Port hole

“ To preserve navigation, ships were not to throw any ballast, filth, rubbish, gravel, earth, stone, or filth into rivers or ports where the tide or water flowed or ran or else forfeit 50s.- 5 pounds. Ships on the Thames River could take as ballast to stabilize a ship without cargo: dung, compost, earth, or soil from laystalls in London. There was a toll on ships entering the port of London to pay for repairs to its walls.
Many persons insuring ships for large premiums became bankrupt, thus ruining or impoverishing many merchants and traders. ”

“ The basins of such ports are always accessible for vessels of the draught they provide for; but they require most efficient protection, and, unlike tidal ports, they are not able on exceptional occasions to admit a vessel of larger draught than the basins have been formed to accommodate. Occasionally, an old port whose approach channel has become inadequate for modern vessels, or from which the sea has receded, has been provided with deep access from the sea by a ship canal, as exemplified by Amsterdam and Bruges ”

“ But now we were rapidly nearing the time when every mistake we made would cost us tens of millions of dollars. For within a few years the Big Ditch would open across Panama, and the commerce of South America, together with that of the Orient, would pour into the harbor here to meet the westbound commerce of Europe. Ships of all nations would steam through the Narrows, and we must be ready to welcome them all, with an ample generous harbor worthy of the world's first port. ”

“ The local prosperity depends mainly on shipping. Business is on the decline. The opening of the Suez Canal, the introduction of powerful iron and steel built ocean liners, which suffer comparatively little from the effects of heavy weather, and, as the people of Fayal allege, the legislation promoted by Mr. Plimsoll, which has withdrawn their best customers, the weakly and unsound vessels, from active service at sea, have combined to produce a marked diminution in the number of ships calling at the port. ”

“ If the tremendous evils to which I have called attention as existing less than a hundred years ago, when the business of the port was not one-seventh of its present magnitude, were the result of overcrowding, it stands to reason that, in the absence of dock accommodation, the increased business must have gone to the out-ports, and, failing the necessary accommodation there, have located itself on the Continent. ”

“ Section 7 of that act declares that it shall not be lawful to build any wharf, pier, dolphin, boom, dam, wier, breakwater, bulkhead, jetty, or structure of any kind outside of established harbor lines, or in any navigable waters of the United States where no harbor lines are or may be established, without the permission of the secretary of war, in any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, navigable river, or other waters of the United States, in such manner as shall obstruct or impair navigation, commerce, or anchorage in said waters ”

“ If such be the coast when a weather-shore, what must it be when a lee one. The harbour is well enough to make, no one can contradict that, but with a strong wind blowing on the land—the ship scudding, and thick sudden showers of rain, the characteristic of our east winds, making the darkness impenetrable; there perhaps is not another port in the world more terribly confusing to a seaman to enter than the loudly-lauded one of Sydney. In most other ports, or estuaries, many mistakes may be made, and yet with little or no loss of life ”

“ These want sleepers sadly, and at present the tourist, as he wanders from coffee-room to dormitory, feels very much
“Like one that treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose guests are fled,” &c.,
and cheers his loneliness with the thought, that should Galway become (as all who care for Ireland must hope) the port for America, this solemn stillness shall depress no more. The inn forms one side of the principal Square, and, the neighbour buildings being comparatively small and dingy, resembles some grand lady, in all her crinoline, teaching the third class at a Sunday school. ”

“ Work is progressing, however, and it will not be long until it will no longer be necessary for vessels to anchor out in the open, and for both passengers and freight to be brought ashore either in launches or row boats. Thus will one of the annoyances as well as one of the big items of expense at this port be eliminated. Along the line of warehouses, and parallel with the harbour line, an avenue has been laid out that is more than three hundred feet in width. This gives abundant room for railroad tracks, tram tracks and driveways for both wagons and pleasure vehicles. ”

“ The very reasons which determine the original selection of a port—facility for entrance, abundant anchorage, and ease of access to the interior for distribution and receipt of the articles of commerce—determine also the accumulation of defences, to the exclusion of other less favored localities. All these conditions, natural and artificial, combined with the Union occupancy of the other inlets to concentrate blockade-running upon Charleston. This in turn drew thither the blockaders, which had to be the more numerous because the harbor could be entered by two or more channels, widely separated. ”

“ The whole circumference of the walls does not exceed a mile and a half, but few persons have an opportunity of obtaining a correct measure. From whatever road you approach there is but one gate whereby to enter. To the left of it is the port, a small and shallow harbour, formed by a mole, which projects so as to make, with the curve which the strand takes, the form of an oblong with rounded corners. But this part is not more than a cable’s length across, and no vessel of more than 150 tons could lie in safety in it. ”

“ She extends beyond us and towers above us, and even the warm humid breeze of Port Said in August is shut out from us. Up from below comes a suffocating stench of hot bilge. The ship is invaded by a swarm of Arab cargo-men, who begin immediately to load us from our neighbor. Cargo lights, of a ghastly blue color, appear at the hatchways. Angus and his chums take up their kits and fall in on the bridge-deck. Officers hurry to and fro. Hatches are taken off, and the cold air of the holds comes up in thin wisps of fog into the tropic night. ”

“ He who now stands on London Bridge and looks down the river, will see a large number of steamers lying off the quays; there are barges, river steamers, and boats, there are great ocean steamers working up or down the river; but there is little to give the stranger even a suspicion of the enormous trade that is carried on at the Port of London. That port is now hidden behind the dock gates; the trade is invisible unless one enters the docks and reckons up the ships and their tonnage, the warehouses and their contents. ”

“ We may economise in the working of our ships at sea, but if on their arrival in port they have to wait for berths to discharge and load, and if these operations are hampered by the lack of mechanical appliances or labour, the shipowners’ exertions are in vain. Nor does the difficulty end here: docks lose their value and attractiveness if the cost of moving cargoes from the ship’s side to the warehouse, or to the manufacturing districts, forms a heavy addition to the freight. ”

“ In the last five years we completed 18 foreign and 78 domestic ships’ berths, reclaimed 58 hectares of port area, built 77,632 square meters of cargo sheds, dredged 38.5 million cubic meters, and constructed 7,500 lineal meters of seawalls. Among the major facilities completed are Piers 3, 15, and the Marginal Wharf of the Port which was financed by a loan from the World Bank. ”

“ The principal streets are intersected with canals, of a sufficient depth to receive vessels of from two to three hundred tons burthen, which greatly facilitates the trade of the place, as ships are enabled immediately to deliver their cargoes into the warehouses appointed to receive them, and at an inconsiderable expence of time and labour, compared with the obstructions of trade in the port of London and elsewhere. The merchant also enjoys the advantage of having the ships, which either belong to or are consigned to him, delivered under his direct eye ”

“ The quay and harbour of Caernarvon, which formerly presented serious obstacles to the shipping interest on account of the bar at the entrance, have been so improved that the danger, if not entirely removed, is at least so far diminished as to excite little apprehension for the safety of the ordinary craft in connexion with this port. To defray the expense of these public works, Government has levied additional port-dues; and it is much to be wished that, in all other harbours of difficult or dangerous access, the same advantages could be obtained on similar conditions. ”

“ For four days they lay at anchor swinging to the tide, in the entrance, lonely and unvisited, while the eager, bare-footed, bare-legged and bare-chested men gazed longingly at the distant port and tried to persuade themselves that the vessel must go up there for coal and water. ”

“ The docks of London were started, in the first instance, not so much as a profitable speculation to investors, as a response to an urgent national demand which the vested interests in the old order of things were no longer able to resist; not so much in a spirit of competition with the wharves, as the only means of saving the commerce of the port from utter ruin; not so much as wealthy grasping corporations, who, finding they have made a bad bargain, now wish to [Pg 35] draw out of it, as the pioneers of the marvellous prosperity of the port, if not its founders, its liberators. ”

“ Here we have further reasons why commodities that seem to be specially adapted for transport by canal so often go by rail instead.
There are manufacturers, again, who, if executing a large shipping order, would rather consign the goods, as they are ready, to a railway warehouse at the port, there to await shipment, than occupy valuable space with them on their own premises. ”

“ Now where, in cases such as these, "urgent delivery is impressed by buyers," and the utmost energy is probably being enforced on the workers, is it likely that even the heavy goods so made [77] would be sent down to the port by the tediously slow process of canal boat, taking, perhaps, as many days as even a goods train would take hours? Alternatively, would the manufacturers run the risk of delaying urgent work by having the raw materials delivered by canal boat in order to effect a small saving on cost of transport? ”

“ The canal, breaking down a barrier of separation between the two oceans, turns loose into the Pacific the whole frenzied, greedy and capable cohorts of European manufacture. It will make a common highway for Europe, and our unbuilt clippers and tramp steamers will stay unbuilt, or unused, to rot on their ways in the shipyards. The west coast will be sidetracked, and our trunk railroads will cut down their schedules and their dividends at the same time. ”

“ The quantity and weight is so immense that one wonders where it comes [590] from, and where it goes to, but the immense mass extending along Harbour and Canal for a mile, is but a small portion of what is passing into or through the port, for while countless carts and cars, are daily removing from one side, steamers and ships fill up every space by discharging on the other, with steam power and regiments of laborers. ”

“ Offshore obstructions in the waters of the harbor include booms and torpedo nets, debris, prepared sunken obstacles, destruction of navigation aids and moorings, and damage to underwater pilings and foundations. It is the engineer port repair ship’s job to remove or destroy these obstacles and to make the underwater repairs.
(2) Damage to shore installations. The destruction of shore installations includes damage to utilities, shops, warehouses, railway spurs and yards, roads, bridges, locked basins, cargo-handling equipment, piers, wharves, and quays. ”

“ The vast timber, coal, and gold bearing resources tributary to Port Orford, and now made accessible by transportation facilities, with greatly increased manufacturing investments here and nearby, now more than ever justifies the local improvement of harbor shipping; while the old-time necessity for a safe port for sailing vessels to enter during a heavy southwest gale is more than ever called for by the increasing commerce on the high seas. ”

“ Agreeable mooring places, sure anchorage, resources of all kinds for the use and convenience of man, for the needs of vessels, for the sale of merchandise, there is no advantage which is not offered by this port situated so happily, besides that it seems to be a natural point of repose on the ocean for ships setting out from Europe to all parts of the world, or returning. ”

“ They regretted the loss to shippers of all the perishable produce which to the value of millions of dollars had been rotting away at the docks. They deplored the inconvenience and ruin which had been [Pg 333] brought on the innocent public by these bodies of rough, irresponsible men who had openly defied the law. With such men there could be no arbitration, and in fact there was no need. The port would be open inside of a week. ”

“ But it is, nevertheless, an interesting and picturesque little port, built beneath the shelter of the hills, and situated right at the mouth of the estuary of the River Teign, which at low tide is left almost dry twice a day. In the harbour there is generally a good handful of craft of a fair tonnage, some of them with bowsprits almost in the windows of the stores and houses by the waterside, and all of them careening over at low water in picturesque impotence. ”