The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-19 00:00:00

eiltinag Sim

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1349,

One of the most important of our great national
undertakings was yesterday inaugurated under cir-
cumstances of peculiar interest by his Royal High-
ness the PRINCE CONSORT. The foundation-stone of
the Great Grimsby Dock was, on that occasion,
deposited in its resting-place by the august visitor of
Lincolnshire. As an appropriate indication of the
magnitude of these extraordinary work., this stone
was of unusual magnitude, weighing no less than
eleven tons. Nor was that indication in any respect
hyperbolical ; for the enterprise which has been
now formally adventured upon by the Dock Corn-
,.
pany is evidently destined to intlßence in a very
remarkable manner the internal and maritime traffic
of our gigantic empire. It must effect immeasurably
more than the transformation of 'an obscure fishing
village into a thriving seaport for, on the
completion of the establishment, it will draw into it
not only the whole of the steam-packet business of
the Humber, but will command the entire of the
trade in timber and manures with Northern Europe—
it will imbibe into that estuary the enormous com-
merce of the German Ocean—it will communicate
inland by railways directly with the agricultural
counties of Lincoln, of Norfolk, of Cambridge, of
Northampton, of Leicester, and of Nottingham, with
the extensive manuf:ic turing towns:of Nottingham, of
Leicester, of Sheffield, and of Manches'er, with the
collieries of Yorkshire, with the salt mines of Che-
shire, and with the great port of Liverpool, command-
ing the trade of the Atlantic. The establishment of a
new seaport destined to accomplish so much

is something more than an ordinary exploit, and it
was consequently but a fitting mode of enhancing the
pomp of the celebration, that of obtaining the pre-
sence of the illustrious PRINCE, the Consort of the
SOVEILSIGN.
During, a considerable period it has been painfully
manifest ti2at some more commodious and accessible
port than Kingston-upon-Hull was essential to the
safety and the facilitation of our mercantile inter-
course with the north of the European continent.
Like Bristol, Hull had continually languished from
the necessity of a more immediate contiguity to the
ocean. Situated high up their respective rivers,
both of these renowned seaports were per-
petually struggling with the disadvantages
of their geographical situation. To obviate
this difficulty upon the Humber, an Act was passed
in 1845, for the purpose of empowering a Company to
construct docks, and by constructing docks, to lay
the foundations of a vast seaport on the site of the
Tillage of Great Grimsby, on the southern banks of
the entrance to the estuary. Encouraged by the con-
sent of Parliament the Company shortly entered upon
their stupendous undertaking. In 1846 the first
pile of timber was driven, and in reference to that
first pile, it was yesterday remarked by the Earl of
YARBOROUGH, that he well recollected its being then
asserted—" There is an end of Grimsby Docks ; the
first pile, on being tapped on the head by the engine,
went through the quicksand and is nowhere to be
found." So far from this having been the case, it
appears that, under the superintendence of the
eminent engineer, Mr. RENDELL, no less than one
hundred and thirty-five acres have been reclaimed
from the sea—a mammoth cofferdam extending to a
circumference of one 131i10 dud thNe'qUarterS)