DRY-DOCKING AT PANAMA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 56, 27 June 1914, Page 4

DRY-DOCKING AT PANAMA.

A novel use has been found for one of the big locks of the Panama Canal at Gatun. A few weeks ago one of the east locks was temporarily converted into a dry dock for the purpose of overhauling live American submarines, which have been stationed at the Atlantic entrance of the canal for some months. As the lock chambers are arranged in pairs, it is possible thus to us-o one of them as a' dry dock without intor T fering with the passage of vessels through the other. In the midst of the work 'on the submarines an emergency arose which required the docking of another vessel in tho same lock. An explosion had occurred in' one of the oil tanks of the large Clyde-built dredger Corizal. which had been employed in removing the Cucuracha slide. This explosion caused considerable damage to the dredger's bottom, and drydocking in order to effect repairs was necessary. It was, therefore, decided to place the Corizal in the other half of the chamber occupied by the submarines. Before doing so, however, it was necessary to make some arrangement by which the submarines should not be disturbed when docking the dredger. Instead of lloating those vessels, as would be done in tho ordinary way of things, their tanks were filled, and the craft were otherwise prepared just as though they were to make a dive, so that when the water was let intr the lock they remained securely in their cradles. So far as is known, this is the first time that submarines, with a full crew on board, have been submerged in such a way. The latest information from Panama is to the effect that the dredgers are gradually overcoming the slides.