A ship cradle is a rig designed to hold a

ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

upright on dry land to allow the vessel to be built or repaired. The vessel is held in place in the cradle by wooden chocks, cables, sand bags or restraining fixtures on the cradle. Ship cradles are made of timber or steel and are usually built adjacent the seashore, lake or river side or on the floor of a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

Overview

"Cradle" may refer to the whole rig or sometimes each section of it. The cradle may be fixed to the dock floor, relying on the tides or a dry dock to drain it, or be equipped with wheels, running on an inclined track to allow the ship to be moved out of the water to a dry parking area. Large or heavy ships require steel railway wheels running on fixed steel tracks; cradles designed for smaller boats may have rubber-tyred wheels, usually running on a concrete slipway, and can be moved anywhere in the boatyard.''Encyclopédie Larousse du 20th century'', Paris, 1932

Movement

Most cradles with steel wheels can move only in one direction, following the cradle rail track and designed to lift the vessel out of the water either longitudinally (bow-stern) or transversely (across the beam). The empty cradle shown top right extracts the ship longitudinally but its wheels can then be rotated 90^o allowing it to park the ship transversely and freeing up the slipway for another vessel. The ferry bottom right can also be transported in the longitudinal as well as the transverse direction but uses a separate transverse carriage to change direction.

References

Shipbuilding {{Navy-stub sv:Stapelbädd