Ainsword Docks

The Ainsword Docks lie just north of Dock Town, at the northernmost end of Ainsword. The peninsula is broken into the Seu Kal Docks and the East and West Tashakda Docks, and the area is busy all day and night but most especially when the tides are coming in and out. At these times, steam tug boats are leading the ships in and out of the docks and onto the Saron River, where the river pilots, employed by the various dockyards, navigate the ships out to sea through the Salts and bring them into harbour safely. Massive warehouses, five to six stories high, create canyons through which the streets of the dock wind. Cargos are constantly being hauled into higher warehousing bays by crane and pulley, and the work can run all night. The Ainsword Docks primarily handle trade from Seu Kal and Tashakda (as can be guessed by their names), nearly 70% of sea trade coming into Norrilund, but the docks in Lime and Cooley Limb are handling more and more of the trade coming into the city.
The docks are packed with wagons, carriages, and foot traffic trying to get around a constant blockade of goods in crates, bundles, and bales waiting for loading or off-loading from the ships that are always crowding the wharves. The warehouses that crowd the streets around the area create a tunnellike feeling due to the tangle of catwalks, ladders, and cranes that cris-cross the air above the streets. The Dock Office is located in Dock Town at the head of the West Tashakda Dock; it contains a tremendous storehouse of wines which can only be inspected by special arrangement.
The harbormaster's office is also located in the Dock Office, where the harbormaster organizes where ships may dock, how long they might remain at moorings, as well as arranging for harbour pilots or tugs to assist the ships through the Salts. As much as the captains of ships are gods to their crews, the harbormaster is the solitary lord and master of his bailiwick.
Category:Locations in Ainsword
Category:Harbors