Showing the status of construction on August 1, 1905, and giving an idea of the concrete and granite walls before the surrounding hollow was filled with earth. The dam in the foreground protected the work from the Delaware River during building operations. The circular building nearest the dock is the pumping house; beyond that are the shops of the navy-yard. This is the second and latest dock built at League Island. It was completed in 1907 and is now the largest government naval dock in actual use in the country. It is 754 feet 7 inches on coping; 725 feet 101⁄2 inches on floor from head to outer sill. The new Puget Sound dock will be larger, but is only just begun. League Island is one of the few Atlantic Coast navy-yards where there is plenty of room for dock construction, most of the other yards being congested for space. Wilhelmshaven, so that they may be in close proximity to the North Sea, which is just now the pivotal consideration in the naval projects of the principal European powers. The United States Congress will be brought to a realization of the vital importance of the dock problem and its prompt solution after the Delawares are launched. Americans have gone ahead rather rapidly during the past decade, increasing the units and aggregate displacement of fighting craft, but have been imprudently negligent in the development of auxiliaries and other adjuncts, which are as essential to sea power as valor and gun power. America has barely emerged from the era of the 500-foot dock into that of the 750-foot dock, while Germany and its British neighbors across the channel are developing the 850-foot dock. This refers solely to naval docks, which are the result of governmental rather than private enterprise. The general tendency of modern shipbuilding - both naval and commercial- is toward the building of larger vessels. Not only is this true of first-class battleships and battle-cruisers intended for the fighting line, but also of smaller vessels, especially the destroyer type. The battleship has increased greatly in length, and grown wide in beam, with draught largely limited by available depths of harbor entrances and the Suez Canal. In Japanese naval circles, where there is not great need for considering the The first vessel to be docked in the new dry-dock at League Island was the battleship Kearsarge, on July 31, 1907, the date upon which this photograph was taken through the courtesy of officials of the yard. The vessel has just entered the dock, and this is a view of the stern of the ship taken from the direction of the Delaware River front. On rafts around the Kearsarge men of her crew are seen scraping and scrubbing her rull. They have already cleaned and brightened a band four feet wide around the vessel and are waiting for the water to be lowered in the dock so as to uncover four more feet of hull. The water is lowered gradually, not suddenly, and the men do this work while the rafts slowly descend along the sides of the vessel, as the water is lowered in the dock. This simple process does away with the erection of scaffolding around vessels when they are docked. Both this picture and the one on the opposite page bring out in clear and distinct detail the turrets, cranes, dock, superstructure, and other features of the Kearsarge as she looks when viewed from astern. This photograph, taken on the same day as the one on the opposite page, shows a stern view of the Kearsarge after entering the new dry-dock at the League Island navy-yard. The water has been pumped out of the dock, the sides of the vessel have been cleaned by the men on the rafts, and the hull of the ship is seen resting on parallel rows of keel-blocks, one row under the main keel in the center and a row under each docking keel on either side. In docking a warship these keels are first set so as to conform to the keel lines of the vessel, the blocks being set differently for various vessels. Then the water is turned into the dock, the caisson (or gateway) is floated away, and the ship enters. After that the water is again pumped out by powerful machinery, leaving the vessel in the position shown in the photograph. Just under the port propeller shafting two men may be seen at work. This gives a good comparative idea of the enormous size of the propellers of a modern twin-screw battleship. This is the new dry-dock at the League Island navy-yard as it looks since its completion. This picture was taken August 1, 1907, with the battleship Kearsarge resting within the dock. Besides showing the dock in detail, it gives an idea of the general shape of the hull and superstructure of the Kearsarge as viewed from the head of the dock and looking across the bow of the ship toward the Delaware River. On the left may be seen the circular pumping house and in the distance the opposite shore of the river. The granite steps on either side of the dock are used by workmen entering or leaving; material is slid down the inclined sluice-ways, which interrupt the granite tiers at regular intervals. This also is a concrete and granite dock and is the largest of the three at the Norfolk navy-yard. While it is about despatch of the Mikado's warships through the Egyptian link between the Orient and the Occident, there is no such handicap upon naval constructors in consideration of warship draught. Their latest battleships - the two Satsumas- have a designed draught of 27 feet 6 inches, as compared with 26 feet 6 inches in the Dreadnought. United States naval authorities no doubt realize the im portance of solving the dock question, but Congress has been slow in the appropriation of funds for that purpose. Some legislators seem to think that the appropriation of approximately $2,000,000 for a dock is ample provision; but several such appropriations make only a drop in the bucket, compared with what should be spent if thoroughly adequate docking facilities are to be obtained. |