Docket

“ It is interesting to watch the labours of a crew of workmen in a dry dock. If a ship looks large in the water, it looks startlingly gigantic in a dry dock, especially if one walks down to the dock floor and views the high bow or the overhanging stern from the level of the keel. Propellers from a distance look small, but with half-a-dozen men realigning their blades or working about them, they look huge indeed. ”

“ The dry-dock accommodates a ship as long as three hundred and forty feet, and is one hundred feet across. The gouty steamer potters comfortably in, and lays up its tired keel, while the dock is being discharged, as serenely as a patient who lays his foot on the knee of a corn-doctor: in due time, relieved and sound, the invalid is ready to take the stage of life again. Another boat comes in to be lengthened: it has growing-pains, and wants assistance. The stern is sliced off, the keel is spliced, and the adolescent leaves the docks longer by twenty feet. ”

“ Stationary cards are also fixed to a part of the upper lining of the box. The machine is fed by a pair of rollers, which unwind the sheet of cotton from the roller of the spreading machine, and pass it into the cards. These lay out the fibres in one direction, and leave behind upon the stationary cards lumps and imperfections that have escaped the other cleaning operations. As the fibres are carried over on the large cylinder, they are gathered and taken in a fine fleece by the teeth of another cylinder called a doffer, which revolves slowly in a contrary direction. ”

“ Dock and I met in the fish-house at ten o'clock. He had a lantern, so that we could see to count the money. We sat down on the rocks to talk the matter over, for Dock wanted the whole of the money then, and promised to give me my share when we got to Australia. I didn't like this; and while we were talking about it, the steward tumbled down through the floor of the loft right between us. I never was so scared in my life. I thought the evil one was after me for what I had done. Dock was as scared as I was, and we both ran off as fast as our legs would carry us. ”

“ Being in America, too, which our vagabonds do so particularly favour, it seemed the more probable.
The great difference in appearance between these packets and ours, is, that there is so much of them out of the water: the main-deck being enclosed on all sides, and filled with casks and goods, like any second or third floor in a stack of warehouses; and the promenade or hurricane-deck being a-top of that again. A part of the machinery is always above this deck; where the connecting-rod, in a strong and lofty frame, is seen working away like an iron top-sawyer. ”

“ In 1800, when he had risen to be master shipwright assistant in the yard, he invented a device which, as compared with the laborious process of lifting then in vogue, greatly reduced the time required for effecting repairs to the lower portions of ships in dry dock. His plan was to make the keel of the ship rest upon a series of supports placed on the floor of the dock and each consisting of three parts—two being wedges arranged one on each side of the keel at right angles to it, with their thin ends together, while the third was a vertical wedge fitting in and supported by the lower pair. ”

“ A hundred men may be swinging on scaffolds which are hung over the ship’s side by lines from the deck, and they remind one who is watching from a distance of flies or ants on a wall. A regiment of workmen may disappear beneath the huge bulge of the ship’s underbody in order to scrape or paint or repair. Fathoms of cable may follow an anchor from the hawse pipes to the dock floor as the “ground tackle”—that is, the anchors and cables—is cleaned, painted, and examined. ”

“ FIG. 18. HOW THE DECK IS MADE.
Cut out a rectangular hole 1⁄2 inch wide and 2 inches long in the for’ard end of the deck, for the screws and the wires of the switch to pass through. Screw the porcelain block of the switch to a board of the same size, with the tin deck in between them; this insulates the screws of the switch from the tin, which would otherwise short circuit the battery and run it down. Run sealing-wax in and around the edges of both the porcelain and wood blocks to make a watertight joint, for water must not get into the boat. ”

“ None of these drawbacks apply to the floating dock. These immense modern structures of [354] steel and iron can receive vessels longer than themselves, and in the case of the off-shore docks, can receive vessels wider than themselves.
Should a vessel be heavily down by the head or stern, a floating dock can be tilted to lift it, and should the vessel be heeling over, the dock itself can be inclined so that it shall receive it without difficulty. Yet another advantage is that the floating dock can be used in any kind of ordinary weather. Lying at its moorings it is head on to wind and sea. ”

“ Even with a fairly heavy sea running, a damaged and leaking vessel can be brought upon the dock where its weight, added to that of the dock itself, makes the combined structure additionally stiff, so that the necessary repairs can be undertaken in safety as soon as the vessel is lifted, and with as much ease as if the dock and its burden were in still water. Floating docks also can be used at any state of the tide, but he would be a rash man who attempted to warp a vessel into an ordinary dry dock with the tide running past the entrance with any degree of strength. ”

“ A very common method is to make a box, a foot or less square, open, or with a pane of glass on one side; a stick three or four feet long is run through an auger hole in the top and bottom, and wedged fast, which forms a standard; the other end of the stick is run through a hole on the little deck on the forward part of the boat, and placed in a socket formed for the purpose in the bottom, and is wedged at the deck, so as to make it steady. ”

“ There are two kinds of docks, dry-docks and wet-docks. The former are used for receiving ships in order to their being inspected and repaired. For this purpose the dock must be so contrived that the water may be admitted or excluded at pleasure, so that a vessel can be floated in when the tide is high, and that the water may run out with the fall of the tide, or be pumped out, the closing of the gates preventing its return. Wet-docks are formed for the purpose of keeping vessels always afloat.... ”

“ Upon the under side of each of the pulley wheels is fixed a box, through which one of the arms of the instrument slides, and is clamped where required. At the end of one of the arms a socket is fixed to carry a tracing point, at the end of the other arm a similar socket is fixed for a pencil. The pencil socket may be raised by a lever attached to a cord, which passes over the centres of the instrument to the tracing point. ”

“ We will go back to the top of the stack. You look down, getting straight above a guy wire, reach over as far as you can and paint, leaving the space directly in front clear; drop down about ten feet, painting as you go; draw up to the top again, switching the stack hook over and directly above the next nearest guy wire. In order to accomplish this, take an extra hook similar to your stack hook and about seven feet of 1⁄2-inch line. Place [26] the extra hook over the top; tie the other end of the sling to the rope of your boatswain chair, making it good and secure. ”

“ A two-decked ship has no middle-deck, but possesses only a main and lower-deck, besides the before-mentioned quarter-deck, gangway, and forecastle. The deck on which a frigate’s single battery is carried is always called her main-deck, because the sailors are wont to denominate the upper-deck of every ship carrying guns the main-deck. In a sloop-ship or corvette the only deck, without any one above it on which guns are carried, is thus invariably called the main-deck, and, as has before been said, the one beneath it on which the officers and crew live, and which has no guns, the gun-deck. ”

“ Generally the upper and lower sills of a lock are at the same level, a foot or two higher than dock-bottom; and the depth at which they are laid is governed by the same considerations as the sill of an entrance. Vessels longer than the available length between the two pairs of gates can be admitted close to high water, when the water in the dock and outside is at the same level, and both pairs of gates can be opened. ”

“ There are two cast iron sluices to every gate, each 3 feet square in the clear, worked hy a wrought iron screw, with a sluice rod reaching to the top. The machinery for opening and shutting consists of a 6 inch pinion, working into a cog-wheel 4 feet diameter, on the axis of which is a cast iron roller 2 feet 9 inches long by 10 1/2 inches diameter for the gate chain to wind on. The other parts of the gates and their append- ages are so much like those of the Old dock lock, that it is deemed unneces- sary to repeat the description. ”

“ Jetties at Docks.—Where docks are given sloping sides, openwork timber jetties are generally carried across the slope, at the ends of which vessels can lie in deep water (fig. 1) ; or more solid structures are erected over the slope for supporting coal-tips. Pilework jetties are also constructed in the water outside the entrances to docks on each side, so as to form an enlarging trumpet-shaped channel between the entrance, lock or tidal basin and the approach channel, in order to guide vessels in entering or leaving the docks. ”

“ Simultaneous with the thud of the shutting gate is the clank of chains and the rattle of clamps and clogs, as of the striking off of fetters and handcuffs, an asthmatic jingle of a bell somewhere in the body of the boat, a slight slush of revolving paddle-wheels, and the great brute, as steady as a spirit-level and as powerful as a battering-ram, separates itself from the dock like the opening blade of a penknife. ”

“ The light has a double control, one cord governing the vertical adjustment, and another, arranged like that of a ship’s wheel, the horizontal pivotal range. The vertical adjustment is desirable, but not essential. The control cords are run in screw eyes along the coaming of the craft, so that one person can paddle the canoe, and adjust the searchlight as well. Dry cells, stored under the bow deck, or in a box set at some other convenient place, supply the current for the 6-volt lamp.
Canoeing and Boating at Night Is Safer and More Pleasurable if the Craft is Equipped with a Searchlight. ”

“ A dry dock difiers from an ordinary dock only in the fact that it is smaller, and provided with machinery for pumping out the water in order that the vessel may be repaired. All injuries suffered by the hulls of vessels below the water line, by collision or stranding, must necessarily be repaired in a dry dock, to prevent the inflow of water, but it has never been supposed, and it is believed the proposition is now for the first time made, that such repairs were made on land. ”

“ Discs can be obtained at some box factories for seven and ten cents apiece for sizes 151⁄2” and 191⁄2” in diameter, respectively. They are made of two ply wood and make good reels. A good way to get the holes opposite is to clamp the two discs together and bore all the holes thru both at the same time. Others make reels very much like our grandmothers’ yarn reels. Two arms are halved together and short cross-pieces are attached to the ends, Fig. 204. For speed they are made with long arms and take up a good length of string at a single turn.
Another way of building up a reel is shown in Fig. ”

“ It becomes necessary in making heavy round cords, such as are used by athletes and in the manufacture of airplanes, to have a very durable covering over the strands of rubber. Such a covering is put on by using double deck machines, where above the regular machine there is another bed plate having a second set of carriers which travel around the braided fabric coming up from the lower deck. ”

“ The magazine for the powder is carried on the hinder part of the machine, without-board, and so contrived that, when he comes under the side of a ship, he rubs down the side until he comes to the keel, and a hook so fixed as that when it touches the keel it raises a spring which frees the magazine from the machine, and fastens it to the side of the ship ”

“ One, 51⁄4 inches diameter (Fig. 62) , is composed of two thick strands, spirally intertwisted with two sets of finer wires, each set consisting of a plait of two very thin wires, bordered by a single fine wire on each side. These lie in the hollows of the twists between the thicker strands, and add greatly to the beauty of the necklet. The ends of all the strands are united together, forming terminal flattened expansions, which are provided with recurving hooks to fasten the ring when worn. ”

“ The heel-post is a massive piece of cast iron; the bottom part is bored out, and into it is fitted a cast-iron cylindrical pin, 1 foot 6 inches diameter and 7 feet 6 inches long. On this are ground discs of steel, lubricated with oil, whereon the gate rests and turns. Thus the surfaces exposed to friction are above the sand or grit at the bottom of the dock. The lower end of the pin fits into a cast-iron socket fastened to the masonry, and is prevented from turning round by being made hexagonal. ”

“ The last time I saw it, it was wedged between the forecastle deck and the iron frame of a bunk.”
“The court accepts the evidence,” chortled Sturgess. “We find in close conjunction the remains of a bunk and a deck. If you produce a key, and unlock the aforesaid trunk, it will be declared yours without further inquiry.”
“There is no key. It is only strapped.” ”

“ Betty's father used all he had without success, and then the boys were called on. They were not able to produce the Sesame to the japanned box, and Will's plan of using an axe was finding more favor when Allen produced a small key of peculiar make.
"Try this," he said. "It locks the switch on the motor boat, but it may fit. It looks as though it would."
And, to the surprise of them all, it did. As though it had been made for that lock, the little switch key slipped in. There was a click, a grinding sound, as the cover slipped on the sand-encrusted hinges, and the lid went back. ”