Calliope Dock facts for kids
The Calliope Dock is a very old and important stone dry dock located at the Devonport Naval Base in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. A dry dock is like a special parking spot for ships that can be drained of water. This allows workers to fix the parts of a ship that are usually underwater.
The Calliope Dock was built in 1888. Its main purpose was to help repair ships belonging to the Royal Navy, which was the British navy. Amazingly, this dock is still used today, more than 130 years later!
When it was first built, the dock was about 525 feet (160 meters) long. It was also about 110 feet (33.5 meters) wide, but it got narrower to 80 feet (24.4 meters) at the entrance gate. The water inside the dock could be as deep as 33 feet (10 meters). Over the years, the dock has been made even longer. It was extended in 1936, 1943, and again in 1996.
History of the Calliope Dock
When the Calliope Dock was finished, it was the biggest dry dock in the entire Southern Hemisphere. This made it a very important place for the Royal Navy. It was a key spot for repairing and maintaining their ships in this part of the world.
The dock was named after Calliope Point, which was the piece of land it was carved out of. Building it was a huge job! Workers dug it out by hand over three years. It's a cool coincidence that one of the very first ships to enter the dock was also named HMS Calliope. This ship came in to show how big and useful the new dock was.
At first, the Auckland Harbour Board managed the dock. But later, the New Zealand navy took it over. This happened when the main naval base in Auckland moved from Torpedo Bay to Devonport. The new base was built in a swampy area right next to the Calliope Dock, making it easy for navy ships to use.
