1/20/2024 0 Comments Belfast titanic slipwaysThe first sod was cut on 24 April 1885 by H.R.H. Designed in such a way that the dock could, if required, be divided into three separate sections using two caissons and capable of accommodating vessels in the graving dock in a combination of dry or flooded dock space it was hoped that this revolutionary type of graving dock would solve the growing crises regarding the lack of dock accommodation in the port for many years. A new graving dock was to be constructed on the north eastern edge of Queen’s Island, this time on reclaimed land and running parallel with the Victoria Channel. The solution the Commissioners’ arrived at for larger dock accommodation was a novel one. The Hamilton Graving Dock by the mid-1870s was too small to deal with the increasing size and numbers of vessels being constructed at Belfast. It is constructed with buoyancy chambers and ballast tanks so that by means of valves and a pump or ejector the weight of the contained water ballast can be varied at will for floating or sinking the caisson into position.Ī total of four of these types of caissons were constructed between the 1860s and 1910s for the three graving docks on Queen’s Island. In the case of a graving dock a caisson is an iron or steel structure used for closing the entrance. The primary function of a caisson is a device used for repairing outside damage to the hull at, or below, the waterline while a vessel is afloat. The dock area may communicate freely with the stream or harbour, or the entrance to it may be closed by a lock or gates. It is, however, not a dock. A dock is an artificial basin provided with suitable installations for loading and unloading, close to the sea, where vessels can lie afloat. Reversing the process the dock is flooded, the caisson pumped dry, floated and is warped away from the entrance to permit passage of vessels.Ī graving dock is sometimes called a graving dry dock or just dry dock. The caisson is flooded and sunk in place and the water pumped out. Later designs of graving docks incorporated the use of a caisson or pontoon (sometimes called a camel by shipbuilders) that fitted closely into the entrance. However these gates, hinged on either side, restricted the size of vessels entering and the gates were also difficult to seal and to repair. Older graving docks were fitted with watertight entrance gates when closed permitted the dock to be pumped dry. Combined with the word ‘dock’ a graving dock refers to an enclosed basin into which a ship is taken for underwater cleaning or repair. What is a graving dock and what is it used for? The word ‘graving’ is an obsolete nautical term for the scraping, cleaning, painting, or tarring of an underwater body. In the background is the tent erected for guests and to the right the concrete base and wooden staging around the as yet to be completed 100-ton crane. Teutonic's propellers have been removed for inspection and adjustments prior to her leaving Belfast for Liverpool. 208) in the Alexandra Graving Dock just days after its official opening by H.R.H. The graving docks of Belfast survive - a unique and remarkable legacy of dock construction - and a lasting link with liners past.Ībove, the White Star liner Teutonic (Yard No. Those pre-war floating palaces are all gone, together with many famous graving docks built to accommodate them across the British Isles, lost beneath a mass of urban renewal that swept the nation in postwar years. The historic graving docks on Queen’s Island mirror the development of the passenger vessel from its humble origins in the 1860s to the zenith of ocean liner construction before the First World War.
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