The Hawaiian gazette., 1918-01-15
GREAT DRYDOCKAT
PEARL HARDOR TO
Be FINISHED soon
win Be Completed In June and
VIII Be Available For War
Work BY Next Fall
MANY DtFFiCULTIES " -. !
HAVE BEEN MASTERED
No Ceremony Win Mark Initial
Use Of the Structure That Is
Part Of Big Naval Base

- q = ! .
In June OF this year America s great
est drydcck will lie completed at Pear
Hhfbor and sysiibble for war work in
the early fall. = So,
The great tss.n, which has been years
in building, under conditions which re-
quircd The highest engineering eff
cieney, Is rapidly approaching compile
tioa under the present eoncrete-bloek
plan, and viii be finished in contract
time, marking .one of the greatest
achievements Of the Navy Department
After exasperating setbacks, but al
ways in the progressive stage even
when disaster interrupted the work for
more than q year, the great dock will
be ready this year for the most severe
demands that can be made Of 1t. .
No Ceremony -. e.. -
No ceremony win mark the opening
and closing Of the huge lcaisson gates
for the reception Of the first war,
vessel that Is to be honored in the great
basin. These are war times, and accord.
ing TO D. ruling which, was made at
Washington q year ago, the placing Of
the dock In commission will merely be
TO omen and use Il when ready, and no
special Observance of the completion
Of the work win be held. It was pro
posed some years ago that the compile
tion Of the dock should be marked by
conspicuous ceremonies, attended by
CIVIL war and naval representatives
OF many nations, rs parallel achieve
ment to the eompletion of the Panama
Canal, but under war conditions II viii
be impossible to do 80. 1t viii merely
be finished, opened and put into opera
tion as q part Of the day 3 work.
Hardly any other government work
undertaken in the past ten years ex'
cept the Panama Canal, has been the
object of such bulldog tenaeity on the
part of the navy department as the
Pearl Harbor dock, but the men who
started II win finish 1t and be record
cd among the greatest of. American
civil and naval engineers.
New Pians Followed r..
The original plans were abandoned Q
few years ago when IL was found that
the method Of pouring the concrete wal
faulty When the dock collapsed and
the entire work had 20 be ripped Out
ana new methods followed, plans were
adopted for the making o. one great
concrete block, floating these out II
especially constructed caissons, and ther
lowering them to the bottom Of the
dock iite, and joining them togethei
under water. 4t.!E. -
The work under way there now IL
Of the highest. engineering type in ust
anywhere, aud has mastered the nm
usual difficulties that sprang up, diff
ficulties that could not be determined
in the preliminary borings and tests.
The work on building Pearl Harbol
station began about 1900 when pre-
liminary surveys were made for deep
ening and widening the channel from
the open sea and for dredging out thu
bar at the entrance. This was a lonl
and tedious job in itself and involved
many years Of work, before the actua
commencement Of work was started OF
the station proper.
The completion Of the dock coutem
plates the completion of the entire sta
tion, TO be the most perfect navy yart
under the Stars and Stripes.