The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-09-12

prepared by the National Geographic
| Society. Washington. D. c.
r ONDON the city is a Mecca for
travellers and is known, from
- books and stories, throughout
the world. London the port is
comparatively little known, yet in
world economics it is even more i'm
portant than London the city. The
story of this great port involves the
| ships that crowd the Thames from the
| Seven Seas, the varied piles of prod
ucts from all corners of the world
that are set down on London quays
and docks, and the facilities for han
ding this mighty business of provid-
| ing necessities and luXuries for a
| great block of the worlds consumers.
The port of London has developed
as her ships have developed. In her
1000 years Of history she has known
the long, rakish Viking boats, the lit
tie wind-driven ships of the Continent
smacks, frigates, clippers; and since
the advent of steam and the gas en-
CINE, great mechanical greyhounds of
the sea of ever-increasing size.
The smaller ships of the past cen
turtles found it possible to anchor in
| the Thames or to tie up to her
wharveS and Quays. But as ships be-
came larger and more numerous the
| great tidal range of the river was
| found to be more and more trouble
| some. 1t was then that London began
| the construction of the great closed
| dock system which gives her the most
extensive area of artificial ship basins
in the world.
A quay or wharf is merely wall or
! platform along the shore of a river or
| inlet. A true dock is constructed by
digging into the bank to construct a
basin into which the harbor water
flows. A lock and water gates usually
| connect the basin with the outer wa
ter. When ships are floated into the
| dock at high tide the gates can be
closed, shutting in enough water to
float the ships even when the water
has dropped far below the necessary
I'level outside. In some modern docks
thC "uICI iCNCi Sul pC VI
even raised above the high tide level,
by gigantic pumping plants.
Growth of the Dock System.
London's system of docks, now so
extensive and elaborate, grew by very
slow degrees. The first little wet dock,
dug at Blackwell about 1865, was used
merely to outfit ships. Samuel Pepys
mentions it in his diary. Next, about
100, came larger dock used merely
as protected anchorage for ships
that were to be long in port. This
basin came to be frequented by whal-
ing ships in the Greenland trade and
was long known as the Greenland
dock. The whalers soon realized that
unloading and the taking on of sup
plies could be better accomplished in
the dock than in the river. Blubber
factories, storage facilities, and all
the ill-smelling accessories of whaling
grew up around the basin, which thus
was first to take on what are the ele-
mentary docking activities Of today.
These beginnings of the dock sys-
tenn were constructed within a few
miles of London bridge. From them
the system has developed, principally
down the river into deeper and deep
er water. The West and East India
docks were built about 1900. They
now embrace 127 acres Of water ba-
sins, millions of square feet Of ware
house space, and more than five miles
Of quays. The so-called London docks,
the nearest basins to the bridge, are
relatively small, covering 80 acres of
water and 65 acres of land. The Sur
rev Commercial docks, built around
the original Greenland dock, consist of
147 acres of water, go acres of land,
and 5 miles of quays.
Royal Docks the Largest.
The Royal docks, six or eight miles
below London bridge, are the heart
of London's dock system, and the most
extensive inclosed docks in the world.
They consist of the Royal Victoria
dock, built in 1855; the Royal Albert
dock, completed in $780, and the King
George V dock, opened in 1921. To
gether they embrace 245 acres of wa
ter and extend along the river for
three miles. More than half a million
tons of shipping has been berthed in
these connected docks at one time.
Twenty-siX miles below London
bridge is the most remote of London's
shipping basins, the Tilbury docks.
These were opened in 1886 to accom-
modate the largest of the vessels en-
tering the port and those Of the deep
est draft. Its new entrance lock is
approximately of the dimensions of
the great locks of the Panama canal,
with depth of 40 feet inches be-
low high water. 1t is in the Tilbury
docks that the greatest of the trans
ocean passenger steamships berth
ships of close to $4,000 tons. Liners
that are very little smaller, however,
also use the King George V dock,
which has some of the most modern
dock equipment to be found on the
river.
London is not dependent alone on
inclosed docks. Along the 60 miles Of
river which supply the city with po-
tential port facilities, are many miles
of open wharves and quays. To these
comes a constant procession of barges,
coasting boats, and even stable
steamers.
For the past 10 years the great dock