HC Deb 22 February 1892 vol 1 cc900-1
DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid.)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty if the channel excavated between the floating dock at Haulbowline and the deep water river channel is now patent; and, if so, what is the greatest depth there obtainable at ordinary high tides for permitting the passage of ships; whether it is now possible to dock any first-class armoured vessel; if it is true that leakage still occurs into the dry dock in Haulbowline Dockyard; what has been the total amount of money spent upon the construction and the equipment of this dockyard; and what is the character of the dockyard work for which this yard has been built?

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

The channel between the dock at Haulbowline and the deep water river channel is clear, and the depth obtainable at ordinary high water spring tides is not less than 26 feet 9 inches. This will allow all but the heaviest ironclads to be docked. At high water neap (or low) tides the depth of water would be 2 feet 6 inches less, or 24 feet 3 inches. The dolphins now being erected at the entrance of the channel will be completed by 31st March, and additional dredging will then be carried out. Water still leaks into the dry dock, but there is nothing unusual in this, as leakage occurs in every dock of the same kind, The total expenditure upon works in this dockyard up to the present time has been about £611,900, including £8,900 for machinery. The character of the work for which the dockyard has been established is primarily the repair of Her Majesty's ships in an emergency.

DR. TANNER

May I ask the noble Lord whether it is not the fact that, having in view the statement of the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1875, that Haulbowline Dock was to be used for the construction of ships, the present Government are going back upon the undertaking given by a late Conservative Administration, and that this yard is to be used, according to the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, merely for the repair of gunboats?

LORD G. HAMILTON

No; I never understood that a pledge was given to make this a building yard, and it certainly has not been so constructed.

DR. TANNER

I would call the at tention of the noble Lord to a statement made by the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1875, in reply to a question addressed to him from these Benches.