Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Greenock, Port Glasgow Road, Graving Dock
Dry Dock (20th Century)
Site Name Greenock, Port Glasgow Road, Graving Dock
Classification Dry Dock (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Inchgreen Dockyard; Firth Of Clyde Dry Dock Co.; Bogston; Ladyburn; Greenock Harbour
Canmore ID 68400
Site Number NS37NW 17
NGR NS 30784 75199
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/68400
- Council Inverclyde
- Parish Greenock
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Inverclyde
- Former County Renfrewshire
NS37NW 17.00 3077 7520
NS37NW 17.01 30340 75460 to 30690 75280 repair quay
For associated tanker cleaning installation and pier (centred NS 30400 75690), see NS37NW 18.02.
Graving Dock [NAT]
OS 1:10,000 map (1991).
Visible on vertical air photographs (OS 88/041/060-62, flown 1988).
(Undated) information in NMRS.
This dry dock, the adjacent New Repair Quay (NS37NW 17.01, to the NW) and the associated tanker cleaning installation (NS37NW 18.02) form an extensive and co-ordinated repair facility, apparently specialised to the requirements of tankers and owned and operated by the Firth of Clyde Dry Dock Co Ltd.
The dock is of rectangular plan, aligned NNW-SSE, and entered through a flap-type gate at the NW. The following principal measurements apply:
Length from gate to head of lock: 1000ft (304.8m)
Clear width at entrance: 145ft (44.2m)
Draft on cill HWOST: 37ft (11.3m).
Keel- and automatic bilge blocks are provided, as is a heel block, but there are no side shores
The repair quay measures 1300ft (396.2m) in length, and is dredged to 27ft (8.2m) at LWOST.
A variety of cranes (of up 61t capacity) serve both facilities. Also available are tank cleaning and gas freeing facilities, and a plating and machine shop.
The tanker cleaning installation (NS37NW 18.02) is situated on the Garvel Embankment that forms the outer arm of the Great Harbour. The jetty and moorings are designed to accept tankers of up to 150,000 tons dwt; a hose handling structure and a gas-freeing unit are incorporated.
[Illustrations include location plan and cross-section of dry dock: the date of opening of the facility is unstated, but was apparently about 1960].
Firth of Clyde Dry Dock Co Ltd [c. 1960].
During the 1950's, the rapid increase in the size of ships being built on the Clyde required the provision of a dry dock in the 1000ft [305m] class, a site in the lower reaches of the estuary being seen as most suitable. To allow the making of a contribution by the Clyde [Navigation] Trust, legislation was proposed to extend the geographic remit of the Trust. In the event, this proved unnecessary, a private concern (the Firth of Clyde Drydock Co) being fotmed in 1960. Despite strong pressure to develop a site near Battery Park [name: NS 251 775], the comampany secured ground near Greenock's eastern boundary with Port Glasgow, and the Clyde's long-awaited dry dock was opened in August 1964. With dimensions of 100ft [305m] by 145ft [44.2m] and a depth of 50ft [15.2m], the Greenock dry dock was able to accommodate vessels of up to 150,000 tons dwt.
J Riddell 2000.
Construction (1961 - 1964)
Tested in 1965 with arrival of Queen Elizabeth then the largest liner afloat. A notch had to be cut into the dock head to accommodate the bow.
Project (2007)
This project was undertaken to input site information listed in 'Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' by R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Publication Account (2007)
This dock (also known as Clyde Dry Dock) is part of a large self-contained ship repair installation constructed for the Firth of Clyde Dry Dock Co. Ltd from 1961–64. The dock is 1000 ft long, 145 ft wide at the entrance and 156 ft wide inside, with 27 ft depth of water over the sill at low water and 37 ft at high water. The walls are of the traditional gravity-type constructed in mass concrete, 10 ft wide at the base, battered slightly on the face, and up to 50 ft high. The head wall in plan is a semicircular arch of concrete backed with steel sheet piling.
The dock gate is of the box or flap type, 150 ft by 43 ft by 11 ft and weighs 150 tons. It was constructed upriver by the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company. The engineers for the project were a co-partnership of T. F. Burns and Partners and Babtie, Shaw & Morton. The main contractor was Edmund Nuttall Sons & Co. Ltd. The cost of the civil engineering works was £1.37 million, excluding plant and equipment.
The dock is of interest for having been tested in 1965 by the arrival for repairs to the Queen Elizabeth, then the largest liner afloat at 85 000 tons displacement. She was too long for the existing facility and a sizeable notchhad to be cut into the dock head to accommodate her bow.
R Paxton and J Shipway
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
