The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-26 00:00:00

OPENING OF THE NEW DOCKS AT

SWANSEA.

On Friday last the new docks recently constructed
at Swansea were opened with all the ceremony and
rejoicings which the importance of the event to the
town and neighbourhood demanded. Few ports
have made a more rapid advance in so short a time,
and none have benefited more in proportion than

Swansea from the extension of railway accommo-

dation. The natural advantages of its position at
the entrance of the Bristol Channel, its excellent
roadstead at the Mumbles, and its contiguity to the
coalfields of South Wales would always secure to it
a fair share of whatever trade was stirring in those
parts; but the completion of the South Wales Rail-
way system, which first fairly " tapped," so to
speak, many of the richest treasures of the district,
and the prudent measures simultaneously adopted,
by the trustees of the harbour, have given an im-
petus to its progress within the last seven years
which is almost without a parallel. Ten years ago
the harbour consisted merely of a few quays built
along the banks of the river Tawe, alongside of
which vessels floated or lay high and dry as the
tide ran in or out. The bed of the river was very
uneven, and ships as they grounded were liable to
strain—a serious drawback, which was calculated
to overweight the port in its race with the other
ports of the Channel. The trustees of the day, alive
to this danger, and foreseeing the increased demand
for accommodation which would be occasioned by
tke establishment of railway communication between
Swansea and the coalfields, determined to con-
struct a floating basin in the bed of the river,
on the plan adopted at Bristol, the fresh water
from the interior being carried into the sea by
a side cut. This was completed in 1852, and
its effect, jointly with the extension of the rail-
way to the docks in the following year, was
manifested by the rise of the tonnage entering
the port from 270,000 tons in 1851 to 332,000 tons
in 1853. The rise since then has continued steady
and rapid, and last year the tonnage entering the
port was in round numbers 500,000 tons. Of this,
the increase in the foreign trade alone was from
60,000 to 262,000 tons. The chief export trade is,
of course, in coals, of which Swansea exported last
year 267,432 tons of all kinds, from the most bitu-
minous to tie most anthracite, and sent coastways
185,712 tons. There is also a considerable trade in
patent fuel, a manufacture peculiar to Swansea, of
which large quantities are exported to all quarters
of the world. In the coal trade, however, Swansea
is rivalled by Cardiff and Newport, but in the im-
ports of copper ore it takes the lead of all others.
Swansea may be said to do pretty nearly nine-
tenths of the copper-smelting business of the whole
world. Coal is cheap, and the sea is near, and to
Swansea accordingly comes copper ore from Corn-
wel' South America, Cuba, Australia, and all other
parts of the world where it is produced. There is
also a rapidly increasing trade in silver ores, and
there may possibly be lying about some of the
yards of the town silver ore to the amount of a
quarter of a million. The value of a single cargo
has been known to amount to £70,000.
Such a thriving trade as this promised speedily
to outgrow the existing accommodation, and it be-
came necessary to look about for some means of ex-
tending the harbour. Before the formation of the
river float in 1852, a project was started for build-
ing new docks on the west side of the river, and a
company was formed for the purpose. An Act
was obtained, and the first sod of the undertaking
was cut in 1852 by the present Duke of Beaufort.
For some reason or other the harbour trustees did
not associate themselves with this scheme, but pre-
ferred to persevere with their own plan of a
floating basin, which they accomplished from
their own funds. If their refusal was based
on a suspicion that the company would not be able
to perform their programme, they were justified
by the event, for after a few years' progress funds
became scarce, the works languished, and at last,
after an expenditure of £lOO,OOO, came to a stand-
still, In this condition they remained for three
years, until the trustees, on the lookout for more
room, came to terms with the company and took
the unfinished works off their hands. Under their
aaspices they were pushed on with vigour, another
£lOO,OOO was expended, and their completion was
celebrated by the ceremony of Friday. The new
docks are built on the west side of the entrance to
the port and consist of an inner and outer or half-
tide basin. They are built partly on land belong-
ing to the corporation, and partly on the property
of the Duke of Beaufort, who, as Lord of the
Seigniory of Gowerig, by virtue of an intermar-
riage with some Welsh Princess in the days when
Wales was an independent Principality, claims
the regal rights between high and low water mark.
The inner basin is excavated to a depth of 29 feet
6 inches ; the entrance to 28 feet ; but the founda-
tions of the walls are of sufficient depth to allow of
an increased deepening of the entrance channel to
an extent of about 3 feet. It contains an area of 13
acres, its length being 1,500 feet, and breadth 360
feet. There is 4,800 feet of quay wall. It commu-
nicates with the half-tide basin by a lock 300 feet
long and 60 wide, which will accommodate
steamers of the largest size. The half-tide basin
contains an area of 4 acres, and is 430 feet in
length by 370 in breadth. It has 1,600 feet of quay
" wall. The depth of water throughout is 24 feet,
and on the sill at the entrance gates the depth
varies from 26 and 23 feet at spring tides to 15
feet at the lowest neaps. The entrance is 70 feet
wide, being 15 feet wider than the entrance to the
Bute Dock recently opened at Cardiff. The engi-
neer is Mr. Abernethy. The contractors are Messrs.
Tredwell, and competent judges speak well of the
manner in which they execute their contract. In one
respect the docks have benefited by th:.: long procras-
tination of their completion, inasmuch as they have
been supplied with the most recent inventions for
saving time and labour.

At an expense of some -1'75,000 the Harbour
Trustees have constructed an extension of the South
Wales Railway down to the edge of the inner
basin ; facilities for the discharge of ores, ballast,
&c., are afforded by the hydraulic cranes discharg-
ing direct into railway trucks, and for the shipment
of coal and iron by hydraulic lifts and tips, com-
bining the advantage of shipping coal either from
the ordinary trucks or boxes upon the most ap-
proved plans for the prevention of breakage in the
hold. There are also five slips for discharging
timber. The drops are connected with the branch
railway by means of a timber viaduct which extends
towards the quay at the height of 20 feet. The
centre or combined drop is a very large one, being
capable of shipping upwards of 150 tons per hour.

The whole extent of the docks, as well as the
river float, is furnished with Sir Wm. Armstrong's
hydraulic apparatus, which opens the gates, swings
the bridges, works the slucies, lifts the hoists, and
goes through all manner of operations within the
compass of a two-year-old baby and a dozen Her-
The extent of pipes is a mile and a half,
and the pressure ucon them is 7001 b. to the square
inch. The hydraulic power is available for any
purpose for which it may be required at any point
throughout the entire length of the pipes, and for
accumulating the h_
yaraudhc power for the new
docks a steam-enth,
--eof SO horse-power has been
erected. The machinery is so arranged that the
pipes connected with the
Moat and those connected
with the docks may be worked quite independently,
so that an accident to one branch of the apparatus
need not affect the other. It is supplied with self-
acting gear, and by means of chains Which run the
whole length of each side of the lock the starting
valves of the engines may be opened or closed in a
moment by persons employed to work the machi-
nery, without running to the engine-house for the
purpose, simply by working levers attached to
the chains. Any portion of the machinery can be
thrown into or out of gear immediately, and either
part worked independently of the others. The
fitting of this apparatus has cost the trustees about
£20,000. Altogether, the expenditure on the har-
bour up to the present time amounts to about
£500,000.

The day of openinglwas observed in Swansea and
its outlying districts as a strict holyday, though
the weather was by no means conducive to un-
mixed enjoyment. A steady, misty, wetting rain
set in early, and continued at intervals throughout
the proceedings. All the shops were closed, and

the population disposed either in the streets or at
the windows, while exc!rsion trains and boats
brought in crowds of visitors from the neighbour-
hood. At an early hour the benefit societies of the
town—Odd Fellows, Druids, Foresters, &c.—to
the number of about 5,000, each headed by their
respective bands, assembled in the Town-field, and
thence a procession was formed to the docks, in
which the corporation, the Harbour Trustees, the
Lord Lieutenant, Mr. Talbot, the .M.P.'s for the
county and the borough, and other leading mem-
bers of the community, took their places. The
route to the docks lay through a perfect arcade of
triumphal arches, flags, devices, and buntings of all
descriptions. On arriving at the ground the benefit
societies took up their position round the inner
basin, backed by an immense concourse of people
standing on the sea wall, which, sloping down to
the dock, forms there a kind of natural amphi-
theatre.

The proceedings commenced by the presents
tion of addresses by the friendly societies to the
Lord-Lieutenant, which having been suitably re-
plied to the branch railway was hanselled by the
running of a gaily decorated engine and tender over
its length. The dock gate was then opened by Miss
Talbot, the daughter of the Lord-Lieutenant, not
figuratively, as is usually the case with cere-
monial " openings" of this kind, but, thanks to the
invention of Sir W. Armstrong, literally opened
by the delicately-gloved hand of a young lady of
18. As she stood on a slightly raised platform, and
grasping the capstan, boasting for the nonce a silver
handle, bent it away from her with little more
effort than she would have put into the opening of
the door of her own boudoir, the giant pulleys flew
round, the chains rattled, and presently the massive
gates swung slowly back on their hinges, obedient
to the force which the light touch a dozen yards off
had loosed upon them. A more striking proof of
the marvellous paver of Sir W. Armstrong's appa-
ratus could scarcely be furnished. Then in steamed
through the lock a boat belonging to the port,
freighted with the trustees and their friends, and
as she breasted the waters of the basin salvos of
artillery and answering cheers frum thousands of
throats proclaimed the fact that the docks were
opened. She was followed closely by the Ilamp-
shire, a fine sailing collier of London, and by the
Chevy Chase, a splendid steam collier of 1,000 tons,
which is chartered for coal to Australia and China.
Several other vessels also entered the dock in the
course of the day.
Shortly afterwards about 500 of the more dis-
tinguished visitors sat down to a breakfast, at
which " Success to the New Docks" and other local
and appropriate toasts were given and received
with due honour.
In the evening the town was brilliantly illumi-
nated—at least as brilliantly as the rain would per-
mit—and the festivities were brought to a close by
a grand ball in the Assembly Rooms.