Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 1034

HONGKONG

976

Hongkong Island. The establishments of this Company are fitted with all the best and latest appliances for engineering and carpenter's work, and the largest vessel in H.M.'s Navy on the China Station has been received into the No. 1 Dock at Hunghom. The docks and slips are of the following dimensions :-Hunghom :-No. 1 (Admiralty) Dock-700 feet in length, 86 feet in breadth at entrance at top and 70 feet at bottom, and 30 feet depth of water over sill at ordinary spring tides. No. 2 dock -Length on keel blocks, 371 feet; breadth atentrance, 74 feet; deptli of water over sill at ordinary spring tides, 18 feet 6 inches. No. 3 dock-Length on keel blocks, 264 feet; breadth at entrance, 49 feet 3 ins.; depth of water over sill at ordinary spring tides, 14 feet. Patent Slips: No. 1-Length on keef blocks, 240 feet; breadth at entrance,60 feet; depth on the blocks, 14 feet. No. 2-Length on keel blocks, 230 feet; breadth at entrance,. 60 feet; depth of water on the blocks at ordinary spring tides, 12 feet. Tai Kok Tsui : Cosmopolitan dock-Length on keel blocks, 466 feet; breadth at entrance, 85 feet. 6 inches; depth of water over sill at ordinary spring tides, 20 feet. Aberdeen: Hope dock-Length on keel blocks, 430 feet; breadth at entrance, 84 feet; depth of water over sill at ordinary spring tides, 23 feet, Lamont dock-Length on keel blocks, 333 feet; breadth at entrance, 64 feet; depth of water over sill at ordinary spring tides, 16 feet, The Hunghom and Cosmopolitan Docks are in close proximity to the shipping in port. and are well sheltered on all sides. The approaches to the Docks are perfectly safe and. the immediate vicinity affords capital anchorage. The docks are substantially built throughout with granite. Powerful lifting shears with steam purchase at Hunghom and Cosmopolitan Docks stand on a solid granite sea wall alongside which vessels can lie and take in or out boilers, guns and other heavy weights. The shears at Hunghom are capable of lifting 70 tons and the depth of water alongside is 24 feet at low tides. 1916 the capital of the Company was increased to $3,000,000. New land was purchased from the Government and 4 building berths and a new shipbuilding yard were built on the East of the old yard. The plant was extensively overhauled and at present the two yards are replete with all modern shipbuilding machines. The Hongkong and

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Whampoa Dock Company is capable of turning out steamers of 700 feet in length. Several large steamers have been launched in the Colony by this Company for the Controller of Shipping in Great Britain. In 1908 the new docks constructed by Messrs. Butter- field & Swire at Quarry Bay, just inside the Lycemoon Pass, were completed. The dock has been built to British Admiralty requirements, and has been designed to permit of further increasing its length if it should become necessary at some future time to do so. The dimensions of the dock are:-787 feet extreme length; 750 feet on the blocks; 120 feet wide at coping; 77 feet 6 inches wide at bottom; 88 feet width of entrance at top; 82 feet width of entrance at bottom; 34 feet 6 inches depth over centre of sill at high water Spring tides; 31 feet depth over sides of sill at. high water Spring tides. It can be filled in 45 minutes and pumped out in 2. hours 40 minutes. Founded on a solid rock bottom, it has been built of cement concrete and lined with granite throughout. A feature of the dock is the caisson,. of the box-sliding type, weighing 400 tons and electrically controlled. three slipways. No 1 slipway is 1,030 feet long and 80 feet wide, capable of taking up steamers 325 feet long, drawing 18 feet, and having a displacement of 3,000 tons. The other slipways are each 993 feet long by 60 feet wide, capable of taking steamers 300 feet long, drawing 17 feet, of 2,000 tons displacement. The building yard is 550- feet long, and 500 feet wide, and has been equipped with a view to the construction of passenger and cargo vessels, turbine steamers, steam yachts, torpedo-destroyers, steam launches, tugs and lighters. The engine shops are most extensive and complete, capable of undertaking the building of all classes of steam engines, including geared turbines. The establishment throughout has been fitted with the latest time-saving appliances procurable. The chief motive power is electricity, generated by gas engines, the gas- producing plant being the largest installed in the Far East. The electric shears situated on the sea wall lift 100 tons at a radius of 70 feet, and wagon and crane roads run the full length from end to end. This sea wall which forms the boundary of the yard is 3,200 feet long and built of concrete blocks of an average weight of 15 tons. There is a depth of 39 feet at high water Spring tides for the greater length of the wall, which will enable ships. of any size to berth alongside for the removal or fitting of heavy boilers, machinery, etc. The establishment is known as that of the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Co., Ltd., of Hongkong. His Majesty's Naval Yard likewise contains machine sheds and. fitting shops on a large scale, and repairs can be effected to the machinery of the British men-of-war with great expedition. A large extension of the Naval Yard, including an important reclamation on the foreshore, the construction of a dock (capable of accom- modating the largest ship afloat), and erection of various workshops was completed in 1909.

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