Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

124 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. who have made a speciality of the building of submarines, had occasion to send two of these vessels to Japan, and for this purpose they employed a specially constructed ship, named the Transporter. The submarines were each about 135 feet long and 250 tons weight. The Transporter was taken to a graving dock in the Mersey ; the port rail, part of her and also for lifting torpedo boats and sub- marines out of the water. This dock-ship, built to the designs of Naval Constructor Ph. von Klitzing, Dock-Ship • , . for was an interesting item m „ , ° Submarines. the shipbuilding output of the Howaldtswerke of Kiel in 1908. The vessel, as will be seen on reference to Fig. 3, Fig. 3.—THE “ VULKAN,” A GERMAN DOCK-SHIP FOR TORPEDO BOATS AND SUBMARINES. The vessel has practically two hulls, joined by an arch-like superstructure. deck, and all the cross beams were removed, and the vessel was submerged. The first submarine was then floated into the dock and over the Transporter's hold, and the water in the dock pumped out. As it dropped, the submarine was carefully bedded on chocks, previously fitted, by divers and secured. The operation was afterwards successfully repeated with the second submarine, when the deck, etc., of the transport ship was replaced, and she eventually sailed for Japan with her strange freight. The frequency of accidents to submarines has led the German Government to construct a special vessel for raising sunken submarines, has practically two hulls, linked together at the upper part in a fore and aft direction. A small craft can thus be propelled into the archlike aperture between the two hulls, and by means of the hoisting gear supported from the lattice-work portals or bridges fitted to the upper part of the dock-ship it can be lifted clear of the water. When this operation is completed, beams are swung out from both of the inner sides of the dock-ship, thus forming a platform for the support of the small vessel. The Vulkan, as the dock-ship is called, is 269 feet long and 77 feet wide, this great width being necessary to allow the passage of small craft between the two hulls. Her lifting capacity is 1,400 tons, and two