Naval Dockyard Research Articles

Isolation, Screening and Identification of Biosurfactant Producing Strain Nocardiopsis dassonvillei var B2 From Oil Contaminated Soil.

Petroleum and other oil manufacturing industries contribute to environmental pollution by releasing hazardous hydrocarbons. Biosurfactants offer a sustainable solution for mitigating oil pollution through emulsification processes, safeguarding agricultural soils, aquatic ecosystems, and human health. This study focuses on isolating, screening, and identifying actinomycetes producing biosurfactant from oil-polluted soil in the naval dockyard of Visakhapatnam. Biosurfactant production was successfully achieved utilizing Kim's medium, which was supplemented with olive oil serving as the carbon source. The evaluation involved preliminary identification tests, including oil displacement, Parafilm-M, and lipase activity assays, using sodium lauryl sulfate as the standard reference. Surface tension and emulsification index measurements were conducted, and the chemical composition of glycolipids and phospholipids was elucidated using phenol-sulfuric acid and phosphate assays. Glycolipids, specifically identified as rhamnolipids, were confirmed via cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) testing and quantitatively analyzed using the orcinol method. The cell-free broth exhibited antagonistic activity against Gram-positive and negative bacilli.16S rRNA sequencing-based phylogenetic analysis was carried out by the NCIM, Pune, with the gene sequence being deposited in GenBank. Further characterization of isolate B2 included scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, as well as physiological and biochemical assays. This study highlights the ability of Nocardiopsis dassonvillei var. B2, isolated from oil-polluted soil, to produce biosurfactants, specifically glycolipids identified as rhamnolipids. Our findings represent the first reported instance of biosurfactant production from isolate B2 originating from the naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Empire-builders: Interactions between Convicts and Enslaved, Free, and Military Workers in Bermuda’s Dockyards, 1824–1838

ABSTRACT Convict labourers in Bermuda formed part of a uniquely mixed workforce that challenged racial and class-based divisions of labour in the British Empire. Following the War of 1812, investment poured into Bermuda's royal naval dockyard to secure its strategic position; convicts arrived in 1824, working alongside enslaved people, free black workers, and colonial soldiers. This article reveals the nature of interactions between different types of free and unfree labourers in Bermuda between 1824 – when convicts arrived – and 1838, when a change in governance took place. It examines racial diversity in the dockyards and the arrival of convict labourers, before considering perceived threats of racial intermixing and opposition to convict labour deployment in Caribbean colonies. The final section examines perceptions of convicts – moments where they equated their experiences to slavery, and administrative unease over interactions with white military workers. What the article shows is that although there were concerns over racial intermixing, officials objected most strongly to interactions between white workers of different classes, fearing their alliances would alter the island's power balance. In detailing the coexistence and interactions between contrasting labour types, this article provides a greater sense of the nuances of labour deployment and administrative anxiety in colonial locales.

Tokugawa-French Economic Relations on the Eve of the Meiji Restoration

This article examines the efforts of the Tokugawa Bakufu and France to establish an economic dimension to their special relationship in the years before the Meiji Restoration. This aspect of the bilateral relationship is much less known than others, such as the French military mission to train Tokugawa troops and the construction of the Yokosuka naval dockyard. Attempts were made to give France a leading role in the sericulture trade, to establish a joint Japanese-French trading company, and to use Japanese resources as collateral for French financing of the Bakufu’s plans to reform and strengthening its military. The unstable economic situation in Europe, the opposition of rival Treaty Powers, and the sudden Meiji Restoration coup resulted in the failure of these efforts.

Western Technology and China's Industrial Development: Steamship Building in Nineteenth-Century China, 1828–1895 by Hsien-ch'un Wang

Reviewed by: Western Technology and China's Industrial Development: Steamship Building in Nineteenth-Century China, 1828–1895 by Hsien-ch'un Wang Bert Becker (bio) Western Technology and China's Industrial Development: Steamship Building in Nineteenth-Century China, 1828–1895 By Hsien-ch'un Wang. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Pp. xvi + 229. Hsien-ch'un Wang's book describes the process of transferring steam-engine technology to China in the nineteenth century and the subsequent impact on Chinese technical education and shipbuilding. It highlights how Chinese senior officials either welcomed or hindered technological innovation and progress. Steamship building depended on government subsidies. The book demonstrates the scientific and technological underpinnings of this transfer process. Wang presents the early attempts to build steamers in China in a very readable and even exciting way, with colorful descriptions enhanced by impressive images. Wang writes that once Chinese officials understood the importance of steam power for military purposes, they recruited European technicians and instructors, starting an education process that lasted until the end of the century. Translating steam-engine management manuals and popularized science textbooks from European languages introduced Chinese readers to new terms and concepts. The Fuzhou Navy Yard serves as a case study illustrating the fundamental problems of transferring Western science to China. The major value of the book is that Wang largely and consistently employs Chinese primary and secondary sources. Furthermore, he compares China's path to modern shipbuilding with the Japanese experience around the same time. His aim is to reject common notions that the Chinese government in its years of decline was too inept to acquire steam technology (as U.S. historian John Fairbank's seminal studies suggest), or that internal socioeconomic or political dynamics or a deep-rooted conservative society (as other historians argue) sufficiently explain China's difficulties handling steam technology. Wang sees China's techno-scientific settings as the major factor impeding technological progress. Before the 1911 revolution brought an end to the Qing dynasty, structural inefficiencies such as the dominance of senior officials making poor decisions, a weak fiscal system, and a lack of funds had prevented major progress in China's shipbuilding industry. Remarkably, Wang addresses the problematic lack of private initiatives that turned the Chinese "age of steam" into a government-sponsored phenomenon. Yet he does not draw the logical conclusion that the manic absolute state control of technical developments was perhaps the main reason why China lost out to [End Page 645] its rival Japan, suffering a humiliating military defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Historians interested in the history of science will find much important and useful information in Wang's book on China's knowledge of Western sciences at the time. It is fascinating to read that missionaries were the first to introduce technical books and discover how "collaborative translations" and complicated teamwork between (mostly English-speaking) foreigners and Chinese translators worked in practice. This is described in such a sophisticated and detailed way that the book is also valuable for linguistics experts. Educational historians will learn about the lack of curricula science in China, the establishment of new schools teaching scientific subjects, and individual students pursuing a science education in China and abroad. For maritime and business historians of China, the chapter on the Fuzhou Navy Yard's founding and development is certainly the most interesting. It is well situated in the context of global shipbuilding history, demonstrating the French and British naval schools' diverse influences creating and shaping the Chinese Navy. Wang rejects the notion that the Navy Yard's progress was hampered by Chinese staff preferring civil service to a technical career. He considers government intervention crucial, an assumption that is reinforced when comparing the Fuzhou Yard with the British Royal Naval Dockyards. By subcontracting work to private shipbuilders such as the prominent marine engineering company Armstrong, the British Admiralty stimulated competition, driving private shipbuilders to develop new designs that attracted contracts from the Royal Navy or even foreign governments. Unable to play a similar role, the Fuzhou Navy Yard received insufficient funding from the central government to provide domestic shipbuilders with the financial resources they needed. It is revealing to learn that, from...

Understanding the historic legacies of empire from the timbers left behind: Towards critical dendroprovenancing in the British North Atlantic

AbstractThe forests of British North America were integral to Britain's maritime empire. Many of these timbers exist today as wooden beams and flooring at historical dockyards and garrisons such as the Royal Naval Dockyard of Bermuda. In this paper, we investigate what timbers from this Dockyard can tell us about interconnections and empire‐building throughout the North Atlantic region. To do this we drew from approaches of critical physical geography, historical geography, and dendroprovenancing by using timber as a way to interrogate collaboratively the changes in—and connections across—socio‐ecological landscapes. We examined HM Customs records between 1825 and 1850 to determine the flow of timbers to Bermuda. We then sampled timbers from buildings constructed between 1825 and 1853 and analyzed them using isotopic and dendrochronological techniques to establish the probable location of origin of the timber samples. HM Customs records showed that prior to the 1840s, timbers primarily came from British North America, whereas post‐1840 timbers primarily came from the southeastern United States, with some still coming from Europe and British North America. To establish whether timber use by the Royal Navy and Royal Engineers matched the pattern in the customs documents, we looked to the dendrochronological records. Dendrochronologic evidence showed that military construction followed the same pattern, with buildings constructed pre‐1840 using material from British North America and buildings constructed post‐1840 using timbers sourced from the southeastern United States. Finally, using this information we explore some of the connections between regions, in terms of resource use, and the implications of those uses—for example, that the British Admiralty continued to benefit from the practices of slavery through the use of products produced from enslaved labour in other parts of the North Atlantic well after emancipation.

The Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda: Use of a novel biological indicator and historical photographs for measuring local sea-level rise

The authors explore a novel interdisciplinary approach to researching, collecting and communicating local site-specific data on recent sea-level rise using persistent black-zone biotic levels evident on historical coastal stone structures by a stable community of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda. Photographs taken at the Dockyard in 1870, 2007 and 2017 show an upward shift in this living cyanobacterial community. A spatio-temporal digital twin computed from historical and contemporary photo assets was created to test the viability of these black-zone lines as a proxy for sea-level-rise measurements in Bermuda. Black-zone cyanobacteria are highly sensitive to sea-level rise and, over long timescales, comparative imagery of black zones could present a proper indicator of average sea-level rise.

Baseline adjustment methodology in a shared water savings contract during severe water restrictions – a case study in the Western Cape, South Africa

A novel method for baseline adjustment in a shared water savings contract under serious drought conditions was presented in a companion paper. The newly developed baseline adjustment method was subsequently applied to a case study, as discussed in this manuscript. The case study involved application of the method to 24 relatively complex sites, spread over the Western Cape Province in South Africa. The sites included, for example, military bases, naval dockyards, an airforce base, prison facilities, large multi-storey blocks of flats and administrative office buildings. Baseline adjustment became essential mid-contract during the serious water restrictions in Cape Town at the time. The restrictions were linked to the ‘Day Zero’ scenario in 2018 when water supply would potentially run out, and resulted in water savings at baseline sites that were ascribed to external factors. The study incorporated a comprehensive review of the approved baseline reports with site visits to 12 of the properties. The baseline adjustment method provided a robust means to obtain adjustments for sites with relatively limited data. The minimum data requirement was a record of monthly water consumption per site. The adjustments varied between 0% and 64% of the original baseline value for the different sites in the study sample. The relatively higher adjustments were linked to sites where outdoor irrigation and pool water use was prevalent during the baseline-setting period, but was banned during the drought. Zero adjustments were found for sites with exceptionally high leakage flows that had subsequently been repaired; leaks dwarfed actual use in these cases. The results for all 24 sites were accepted by the contracting parties as being reasonable and fair.

Progressive evolutionary frameworks: application of ‘a system of forces’ and EoT for OPMP/SURSP

Testing and application of ‘a system of forces’, effectiveness of training (EoT) and organizational project management performance has been a challenging and demanding approach. The purpose of this study is to engage the Omani Dockyard in enhancement of its organizational learning on knowledge and competencies through the formulation of refit preparations and implementations by amalgamating frameworks/models to underpin ships’ upkeep and repair support preparations (SURSP). The data collection and analysis were administered using survey questionnaires. Pearson correlation, multiple regression and Sobel Mediation Tests and analyses were used to determine and strengthen the frameworks/models. The methodical system of frameworks was used through the employment of ‘a system of forces’ variables, encompassing “force of cooperation” and “force for: efficiency, innovation, direction, proficiency and concentration” as the independent variables (IVs), “EoT” as a mediating variable and the “organizational performance” as a dependent variable. The IVs were positively related to DV. The regression model of organizational performance was significant when regressed against IVs, pending “cooperation and direction”, which did not significantly contribute to organizational performance. Equally, when the ‘regressed coefficients’ were mediated through “EoT”, using the Sobel Mediation Test, they were found to be both directly and indirectly significant. The results were needed to emphasise the importance of amalgamation and contribution of frameworks/models for the naval dockyard’s organizational values through different phases of progressive organizational performance. The results of this study have shown a significant and contributive way forward for the application of organizational learning and progressive frameworks/models to deliver the required SURSP. The results of this study provided some positive breakthroughs and contributions for improvement.

SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement, 21st Biennale of Sydney

SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement, 21st Biennale of Sydney

わが国における「テクニシャン」概念の起源に関する考察 : 『横須賀海軍船廠史』における「技手」を巡って

わが国における「テクニシャン」概念の起源に関する考察 : 『横須賀海軍船廠史』における「技手」を巡って

«Pequeños», familiares y competitivos: astilleros y construcción naval en Asturias (c. 1750-2015)

The present article aims to analyse the technical and industrial evolution in Asturian naval construction and to study the entrepreneurial shift in the sector. The latter factor is to be viewed as directly connected with the dismantling of the ‘big’ naval dockyards (Cantábrico, Riera, Duro Felguera, Juliana…), justly to be considered pioneers in industrialisation, and their substitution in the 1970's by two ‘small’ family firms (Gondán and Amón) in the west region who find their roots in traditional shipbuilding. This substitution was followed by changes in the productive model, markets and growth strategy.Public and private firm archives, though fragmented and poorly preserved, together with unexploited sources (such as registration lists in the marine offices), offer a new and long range perspective on the sector, which will ultimately allow new studied on specific and singular entrepreneurial ‘cases’.

Medical support to a disabled nuclear platform at sea

Indian Navy has recently joined the select band of countries that are operating nuclear powered platforms. Despite the fact, that the present day nuclear technology is quite advanced and safe; accidents on board can still happen. An accident on board a Nuclear Platform at sea can result in ‘Radiation Exposure and Contamination’ to the crew members; which can prove catastrophic. Management of casualties on board a Nuclear platform at sea presents a formidable challenge. The distressed platform being at sea will also bring in many other operational variables like distance from shore, geographical location, weather conditions, availability of rescue assets and trained manpower etc. Consequently, there is a necessity to have a well defined ‘Medical Contingency Plan’ to deal with any such eventuality happening at sea. The successful execution of the contingency plan will depend upon close coordination among diverse authorities like local Service Hospital, Command Medical & Operational Authorities, Naval Dockyard, Radiation Safety Organisations and the Rescue/Hospital Ship crew. The need is to have a holistic review of our existing medical set up and integrate new equipment, training methodologies, operating procedures to have a credible response capability.

English

In the present study, we tested 83 actinomycete isolates for low density polyethylene (LDPE) degradation in the laboratory, and these isolates were previously isolated for biosurfactant production from the oil contaminated soil sample near Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam. Among them, 20 were positive using 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) as a viability indicator and able to grow in a mineral salts medium containing LDPE as a sole source of carbon. Of these, NDYS-4 isolate showed prominent result with redox probe 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) as a viability indicator, which forms pink colour insoluble triphenylformazan (TPF) on mineral salts media containing emulsified polyethylene as a carbon source within five to seven days, and it was also grown prominently on mineral salt agar plates containing LDPE in comparison to other isolates, and it was selected for detailed analysis. The weight loss of polyethylene films was approximately 30% after four weeks of incubation with selected isolate. The viability and metabolic activity of this isolate growing on the polyethylene surface was confirmed using a TTC reduction test. The metabolic activity was also correlated with a concomitant increase in the protein density of the biomass on the surface of the polyethylene. The microbial degradation of LDPE was also analyzed by the change in pH of the culture media and microscopic analysis. Based on the results, this degradation may be mediated by enzymatic activity and may also involve cell-surface hydrophobicity. It was also able to grow on other polymers such as polyvinyl acetate (PVA), polycaprolactone (PCL), polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) using TTC as a viability indicator and also showed prominent growth on mineral salts agar plates containing polyethylene as a source of carbon. Based on the results of phenotypic characteristics, phylogenetic analysis, biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequence homology, the isolate NDYS-4 was identified as Streptomyces coelicoflavus NBRC 15399T. It could be concluded that the PE degrading actinomycete selected in this study showed diverse and varying capacities to degrade polyethylene and other polymers and can be exploited for cleaning up polyethylene contaminated sites.   Key words: Biosurfactant, low density polyethylene, 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride, mineral salts media, hydrophobicity, sequence homology, phylogenetic analysis.

‘Enveloped in fog’: The asbestos problem in Britain’s Royal Naval Dockyards, 1949–1999

In the twentieth century, asbestos was used extensively in Britain’s Royal Naval Dockyards, especially between the mid-1940s and 1960s. In an era of international tension and conflict, it was invaluable for fire protection and thermal insulation on warships. In 1930, it was established that heavy and prolonged exposure to asbestos dust could cause asbestosis, and from 1931, precautions were required to protect at-risk workers in asbestos factories. These precautions did not apply on ships under construction or undergoing refit or repair in HM Dockyards. Until the 1960s, notwithstanding that asbestos dust was by then linked with two more fatal diseases, health precautions in these yards remained inadequate. Surgeon Commander Peter Harries played a crucial part in recognizing and controlling the occurrence of asbestos-related diseases in the yards. As a result, the occurrence of disease among HM dock workers fell at a time when its incidence was increasing in the wider population.

A Naval Wife: The Letters of Susannah Middleton

In 1805 Susannah Middleton travelled with her husband, Captain Robert Middleton, to Gibraltar where he was to run the naval dockyard. Abroad for the first time, Susannah maintained a regular correspondence with her sister in England. Casting light on a collection of letters yet to be fully published, the paper gives an account of Susannah‘s experiences as described to her sister. Consideration is given to Susannah‘s position as the wife of a naval officer and her own view of the role she had to play in her husband‘s success. Written at a time when an officers wife could greatly improve his hopes for advancement through the judicious use of social skills, the Middleton letters provide evidence of an often overlooked aspect of the workings of the Royal Navy.

ISOLATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF RHAMNOLIPID (BIOSURFACTANT) FROM OIL-CONTAMINATED SOIL SAMPLE USING HUMIC-ACID SALTS-VITAMIN AGAR

In this study, actinomycetes were isolated from the soil sample contaminated with petroleum oil in Naval Dockyard near Visakhapatnam. The isolate was identified as Streptomyces coelicoflavus comprising 16S rDNA sequence. Ten isolates of soil actinomycetes were initially screened in humic acid-salts vitamin agar plates. Soil organic matter is generally rich in humic acid and fluvic acid. Humic acid is an important ingredient for the extraction of biosurfactant producing actinomycetes. In the present study, humic acid substances used for screening of biosurfactant producing Actinomycetes were extracted by using soil organic matter. Humic substances were extracted by treating this organic soil with alkalis like dilute sodium hydroxide. The ten isolates were further grown in Kim’s medium, containing olive oil as the sole source of carbon, for extracellular biosurfactant activity by oil spreading method. Out of these ten, only three isolates namely, NDYS-1, NDYS-3, NDYS-4, showed promising biosurfactant activity compared to the standard, sodium laryl sulphate. These three promising isolates were further screened for their biosurfactant activity by using Para film–M method, Emulsification index and Phenol H2SO4. Out of these three, only NDYS-4 showed maximum biosurfactant activity for the above tests. The result showed that the extracellular surface active agent produced by the isolate NDYS-4 was Rhamnolipid in nature, and was further confirmed by orcinol assay taking L-rhamnose as standard. Then crude extract obtained from this isolate was used in contact bioautography for antibacterial activity. It was observed that as the antibacterial activity increased, the biosurfactant activity also increased and vice versa.

Reforming and restructuring the Australian workplace: a study of the Williamstown Naval Dockyard 1983–1993

As a consequence of the global economic crises of the 1970s, in Australia, micro-economic reform of the economy, and in particular the labour market, was seen as a key catalyst in providing a more competitive industrial base for the country. Underpinning this was a fundamental change in the conflictual industrial relations structure that had framed work patterns and practices since Federation. The Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Melbourne was the Australian Federal Government's premier dockyard. It had a long-standing reputation for poor productivity, inefficient work practices and industrial unrest and had been described as Australia's worst worksite. After several failed attempts to reform the dockyard, the Federal Government privatised this utility as a catalyst to reform the work culture. On 1 January 1988, the dockyard was transferred to the highly competitive private shipbuilding sector. As the first public utility sold by an Australian Federal Government and the first workplace to adopt micro-economic labour reforms, including enterprise bargaining, the dockyard provides an opportunity to examine the nature of workplace restructuring in the most radical time of change for labour and trade unions in Australia's history. The dockyard was seen at the time as at the vanguard of this change. This paper explores the reforms undertaken in the dockyard.

The Royal Dockyard Schools and their Education System

This note follows from my account of the ‘Paucity of Shipwrights in Royal Naval Dockyards during the Second World War Early in the 1840s’ in Mariner's Mirror 99(2), 228-33.Early in the 1840s, the A...

Paucity of Shipwrights in Royal Naval Dockyards during the Second World War

In March 1942 Stephen Payne, the manager of the construction department, HM Dockyard Devonport, in a memorandum to his Admiral Superintendent, with distribution to the super–intendents of the other...

Cinema-going in a port town, 1914–1951: film booking patterns at the Queens Cinema, Portsmouth

ABSTRACT:This article examines the localized nature of leisure provision and consumer taste in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. Based on an analysis of the cinema-going habits of naval personnel and dockyard workers and their families in the naval town of Portsmouth, this article reveals how closely consumers’ tastes were predicated on their social and cultural identities. By mapping film booking patterns at one cinema, this article reveals how cinema managers chose to book films which responded directly to the tastes of their patrons. The article concludes that the film preferences of this community were shaped by their close connections with naval life.