Hamilton Graving Dock / SS Nomadic - Titanic Quarter - Belfast
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SMacB
N 54° 36.345 W 005° 54.663
30U E 311989 N 6054815
The 450ft long Hamilton Graving Dock (1863 - 1867) was the first graving dock to be built on the County Down side of the River Lagan. It is serviced by the 12 acres of sheltered water that form the Abercorn Basin.
Waymark Code: WMV24T
Location: Ulster, Ireland
Date Posted: 02/11/2017
Views: 6
"Situated in the heart of the Titanic Quarter beside the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Hamilton Dock and Pump House sit proudly in front of the new world-renowned Titanic Belfast visitor centre – seamlessly linking the old with the new.
Now listed as a historic scheduled monument, Hamilton Dock was built between 1864 and 1867 and is the oldest graving dock on the County Down side of the river. The plan to build the dock initially caused some controversy and was unpopular with the local shipbuilders who preferred the docks to be on the County Antrim side of the river and closer to their homes; remember in those days Belfast had few bridges. However the recently formed Harland and Wolff shipbuilders were adamant and put pressure on the Harbour Commissioners to construct Hamilton Dock, thus paving the way for the rise of shipbuilding on Queens Island and ultimately the building of Titanic.
For over 120 years (from 1867 until the 1990’s) Hamilton Dock was used for repairing, maintaining and fitting out ships. Photographs taken of Queens Road when Titanic was being built place the Nomadic beside Hamilton Dock and it is strongly believed that she was originally fitted out in the dock in 1911.
Hamilton Dock was last used in the 1990’s and quickly fell into disrepair and it stayed that way until 2009 when the Nomadic Charitable Trust was looking for a new home for the restoration of Nomadic to be carried out. It seemed like a perfect solution to combine two authentic maritime assets and restore them both as a tribute to a time when Belfast was the envy of all other industrial cities in the British Empire, as home to the world’s biggest shipbuilder."
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