Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

FLOATING DOCKS. 415 Fig. 9.—THE FLENSBURG OFF-SHORE DOCK. One half of the dock raised on the other half for cleaning. The detached upper booms of the dock portion are seen in the foreground. of the Powerful and Terrible class, and sub- sidized liners of great length like the Cam- pania and Lucania. Designed by Messrs. Clark and Standfield, the great specialists, the dock has a total length of 545 feet, a width of 126 feet, a height of 55| feet, and a clear docking width between the walls of 99 feet (Fig. 8). The steam-pumping machinery installed in the dock is capable of discharging 34,000 tons of water in four hours. Two sets of electric generating plant are fitted, one in each side wall. These supply current for working the travelling cranes and the lighting arrangement respectively. Two electric cranes, each of 5 tons capacity, are fitted on the dock ; and six powerful steam-warping capstans are also provided for hauling vessels in and out of the dock. As in the case of all contracts carried out for the British Government, most exhaustive trials were made to demonstrate and ensure the efficiency of the dock. The self- docking trial consisted of raising the centre pontoon and one of the side walls. The vessel selected for the docking test was H.M.S. Sans Par eil, displacing over 11,000 tons ; and although the bearing length of the vessel’s keel was only a little over 300 feet of the dock’s total length of 545 feet, the pontoons were pumped practically dry without any appreciable deflection, thereby demonstrating the great structural strength of the dock. In the case of a dock intended to accommo- date warships, it is essential that it should be able to deal with a damaged vessel, say