This stamp shows HMS ARGONAUT in the floating dock at Bermuda.
Lifting capacity 17,500 tons; Dimensions 545 ft x 126 x 55. The dock, with all its machinery, weighed 6500 tons.
From Hansard, 20 March 1900, (proceedings of the House of Commons)
MR. W. ALLAN (Gateshead) - I beg to ask the Civil Lord of the Admiralty what progress is being made with the new floating dock for Bermuda, and when it will be at work.
MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN - The dredging of the berth for the floating dock is proceeding, and some other preliminary work has been done. Plans and drawings for the dock and basins are now under consideration. The whole should be finished by the date given in the Schedule to the Naval Works Act, 1899.
Ordered on 7 December 1900 and built by C S Swan & Hunter Ltd, as Yard No. 262, at Wallsend on the River Tyne. Laid down on 25 October 1900 and launched on 8 February 1902. Cost £225,600.00. At that time she was the largest floating thing that ever took to the water.
Known as the BERMUDA DOCK, she left Wallsend on 26 May 1902 for Sheerness on the River Medway. Her first trial lift was the pre-dreadnought HMS SANS PAREIL, chosen for the test on account of her shape, and the fact that the peculiar distribution of her weight made her a somewhat difficult vessel to handle.
A first hand account described the docking and lift that took place on July 5th.
"The battleship was moored just above Sheerness, and about the time of high-water, about 11.30 A.M., she was taken in charge by three dockyard tugs, and brought up to the entrance of the floating dock. Steel-wire hawsers were made fast to the bow, and these being secured to the winches on the dock the hauling-in commenced. There was a strong breeze blowing down the reach at the time, and on the flood this had raised waves of a considerable size for enclosed water, the tide running in this part of the Medway with considerable force. With the turn of the ebb, wind and tide being together, the water was smoother, but still there was considerable motion. This, naturally, did not affect the dock in the slightest degree, as the whole of the pontoon was 28 feet below the water-line, and only the tops of the walls were above the surface. The heavy battleship of over 10,000 tons displacement she was drawing only 27 feet had to be hauled in against the tide, which was now running somewhat over 3 knots. Naturally, care had to be taken to keep her keel fairly parallel with the sides of the dock, for, had she got across, her spur would speedily have made a rent in the walls of the dock. With the powerful hauling appliances, however, there was no fear of this, and the vessel was under complete control with the wire hawsers on each side. The ship was centred on the keel blocks, and the upper rows of shores were fixed in position in something under two hours, and the work of pumping out the dock was commenced at a few minutes past two o'clock. Pumping was continued for fifty minutes, by the end of which time the dock and ship had been raised 13 feet, and it was then necessary to put in another line of shores. This operation occupied a considerable time, and it was late in the evening before the work was concluded, and the ship raised out of the water."
On 16 June 1902, towed by the Dutch tugs OCEAAN and ZWARTE ZEE, she departed from the Medway for Bermuda where she arrived on 8 August 1902. The only place at which it was necessary to call was the Azores, where the tugs replenished their bunkers. The 4,000 mile voyage took fifty-two days, including the stoppage of three or four days at the Azores.
She did not become operational until 1906 as the Admiralty were awaiting the completion of a breakwater and berth. In 1925 she was numbered AFD 1. During 1944 she docked 142 ships.
HMS ARGONAUT is know to have arrived at Bermuda on 17 April 1943, having departed from Gibraltar on 4 April, where she underwent repairs before sailing to Philadelphia.
In 1946 AFD 1 was replaced by AFD 5 and was sold in July 1946 to Regusci y Voulminot of Montevideo. She was towed by the Dutch tugs THAMES and ZWARTE ZEE and arrived in Uruguay on 10 March 1947. She is known to have been in service until 1989. She was not visible on Google Earth in 2008.
Sources: Admiralty Floating Docks (Part 1) by Dr Ian Buxton and published in Warships No. 160 – Published by World Ship Society.
HMS ARGONAUT Association website: http://www.hmsargonaut.co.uk/dido-class ... 2-1946.php
Bermuda 1991 20c sg636, scott619
Various websites.
Written by Mr. Peter Crichton.