A Brief Sketch of the Plan and Advantages of a Sectional Floating Dry Dock, combined with a Permanent Stone Basin and Platform, and connected with level bedways, sliding ways, and housed slips, for repairing, launching, and laying up in ordinary the ships of the United States Navy

[Dakin, S. D.]; P[aul] R[apsey] Hodge, civil engineer and draftsman

Published by New York: Printed by Jared W. Bell, Corner of Nassau and Ann Streets, 1844. Mess [ieurs] Dodge, Burgess, Moody & Bacon, lithographers

About this Item

8vo (8" x 5.5"), no wrappers, removed from sammelband. [1], 32 pp., folding lithograph, 15"x 29", signed in the image "P. R. Hodge C. E." CONDITION: Good, plate with 9 cm fold separation and a 5 cm tear. A scarce proposal for a new dry dock system, illustrated with a large and impressive lithograph, based on a drawing by Paul Hodge and entitled Proposed Plan of a Sectional Floating Dry Dock and Permanent Stone Basin, Connected With Bed and Sliding Way. The lithograph depicts a three-masted ship in an elaborate floating dry dock adjacent to a Navy Yard pier. A nearby ship house accommodating a single ship and three sets of ways is surmounted by a U.S. flag. Various elements of the image are lettered and a corresponding key appears on the page opposite the plate. The text describes the development of Navy docks, and the need identified by Thomas Jefferson to preserve resources by building dry dock systems for maintenance. The appendix includes testimonials addressed to Congress by shipwrights, ship builders, shipping agents, and influential businessmen in support of this system that would be more cost effective than the traditional Granite docks. Paul Rapsey Hodge was an inventor and engineer known for creating the first steam-powered fire engine which, unfortunately, was rejected by firefighters as being too unwieldy. OCLC records just five copies. Seller Inventory # 6096

Bibliographic Details

Title: A Brief Sketch of the Plan and Advantages of...

Publisher: New York: Printed by Jared W. Bell, Corner of Nassau and Ann Streets, 1844. Mess [ieurs] Dodge, Burgess, Moody & Bacon, lithographers

Binding: Soft cover

Signed: Signed by Author(s)