Number 3 Dry Dock

TQ 76 NE CHATHAM MAIN GATE ROAD Chatham Dockyard 762-1/8/77 No.3 Dry Dock

GV II*

Dry dock. 1816-21, by Sir John Rennie Snr. Granite ashlar. Round-ended dry dock has stepped sides in two sections separated by a walkway, with a stair flights at the end, and 4 further to each side, with stone slides for goods. Inner timber gates fit into recesses in the sides, and outer caisson to W river entrance. HISTORY: the first stone dry dock to be built at Chatham, drained by steam-powered pumps in the nearby dock pumping station (qv). The earliest of 3 uncovered dry docks, with capstans and former cannon bollards. The engineering is intermediate between Bentham's dry docks at Portsmouth, and Rennie's slightly later docks with iron gates and caissons at Sheerness (qv). Docks are the most significant structures in the operation of the Yard, determining the scope and scale of its work. No.3 dock was not only a major advance for Chatham, but was an important step in the development of the modern dry dock, at Sheerness. (Sources: Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 99-107; Archaeologia Cantiana: MacDougall P: Granite and Lime, Chatham Dockyard's First Stone Dry Dock: 1989: 173-192).

Listing NGR: TQ7586969305