Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-25
sourual a10 GouxIer.
Saturday, Nov. 25, 1882.
Long Island Sound.


 Long Island Sound. It's Comparative Value For Commercial Purposes With Ports North and South and Foreign Ports-Stenmers of Tm- mense Power and Speed-An Air Line
 Route-MfIford Haven in waIes-Its Ma
 tionaI Advantages For Transatlantic
 ComInerce-An Air Line Route New
 York-What the London Times Says.
 In a former article mention was made of the important geographical position of Long Island, being as it is the eastern entrance to the port ofNew York; also of the rapid growth of New York across Westchester county, fac ing as it must ill the near future the Sound with magnificent water front in East river, between Throgg's Neck (Fort Schuyler) and Port Morris also of the great importance of Sound as route for the distribution of Flu ropean bound cargoes, route better on many accounts for this purpose than the others, considering the easy approach to New York by rail from the granaries of the West. Mention has also been made of the fact that l by the use of the Sound route the fleet of | transatlantic steamers can depend on sched- ule time without moments delay, while by | the Sandy Hook route there is always the l chance of serious detention. Quick transit | being so important and desirable it follows l that there should be no impediment to be | met with in the fair way of the channels at | the entrance of the respective ports to and l from which thes ships ply. This is empha- sized with regard to vessels which are neces- sarily of immense capacity, propelled by en- zines of power sufficient to drive them through most any gale that the trip might encounter.
 Commercial mon have long regarded the approach to the sea by way of the Sound inn portant on account of it's advantage over the route by the eastern and southern coast south as far as the Chesapeake, and have em- ployed eminent engineers assisted by the United States coast survey to explore the Jersey and Delaware shores for the purpose of locating harbors as termini for their rail road systems. This has been found imprac- \ ticable and has for the present been aban- doned, as no rivers of sufficient drainage ex- ! ist to sluice or wash off bars that the heavy ! surf of the ocean would construct at the en- | trance of any artificial harbor they might To- ! cate The following from the London ZEanes | regarding Milford Haven in Wales and great | works in progress there is highly suggestive | with reference to the desideratum of quick t trips, Milford Haven being on an air line | route to Europe:
 ! From the London Times.l
 l ''For the last six or seven years very inn l portant works have been in progress at Mill l ford, works that will more than revive and ! restore the prosperity of the place, and most | eventually transform 8 remote little Welsh ! town into a commercial seaport of the first magnitude. No poetical license is necessary | to justify the line in which Shakespeare who | himself lived in enterprising age, speaks \ 0f HavAn aS nf han ! heritances of the principality, but hitherto ! both Wales in general and Milford in particu- ! lar have had only the merest foretaste of the l wealth with which nature has endowed them. ! Now, however, those who have constructed ! the new docks and who have successfully
 employed capit al, that great modern ma
 gician may fairly boast that their enter
 prise has changed all this. Nothing
 can now retard the development of the place.
 Like the lady in Henrietta Temple, who was
 old enough to remember Brighton 8 fishing
 town and Manchester village, there are
 many now living who few years hence will
 recall with some degree of wonder the time
 when Milford possessed three streets and 8
 few dilapidated warehouses and offices. All
 things considered it is surprising that the
 change from the picturesque to the prosper
 ous should not have been made long ago, and
 that great commercial nation should have | almost ignored one of its largest and most &C., l cessible harbors.
 |
 ford seemed likely to become important, but ! the moval, first of the Royal Dockyard and
 afterward of the Irish Steamship company, | left it almost as insignificant the ancient
 ports of Kent and Sussex, from which moi ! only the tide of business, but the
 very salt water has receded. From
 the resuscitation of Milford by the new
 docks company great results may indeed be
 expected; one might indeed say they are l obvious and inevitable. The haven itself is 2 c1,, oI,, | both in respect of area, complete shelter an6 , facility of entrance Vessels seeking refuge t in it need no pilot, but have only to pass tht entrance, which, from St. Ann's Head tc Rat Island, of Blockhouse Point, is of tht 7 width of mile and six cables or furlongs il order to ride out in safety on good anchorage 2 2 the heaviest uthwesterly gales The have1 t | is virtually land locked, and the minimum T depth of water at low water spring g tides is eight fathoms, or forty eigh r feet, so that even the Great East
 ern at her maximum draught ha
 eight feet to spare. The lower part O the harbor is protected by the Hubberston Popton, Stack Rock, South Hook, Block ! house and Thom Island forts all of then armed with heavy guns-a fact of utmos , ! consequence to a commercial fleet in time O ? war. In spite, however, of these natural ant t artificial advantages the harbor is little uset 5 l save blythe casual sailors that are driver hither in hundreds by stress of weather. D | The article now notes that at present twt lines of steamers run to the South of Ireland
 run by the Great Western railroad compan, : and that these with boats running between | Bristol and Liverpool, which call in at Mil ford, are the only boats of any importance
 that use the harbor right along and the,
 speaks of the great need of the new docks l which are now approaching completion
 s'These docks were designed by Sir E. J 1 Resd, the late chief constructor of the navy | l specially for the accommodation of vessels O. l the largest tonhage, such as iron
 to and Aenoa ehe nST When mail tba steam team
 Eastern was launched she was to be the typ, I 1 of fleet of similar monsters, and though tha I | anticipation was not fulfilled very great ad I vantages have, as everyone knows, beer I l made both in size and in speed of oceal $ | steamers. It is not probable that vessel 2 much larger than say the Servia will be bull
 for commercial purposes, but taking the Ser ! via as fair example of the steamship of tn l future, it was necessary to provide docks a Milford capable of receiving such giants. Tn
 dimensions, therefore, of the new docks ar
 as follows: Total available docks area 6
 acres; lock 800 feet long by 70 feet gravin. 2 l dock, which can also be used as lock o ' wet dock, 71O feet long, 9G feet wide . small graving dock, 27o feet long, 46 foe
 spring tides, 36 feet, and at high water neap
 27 feet; depth of water in docks 2S feet
 The construction of these docks was under
 taken some few years ago by private com
 ] pany with capital of e53O, 900, and tn s contract taken in the year 1879 b. Messrs. Lake & Co, of Victoria street. Tn
 entire town of Milford, as we'll as the smal
 town of Hakin, originally belonged to Col | Greville and became subsequently, the prop s l erty of the National Prevalent Institution 7 who have leased it for 999 years to the pres
 ent owners. The property includes, beside '; these two towns, the fine shore for the dis i, tance of mile and half, and all marke
 rights, and the right of levying tolls on pass ! ing vessels. The estate extends over abou q GOO acres. The dock has been constructed o by closing by wharf wall and -caissons B creek or pill, to the local word, tha ,9 e 1 runs in the Haven, and then dredging ou Then followed G description G of the doet aep'n it