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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1882)
The West 'Shore. VOL. 8 No. 4. J L. 8mal, FnblUhar, ( I WMhlogtoa Bt, Portland, Oregon, April, 1882. InUnxl M th Pot to (Boo. Nr Annas, 1 Slngl taptM SPECIMEN NUMBER. Any one receiving this copy of The West Shore wilj please' consider it an invitation to become a regular subscriber. i THE PORTLAND DRY DOCK. The project of a dry dock at Port land had occupied the attention of Mr. Villard for some time previous to his visit last September, and before leaving the city he determined one of ample dimensions to accommodate the ship ping of this port should be built im mediately. At present the only dry docks on this coast in which large ships ar.d steamers can be repaired are situated at San Francisco. As a consequence vessels bound to this coast needing to be docked after voyages from distant parts of the world have necessarily sailed for that port, and have been prevented from chartering for Portland, which of course has had a tendency to increase freights from this port and give an advantage to our sister of the Golden Gate. After the completion of the Fcrtland dry dock the repairing business cf this coast, which is large and profita I! j and increasing annually, will be confined no longer to a single city, and with the other advantages of her situa ticn, Portland in the near future should t::ome famous for building as well as r. pairing vessels. The dry dock will be the property of t' 3 Oregon Railway and Navigation C. mpany, itself a large owner of steam t. nage employed in the river and c: sting trade; but while the company vrill do its own work in its own dock 1 yard, docking and repairing as iness will be carried on- for the con lience of the shipping of the port. id system, with moderate prices for :kage, materials and labor, will be ablished, and Portland will be made ractive to ships seeking these advan ;es for rebuilding and repairing, e facilities of the yard will extend to a as well as wooden vessels. The Portland dry dock will be the jest convenient to the Pacific ocean The dimensions are at follows: t f c' ( i t Length, extreme.. 410 feet all the lojjs used in erecting this rough Breadth, M 115 " and ready dam, were gathered from the Depth, " 50 " shores and picked up in the river, from Draught over sill, highest water, 46 M the drift brought down by the current. " M " lowest " 18 " It will be observed from the sketch Owing to the high stage of water that the construction of the dock is on prevailing when the Columbia river is a plan adapted to its situation, and the at its full this dock is the deepest in the best calculated for the materials of world. It is being built entirely of which it is to be built. Dcing entirely wood, in an excavation or basin, cut of wood the walls and bottom of the from the Willamette river, on the east interior are strengthened and stayed by bank, just below the present roadstead of piles driven deeply into the ground the harbor of Portland, a mile below Al- before the excavation is completed. In bina ferry, and on the recently acquired a work consisting of masonry which depot and wharf grounds of the 0. R. has sufficient weight of its own to resist & N. Co. Thus situated near the ter- the disturbing forces of earth and water. mini of the railroads radiating from this piling is not always needed to retain city the yard will have rail connection the material in place. In this deep and conveniences of the most desirable dock, however, and with timber mate kind with all parts of the country, rials it is indispensable. Accordingly, The accompanying sketch represents a its designer and builder, Wm.W. Bates, view of the dry dock and its picturesque shipbuilder and dry dock manager of ocatlon as the same will appear to an Chicago, has spared no study to secure observer 'passing up or down the river the strength and stability required in after the work is finished. At the present every part of the work. There are ten stage the dum necessary to exclude the piles, from thirty to forty-five feet in water of the river from the excavation length, driven with a a,oo pound ham to be made has been built. A consider- mer into the clayey bottom land in able quantity of earth has been wheeled which the dock is built, in every cross out in building the dam, which in section four feet apart, from one end of manner of construction, is unique. It the dock to the other. In other words, consists of a huge embankment of earth there are about i.aoo piles engaged in retained on the front and wings by a securing the frame of the dock in the wall of round logs, cribbed Inwards and course of its length. The frames are well chinked inside and outside; the erected crosswise ana covered with a rear or interior slope of the dam being skin of planking on the Inner side. Be battered more than the front or outer hind this planking and between it and sides, is held by square timbers bound in the earth adjacent the space is filled place by strips of boards, while around with well rammed or puddled clay both the inside and outside slopes for a thereby perfectly to embed the struct space of several feet, the earth is strati- ure of the dock and exclude deposits of fied and bound by courses of fir brush, water. 1 he entrance to the dock is to In cross section this dam is forty feet be closed by what is known a a Caimn wide at the base, twenty feet wide on or floating gate, which is brought up the top, and twenty.fi ve feet in height, against the abutments or either side, It extends down the 'river over aoo feet, secured in position sunk with water to and the wings have a length out from its placo' which being done the water In the bank of 1 15 feet ;thus enclosing the the dock may be pumped out with space required for entrance and piers at powerful machinery leaving the vessels the sides. Only that portion of the to be repaired standing high and dry dam across the entrance to the dock upon blocks prepared at the bottom of will be removed; the wings will remain the dock for the purpose. The caisson as protection to the pier. As illus itself is a pretty large vessel. It is 75 trating the drift-timber resources of the feet long, Jo feet wide, and 46 feet Willamette river, and the ingenuity of deep. It will float in 18 it. of water, ' the builder, it maybe mentioned that or whatever depth there may be ovec