A Treatise On The Principles And Practice Of Dock Engineering

DOCK ENGINEERING. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL AND DISCURSIVE. InTRODUCTORY DeFINITIONS-PoRTS AND THEIR FuNCTIONS-The DEVELOPMENT OF Maritime Engineering-The First Wet Dock-The Howland Great Wet Dock-Recent Progress-Dock Administration—Historical Notices of tiif Ports of London, Liverpool, New York, Glasgow, Hamburg, Antwerp, Marseilles, Rotterdam, Cardiff, and of tue Tyne Ports. Introductory Definitions.—In the terminology of maritime engineering, a Dock is an artificial repository for shipping. This definition, admittedly vague, and at first sight unsatisfactory, not to say incomplete, is, nevertheless, the only one, apparently, which can be devised to cover the manifold and diverse applications of the word. On considération, it will be seen that its terms do not admit of further restriction. Docks are divisible into three classes, with widely different charac- teristics and functions, viz. :—Wet Docks; Dry or Graving, and Slip Docks; and Floating Docks. Wet Docks are areas of impounded water within which vessels can remain afloat at a uniform level, independent of external tidal action. Ihey have also been termed Floating Docks, in which case the epithet denotes the object for which the dock exists ; but as this name is liable to be confused with that in which the epithet is descriptive of the dock itself, it is not at all suitable, and should be avoided. Dry Docks are those from which water can be temporarily excluded, in order that repairs to the hulls and keels of vessels may be effected. When the vessel is floated into the dock, and the water removed by natural or artificial means, the term Graving Dock is appropriate. When the vessel is partially withdrawn from the water by means of ways, the remaining water being excluded as before, the term Slip Dock is used. Floating Docks are franies or structures capable, by reason of their own flotation, of raising ships completely above water, and of maintaining them in that position during the execution of repairs. The term dock is also applied, though somewhat loosely, to tidal basins— at is, to areas of partially-enclosed water in free communication with 1