J3575 : The 'Blackford Dolphin', Belfast

taken 10 years ago, near to Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland

The 'Blackford Dolphin', Belfast
The 'Blackford Dolphin', Belfast
A view of the drilling rig 'Blackford Dolphin' in the H&W building dock taken from the top of the crane 'Samson'.
A visit to Harland and Wolff, Belfast

A series of pictures taken during a private group tour of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, including a trip up the huge crane 'Samson'. My grateful thanks to H&W for allowing access and a fascinating visit. Please note that there is no public access to the site - this was a pre-arranged group visit.
See 2 related videos on YouTube at LinkExternal link and LinkExternal link .

The Harland and Wolff Building Dock, Belfast

The building dock in Belfast was constructed between 1968-1970 by George Wimpey & Company for the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. A massive 556 metres long by 93 metres wide, it was designed for the construction of massive crude oil tankers and bulkers. Although many ships were constructed here, including two supertankers of 172,174 tonnes (343,423 DWT), the yard was in decline by the early 1970s and the dock never really fulfilled its potential. The last ship to be constructed was the 'Anvil Point' in 2003 and the yard now specialising in ship repair and the emerging renewable energies sector, notably offshore wind turbines and tidal energy projects.
Towering above the dock are the two gantry cranes 'Samson' and 'Goliath'. Now landmarks on the Belfast skyline, the cranes were designed for the yard by the German firm Krupp. Goliath, completed in 1969 and mostly fabricated by the yard, stands at 96 metres and Samson, completed in 1974 and built entirely by Krupp, is taller at 106 metres. Both cranes have a span of 140m and have a safe working load of 840 tonnes each (though I believe were tested for 1,000 which caused the top girders to bend downwards by some 11 inches). They run on 800m of track which spans the length of the dock and each crane has 64 special anti-friction bearing mounted wheels.
Both the dock and the cranes are now protected scheduled monuments. See LinkExternal link for technical information .

LinkExternal link in an informative video from the BBC.

The 'Blackford Dolphin' at Belfast

The 'Blackford Dolphin' LinkExternal link is a huge offshore drilling rig. It was towed from off the coast of Brazil to Belfast for a refit at Harland and Wolff LinkExternal link . This is a series of pictures of the rig prior to and during dry-docking at the yard. It docked on Monday 2nd December 2013 and departed on Tuesday 17th June 2014.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Rossographer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Loading map... (JavaScript required)
Grid Square
J3575, 1038 images   (more nearby search)
Photographer
Date Taken
Monday, 30 December, 2013   (more nearby)
Submitted
Friday, 3 January, 2014
Geographical Context
Historic sites and artefacts  City, Town centre  Industry  Docks, Harbours 
Place (from Tags)
Belfast Docks  Belfast 
Subject Location
Irish: geotagged! J 356 752 [100m precision]
WGS84: 54:36.4304N 5:54.1306W
Camera Location
Irish: geotagged! J 354 750
View Direction
Northeast (about 45 degrees)
Clickable map
+

Other Tags
Harland & Wolff  Crane  Shipyard  Harland and Wolff  Samson  Goliath Crane  Belfast  H&W  Belfast Docks  Drilling Rig  Blackford Dolphin  Dry Dock  Dockside Crane 

Click a tag, to view other nearby images.

Image classification(about): Geograph
This page has been viewed about 193 times.
View this location: KML (Google Earth) · Google MapsExternal link · Bing MapsExternal link · Geograph Coverage Map · geotagged! More Links for this image
Background for photo viewing: White / /
NW N NE
W Go E
SW S SE
thumbs up icon
[Mark
You are not logged in login | register