Sunday, November 11, 2012

Wellington's Jubilee floating dry dock

Tekoa in the dock, 1940
This was built in 1931 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Company Ltd at the Wallsend Yard on Tyneside.  Specifications were: 17,000 tons of lift, 584 ft (167 metres) long and weight 5,000 tons of steel.  It was named the Jubilee Dock in honour of a jubilee of the Harbour Board. To be delivered to Wellington it was towed 13,627 miles (21,926 km) by Dutch tugs Zwarte Zee & Witte Zee which took 166 days.

At the end of 1988 it began a tow to Bangkok, but broke up in early January 1989 and sank in two separate sections.  For more info and pics, see the book Wellington: a Capital Century.

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