been contracted for by the
 Wallsend Slipway company, and in- stalled under the direction of Mr. A. Laing.
 The vessel that the admiralty had se- lected to be docked was H M. S, Sans Farrell She is three hundred and forty feet long and seventy feet wide. Her armor Is sixteen inches to eighteen inches thick, and her principal arma- ment consists of two one hundred and ten ton guns, which are both carried in a heavily turret well forward, | It will be seen from this that though | the Sans Pareil is not of SO great dis placement as the most recent battle | ships, there is concentration of weight | which is disposed to test severely any | floating platform upon which she may | be supported.
 The dock had been moored in deep | part of the river, just off the mouth of | the Swale and at about high water | yesterday the battle-ship, which was ! lying above Sheerness, was taken in | charge by three tugs and brought up to | the lower entrance of the dock. There | was a smart breeze, and so long as the | flood lasted there was quite run of | sea. There is, of course, great differ | ence between entering and grounding q | big ship in a dock floating in still water, | and carrying out the same manoeuyre | in the run of a turbulent tideWay. | About twelve o'clock the ram bow of | the Sans Farrell was entered between | the walls of the dock, The ship was then drawing about twenty seven feet | four inches. The dock had been sunk until only the tops of the walls were above the surface and the tops of the keel blocks were just upon twenty eight feet below the surface. The ebb tide had begun to make down strongly by the time the bow of the ship had been we'll entered.
 The Wire-rope cables were made fast md the delicate operation of Warping-in began The tide was now running through the dock at over three knots, put as it was in the same direction as he wind the water was smoother than ,efore. The chief constructor of Chath- nm dock-yard, MT, James, took charge if the berthing, and under his direction he vessel was, after some time, brought within the dock and accurately placed n central position. The operation of 'horing up then began. An army of backyard hands placed malks of tim ,er so that they extended horizontally rom the side walls of the dock to the hips sides, and these were tightly ixed by means of wedges driven be- Ween their ends and the dock sides.
 The Sans Farrell was now just resting ( m the keel blocks. and tightly pinned | n the center line of the dock. The inc occupied in berthing the vessel and I n fixing and putting the shores in ( lace was about two hours The eigth e arge eirculating-pump were started c hortly after tow o'clock to clear the ock of water. In this part of the pro- $ eedings care has to be taken that both ides rise equally; otherwise a consider be strain may be thrown on the struts II n one side. The work now was car V jed on under the direction of MT Lyo- l Clark, who has had considerable ex-