Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-24
MARVELLOUS
DOCK BUILDING
All Records Broken by French
Engineers in Equipping Ports
for Wartime Com
merce
By HENRY BAZIN
Special Correspondent OF the Evening Ledger
IN France

IN France
PARIS Feb. 20.
| DEFoRE the war 1t had been unani-
- mously recognized that facilities for
docking vessels and the discharging and
| loading OF freight at French ports were in
adequate for existent and growing needs
Serious official study had been made Of these
open facts and plans tentatively prepared
for increasing the methods and means
toward greater and more rapid handling Of
! incoming and outgoing freights.
out Of the wars necessities the plan not
only developed into immediate action but
| a newborn plan produced virtually imrne-
| diate and definite result
Before August, 1914. coal was the most
| important article of commerce so far as
quantity was concerned. Since then coal
| freights have not only maintained their
| position, but have increased in astounding
proportion. In 1918 1873 tons of coal were
landed at Treport. In 1914 $4,000 tons ar
rived at the same port Of entry, with 27S.O0o
tons in 1915. an increase of 1900 per cent
over the year before the wars outbreak.
The total coal tonnage received at Treport
for 1916 to October IS. inclusive, is In round
figures thirty per cent increase over the
whole year previous.
At Rouen. where 2.s27,o0O tons of coal
were received from England and the United
States In 1913, a total Of 6.021,130 tons
were deharked during 1915. That figure
was surpassed by over a million tons last
year. The same proportionate rates Of in
crease apply to the coal importation through
the great and small ports Of Honfleur, Caen,
Granville, Saint-Nazaire, Nantes, League
Saint Beieuc, La Rochelle, La Pallice. Brest
and Bordeaux
In addition TO coal every article essential
to the needs Of war and internal conSunp.
tion that came into France from foreign
shores increased in extraordinary propor-
ton. Because of special facilities for re-
ceipt iron and steel arrived mostly at
Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, The same ma
terials from England reached France
through Treport. Horses from the United
States for the needs of the army came via
Brest Saint-Nazaire and La Rochelle.
Dieppe, Rouen, Havre and Bayonne. with,
on the Mediterranean Marseilles and Cette,
received the great mass of wheat and food
stuffs Nitrate and pyrte arrived at Bor-
deaux. La Rochelle, Rochefort Nantes and
Saint Nazaire. All Atlantic ports received
incoming supplies Of refrigerated meats,
paper pulp, gasoline products, phosphates,
machinery, munitions in varied state of
completion. cotton. wool. leather and shoes
to mention but some Of the great mass or
foreign product imported, In substance
every port in France increased not only its
receipts but its facilities for handling to
a degree out of all proportion over any
precedent in year or total quantity ever
known.
Dock Building in Record Time
This was not only successfully accom-
plished in time of war and under the handi-
cap of decrease in number of stevedores
and workmen through mobilization. hut
with genuine lack at the outset of sufficient
cranes and unloading machinery,
on November L. 1914, few weeks after
the victory of the Marine, victory that
above any other single thing was the direct
incentive toward inauguratng really mar
velous economic progress in France. work
upon new docks began in Bordeaux With
such French labor as YVES beyond military
age supplemented with Italians and Span
iards, a new dock 900 feet long begun in
october. 1914, was completed and in active
use by late April, 1915. Below Bordeaux
toward the sea, at Bassens a new dock
1900 feet long was begun and completed in
less than five months from October Is.
1914. At Blaye, still nearer the sea on the
Garonne, a dock 900 feet long was con-
structed in the period between January 1
and June |, 1915.
At Tonnay Charante near La Rochelle,
n coal dock with every modern appliance
was ready and put into commission in three
months from January I, 1915. At Saint
Nazaire by December 20, 1915 dock II 81
feet long, with ends at right angles, each
400 feet long, was in use. II had con-
sumed less than seven months in the build
ing. At Havre. which has become an Eng
lish base three new docks of important
size were in use five months after Germany
had declared war against France, while
during the same period the landing place
for Havre Southampton steamers was
transferred to "A new dock. that the old
might with better advantages of position.
be utilized TO land men and supplies from
England.
At Dieppe and Treport four new docks
averaging 700 feet in length each, were
begun and completed in seven months and
sixteen days from September /. 1915. In
Rouen docks that had been in leisurely
course of construction from the beginning
of 1911 were completed in seven months
time, and a new one for coal purposes only
placed in working order in nnety.seven
days
In the installation of cranes and freight
moving machinery at all the ports on the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean. 2O7 new In.
stallations were made in 1915 through the
combined efforts of the Government and
various steamship companies. These are
electrically and steam driven In Rouen
alone, where 175 such appliances were ex-
istent In August 1914, 254 are now work.
Ing, with twenty-siX more nearly ready to
be installed.
Machines Do the Work of Men
New freight sheds covering 10000 square
meters have been erected in Marseilles and
the like to a square meterage of 6 900 in
these two important ones, new sheds cover
ing a combined area of 1000 square me-
ters have been built since January 1. 1915.
Railway extensions have been built in like
proportion, in the cases Of Bordeaux, Mar
seilles and Havre, in very great quantity.
These extensions run from dock to main
lines of railways. Freight from ship to car
and car to the rails of destination Is now
the general order Ingenious appliances too
technical to detail here are being utilized
to make unloading machinery do the work
of human hands, even to the unlocking of
slings. At Bordeaux, Saint-Nazaire. Mar
seilles and Havre the work that before the
war necessitated an average of 100 men is
now performed with an average of sixteen
and the machines they manipulate, And
some of these men have a wooden stump
for a leg, or an empty sleeve The mass of
the able-bodied are graybeards Only a