Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The Patent for the Penarth Slipway - 1881 . . .

The dock at Philadelphia was designed for lifting vessels up to 2,800 tons gross weight and about 300 feet long. There were two slipways placed side by side, each served by the dock, and capable of berthing one vessel, but the cradles were not provided with rollers. The time occupied in operating on a vessel was two hours for lifting and seven hours for hauling on the slip, while the launching took nearly as long. The total cost of dock and slipways was about £163,000. (equivalent to approx. £22,905,391.09 in 2020)

It might be worth mentioning that by having two slipways side by side, each complete in itself and capable of dealing with two ordinary vessels, they could be arranged, if necessary, to act together so as to haul up jointly one large ship such as an ironclad.

The Paper is accompanied by several diagrams from which Plates 5, 6, and 7 have been prepared.

◊ Slipways for Repairing Ships - Plate 5 - Figs. 5 6, and 7.

This was the end of the reading of the Paper and a Discussion followed.