Thursday, October 20, 2022

Old Iron

 


8 comments:

  1. At the time of this picture it was in the second stage of being built. Note the anchor (and its chain) have not been added and the distinctive tripod mast has not been erected.
    Al_in_Ottawa

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    1. Initial construction called for twin "birdcage" or lattice style masts. Tripod masts were added during an extensive re-fit in 1926. The forward mast was topped with a fire control center. During that re-fit, her boilers were converted from coal to oil.

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    2. That class of dreadnoughts were built not with tripod masts, but with lattice masts, a partially completed one is seen in the photo.

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  2. On a related note - The U.S.S. Texas is currently in dry dock in Galveston, Tx. Video updates on YouTube.

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  3. Graving dock. The difference is extraordinary.

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    1. Hmmm?

      >>Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

      grav·ing dock

      noun
      another term for dry dock.<

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    2. found this on Quora
      Profile photo for Peter Trznadel
      Peter Trznadel
      Former Merchant SeamanAuthor has 4.2K answers and 923K answer views1y
      These days graving docks are called dry docks, but really, the difference is between a dry dock and a wet dock. Dry docks are or were enclosures or just river or creek frontages, even a beach that dried out at low tide leaving the ships high and dry.
      The wet dock came into its own, when ships lost the rounded fat bellied shape that could sit upright on the foreshore, and became more streamlined under water that meant they rolled over at an angle, either away from the quayside, or leant against it. Not really a good idea as ships got bigger. Here the wet dock was built with a stone lined pound or enclosure, this having a narrow entrance that had a set of gates to hold in the water, so the ships inside could remain afloat and upright at all times, this incidentally helped the ship master to gauge the trim and loading of the ship before sailing. One of the earliest was down stream of Bristol on the river Avon. Later docks were excavated and fitted with double gates so that they could hold a level inside but be more flexible to the state of the tide outside. One of the most extensive systems of wet docks are the docks at Liverpool, and the Royal group of docks in London. Built and excavated from the start as artificial wet docks.
      The Graving dock, was a specialist dock, that it had a pontoon gate, that is, it wasn’t hinged but floated into position then ballasted to sink it. The water in the dock was at low tide drained out, and the rest pumped out. these docks were used for building ships and repairing ships, where under water repairs were needed. Helped with copper bottoming of ships as they didn’t need to be slide down a slip in to the water, with a good chance of damaging the coppering. Many graving docks were actually in wet docks. King George graving dock in Liverpool, so named not for the king, but because it was built to hold the battleship, HMS King George. And there was the graving docks in the Royal London docks for Green Siley and Weirs, one of which is still sort of still there.

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  4. That drydock was completed c.1850, it's still in use. I worked on a film in the Navy Yard and saw them repair a couple Z Drive tugs using it. we shot the film in an unseen building immediately to the left in the foto. There were some smallish dahlgren guns nearby, too.

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