The Dockyard & Ship Repair at Sheerness

This Exhibition of photographs from Martin Verrier on display at the Town Pier  with the river as the backdrop is not be missed.

The core photographs of this exhibition feature a range of river craft refitting at Sheerness. These include river and ocean going tugs from the rivers Thames and Medway, coasters and sand dredgers. All the photographs are taken at the Medway Dry Dock & Engineering Co Ltd, within the Port of Sheerness from the late 1970's through to 1993 .

The operation of docking and undocking a vessel is captured, revealing the procedure of safely dry - docking a ship and acknowledging the skills of a team of shipwrights who would execute this demanding process.

At Sheerness there were dry docks available for many vessels that could not be accepted on a slipway. This occurs because of the configuration of their underwater propulsion units, which are clearly seen with the maintenance work in progress.

Dock gates (operated manually) at Sheerness, required the majority of the workforce to rotate the dockside capstans to open and close them. As a substitute for these gates a caisson was fitted to one dock. Both these methods are shown in operation in the photographs.

General views of the Port of Sheerness are on display and provide a sense of location for the ship repair yard.

The exhibition is on display with free admission on the 28th from 11am - 7:30pm and the 29th from 11am - 4:30pm.

Martin will be giving a talk on the 28th June during his exhibition about the photographs and the many interesting stories that go along with them.  To book your place: https://woodville.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173660218