Eastern City (5)

Moving the stern sections into position The first piece to be fabricated for each ship was the stern section. This was fabricated in a large covered building and this can be seen in the background behind the big gantry crane. When one ship completes in the building dock then the ship is floated out and taken to the fitting out berth. The stern section for the Eastern City that has just been fabricated in the shed is now brought out by the crane and will be floated in the dock before being towed to a small drydock so that all the piping and pumps etc can be fitted.

It can also be seen in the two photos above that the stern section for the next ship (yard No. 888) is also in the dock and has been brought around from the small drydock. After this section has been lifted out of the dock then the tugs will tow away the aft section for the Eastern City.

In this photo the stern section for the Eastern City (yard No.889) is being brough out to be floated in the dock before being towed to the small drydock for fitting out. The fabricated sections lying on the ground are for the next ship to be built - yard No.888. Note the snow on the ground. Before these units could be lifted big oxy/acetylene torches had to be used to melt the ice because they were too heavy for the crane to lift.

With the way the ships were built with 4 being built or fabricated at one time it was difficult to keep in touch even when I was there. The order in which they were built was yard Nos. 887, 888, 889, 890, 870, and 891. The Eastern City was 889.

In this photo the stern section for Eastern City which has been fitted out is lifted out of the dock so that the dock can be drained and the blocks realigned before it is then lowered back in the dock. All photos copyright © Reardon Smith Ships.
On the next page we will show this stern section being fitted out with pumps and pipework.

Building Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Eastern City. Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Building Eastern City. Page [1]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1]