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The Thompson Dry dockHarland & Wolff |
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The Thompson Dry dock was officially The dry dock served the shipyard well surviving into the latter years of the 1980's during which time it must have seen hundreds if not thousands of ships settle on its keel blocks to undergo fit out or repair, especially during the years of the Second World War when Harland and Wolff produced an average of one ship a week. The dock at a casual glance appears to be merely a hole in the ground When it is required to remove a ship from the
dock when work on it is complete, the dock is flooded by opening sluice
gates allowing The need for a graving dock larger than that which existed in the shipyard was first realised sometime before 1903, the size of ships on order not only to Harland and Wolff but Workman Clarke in Belfast and other yards throughout the world was constantly on the increase, owners realising the larger ships were more economical to operate. Plans for the Thompson Graving dock were drawn up by Mr Redfern Kelly, the harbour engineer, when it was completed it was the largest Dry or graving dock in the world its dimensions were or rather are as follows The pump house seen today replaced an earlier one on the site which serviced the Alexandra Graving Dock which was constructed between 1885 and 1888 by contractors McCrea and McFarland. The dock is named after the then Princess of Wales who officially began construction by turning the first sod. It was decided at the outset of construction of the Thompson dock to build a completely new facility which could be used to pump out both the Thompson Dock and The Alexandra Dock, When it was built the pump house was fitted with 3 1,000 horsepower engines to drive the pumps, in the image at the top of this page can be seen a brick factory type chimney it would seem likely that this was the chimney which served the boilers used to generate steam for these engines. Using all three pumps the Thompson Dock containing 21,000,000 Gallons, 96,000 tons could be emptied in 1hour 40 minutes. Apart from the drawing office of the shipyard the Hamilton Dock pump house is the only tangible link to the the era of the Titanic which survives. Prices:
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opened on Saturday 1st April 1911 it was the dock in which The Titanic
was fitted out, the first ship to enter the dry dock was The Olympic
sister ship to the Titanic. The operation to maneuver the Olympic into
the dock began at 10 am the tugs Hercules and Jackal completed the job
by 11.35. 
the
sea water to flood in. With the level inside the dock and outside the
same, the caisson or gate which in some ways resembles a ship itself,
but a ship which has been partially flooded so that it blocked the entrance
to the dry dock, it is pumped out causing it to become buoyant, it is
then pulled aside with capstan allowing the ship to leave. When flooded
the dock holds 21 Million Gallons
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