Newburgh launches floating drydock
- THE TIMES HERALD RECORD, Published: December 7, 1976

NEWBURGH – An $8-million jumbo floating drydock, about the size of two football fields, was launched from Steel Style, Inc.’s Water Street dock Monday.

Named “The Newburgh,” the pontoon launcher is the largest “ship” ever constructed between New York City and the Great Lakes, the company said.
A tug boat began pulling the “Newburgh” down the Hudson River, around New York City and into Long Island Sound for its Groton, Conn., destination. The trip is expected to take about 48 hours.

There it will be used to launch the U.S. Navy’s Trident submarines being constructed by the Electric Boat division of the General Dynamics Corp.
The 500-foot long, 100-foot wide drydock will permit “assembly-line” production of Trident submarines, according to an Electric Boat spokesman.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind launching facility,” Thomas Keel, manager of facilities planning for Electric Boat, said. A floodable gate constructed by Steel Style this summer, along with the pontoon launcher, becomes a drydock when water is pumped out of the rectangular facility. Submarines are then constructed on the expanse, also known as a “graving dock” because of its similarity to a burial site.

When submarines are finished, the water will be pumped into the giant mechanism again, permitting submarines to float into the water.
Previously, Keel said submarines were constructed right in the water at a higher cost.

Over the 20-month period of construction, Steel Style employed 230 men working on day and night shifts to construct the Newburgh drydock. Seventy per cent were local, the company said.

Because of its size, the drydock was built in two pieces on the company’s Hudson River docks, then welded together.

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