What the neck is a "wet dock"?

[Colorado Coasty]

Just a pet peeve and I don't mean to offend anyone. A little background, I had a long Coast Guard career with stints afloat as an engineer and several years in a district naval engineering office where I wrote ship repair specifications, acted as the contracting officer's technical expert, and was in one shipyard or another on almost a daily basis. In all those years I never heard the term "wet dock". Times that a ship spend in a shipyard, whether it was put into dry dock or not, was called a "shipyard availability".  I have never heard the term " wet dock" any place other than CC and while I guess that it is meant to mean a ship was not put into dry dock it is like fingernails on a chalk board when I read it.

Thanks for letting me vent and if I'm wrong please let me know.

[joeyancho]

Thank you for your service and sacrifice.

[waltd]

For what it's worth for most of us that have not been around ship yards or ships Wet Dock is a bit more understandable.   But thank you for the information and your service. 

[skynight]

The term "Wet Dock" is used by Princess. When you searched the bridge cams from the Caribbean Princess the caption was Wet Docked in Freeport. It's isn't just a CC term. To common cruise passengers wet dock is simple to understand. 

[Colo Cruiser]

I have seen the term wet dock used for many years especially through my US Navy and Merchant Marine time.

IMO it is pretty self explanatory.

Not sure what the big deal is.  🤔

[Chianti Cowboy]

44 minutes ago, skynight said:

The term "Wet Dock" is used by Princess. When you searched the bridge cams from the Caribbean Princess the caption was Wet Docked in Freeport. It's isn't just a CC term. To common cruise passengers wet dock is simple to understand. 

If you saw it on the internet it must be true.... or maybe a website manager that saw it on CC

[GeeDunk]

27 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

I have seen the term wet dock used for many years especially in the US Navy

 

We used the term when we would be tied up to a pier for a period of time after a deployment,

Ammo and fuel was off loaded. Air Group flew the planes off prior to entering the Harbor.

The "yard birds" would come aboard to do repairs that we could not do.

Edited May 16, 2019 by GeeDunk

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, GeeDunk said:

We used the term when we would be tied up to a pier for a period of time after a deployment,

Ammo and fuel was off loaded. Air Group flew the planes off prior to entering the Harbor.

The "yard birds" would come aboard to do repairs that we could not do.

Yes sir!

[Colorado Coasty]

3 minutes ago, GeeDunk said:

We used the term when we would be tied up to a pier for a period of time after a deployment,

Ammo and fuel was off loaded. Air Group flew the planes off prior to entering the Harbor.

The "yard birds" would come aboard to do repairs that we could not do.

Commonly referred to as a dockside availability

[chengkp75]

A "wet dock" is a merchant marine term for a repair period in a shipyard that does not take the ship out of the water.  This is different than a "lay berth" where repairs are made at a commercial dock by a repair contractor outside of a shipyard.

 

Your terms of "shipyard availability" and "dockside availability" are military terms that denote different theories of ship utilization between military and law enforcement and commercial, for profit, industries.

[Colorado Coasty]

Far be it from me to argue the proper use of terminology with the Navy. I shall fall on my sword but still cringe at the term "wet dock".🙄

[Fouremco]

From our friends at Wikipedia:

 

In British English, a dock is an enclosed area of water used for loading, unloading, building or repairing ships. Such a dock may be created by building enclosing harbour walls into an existing natural water space, or by excavation within what would otherwise be dry land.

 

There are specific types of dock structures where the water level is controlled:

 

•  A wet dock or impounded dock is a variant in which the water is impounded either by dock gates or by a lock, thus allowing ships to remain afloat at low tide in places with high tidal ranges. The level of water in the dock is maintained despite the rising and falling of the tide. This makes transfer of cargo easier. It works like a lock which controls the water level and allows passage of ships. The world's first enclosed wet dock with lock gates to maintain a constant water level irrespective of tidal conditions was the Howland Great Dock on the River Thames, built in 1703. The dock was merely a haven surrounded by trees, with no unloading facilities. The world's first commercial enclosed wet dock, with quays and unloading warehouses, was the Old Dock at Liverpool, built in 1715 and held up to 100 ships. The dock reduced ship waiting giving quick turn arounds, greatly improving the throughput of cargo.
• A drydock is another variant, also with dock gates, which can be emptied of water to allow investigation and maintenance of the underwater parts of ships.
• A floating dry dock (sometimes just floating dock) is a submersible structure which lifts ships out of the water to allow dry docking where no land-based facilities are available.

[Mike45LC]

I use the term "wet dock" when a crew member, dock worker or passenger manages to "accidentally" stumble into me, knocking me into the water.  Seems to happen more and more as I get irascible and more "Captain Bligh"-like!

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

I use the term "wet dock" when a crew member, dock worker or passenger manages to "accidentally" stumble into me, knocking me into the water.  Seems to happen more and more as I get irascible and more "Captain Bligh"-like!

Wearing Dockers?

 

[richmke]

I thought "wet dock" is a "dry dock" in training. - jk

[kywildcatfanone]

It's a term used on cruise critic for laymen.