Floating Dock Bermuda 1868

[aukepalmhof]

Bermuda SG 34 etc., issued in 1902, show a vessel that appears to have just left a dry dock. I can find no reference to Bermuda having a permanent dry dock. However, she did have the first floating dock built for the Admiralty.

It was ordered from Campbell, Johnstone & Co of North Woolwich, on the River Thames, in August 1866. Launched on 3 September 1868. It had a lifting capacity of 10,000 tons and dimensions of 123 x 84 x 74 feet.

The cost was £247,589.00. The floating dock departed from The Nore on 23 June 1869 towed by HMS AGINCOURT & HMS NORTHUMBERLAND to Madeira. It left there on 6 July towed by HMS WARRIOR, HMS BLACK PRINCE & HMS TERRIBLE arriving in Bermuda on 29 July.

A permanent berth was completed on 23 August 1872. HMS TERROR was the first naval vessel to use the floating dock. In 1878 it was damaged by a hurricane and thereafter was less used. Corrosion became evident so the tanks were part filled with concrete and it was used as a graving dock with end gates fitted.

It was removed from the dockyard in 1904 and stranded at Spanish Point, Bermuda. The hulk was sold in July 1906 for breaking up in situ. Some remains were visible in the 1980s.

From Hansard 29 August 1887 (Procedings of the House of Commons)
SIR EDMUND COMMERELL (Southampton) asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, the original cost of Bermuda Dock, including expenses of delivery there; and the yearly cost of maintenance, including expenses of careening every three years; and if it is apprehended this cost will be increased from the difficulty of obtaining Native labour?

LORD CHARLES BERESFORD (A LORD of the ADMIRALTY) said: the floating dock, with its caissons complete, cost £247,589 5s. 7d., delivered afloat in the Thames. The dock was towed to Bermuda by certain of Her Majesty's ships during the summer of 1869. The charge of the dock was transferred from this Department to that of the Controller of the Navy in 1877; and the cost of maintenance for the last 10 years was £69,980 18s. 5d., the average per year being £6,998 1s. 10d.

Unfortunately I do not have an image of the stamp.

Sources: Admiralty Floating Docks (Part 1) by Dr Ian Buxton and published in Warships No. 160, a publication of the World Ship Society. Various websites.

Written by Mr. Peter Crichton
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[john sefton]

A stamp design which has given rise to a certain amount of controversy is that of the issue for Bermuda, used from 1902 to 1906. This series, consisting of stamps from 1 d. to 4d. in denomination, depicted a sailing ship about to enter a drydock, with two other ships in the offing. It is a common fallacy which has persisted for 60 years that the stamp design is intended to show the floating dock built by Swan and Hunter on the Tyne, and towed to Bermuda in 1902, before the stamps were issued in November of that year. As a matter of fact the stamp shows a design of far greater antiquity. It constituted the official badge of the Colony for many years prior to the adoption of the present ship badge, and long before the time the floating dock arrived at Bermuda.
Sea Breezes September 1962 by Ernest Argyle