page_title: Vlissingen Naval Base
section_title: The Dry Dock
hierarchical_section_title: Vlissingen Naval Base / Facilities of the naval base at Vlissingen / The Dry Dock
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Dok, bij Stenen Beer
context_page_description: Vlissingen Naval Base was a base for the Admiralty of Zeeland, and later the Dutch Navy. It has a number of major marine facilities of historic significance. It housed a shipyard for the Admiralty of Zeeland, and the national shipyard Rijkswerf Zeeland. Shipyard de Schelde would take over the grounds of the Rijkwerf, and still continues to build warships as Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding.
context_section_description: The first dry-dock of the Netherlands was built adjacent to the dock from 1704-1705, at a cost of 37,000 guilders  It was nicknamed 'Perry's dokje' after Captain John Perry who designed it in 1697. Perry (1670-1733) was an engineer later known for his book The State of Russia under the Present Czar (1716) and other works. The curious location of the dock between two bodies of water has to do with the constant water level in the dock. The traditional way to empty a dry dock was to put a ship in at high tide, and then to get rid of most the water by letting it flow out at low tide. Of course the latter could not be done on the dock side. The dry dock has a ship shaped form in order to lessen the amount of remaining water that had to be pumped out. The pumps were driven by a horse-mill. 
  The main problem of the dry dock that engineers were not able to keep the water from the dock out of the dry dock. The solution for making a waterproof lock gate for a dry dock was the caisson or ship-door invented in France in 1683, but this solution was not applied. In 1737 an amount of water suddenly welled up near the doors, and in 1738 the same happened on the other side. There were some repairs, but these were not completely effective. The naval shipworm also played its part, and from 1737-1745 the dry dock gradually fell into disrepair.  After that it would not function for decades. The need for a dry dock was generally recognized, but nothing much was done. 
  After almost a century of disuse, the old dry dock was fixed from 1836-1837 for 176,000 guilders. The traditional lock gate doors were replaced by a cassion door. The lock on the city side of the dry dock (Leeuwensluis) was replaced by a dam and the Leeuwensluis itself widened and joined to the existing dry dock. The dry dock then measured 69 m by 18.7 m. A steam engine was installed to empty it. Because of the enlargement the restored dry dock could welcome almost any Dutch warship. The Adolf van Nassau with a length of 72.86 m p.p., launched in 1861, was probably the first Dutch warship that did not fit in the Vlissingen dry dock.
caption: Perry's dry dock in 1964
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