HMNZS WAIKATO in Drydock
HMNZS WAIKATO in Drydock
The sea is cruel. It is cruel to man, it is cruel to machine. The sea is very corrosive, and floating a large lump of steel in it is a perfect recipe for Fe2O3, among other things. It is also abrasive, slowly tearing off the protective passive coatings (hull paint).
A ship has to go into drydock many times in its life – for maintenance, repair, upgrades. It is also the second-most risky an operation for a ship – transitioning from a stable state to a floating one (which is interesting because for submarines, the act of surfacing is the same situation, and depending on the height difference between their centre of gravity, and their centre of buoyancy can mean the difference between a vessel that is floating, and one that is capsizing). The most dangerous time in a ship’s life is at its very first launch. Wonder why a ship’s launch always looks so violent? It is simply to get the transition over and done with as fast as is possible, so the ship can regain a state of equilibrium.
Oh and fwiw, you should see how many fish are recovered from the bottom of the drydock each time the water is pumped out! Typically, a skip full of water is placed into the bottom of the drydock before the last of the water is gone, and the fish are quickly caught and placed in that, to be returned to the sea on the other side of the barrier.
The ship in this case is HMNZS WAIKATO, the Mighty Wai. F55. One of my best years I can remember was the first year I sailed in her. Capable of 30 knots or so downhill, armed with 2x 4.5 turrets, torpedoes (and helicopter launched torpedoes), and a number of 50cal machineguns, she was a sub hunter Frigate. WAIKATO was steam-powered, which is quite an effective way of converting fuel to propulsion. If you think that is archaic, what do you think nuclear-fuelled ships are? 😉 I spend many an hour in the boiler room, temperatures up to 100F, noise over 100dB. 4 hours at a time in a space where the enormous power of the ship was generated, then flowed through the pipes around and past you on the way to the engine room.
Stu's Darkroom 