MAHS and the Floating Drydock HM Bermuda

The drydock was fitted with cutwaters fore and aft, and the structure was towed first to Madeira.   For the crossing to Bermuda, the dock was towed by the most powerful seagoing ironclads of the day:   HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince, with HMS Terrible lashed to the stern as a rudder.

The structure was officially commissioned HM Floating Drydock Bermuda "to obviate problems in case weather necessitated shelter in a foreign port."

The arrival at Bermuda on July 28, 1869, was a highly anticipated event.   The painting below is somewhat fanciful, however, since the large inronclads could not pass through the channel known as The Narrows.   Smaller vessels completed the tow to the dockyard.

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