The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-02
TASK OF DOCKING
 MAJESTIC ID BE .
 A DIFFICULT JOB
New York Hardest Port In World In Which to Dock
 Great Ocean Liner
By Associated Press

New York, october 1.-Announce ment that the worlds largest ship. | the Majestic, win be ready for serv- ice between New York and South ampton next spring directs attention
 to the facilities for docking the
 great ship at her pier on her arrival at New York and the methods to be employed in doing so.
 When the largest of the present ocean liners came out, just before | the war. it was necessary to extend ! the piers at New York where they are docked, to protect their long huils from traffic passing up and down the Hudson river. The ex- tended piers will be a very tight fit 1 indeed for the Majestic. while the 1 task of getting her into her berth will present as big a job as the dock ing experts employed by the steam ship companies at New York have yet encountered
 New York is perhaps the hardest
 port in-the world in which to dock great ocean liner, from the fact that it is the only one where the
 docks are at right angles to river
 in which strong tides flow regularly. Greatest Anxiety
 A ships captain is usually pie tured as experiencing his greatest worries when his vessel is at sea buffeted by wind and strom. As a storms are small concern compared
 to his anxiety when he enters a port | and finds his ship hampered by lack of sea room-of space to navigate. In harbor he is confined to chan | mel, ofttimes one In which he could not turn around. His speed is limi- | avoid striking passing craft or get | tinC far Sida from "a
 deepend channel.
 Opposite his dock. which in New
 York appears like openings between the teeth of a huge comb. he must
 come to a stop and swing the bulk beneath him crosswise to the flow
 ing tide. hold it there, and nose his
 way into one of the openings.
 Not daring to make use of the
 ships own tremendous power by req
 son of lack of room, from a dozen
 to IS high as 20 tugs are used in swinging into their docks such big vessels as the Olympic, the Mature
 lania. or the big S12-foot 56,000- ton
 Majestic.
 Equal to 14,4OO FIivvers Indicating what damage might re-
 suit if one of the big liners should
 bump into a pier or passing craft, a marine engineer recently estimated mat when moving al the rate of rive miles an hour about as fast as a man would walk, blow equl to that of 14,40o run-about automobiles act ing simultaneously would be inflicted.
 Those who have seen the result of a crash of a single car can visualize the collective result.
 The technically inclined are in- formed by the engineer that the meas ure of actual energy required to stop the ship at five-mile speed in one second is 15S.sS7.sS0 foot pounds. or force equal to 2ss,521 horsepower acting through one second.
 As soon as the ship Is withing
 hsHving line distance of the pier hawseSs, or big ropes. are made fast. Attached ss the ships winches a slow,
 careful straln is put upon them. The
 strain is carefuSy watched. for if the
 tensile strength be kxseeded they would snap like threat t the tide
 pressure is too great oSttirs>s tho
 ship will swing up broadside to C pier head. then with aid of tug pow
 CT, winch power pulling on lines and an occasional turn of the ships screw. the long hull will be swung around and eased into the berth by inches.
 Once within the slip the u~.s.' l.