Shipyard

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Monaco Marine Monaco Marine Antibes.jpg
Monaco Marine
Constanta Shipyard, Romania Constanta shipyard.JPG
Constanța Shipyard, Romania
Turku Repair Yard, Finland Viking XPRS Turku Repair Yard Jan 2014.jpg
Turku Repair Yard, Finland
Dubai Maritime City, Dubai, UAE Dubai Maritime City on 8 May 2008 Pict 3.jpg
Dubai Maritime City, Dubai, UAE

A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved with original construction, dockyards are sometimes more linked with maintenance and basing activities. The terms are routinely used interchangeably, in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles.

Contents

Countries with large shipbuilding industries include Australia, Brazil, China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. The shipbuilding industry is more fragmented in Europe than in Asia where countries tend to have fewer, larger companies. Many naval vessels are built or maintained in shipyards owned or operated by the national government or navy.

Shipyards are constructed near the sea or tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. The United Kingdom, for example, has shipyards on many of its rivers.

The site of a large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes, dry docks, slipways, dust-free warehouses, painting facilities and extremely large areas for fabrication of the ships. After a ship's useful life is over, it makes its final voyage to a ship-breaking yard, often on a beach in South Asia. Historically ship-breaking was carried out in drydock in developed countries, but high wages and environmental regulations have resulted in movement of the industry to third-world regions.

History

The oldest structure sometimes identified as a dockyard [lower-alpha 1] was built c.2400 BC by the Indus Valley civilisation in the Harappan port city of Lothal (in present-day Gujarat, India). [2] [3] Lothal's dockyards connected to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the present-day surrounding Kutch desert formed a part of the Arabian Sea.

Lothal engineers accorded high priority to the creation of a dockyard and a warehouse to serve the purposes of maritime trade. [4] The dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archaeologists as an engineering feat of the highest order. It was located away from the main current of the river to avoid silting, but provided access to ships at high tide as well.

The name of the ancient Greek city on the Gulf of Corinth, Naupactus, means "shipyard" (combination of the Greek words ναύς naus: "ship, boat"; and πήγνυμι pêgnumi, pegnymi: "builder, fixer"). Naupactus' reputation in this field extended back into legendary times - the site is traditionally identified by Greek authors such as Ephorus and Strabo as the place where a fleet was said to have been built by the legendary Heraclidae [5] to invade the Peloponnesus.

In the Spanish city of Barcelona, the Drassanes shipyards were active from at least the mid-13th century until the 18th century, although at times they served as a barracks for troops as well as an arsenal. During their time of operation the Drassanes were continuously changed, rebuilt and modified, but two original towers and part of the original eight construction-naves remain today. The site is currently a maritime museum.

From the 14th century, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory - in the Venice Arsenal of the Venetian Republic in present-day Italy. The Arsenal apparently mass-produced nearly one ship every day using pre-manufactured parts and assembly lines. At its height in the 16th century the enterprise employed 16,000 people.

Spain built component ships of the Great Armada of 1588 at ports such as Algeciras or Málaga. [6]

Historic shipyards

Prominent dockyards and shipyards

Africa

North America

Aerial view of Norfolk Naval Shipyard Norfolk Ship Yard.jpg
Aerial view of Norfolk Naval Shipyard

South America

Brasfels Shipyard - Rio de Janeiro Jacuecanga Angra dos Reis Rio de Janeiro Brazil Brasfels.JPG
Brasfels Shipyard – Rio de Janeiro

Europe

Girvan shipyard Alexander Noble and son, Ayrshire Scotland Girvan shipyard, Ayrshire.JPG
Girvan shipyard Alexander Noble and son, Ayrshire Scotland
Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany Luftaufnahmen -Papenburg- 2013 by-RaBoe 076.jpg
Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany
LaNaval shipyard in Bilbao, Spain LaNaval de Sestao.jpg
LaNaval shipyard in Bilbao, Spain

East Asia

South East Asia

Visakhapatnam Shipyard Shipbuilding yard.jpg
Visakhapatnam Shipyard

South Asia and the Middle East

Cranes in Cochin Shipyard (India). Cochin Ship Yard Cranes.JPG
Cranes in Cochin Shipyard (India).
Dhaka Shipyard Dhaka Shipyard - panorama.jpg
Dhaka Shipyard
Dhaka Shipyard - welding propellers Dhaka Shipyard - welding propellers.JPG
Dhaka Shipyard – welding propellers

See also

Notes

  1. An alternative classification describes the structure as an irrigation tank. [1]

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References

  1. Leshnik, Lawrence S.; Junghans, K. H. (October 1968). "The Harappan 'Port' at Lothal: Another View". American Anthropologist. 70 (5): 911–922. doi:10.1525/aa.1968.70.5.02a00070 . Retrieved 22 May 2024. The settlement in general and the basin in particular do not, in the author's view, appear to meet the requirements of a port. As an alternative, he suggests that the basin could have served as an irrigation tank for a moderately-sized but still rural village.
  2. 1 2 "Archaeological remains of a Harappa Port-Town, Lothal". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 10 February 2022. In close proximity to the enclosure identified as a warehouse, along the eastern side where a wharf-like platform, is a basin measuring 217 m long and 26 meters in width, identified as a tidal dock-yard.
  3. "This is Modi govt's plan for India's first National Maritime Museum in Gujarat's Lothal". 9 March 2020. Archaeological excavations discovered the oldest man-made dockyard — over 5,000 years old — in Lothal, located near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka Taluka of Ahmedabad district. [...] It was one of the southernmost cities, and the only port town, in the Indus Valley civilisation. [...] While the city has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the Indian government, its application is pending on the United Nation's tentative list. [...] According to UNESCO, stone anchors, marine shells and seals possibly belonging to the Persian Gulf corroborate the use of the basin as a dockyard where boats would have sailed upstream from the Gulf of Cambay during high tide.
  4. Marine, Mega (11 March 2023). "Lothal: The Maritime Trading Hub of the Indus Valley". Ship Machinery Parts. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  5. Müller, Karl Otfried, ed. (2010) [1841]. "Ephori fragmenta". Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 236. ISBN   9781108016605 . Retrieved 23 May 2024. Naupactus, ... sic dicta quod Heraclidae ibi classem compegerint, auctoribus Ephoro et Strabone.
  6. "Quarterly Review". Quarterly Review (100–118). Anglo-Spanish Society: 43. 1977. Retrieved 23 June 2023. It is probable that at least a quarter of the ships of the Great Armada sent against England were built at Algeciras or Malaga.
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