About: Block-setting crane

A block-setting crane is a form of crane. They were used for installing the large stone blocks used to build breakwaters, moles and stone piers. The mid-Victorian age was a time of great expansion in industry and shipping. Better protected harbours were needed, with man-made breakwaters extending beyond natural bays or coasts, in order to enclose safe harbours for the new generations of sailing ships and iron steamships being built. This time also coincided with the availability of large-scale ironworking with which to build cranes, and portable steam power with which to drive them. In contrast to the navvies who had built the earlier canals and the first railways mostly with human and animal muscle power, these new ports were built by powered engines as well.