Dorman Long and Co. Ltd.
'Project Shark'
In 1944 Dorman and Long took over an area of marshland just upstream from the Wivenhoe shipyard. there the company built a number of large and small floating steel caissons for use during the forthcoming invasion of Europe.
The caissons were intended, after being towed across the channel, to be bought into service to seal lock and dock entrances destroyed or damaged by demolition or other enemy action.
an area of about 3 acres was involved. 12 cranes of 30 ton lift together with railway lines concrete pads and roadways were built on the marshland to enable the units to be built on a production line basis.
Initially it was planed for 151 large and 151 small units to be constructed, however only about one third of the number were actually made.
10,000 tons of steel and 3,000 tons of timber were allocated for the original scheme.
The dimensions of individual units, which could be bolted together to form larger caissons were: height 30 feet width 7feet length 40 feet.
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