Norwich bulletin., 1915-07-19
COAST GEOGRAPHY
OF BRITISH ISLES.
Shows Many Difficulties in Way of
Maintaining Effective Blockade.
fspecial to The Bulletins

Especial TO Inc BulleIln.1
Washington, D. C., July IA sur
vey of the coast geography of the
British Isles shows some things of
tremendous interest when considered
with reference to the blockade under
taken by the Germans, the first serious
| blockade ever attempted against the
United Kingdom" begins a bulletin
just issued by the National Geographic
Society, which sketches a few Of the
difficulties in the way of maintaining
an effective blockade of the many
harbored, sea- encircled nation. The
bulletin continues:
Great Britain is a land of harbors
and highly developed ports. Its foreign
commerce clears from more than 120
seaports, that are situated upon every
sea washing the islands. To shut off
English commerce with other lands
would require an almost impossible
sea-strength. Moreover. besides its
wealth of widely scattered harbors.
the United Kingdom has a. particularly
irregular coastline, which would serve
to greatly multiply the labors of a
blockader.
Broken by rocky headlands, bays,
and deeply penetrating inlets of the
sea, the English coastline alone
stretches for a distance of 1880 miles.
To the south, upon the English Chan
mel. lie the great seaports Of Plymouth,
Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton
and Dover; to the east, toward the
North Sea, are the ports of London,
Harwich, Great Yarmouth, Hull and
Newcastle. and to the west, toward
the Atlantic and the Irish Sea, are
Bristol, Cardiff. Swansea, and Liver
pool. Hundreds of smaller ports are
sprinkled in between these great har-
bors of world-fame.
"Of these English ports, Liverpool
is said to have the best developed
h a rnOr in tho world. mora coal iS
shipped from Cardiff than from any
other seaport; GriInsby is the fishing
capital of the world, and London is
more intimately connected with the
ports on every sea than any other har-
Dor. England has expended with
ment OF her seaports, and so the war
finds her with adequate harbor facil-
tiles upon every hand, with dry docks
and shipyards in every more important
harbor, with equipment to carry on a
great foreign trade from more than
100 different points.
Scotland is a still more battling
problem to an intending blockader.
Probably, its most striking feature is
the irregularity Of its coastline, and
its coast upon the east is shielded by
an intricate mass of bold, rocky
islands. Though much smaller in area
than England, Scotland has a coast
line of $500 miles, or one mile of coast
to every IL square miles OF area. Leith,
Dundee and Aberdeen are important
ports upon the North Sea in the east
Inverness sends its shipping to the
north, and Glasgow, with its famous
shipbui1ding works and vast foreign
trade, lies toward the North Channel
and the open Atlantic. Few places in
Scotland lie more than, 40 miles from
the sea, and smaller ports dot the
entire coastline.
'Treland's greatest ports, Belfast and
Dublin, are situated upon her east
coast on the Irish Sea- The restless
breaking of q rough Atlantic over the
rocky needles of her western coast
has retarded the development of com
mercia1 harbors there. Limerick, upon
the River Shannon. gives Ireland an
important Atlantic harbor, while
Queenstown Is an outlet in the south
and Londonderry in the north.
with its more than $500 miles of
coastline. and its we'll developed har-
bors all along the way, the United
Kingdom presents a problem of ex-
treme difficulty to any power intend
ing to maintain blockade against it,