A worldwide ladder of dock capacity

The Admiralty operated a distributed fleet-support system in which dock sizes matched different parts of the force. Small lifts kept destroyers and submarines from occupying the scarce facilities needed by capital ships, while docks rated between 55,000 and 60,000 tons could support vessels such as HMS Hood. Because floating docks could move, Britain built them at established industrial yards and shifted them to Reykjavik, Sydney, Singapore, Malta, and other stations as requirements changed. AFD 26, fabricated in Calcutta, assembled in Bombay, and later used in Iceland, shows how one asset could migrate across that network. The Admiralty's postwar construction of floating docks for early nuclear submarines shows that the concept outlived the two world wars. Surviving sources sometimes give different lift ratings for the same dock, so exact capacity figures should be treated cautiously.