Ship Thickness Gauging at Swansea Docks and Swansea Dry Docks

Inspection services for ships at Swansea

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Drydocks, cargo berths and the bay anchorage at Swansea

Swansea Dry Docks has two graving docks, the larger known as Prince of Wales Dry Dock 1, and during 2025 it docked Irish-flagged short-sea bulk carriers back to back, a harbour tug and an aggregate suction dredger. A ship in dock here is the best opportunity for a complete scope: bottom and side shell, sea chests, rudder and stern frame, double bottom and the full tank and hold programme, with the yard providing staging and services. The team works for the owner or manager alongside the yard's schedule and the class surveyor's inspection, and marks substantial corrosion on the steel as it is found.

At the cargo berths in the King's Dock and the Prince of Wales Dock, ships alongside for loading or discharge are gauged around the stevedores: holds as they empty, hatch covers when open, ballast tanks once the crew can release them. A ship that has finished cargo and is waiting for orders or a lock window can stay longer at a lay-by berth, which suits a fuller survey scope. At anchor in Swansea Bay, launch boarding is possible in quiet weather, but the bay is open to the south-west and most owners prefer to wait until the ship is inside the lock.

• Prince of Wales Dry Dock 1 — full renewal-survey and docking-survey gauging on short-sea bulk carriers and other ships in dock.
• Second graving dock — shell, sea chest and tank gauging on tugs, dredgers and smaller ships under repair.
• King's Dock and Prince of Wales Dock cargo berths — hold, hatch-cover and ballast tank readings during cargo work.
• Lay-by berths inside the lock — longer scopes on ships waiting for orders, cargo or a repair slot.
• Swansea Bay anchorage — deck and air-pipe readings by launch in settled weather only.

Port state control, recycling rules and repair work at Swansea

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency inspects foreign-flagged ships at Swansea within the Paris MoU, and short-sea bulk carriers and general cargo ships, often older and lightly crewed, draw close attention for hold, hatch and ballast tank condition. A ship arriving with known corrosion and a renewal plan is in a much stronger position than one where an inspector finds thin plating first. Many of the ships calling at Swansea are also on the way to or from the drydocks, and a short in-service gauging visit before docking can fix the steel list in time for the yard to order plate.

Swansea Dry Docks describes its business as repair, maintenance and recycling. Ship recycling in the UK is governed by the UK's own version of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, kept on the statute book after Brexit, which also expects foreign-flagged ships calling at UK ports to carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials. For owners weighing a further round of repairs against recycling, thickness gauging gives the deciding figures: how much steel would have to be renewed to keep the ship in class, set against the trading life she still has in front of her.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Swansea meet it with an exhaust gas cleaning system rather than compliant fuel. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service, especially on open-loop systems, and are worth adding to the gauging scope.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Swansea

Most of the work on a Swansea job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

Cardiff Airport and Bristol Airport are the nearest international airports, and many teams arrive at Heathrow and take the train from London Paddington to Swansea. The docks are an ISPS-controlled port with gated access, so the ship's agent arranges passes, while the drydock issues its own site passes and induction for work in the dock. The team travels from India on UK visas, and drydock dates are usually fixed weeks ahead, which leaves time to secure visas before the ship arrives.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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