The Coolidge examiner., 1937-08-05

AOA IAlC ZOO W q SiilpiOdU VI IlOldSSeS
from which to distill fuel alcohol.
1t weighs goods, reports on their
quality and condition; it opens bales
and boxes for customs inspection,
furnishes samples for buyers, and
looks after repacking and loading
for those who ship from London to
other ports.
On the north bank Of the Thames.
scattered for miles downstream
from the Tower, stand these great
PLA docks: London, st. Katharine.
East and West India, Millwall. Vic
toria and Albert, King George V,
and the Tilbury.
On the south bank. near London s
heart. are ancient Surrey CONNER
cial docks. with lumberyard that
covers $50 acres!
Besides the railways and truck
lines that tie these docks to the out
lying kingdom. some 5000 Thames
barges handle goods to and from
ships sides.
Each dock has its own character.
st. Katharine docks are built on the
site of the old Church of st. Kath-
arine by the Tower, founded by
Queen Matilda in ll48. What hetero-
geneous goods they store: wool. .
skins, wines, spices, sugar. rubber.
balata, tallow, ivory. barks, gums,
drugs. coffee, iodine. hemp. quick
silver, canned fruits and fish. coir
yarn, coconuts, and brandy!
Navy at One Dock.
West India and Millwal docks lie
in a river peninsula known as the
Isle Of Dogs. Here the passer-by
may smell $4,000 puncheons of rum,
a million tons Of sugar and ship
loads of dates.
Victoria and Albert and King
George V docks form one u & e
structure. the worlds largest sheet
Of enclosed dock water. Often 40 or
so ships-equal to a good-sized navy
tie up here at one time.
Tilbury is the first dock one sees
when sailing up the Thames. Its
long landing stage forms a home
land gateway for people from Au-
stralia, New Zealand, India, China
and other eastern countries w o
land or embark here. Fast trains
of the London, Midland and Scottish
railway touch the docks edge and
whisk passengers away to all parts
Of the kingdom.
In the city, PLA has still more
warehouses. At its Butler street
building are 70 rooms full of oriental
carpets-enough to cover farm of
120 acresi
People buy most carpets in June,
for wedding presents, you are told.
There are electric ovens, too, for
conditioning raw silk, a mountain
of Havana cigars and leaf tobacco
enough to last one man, say, 500,-
600 years!
Here is a furtive horde of lean
black cats, to help out the official
human rat catchers. Musty wine
vaults use % miles of underground
track on which to roll barrels that
hold the 12,000,000 gallons Of wine
brought to London each year.
This is the worlds ivory and tooth
market. 1t takes 100000 600 artificial
teeth from the United States every
year-and some 1000 elephant tusks
from Africa and Asia.
Not many tusks are from newly
slain elephants. Most of them come
from mudholes, left by animals.
Tea for Londoners.
Wool was England's chief export
in the Middle ages. Today it is one
Of London's main imports. It takes
the feeces from about fifty million
sheep to meet London's annual de-
mandSi
Tea trade has centered here for
300 years. In Mincing Lane you can
see brokers bidding on lots which
have been expertly sampled by
PLA's own teatasters.
When they bulk" tea, or mix it,
on some warehouse floors you may
see it heaped up in mounds higher
then mems heads.
Think of all the Liquid history
that has been packed into this an
cient water front since Roman gal
leys traded here; since Danes and
Vikings came to plunder; since the
great companies of merchant ad-
venturers launched their tiny ships
for daring trade and colonizing far
over then little-known seas.
Think of the 10000 ships a year
that now form smoke lanes from
London to every nook of the world
where goods can be bought or sold
and you begin to see why this TO
mile stretch Of London River" is,
incomparably, the worlds busiest
water front.