3-021-251 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New dry dock at Rio de Janeiro, 1868. The opening of the Commercial Dock in Mocangué, one of the islands in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, '...was honoured with the presence of the Emperor and Empress of Brazil...This dry dock is the only one on the whole South Atlantic coast available for merchant and foreign shipping...It is the work of an English firm, Messrs. Hett, Wilson, and Co., the proprietors of Mocangué, which is a coaling station for local and Transatlantic steamers. The dock is excavated out of the solid granite rock...The engine is of 30-horse power and drives one of Appold's centrifugal pumps. It was made by Messrs. Yarrow and Hedley...The dock was constructed from the plans and under the superintendence of Mr. R. G. Cunningham, C.E...After the ceremony of blessing the dock...and giving it the name of "Commercial Dock",...the water was let in when the Brazilian transport-steamer Jaquaribe floated in and was secured...one of the Ministers made a speech, in which he commented on the great importance of this undertaking, and instanced the case of the vessel then in dock, the Jaquaribe, which had remained without cleaning for eighteen months, till it had become almost unfit for sea, there being no dry dock for its accommodation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.