This Day in History (1979): A Dry Dock 'First'

From the March 7, 1979, edition of The Arabian Sun

A major overhaul involving the replacement of over 75 percent of the hull plating below the water line of the 423-ton maintenance and diver support vessel "Rimthan-I”) was completed in the chartered floating dry dock off Ras Tanura's West Pier.

A first for Aramco, the job took four weeks and involved over 75 men working in the dry dock. It also included other work such as repairing the engine room equipment and completely refurbishing the crew's quarters.

The ship had suffered severe damage to the hull from crude oil loading buoys during heavy weather over the past two years.

The vessel was built in Holland by Scheepswerf and Machinefabriek, and was commissioned as part of the Aramco fleet in 1971.

Also on this date

2007 — The British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected

1993 — The tugboat "Thomas Hebert" sinks off the coast of the U.S. near New Jersey

1986 — Divers locate the crew cabin of the space shuttle "Challenger" on the sea floor

1975 — American actress Jenna Fischer is more in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fischer played Jan on the American version of The Office.

1931 — The parliament House of Finland was officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland

1914 — Prince William of Wied arrives in Albania to begin his reign as King

1876 — Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for his invention of the telephone

1827 — Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future politician in colonial New Zealand

1573 — A peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, ending a war between the two and leaving Cyprus in Ottoman hands