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

Mr. G. B. Godfrey cont'd :

He agreed with the Authors as to the great superiority of this method of hauling ships on slipways, to the old way of disconnecting the links. In proof of this, he might mention that a vessel of 1,200 tons had last week been hauled up in twenty minutes.

He further agreed with the Authors that the adoption of slipways or dry docks could only be determined by actual experience of the necessities of different localities. A dry dock had unquestionable advantages when it could be entered from an adjoining wet dock ; and, where extensive repairs were required, the machinery could be more easily put into the vessel. On the other hand, for repairs to the lower part of a ship, or the replacing of a screw propeller, a slipway was most favourable, especially in the case of Messrs. Earle’s yard, where everything could be brought on trucks alongside the ship on the slipway, either from their workshops or the railway.

With reference to the stability of a slip constructed on the principle he advocated, it was remarked by Sir John Brown, Chairman of Earle’s Company, at their last annual meeting, that “ After six months use of the slip, and hauling up some of the largest ships, no settlement whatever had taken place. ”

Mr. James Leslie.

Mr. James Leslie remarked that in the original Morton’s slip, as erected at Dundee in the year 1837, the uppermost chain rod, A (Fig. 3), was 20 feet in length, when it reached the pitch-wheel, the pitch-chain could work no farther. The end B of the pitch-chain was thrown down into the pit, and by of a block and tackle was hauled up on the other side of the barrel, so that what had been its hinder end became its fore end, and if was ready to work again. That was rather a clumsy and troublesome operation; and, moreover, the fall of the chain smashed the pavement floor of the pit.

To obviate this, a small hole was bored in each of the studs of the pitch-wheel, and a small double link, C (Fig. 4), was made with two eyes, and two pins to fit them; one end was pinned through a stud of the pitch-wheel, and one through the eye of the chain B (Fig. 3), the engine set on, and one turn of the pitch-wheel carried the end of the chain round the pitch-wheel to its proper place, as at A (Fig.4), reversed and ready to work again.