A Treatise On The Principles And Practice Of Dock Engineering

8 DOCK ENGINEERING. precedence. Navigation returns fluctuate considerably, and with them the relative positions of the ports concerned. No attempt, then, will be made to preserve any particular sequence except that attaching to geneial pro- minence and representative character. The Port of London. The Port of London has long maintained an indubitable supremacy. At the beginning of last century, however, it received no more than 4,000 ships annually, of which number more than half were coasting vessels, and the aggregate tonnage scarcely exceeded half a million. In 1901 the number of shFps which entered and cleared the port was 53,230, and the tonnage 31,157,015. The Greenland (or Howland) Dock, with its area of 12 acres and quayage under a mile, held its unique position until the year 1790, when the Brunswick Dock was constructed by a shipbuilder on the site of the present West India Dock. The shipping at this time was mainly accommodated at “legal wharves” at the river side or at moorings amidstream. The delay which arose in this way from stoppages of the navigable channel and the enormous losses sustained by robberies, created a scandai of such moment that the Government of the day was obliged to take action, and parliamen- tary powers were obtained for the redemption of some of these legal wharves by compensating their owners. At the same time an Act was passed authorising the construction of the West India Dock. This dock was so named from its appropriation to the West Indian trade, and all vessels engaged in that trade were compelled to use the dock, which had the mono- poly conferred upon it for twenty-one years. The date of opening was 1802. It was followed in 1805 by the London Dock, which was endowed with a monopoly of vessels engaged in the conveyance of wine, spirits, and tobacco. The East India Dock was opened on equally protective lines in 1806. The first free dock (St. Katharine’s) did not corne into existence until the years 1827-28. After this a long interval elapsed, until the construction of the Royal Victoria Dock in 1855. This dock, situated nearly opposite Wool- wich, is a very important one. Its length is 3,000 feet and its width 1,050 feet ; and, with its appurtenances, it added 90 acres to the water area of the port. The Millwall Docks—in reality but one, shaped like the letter L were next built in 1868. They have a water area of 35 acres. In 1870 came the opening of the South-West India Dock, parallel to the other two India Docks; like them, stretching across the Isle of Dogs, and having a river connection at each end. In 1880 another large dock, the Royal Albert, added very materially to the extent of the port. With its entrance basin it has an area of 84 acres. It is in close connection with the Victoria Dock, being joined to it by a. channel.