Connected with the shipbuilding yard there are two graving docks of 300 feet and 400 feet in length, one on each side of the river. One of these is situated at the west side of the iron yard parallel to the building berths, and therefore conveniently placed for all kinds of alterations and repairs to vessels. This dock is kept dry by means of pumps which act as circulating pumps for the condensers of the yard engines. The pumps used for emptying this dock, as well as the one on the other side of the river, after a vessel has come in, are of the “Pulsometer” type of large size. The capacity of these docks is such that in one year alone the amount of shipping operated upon, either in the way of repairs, alterations, or simple docking, has reached nearly 60,000 tons. A large number of vessels have undergone the important process of lengthening in these docks—a special and very important branch of shipwork in which Mr Laing has been conspicuously successful. The largest undertaking of this kind was the lengthening of the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s screw-steamer _Poonah_ in 1874 from a length of 315 feet to that of 395, or an increase of 80 feet. The work was satisfactorily completed, and the results of the vessel’s after-behaviour at sea were communicated, along with an account of the work of lengthening, to the Institution of Naval Architects by Mr Edwin De Russett, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, in 1877. Adjacent to the shipyard are extensive brass and copper works, employing about 300 hands, which, besides supplying all the brass and plumber work required for vessels in the shipyard, undertake similar work for other shipbuilders, also work for the Navy, such as cast gun-metal rams and stern-posts for men-of-war, and brackets for outer-bearings in twin-screws. All sorts of steam and other fittings—Manchester goods—are also here manufactured and dispersed to all parts of the world. Within the same premises are situated the requisite machinery for effecting repairs to the engines and boilers of vessels overhauled in the docks.