Volume Three - The Pontoon Era - The Engineer article . . .

	The “Engineer” images of the dock from the technical article dated the 24th September 1909:-

Eight mechanical side shores are supplied in addition to the usual accessories for facilitating the rapid handling of vessels during the operations of docking and un-docking, as, for instance, bilge shores, rollers fenders, rubbing timbers, and bollards.

A duplex reciprocating pump, with a capacity of 100 tons per hour, has been supplied by Henry Watson and Sons, of Walker Gate. The pump has a connection to the main drain of the dock, and will enable the last drops of water to be pumped from the dock. There is also a connection to the sea.

On the delivery side the pump is connected to a service pipe, which has connections at intervals for 3in. delivery hose. The pump is intended to be capable of throwing three jets of water to a height of 40ft.

An interesting feature of this floating dock is that it is wider than the entrance of the wet dock at Penarth into which it has to pass, and consequently the bottom pontoon has been built in two pieces.

In the plan it will be seen that there is a longitudinal joint running the entire length of the pontoon. Upon arrival of the dock in the Penarth Roads, this joint will be disconnected and the separate sections towed into the wet dock and thereafter reconnected and the attachments to the quay wall completed.

The dock left the river Tyne on Wednesday of last week in charge of two tugs Great Emperor and Tritton, of the John Dry Steam Tugs Limited, of South Shields, and it is expected to reach the Bristol Channel towards the end of the current week.

Some few weeks will, however, elapse before this floating dock is ready for commercial service, as the berth for its accommodation has not yet been completed."