Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/272

 was laid down in the harbour, and consisted of two longitudinal ground chains of 1,000 feet each, attached at intervals of 50 feet to two sets of Mitchell's screws, which were worked into the clay in the bed of the stream. The bridle chains, shackled above to the mooring buoys, were secured below to the ground links between the attachments of the screws, the buoys being so arranged that each vessel was held stem and stern, instead of swinging round with the tide, or stranding with one end on the large central sandbank, as heretofore.

From 1862 to the present date, the story of the haven, with the exceptions of the trawling fleet and the Belfast line, which will be treated of directly, is not one which will awaken envy in the breasts of those whose interests are bound up in rival ports, nor indeed can it be a source of congratulation to those whose interests might ordinarily be supposed to be best promoted by its prosperity. It is true that the foreign trade for seven years after 1862 was in a state of fluctuation rather than actual decline, but the three succeeding years were stationary at the low figure of 21 imports each, after which there was a slight improvement, raising the annual numbers to 24, 32, and, in 1875, 33, due more to the staunch allegiance of Messrs. B. Whitworth and Bros., whose cotton again appeared on the wharf, than to any inducements offered to them or others by increased facilities or more appropriate accommodation. The coasting trade has already been referred to, so that there is no necessity to recapitulate facts but just laid before our readers. It is proper, however, to mention a few statistics respecting the trade in exports of coal, the chief business, and below are given the numbers of tons shipped, mostly to Ireland, in each of the specified years:—

1855   31,490 1860    23,652 1865    16,225 1866    12,315 1867    10,912 1868     6,809 1869    24,741 1870    43,653 1871    51,473 1872    54,794 1873    55,447 1874    56,939 1875    71,353.

The large and sudden increase from 1869 is mainly owing to several screw steamships having been extensively engaged in the traffic, and there is every probability, from the addition within the last few months of a new and handsome coal-screw, and