Dry dock Nothwich style

Todays blip is from Pimlotts boat yard in Northwich
This old vacuum dredger called Porpoise used to work on the River Weaver Navigation and has been pulled up almost all out of the water with the front 3/4 removed years and years ago.
All thats left nowadays is the wheelhouse and the massive engine that worked the vacuum dredger kit that was used to suck the silt up and deposit it into large barges called "Weaver Flats" the silt was transported to local silt settling areas along the river (embanked settling areas). each pond is the size od a decent field and were particularly dangerous due to the silt water content at the time.

The Weaver flat was a barge, measuring 90 by 21 feet (27 by 6.4 m). Its draught was 10.5 feet (3.2 m) and when fully loaded, could carry 250 tons