DOCK

(Probably from the Gr. iexopai, Irecehe.) An artificial basin for the reception of ships. Docks are of two sorts, wet and dry: the former are used for the purpose of loading and unloading a ship's cargo out of the influence of the tide, and are constructed with gates, which when shut keep the ship constantly afloat at low water; the latter are intended for the building, repairing, or examination of ships, which are admitted into them at flood tide, and are so called because they are either left dry by the ebbing of the sea, or rendered so by the use of great flood gates or of pumps. The reader will find in the Commercial Dictionary a full account of all the docks of Great Britain, with remarks on their utility, history, <fcc. A naval dock is a place provided with all sorts of naval stores, timber, and all the requisite machinery for shipbuilding.The principal naval docks of Great Britain are Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chas am, Sheerne , Woolwich, and Deptford. It is in these docks, and particularly the three first, that ships of war are laid up in time ol peace. DOCKET, DOCQUET, or DOGGETT (I.at. documentum), in Law, is an abridged entry of an instrument or proceeding on a small piece of paper or parchment. Exemplifications of decrees in chancery, fiats in hank [s. 373]