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

Mr. A. Giles cont'd :

Another large dry-dock establishment, not far distant, had for many years been worked without profit, until the proprietors took to repairing, and since then they had done very well quite agreed that a vessel hauled up had better ventilation, and everything could be better seen than in a dry dock ; but in reference to the time required in the dock, it should be borne in mind that the repairs now required for steamships were mostly connected with painting.

Iron steamships — and nearly all steamships were now of iron — required docking for painting almost every voyage, certainly every three or six months, and for that purpose they need not be in dock more than two or three days. The average time in dock of a number of vessels in which he was interested was about three days, so that to make a system successful it would be necessary to get vessels in and out once in every three days.

The Authors had compared their method with a plan adopted in Philadelphia, at a cost of £163,000. He could not conceive any dry-dock for the purpose of accommodating vessels of the class above mentioned costing so much money. He thought that the objections to which he had referred increased with the size of the vessels.

It had always struck him that there was a point at the launch of a ship where it encountered an enormous strain, namely, when she was going off the ways, and the stem was floated while the bow of the vessel hung on the ways. The strain occurring to a ship of great length must be very considerable, and no doubt had necessitated a great increase in the strength of the keelsons and bottom plates.

He thought that Mr. Brunel felt that objection when he hesitated to launch the “ Great Eastern ” end on, and had launched her broadside. He therefore thought that a long vessel, being hauled up the slip, would to a great extent suffer a strain from her stem being afloat while her bow was held fast in the cradle. Of course with vessels of ordinary size the strain would not be so much felt, but with vessels 400 or 500 feet long, he thought the objection a serious one.