Small Floating Dry Docks (AFD/AFDL)

The Navy's small auxiliary floating dry docks - designated AFD and later AFDL - were portable drydocking facilities built to lift submarines, destroyer escorts, patrol craft, minesweepers, and other small combatants at forward bases far from stateside shipyards. With lift capacities ranging from 1,000 to 2,800 tons, these compact docks were towed across the Pacific and Atlantic to provide hull maintenance wherever the fleet needed them. Thirty-three were built between 1943 and 1945, forming the backbone of forward repair operations during the island-hopping campaigns.