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

Mr. J .B. Redman cont'd :

There were docks on the Thames, constructed mainly by the owners of the yards, that leaked like a sieve, and the consequence was that they were not a very profitable enterprise ; but he could give many examples of docks that had been the mainstay of families for three generations, who had lived in opulence upon them. It was a serious charge against graving-docks to say that they had generally been a source of loss.

It was also very suggestive, that although the bill for the first great Metropolitan dock — the London Dock — contained a clause for constructing drydocks, the “ long shore ” interest expunged it, and so with all its successors until the Victoria Docks first obtained the necessary powers. No doubt if vessels of 5,000 tons could be hauled up and launched in the way proposed, shipowners would be glad to avail themselves of them at the reduced cost ; but when there was a dry dock into which ships could enter without risk, whether the charge was double or treble, they would probably prefer the dry dock. Everybody knew that even taking a vessel of that tonnage into a floating-dock, especially in a gale of wind, was a rather nervous process, but what would it be to haul a vessel of that description up an incline of 1 in 20 ?

Mr. W. B. Lewis observed that it ought not to be taken for granted that everyone admitted that the “ Great Eastern ” was stopped in launching by any settlement in the ways.

Mr. Redman supposed the stoppage arose from irregularities in the resisting medium forming the ways, which created a variation in the friction to the moving mass.

Mr. T. Summers.

Mr. T. Summers said it was stated in the Paper that his firm had made hauling machinery, which “ will no doubt answer well for moderate weights, but it is open to objection when applied to vessels of large dimensions, both on account of the difficulty in making gearing to withstand such enormous strains, and in obtaining wire rope sufficiently large, pliable, and durable.”