2 NOTES ON DOCKS AND DOCK CONSTRUCTION. 



tions led to numerous extensive improvements in the existing 

 docks and slips, and to the introduction of floating basins for 

 the accommodation of vessels loading and discharging. Liver- 

 pool appears to have taken the lead in England, the first floating 

 or wet dock having been constructed there in 1709, but nearly 

 a century appears to have elapsed before the example was 

 followed by other ports. At Hull, the old dock, now known 

 as the Queen's Dock, was completed and opened in 1778. At 

 Grimsby, dock and harbour works were in hand in 1797. On 

 the Thames, a small dock existed at the beginning of the century 

 called the Greenland Dock, but it was of very limited capacity, 

 and only used by whaling-vessels. The first of the floating 

 docks constructed on the Thames was the West India, the 

 excavations for which were began in July, 1800, and vessels 

 entered the import dock in the month of September, 1802. 

 The London Docks were opened in 1805, and the East India 

 Docks in 1806. Bristol and Hull appear to have come next 

 with wet or floating docks which were opened in 1808 and 

 1809. At Wick, a tide basin for the accommodation of the 

 fishing-boats was commenced in 1808. 



The necessity of providing ample dock accommodation has 

 come to be fully recognized, and is looked upon as a question 

 of the first importance, not only by all those seaport towns 

 which aspire to become the outlets of commercial enterprise 

 and energy, but by some of the largest inland centres of in- 

 dustry, as instanced by the case of the Manchester Ship Canal. 



The conditions governing the designing and construction 

 of docks are eminently different to what they were during the 

 early part of the century, or even twenty-five or thirty years 

 ago. Then, sailing-ships of a short and bluff type had chiefly 

 to be provided for. Now, provision has to be made for vessels 

 of altogether a different character, of great length and narrow 

 in comparison, and of a much greater draught of water, calling 

 for entirely different treatment in arranging the proportions 

 and details of dock construction. 



Classes of Docks. Docks may be classed as wet docks, or 

 basins ; dry, or graving docks ; lifting docks ; and slips. 



Wet docks are large enclosures, usually several acres in 

 extent. The entrance may be open, but is more frequently 

 closed by gates or caissons, in order that the water may be 

 retained at a constant level. 



