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FOR many years past Hull has
been classed as the third port in the United Kingdom, London and Liverpool
taking precedence as first and second respectively, bat until the execution
of the works authorised by the Hull and Barnsley and West Riding Junction
Railway and Dock Act, in 1882, Hull possessed but one direct means of
communication with the adjoining inland manufacturing towns, viz: by the
North Eastern Railway. Although, too, the town had the advantage of being
situated in close proximity to the South Yorkshire coalfields, with the
great natural facilities of its river Humber, two and a half miles wide,
which rendered it accessible to the largest class of vessels at low water,
it was not a coal port in the sense of that commodity being its predominent
export. The principal reason, no doubt, why the coal traffic had not been
hitherto more strenuously cultivated by vessels frequenting the port, was
that its cost and the delay in its despatch were enhanced by the prevailing
conditions of railway transit from the collieries, coupled with the
inadequate dock accommodation afforded, and inefficiency of the appliances
for its shipment. Railway and dock accommodation had remained singularly
neglected. Previous attempts had certainly been made to bring about an
increase in trade, but they had been spasmodic and lacked cohesion of
interest. Schemes for docks and railways as independent enterprises under
separate management, had been launched, but unsuccessfully. Hull was still
keeping her position as the third commercial port in the kingdom, but was
making no advance: and to maintain one’s ground only, and do no more, ig, in
these days of active competition, virtually to lose it.
Realizing this position of
affairs, several of the leading citizens, headed by Lieut.-Colonel Gerard
Smith, C.B., now Governor of Western Australia, came to Parliament in the
Session of 1880, with a bold and comprehensive scheme, to make a direct line
to the South Yorkshire coalfields, near Barnsley, together with a deep water
dock at Hull, and the Bill then thrown out was reintroduced two years later
and passed after two protracted parliamentary battles of almost unexampled
severity, and at an expense of £115,000. The design of this dock was
entrusted to Mr. Abernethy, and during its construction he was assisted by
Messrs. Oldham and Bohn, civil engineers of Hull, while Mr. A. C. Hurtzig
acted as resident engineer throughout. This magnificent dock, called after
H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, the Alexandra Dock, was finished and opened on
July 16th, 1885. It has an area of 46^ acres, being 2,300 feet in length,
and 1,000 feet in breadth, and is nearly twice the size of the Albert Dock
at Hull. As a preliminary operation, about 150 acres of land were first
reclaimed from the Humber by embanking, so that it is situated on what was
formerly the foreshore of that river.
The sea bank which was formed
to exclude the water from the dock works, is one and a quarter mile in
length, composed of 200,000 tons of chalk, and faced with Bramley Fall
stone, with a slope of 2 to x on the sea face, while the cofferdam built
across the entrance to the lock during construction, was 500 feet in length,
and on a curve with a radius of 256 feet. It was composed of two rows of
piles, in number about 1,000, and varying in length from 50 feet to 60 feet,
driven 6 feet apart, and the intermediate space filled in with puddled clay.
The lock is approached from the river through a trumpet-shaped entrance 360
feet in width,
with a timber wharf, 300 feet
long on either side. These wharves are built on piles of creosoted timber,
60 feet long. The lock measures 550 feet in length and 85 feet in width,
with a depth of 34 feet over the sill at high water ordinary spring tides,
and has three pairs of massive Demarara greenheart gates. The principal
features of the dock are its accessibility to large vessels at all times,
and its large quay space of two miles, of which a considerable proportion is
occupied by one railway jetty, three jetties built of masonry projecting
from the outer wall towards the centre one on the west, two more on the
south side, and the large water space, which affords anchorage for vessels
waiting for a cargo, and so enables other vessels for which cargoes are
ready, to occupy the loading berths, and the work of loading to be carried
on uninterruptedly. The walls of the dock are 40 feet 6 inches high from
ground level, their depth below that point varying from 10 feet to 15 feet,
according to the nature of their foundation, and are 20 feet wide at the
base, and 6 feet 9 inches at the top. They are composed of chalk rubble
masonry, faced with ashlar, and finished with a granite coping, and at the
north-east side are two graving docks, one 500 feet by 60 feet by 19 feet,
and the other 550 feet by 65 feet by zi\ feet, and the dock is filled and
supplied with fresh water from a land stream, known as the Holderness Drain,
and ;n that way the expense of dredging is saved, a process which cost the
old Dock Company £10,000 per annum, in consequence of the mud which is
deposited by the admission of the water from the Humber.
Some idea of the magnitude of
the work involved in the construction of the Alexandra Dock, which was
admirably done by the well known firm of contractors, Messrs. Lucas & Aird.
at an actual cost of £1,355,392, or £29,147 per acre, including equipment,
may he gathered from the appended figures of what was actually done for the
money, and the amount of the plant in use.
All the hydraulic machinery
in connection with the lock gates, etc., was designed and supplied by Sir W.
Armstrong, Mitchell & Co., and the machinery for loading and unloading
exports and imports, was supplied by the same firm, and is also hydraulic.
The exports at Hull, other than coal, are chiefly goods of great value in
proportion to their bulk—agricultural machinery, cotton and woolen
manufactures, and the like; while the imports are mainly heavy goods, such
as grain, timber, seeds, etc.
It is worthy of note that in
the course of constructing the Alexandra Dock at Hull, hydraulic power was
for the first time applied to working the excavators. Two of the six
excavators or navvies was worked by this power: an hydraulic crane put the
stonework at the dock walls in place, while an hydraulic jigger raised the
barrows laden with soil from the bottom of the dock to the wall. This
machinery was found to work at least as quickly, as easily, and as
economically as steam machinery, and it had the advantage of doing so almost
without noise, and quite without smoke. |
