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of the excavation of a dry dock was usually a substantial part of the total cost. Obviously it was liable to vary considerably between one method and another, and also between different estimates for the same method. With regard to method, the contract documents usually confined themselves to saying that the contractor was deemed to know all sorts of things which in the time available for tender he usually had little opportunity to investigate fully. This combination of variables and unknowns was liable to result in the ultimate cost of the work to the client, to the contractor, or to both being greater than it need be. In this case, however, the Engineers had defined in detail in the contract documents an obviously economical method of carrying out the excavation. It was true that, from the design of the dock structure, it was reasonable to assume that some such method would be practicable, but even so, so clear a declaration of the Engineers' opinion must have been very encouraging to the estimators' morale, with a consequent benefit to the client.

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