Søgning i bogen
Den bedste måde at søge i bogen er ved at downloade PDF'en og søge i den.
Derved får du fremhævet ordene visuelt direkte på billedet af siden.
Digitaliseret bog
Bogens tekst er maskinlæst, så der kan være en del fejl og mangler.
4
HARBOUR ENGINEERING
Roman Harbours.—At the close of the second Punie War and con-
siderably prior to the event just narrated, the world sea-power had passed
into the hånds of the Romans, and with it the genius and capacity for
harbour construction. Ostia, Ancona, Antiuni and Civita Veccliia, amongst
hundreds of other instances, may be cited as evidences of this faet. Further-
more, the works carried out by the Latin race were of a solid and enduring
character, which in inany cases have defied alike the ravages of time, storm,
and devastation. Civita Vecchia still possesses a serviceable harbour capable
of receiving vessels of 20 fcet draught. The works at Ostia also exist,
although the town, formerly at the mouth of the Tiber, is now twenty miles
or so inland.
Mediæval Navigation.—Passing to mediæval times, we find a vast
expansion in maritime trade and a corresponding increase in the number and
size of harbours. The whole of Europe was now engaged in avocations
connected with the sea and embarking on nautical enterprises as adventurous
as they were remunerative.
This is not the place, however, in which to attempt anything of the nature
of a historical and analytical disquisition on the growth and expansion of
seaborne commerce, nor even is there space to describe the provision made
for its reception and accommodation at the various ports with which it was
associated. We do not propose, therefore, to dwell further upon this part
of the subject beyond making a brief allusion to two features of outstanding
interest and importance, showing how closely the commercial and political
welfare of a maritime country is bound up in the maintenance and develop-
ment of its seaports and harbours.
The Cinque Ports.—The first of these features is the formation of a
confédération, of wliich only a name and an office, and that a pure sinecure,
remain at the present day. The Cinque Ports were, and for that matter are,
as the name implies, a group of five ports in this country fronting the English
Channel. The towns were originally Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and
Sandwich, and subsequently there were added—Winchelsea, Rye, and Seaford.
They represented the naval activity of this country, and they were responsible
for the protection of the Kentish coast against the incursions of foreign foes.
To this end they held certain levies of shipping constantly at the disposai of
the crown, and, in return, they had conferred upon them several special
distinctions and privilèges.
At this distance of time, it is difficult (with, perhaps, one notable exception)
to think of these insignificant villages as forming the forefront and backbone
of Enghtnd’s naval power. Yet from the modest moorings and lowly quays
of these Kentish harbours slipped away many a valiant little cog to confront
the caravels of France and the galleons of Spain. But more than this, they
were, in sooth, the very seed and nucleus of England’s foreign trade;
inferior, certainly, to London in importance, but, during their palmier
days, vying with Bristol and Plymouth in the west in the honour and
distinction of seaward enterprise, and forming the principal links in the chain