Dry dock
A large basin was excavated at the north end of the Chin-ming Lake capable of containing the dragon ships, and in it heavy crosswise beams were laid down upon a foundation of pillars.Finally the beams and pillars were taken away, and the whole basin covered over with a great roof so as to form a hangar in which the ships could be protected from the elements and avoid the damage caused by undue exposure.[2][3]The Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis (V 204c-d) reports something that may have been a dry dock in Ptolemaic Egypt in the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204 BC) on the occasion of the launch of the enormous Tessarakonteres rowing ship.And in the trench he built props of solid stone five cubits deep, and across them he laid beams crosswise, running the laces whole width of the trench, at four cubits' distance from one another; and then making a channel from the sea he filled all the space which he had excavated with water, out of which he easily brought the ship by the aid of whatever men happened to be at hand; then closing the entrance which had been originally made, he drained the water off again by means of engines (organois); and when this had been done the vessel rested securely on the before-mentioned cross-beams.An account of 1434 described how a site near Southampton with a bottom of soft mud was selected for the warship Grace Dieu, so that the hull would bed itself in and remain upright at low tide.Possibly the earliest description of a floating dock comes from a small Italian book printed in Venice in 1560, called Descrittione dell'artifitiosa machina.An advantage of covered dry docks is that work can take place in any weather; this is frequently used by modern shipyards for construction especially of complex, high-value vessels like cruise ships, where delays would incur a high cost.For smaller boats, one-piece floating dry docks can be constructed or converted out of an existing obsolete barge, potentially coming with their own bow and steering mechanism.The latter, an Advance Base Sectional Dock which saw action in Guam, was mothballed near Norfolk, Virginia, and was eventually towed to Portland, Maine, to become part of Bath Iron Works' repair facilities.For example, the dry dock on the artificial island of Neeltje-Jans was used for the construction of the Oosterscheldekering, a large dam in the Netherlands that consists of 65 concrete pillars weighing 18,000 tonnes each.
USS Greenevillelittoral combat shipNASSCOmaintenanceSong dynastyShen KuoDream Pool EssayshangarAthenaeus of NaucratisPtolemaic EgyptPtolemy IV PhilopatorTessarakonteresgallonsVenicecareeningSouthamptonGrace DieuHenry VII of EnglandHMNB PortsmouthrevettedHMS M33Saint-NazaireChantiers de l'AtlantiqueAlmadaPortugalMeyer WerftPapenburgGermanyHarland and WolffBelfastNorthern Irelandmassive cranesSamsonGoliathNewport News ShipbuildingBeckholmenStockholmcaissondiversanti-submarine warfareUSS Michiganspy satellitesWorld War IIsubmarinessubmarine penGdyniaPolandpontoonfloodablebuoyancyvalvesballastRoyal Naval DockyardlimestoneBermudaWorld War IIU.S. Navyauxiliary floating drydocksAFDB-1AFDB-3Advance Base Sectional DockNorfolkVirginiaPortlandBath Iron WorksHughes Mining BargeGlomar ExplorerSea Shadowstealth shipGreat Balance DockNew York CityMarine railwayShipliftSlipwaypatent slipNeeltje-JansOosterscheldekeringNetherlandsimmersed tubeSilver LineRoyal Naval Dockyard, BermudaAnna Brasseyfloating drydockBollinger ShipyardsMississippi RiverAlgiers, New OrleansLouisianaBlohm + VossPort of HamburgSevastopolKronstadtJong ShynKaohsiung HarbourUSS Oregon (BB-3)List of dry docksSemi-submersibleSpace dockSt Nazaire RaidKirkpatrick, CyrilAshgate PublishingOppenheim, MichaelBodley HeadMoorhouse, GeoffreySpiegel OnlineJohn Wiley and SonsOleson, John PeterEncyclopædia BritannicaShipbuildingAncient shipbuilding techniquesShipbuilding in the early modern periodShipbuilding in the American coloniesDugoutCarvelClinkerStrip-builtMortise and tenonShipyardMould LoftShip model basinWater tunnel (hydrodynamic)Boat buildingSail planMarine engineeringMarine propulsionNaval architectureMaritime history