The Selborne Graving Dock is a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

Simon's Town Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern sid ...

, South Africa. It is situated within the

Naval Base Simon's Town Naval Base Simon's Town is the South African Navy's largest naval base, situated at Simon's Town, near Cape Town. The base provides support functions to Fleet Command. History A small dockyard facility was first established in Simon's Town by th ...

. It is named for

William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, the

High Commissioner for Southern Africa The British office of high commissioner for Southern Africa was responsible for governing British possessions in Southern Africa, latterly the protectorates of Basutoland (now Lesotho), the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) and Swaziland ...

at the time of construction.

History

On , a tender for the construction of a yard was awarded to Sir John Jackson Ltd. The construction used

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

from England, as well as

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

blocks from Norway. The

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

was laid on , and the dry dock was opened on , by the Duke of Connaught. The Dockyard (including the dry dock) was handed to South Africa in 1957, as part of the

Simonstown Agreement The Simonstown Agreement (sic) was a naval cooperation agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the (then-officially) Union of South Africa signed . Under the agreement, the Royal Navy (RN) gave up its na ...

Images

File:Construction of Simon's Town dry dock 1906.jpg, Construction in 1906 File:SA Naval Museum, West Dockyard 6.JPG, The ships crests painted on the wall File:SA Naval Museum, West Dockyard 1.JPG, The dock split to allow two ships to enter

References

Drydocks Installations of the South African Navy Buildings and structures in the Western Cape {{SouthAfrica-mil-stub