The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1915-01-20
GREAT DRyDOCKs.
Where the Largest Warships Cars
Be Repaired In Safety.
HUGE BASINS OF CONCRETE

Into These the Vessels Are Floated ahcs
shored Up as the Gates Are Closes
and the Water Pumped Out-Floating
Docks and How They Are Used.
There is no such thing as a perfecs
anti-fouling composition. and probably
there never Will be.
By "anti-fOuling' we mean a solCs
ton which. applied to the bottom Of g.
ship, will keep her clean for an indefi-
mite period
True. vessels can now keep the sea
for months on end without getting four
enough to seriously diminish their
speed. but in the long run their bot
| toms become weed grown, and they
are obliged to go into drydock and be
scraped and cleaned and reprinted.
/ In old days, when warships were NO
larger than the steam launches which
now hang on a Dreadnought's davits,-
the seamen did this work themselves.
| They ran the galley on to some coz
venient beach, hauled her out. tipped
/ her ON one side on the sand. scrapeG
] her and caulked her seams
Even in the eighteenth century CAP.
tain Cook "careened" his vessel in 3
! tidal creek on the Australian coast and
/ did necessary repairs. The enormous
warships of today require very differ
ent handling. and it is for their uss@
| that dockyarJis are fitted with dry
Or craving" docks of vast diner
sionS
A drydock is Il huge basin excavateo3
in the ground. 1t is lined first WIFI
masonry of immense thickness. anCA
this in turn is coated with thousands
OF tons of concrete.
The first great requisite Of a dry
dock is to be dry. and as it is always
cut in low. swampy ground, with the.
bottom far below low tide mark, this
is the great difficulty before its builG-
ers.
The bottom is quite fiat The sides
run up in steps-enormous steps, each
about a yard high, not the sort Of stair
case to run down in a hurry.
These steps are known as affairs
and they have two separate purposes
first fog supporting the wOrkmen'S
scaffolds. the second and more impOr-
tart for the fixing of the shores
Shores are the great balks of timber
which hold vessel upright in drydock
y drydock does net usually open
straight out of the sea or harbor Morr~
often there is a wet dock between
The reasons arc that a vessel can then
be locked ut any state Of the tide and
also that there is less pressure on the
great watertight gates of the drydock
The actual process of docking in dry
dock is simple enough The drydoc.~
is filed with water, the ship is f0ate
in. the gates close behind her: then liz
water is pumped ont by means of pow
erful steam pC:frS
Alon" TIL bottom Of the dock runs
Il straight line Il row of keel blocks
which the Keel of the vessel rests. -
the water is pumped away an arIuy ot
workmen tx the shores in position.
! This is tas.- which requires great
are Not so very long ago an 5000 t.
cruiser which was being drydocked &c
one Of tEa southern dOckyards in Eng
land was - oarelcssly shored up that
.ha Skinned and tonrIed over
Tho DAMAGE was aouaIl;nr The hulY
If the .bin ,,l, h.d'.- iuiured II c.,.,
mon, th1rsap,s Of ponnds TO rarai-
her
-r,,ara. ,ro ,rsr q,.,tip,, e,rav;po, docks
,T,bcra !. mo .,r Portsmouth with An.
80, ,f +,,-o .,,,I ors.-c,,,rtp,. acres ,n.,
ifr.ir,r nod. r. ., coo toms If ),
40 60 r,,,,. al =, foot u-ida r..
nj. t.,.,,,s,- - =, e,.,+i,,,, dooh, j. r,...-
e., vs...I * h,fly damaged the d,,s