Why Bermuda received a floating dock

The Bermuda dock combined repair capacity with political and strategic flexibility. The American Civil War and British friction with the Union government made a stronger North America station desirable in the 1860s. Unlike a graving dock, the floating structure could be removed if political circumstances changed rather than left for another power to restore. Bermuda's central, defensible position also let a significant squadron obtain preventive maintenance without returning to Britain or relying on more distant facilities at Halifax, Kingston, or Trinidad.