The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). Frederick Whymper
position.
Bermuda being, from a naval point of view, the most important port on the North American and West Indian Stations, it had long been felt to be an absolute necessity that a dock capable of holding the largest vessels of war should be built in some part of the island. After many futile attempts to accomplish this object, owing to the porous nature of the rock of which the island is formed, it was determined that Messrs. Campbell, Johnstone & Co., of North Woolwich, should construct a floating-dock according to their patented inventions: those built by them for Carthagena, Saigon, and Callao having been completely successful. The dimensions of the dock for Bermuda, which was afterwards named after that island, are as follows:—
| Length over all | 381 | feet. |
| Length between caissons | 330 | „ |
| Breadth over all | 124 | „ |
| Breadth between sides | 84 | „ |
| Depth inside | 53 | „ 5 in. |
She is divided into eight longitudinal water-tight compartments, and these again into sets of compartments, called respectively load on and balance chambers. Several small compartments were also made for the reception of the pumps, the machinery for moving capstans, and cranes, all of which were worked by steam. She is powerful and large enough to lift an ironclad having a displacement of 10,400 tons, and could almost dock the Great Eastern.
The building of the Bermuda was begun in August, 1866; she was launched in September, 1868, and finally completed in May, 1869. For the purposes of navigation two light wooden bridges were thrown across her, on the foremost of which stood her compass, and on the after the steering apparatus. She was also supplied with three lighthouses and several semaphores for signalling to the men-of-war which had her in tow, either by night or day. In shape she is something like a round-bottomed canal boat with the ends cut off. From an interesting account of her voyage from Sheerness to Bermuda by “One of those on Board,” we gather the following information respecting her trip. Her crew numbered eighty-two hands, under a Staff-Commander, R.N.; there were also on board an assistant naval surgeon, an Admiralty commissioner, and the writer of the book from which these particulars are taken. The first rendezvous of the Bermuda was to be at the Nore.
THE BERMUDA FLOATING DOCK.
On the afternoon of the 23rd of June, 1869, the Bermuda was towed to the Nore by four ordinary Thames tugs, accompanied by H.M.SS. Terrible, Medusa, Buzzard, and Wildfire. On arriving at the Nore off the lightship she found the Northumberland waiting for her. The tugs cast off, and a hawser was passed to the Northumberland, which took her in tow as far as Knob Channel, the Terrible bringing up astern. The Agincourt was now picked up, and passing a hawser on board the Northumberland, took the lead in the maritime tandem. A hawser was now passed to the Terrible from the stern of the Bermuda, so that by towing that vessel she might be kept from swaying from side to side. The Medusa steamed on the quarter of the Northumberland, and the Buzzard acted as a kind of floating outrider to clear the way. The North Foreland was passed the same evening, at a speed of four knots an hour. Everything went well until the 25th, when she lost sight of land off the Start Point late in the afternoon of that day. On the 28th she was half-way across the Bay of Biscay, when, encountering a slight sea and a freshening wind, she showed her first tendency to roll, an accomplishment in which she was afterwards beaten by all her companions, although the prognostications about her talents in this direction had been of the most lugubrious description. It must be understood that the bottom of her hold, so to speak, was only some ten feet under the surface of the water, and that her hollow sides towered some sixty feet above it. On the top of each gunwale were wooden houses for the officers, with gardens in front and behind, in which mignonette, sweet peas, and other English garden flowers, grew and flourished, until they encountered the parching heat of the tropics. The crew was quartered in the sides of the vessel; and the top of the gunwales, or quarter-decks, as they might be called, communicated with the lower decks by means of a ladder fifty-three feet long.
VOYAGE OF THE “BERMUDA.”
To return, however, to the voyage. Her next rendezvous was at Porto Santo, a small island on the east coast of the island of Madeira. On July 4th, about six o’clock in the morning, land was signalled. This proved to be the island of Porto Santo; and she brought up about two miles off the principal town early in the afternoon, having made the voyage from Sheerness in exactly eleven days. Here the squadron was joined by the Warrior, Black Prince, and Lapwing (gunboat), the Helicon leaving them for Lisbon. Towards nightfall they started once more in the following order, passing to the south of Bermuda. The Black Prince and Warrior led the team, towing the Bermuda, the Terrible being towed by her in turn, to prevent yawing, and the Lapwing following close on the heels of the Terrible. All went well until the 8th, when the breeze freshened, the dock rolling as much as ten degrees. Towards eight o’clock in the evening a mighty crash was heard, and the whole squadron was brought up by signal from the lighthouses. On examination it was found that the Bermuda had carried away one of the chains of her immense rudder, which was swaying to and fro in a most dangerous manner. The officers and men, however, went to work with a will, and by one o’clock the next morning all was made snug again, and the squadron proceeded on its voyage. During this portion of the trip, a line of communication was established between the Bermuda and the Warrior, and almost daily presents of fresh meat and vegetables were sent by the officers of the ironclad to their unknown comrades on board the dock. On the 9th, the day following the disaster to the rudder, they fell in with the north-east trade winds, which formed the subject of great rejoicing. Signals were made to make all sail, and reduce the quantity of coal burned in the boilers of the four steam vessels. The next day, the Lapwing, being shorter of coal than the others, she was ordered to take the place of the Terrible, the latter ship now taking the lead by towing the Black Prince. The Lapwing, however, proved not to be sufficiently powerful for this service. A heavy sea springing up, the dock began to yaw and behave so friskily that the squadron once more brought to, and the old order of things was resumed.
On the 25th the Lapwing was sent on ahead to Bermuda to inform the authorities of the close advent of the dock. It was now arranged that as the Terrible drew less water than any of the other ships, she should have the honour of piloting the dock through the Narrows—a narrow, tortuous, and shallow channel, forming the only practicable entrance for large ships to the harbour of Bermuda. On the morning of the 28th, Bermuda lighthouse was sighted, and the Spitfire was shortly afterwards picked up, having been sent by the Bermudan authorities to pilot the squadron as far as the entrance of the Narrows. She also brought the intelligence that it had been arranged that the Viper and the Vixen had been ordered to pilot the dock into harbour. As they neared Bermuda, the squadron were met by the naval officer in charge of the station, who, after having had interviews with the captains of the squadron and of the Bermuda, rescinded the order respecting the Vixen and the Viper, and the Terrible was once more deputed to tow the Bermuda through the Narrows. Just off the mouth of this dangerous inlet, the Bermuda being in tow of the Terrible only, the dock became uncontrollable, and would have done her best to carry Her Majesty’s ship to Halifax had not the Warrior come to her aid, after the Spitfire and Lapwing had tried ineffectually to be of assistance.
By this time, however, the water in the Narrows had become too low for the Warrior; the Bermuda had, therefore, to wait until high water next morning in order to complete the last, and, as it proved, the most perilous part of her journey. After the Warrior and the Terrible had towed the dock through the entrance of the inlet, the first-named ship cast off. The dock once more became unmanageable through a sudden gust of