Ship depots are where you buy and service ships. You can also sell ships you don't need any more at a ship depot.

This tutorial assumes that you already have planned a ship route and have already built the appropriate docks.

A ship depot.

Finding a suitable location

Ship depots need to be placed on water tiles and ships need to be able to access them from both sides. A ship depot is two tiles long and ships enter and exit them at the narrow ends.

Because ships need to regularly visit a depot for servicing, it makes sense to place the depot somewhere near the route ships will take. Placing the depot near the dock is a good approach.

Building a ship depot

1. Clicking the button to open the Waterways Construction toolbar.

The Waterways construction toolbar

1. Click the Build ship depot button . The Ship Depot Orientation window is displayed, where you can select the depot's orientation.

The Ship Depot Orientation window.

1. Select your preferred orientation.
2. Two white squares indicate the future location of the ship depot. Move the cursor to the location of your choice and click to place the ship depot.

Selecting the location for the ship depot. Remember to keep both the entrance and exit accessible.

Our newly constructed ship depot near a dock.

In the next tutorials we will look at placing buoys to indicate the route our ship should take and buy a ship.