. The launch itself was the subject of much thought as the river was only 1130 feet wide at this point and the vessel, it was calculated, would need at least 950 feet to be brought to a stop. During the short trip down the ways the vessel, weighing 16,800 tons in launch condition, reached a speed of 14 knots and 1015 tons of drag chains were required to stop it. It took 14.5 tons of tallow, 113 gallons of train oil and 1 ton of soft soap, applied to the ways, to get the vessel moving. The ship was then towed to special mooring dolphins in the river for fitting out. The shipyard had realised that the fitting out would take a long time so rather than tie up valuable quay space the dolphins were installed and this enabled other vessels to be worked  alongside the quay.