Rus Network Eng Pda User's tweets @flotcom Can one country send troops to another's territory outside of a state of war? 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Alas, unlike "Warrior", the hero of our story has long served his time and now his skeleton, broken by storms and dynamite, rusts in shallow water. This symbol of English industrial power, one of the technical wonders of the Victorian era, is the world's first large metal floating dock. It was built specifically for the naval base in Bermuda and was named accordingly. Alas, there is no longer that empire, or that base, or that dock. "The rusty hull, sunk in the sand on the other side of the mouth of the bay, and rusting pontoons are all that remains of the Bermuda floating dock, Why did you need a floating dock in Bermuda? The fact is that Britain was the ruler of the seas, and Bermuda occupies a strategic position in the Atlantic. They became especially important after the United States achieved independence. Therefore, in 1795, the commander of the North American squadron, Rear Admiral George Murray, summoned Lieutenant Thomas Hard to Bermuda to test the idea that natural passages in the reefs would allow the islands to be used as a fleet base. Hard made an accurate map of the reef platform and in 1809 the Admiralty chose the island of Ireland for the base and began work on its development. They had to be accelerated after the Anglo-American War of 1812-1815 showed that the ports of Canada, including Halifax, the empire's main stronghold in the western North Atlantic, are easily vulnerable. Since then, there has been an intensive construction of casemates and shops, shipyards and warehouses, barracks and slipways, piers and slipways. There was enough work, in contrast to the hands of workers, they even resorted to forced labor of prisoners. In the harbor, in addition to warships, floating hospitals, warehouses and supply vessels, there were also hulls of disarmed old battleships that had become floating prisons. There was also an underground dungeon in a cave at Fort The Keep. The casemates and caponiers of the fortress were cut down by convicts - in the strongest stone! Bermuda's position made it possible to control the entire Atlantic from Newfoundland to the West Indies and even to the Falklands and St. Helena, which was reflected in the new name: the squadron of the St. Lawrence River and the American coast. Many of the British admirals who flew their flag in Bermuda, such as Hood, Howe, are the pride of the Royal Navy. In 1823, the Commissioner's House was built as a dwelling and office for the staff of the base. But a much more important attribute of a naval base is not an office, but a dock! The ships require periodic cleaning, painting and repair of the underwater part, in addition, they get into accidents, land on reefs, receive combat damage, so a dock on the islands was necessary. It was extremely difficult to dig a dry dock in Bermuda: firstly, the very strong, but at the same time cracked from frequent earthquakes, the stone of the islands interfered. Secondly, the excavation of the pit for the dock would have required huge labor costs and thousands of tons of concrete, and the population of the islands even by the end of the 19th century. did not exceed 9 thousand people. Therefore, the best solution was to build a floating dock in England and tow it to Bermuda. Construction began in August 1866 at Campbell Johnston's shipyard in Silvertown, near North Woolwich on the Thames, and on September 3, 1868, the dock was launched - sideways due to its imposing dimensions: 381 feet long, 123 wide and 74 feet high. This method has since become widely used in shipbuilding. On May 20, 1869, towing at sea began. The team consisted of 80 people. By the way, it was led to Madeira by the Northumberland and Edgincourt, the newest armored frigates that had entered service a year earlier. Naval technology developed rapidly and these frigates were larger and stronger than the Warrior. But only nine years have passed since the launch of the first battleship! Departing from Madeira on July 3, 1869, the caravan arrived in Bermuda on July 28 and the local The Royal Gazette (it still leaves today) reported: “Two huge ships, the Warrior and the Black Prince, appeared, towing a huge structure to the western end of the island and the Terribel was the helm for them. All the heights were occupied by carriages and crowds of people, and the water was covered with all kinds of boats. The train of battleships could not lead the dock through the narrowness, so the escort was completed by the Terribble with the local tug Spitfire at the head. accompanied by a flotilla from Britain, consisting of the gunboats "Viper" and "Vixen" with the armed steamer "Lepving". At that time the sun did not set over the British Empire, the mistress of the seas had many ships and the dock was not idle! With a carrying capacity of 8,600 tons, the Bermuda could accommodate most of the ships sailing in those waters. However, after thirty-three years of service, the dock is worn out and rusted; in the tropics, the metal does not last long. Yes, and the ships by that time had increased in size and, for example, the British battleship "Majestic", a magnificent model of which is in the same House of Commissioners, which had a total displacement of about 16,000 tons, could no longer fit in the dock. Therefore, in 1902, "Bermuda" was replaced by a larger AFD 1 (Admiralty Floating Dock No 1), and the veteran was dragged into shallow water. According to some sources, it was sold to a German company for scrap, but the outbreak of the world war prevented the dismantling, according to others, it was simply abandoned. In the 50s, they tried to blow up the rusty skeleton with dynamite in order to clear the harbor, but the idea failed. As the years passed, the size of the ships grew, the floating dock AFD 1 after the Second World War, in turn, was replaced by the AFD 5, brought from Alexandria. But the British Empire was living out its last days, it curtailed its military presence in the distant seas and in 1951 this dock was towed to the Jamaican port of Falmouth, and in 1966 it was sold to the United States. This is how imperial glory faded. The last of several small docks operating in Bermuda, AFD 48, sank in the early 70's. Yes, warships still call on Bermuda, but only to visit - after the British and the Americans abandoned their base back in 1995. And since the islands do not have their own fleet, apart from the famous high-speed yachts with Bermuda sailing equipment, there is no work for the docks, although several hundred ships and vessels visit the islands a year. The fact is that for the most part these are huge cruise ships that will not enter any floating dock! Found a typo? Select it and press Ctrl + Enter Tweet There are no comments yet. Be the first! Authorized members can leave comments. Register . 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