What does Dry Docked Mean??

[BobL]

We are sailing on the Triumph on 4/15. I read somewhere that it was dry docked last fall. What does this mean? What do they do to the ship in dry dock? Have any of you been on her since?

[Raoul Fiebig]

BobL,

when a ship is dry-docked it is positioned in a shipyard dock from which all water is drained off so that the ship sits "on the dry". This is done so that work can be carried out on the underwater hull.

Ships must be dry-docked every couple of years and usually the cruise lines use the time at the shipyard to refurbish their ships. This could be anything from changing carpets etc. to virtually rebuilding the ship.

[Dave]

Drydocking a ship is a fascinating thing to watch. In my Navy days we entered drydock a few times on both of the ships I served on. The expertise of the shipyard workers was quite evident. I don't know how they do it these days but in the 70's and 80's they used wood supports placed in strategic positions under the keel. They'd position the ship in a pinpoint fashion and then pump the water out of the drydock. It was amazing to see an aircraft carrier sitting like that. I believe they told us they had to adjust the resting point locations for each subsequent drydocking so that they didn't overstress the same points and cause a structural problem to occur.

[Raoul Fiebig]

Originally posted by Dave56:
I don't know how they do it these days but in the 70's and 80's they used wood supports placed in strategic positions under the keel. They'd position the ship in a pinpoint fashion and then pump the water out of the drydock.

Dave,

it's still done that way today.

Here are a couple of pictures of "QM2" in dry-dock at Hamburg's Blohm + Voss shipyard last November. They were taken by fellow CC moderator Stephan Giesen who was allowed to take pictures of the ship from within the dock. Simply amazing, even though, sadly, the weather was terrible.

[Dave]

Thanks for the photo link. This is another example of the old ways still being the best ways, although I imagine the alignment process for putting the ship onto the blocks is computer-aided these days. It also says much for the strength of wood!