Page:The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln Volume 2.pdf/429

Rh coal can be shipped at the rate of 350 tons per hour at a single spout. At a later date a hydraulic coal hoist was erected, and sidings provided on the west side of the Royal Dock to increase the coal-shipping facilities of the port. Two coal hoists were constructed with hydraulic appliances in No. 2 Fish Dock, to enable coal to be loaded direct into steam fishing vessels or lighters. In March, 1893, a new transit shed 900 ft. by 178 ft., covering an area of 160,200 square feet, was brought into use on the west side of the Royal Dock. In August, 1900, the Fish Dock No. 2, which had taken three years to construct, was completed. This brings the water area of No. 2 Dock up to 16 acres, and the total area of the fish docks to 29 acres. On the south side of the No. 2 Fish Dock is the floating or pontoon dry dock ordered by the directors for the fishing trade. It was opened for use on 1 October, 1900, and is of great value to the trade.

On the quays and in the sheds there are forty-two fixed and portable hydraulic cranes, having a lifting capacity varying from l0 cwt. to 70 tons; and also nine hand cranes, for the rapid loading and discharge of goods and produce. The tank for working the machinery by which these operations are carried on is contained in a tower 28 ft. square at the base, 300 ft. high to the top of the lantern, and is capable of holding 26,500 gallons of water. The total weight of the machinery and water is 60,000 tons. The tower can be ascended by means of a hydraulic lift.

At the moment of writing Parliament has given powers for the building of yet another deep dock, which cannot fail to be of immense commercial value to Grimsby. Immingham Marshes, the site selected for this fresh undertaking, bear the hallmark of the approval of two eminent engineering authorities, Mr. Liddell and Sir John Wolfe Barry, both of whom declared that there was no other place on the Humber with its advantages. For the dock purposes 616 acres have been acquired, and 4½ miles of new line will be constructed to connect the dock with the Great Central Station at Ulceby. The dock will have a depth of 35½ feet below high-water ordinary spring tides. The entrance lock is to measure 850 ft. by 90 ft., with a depth of water on the sill of 47½ ft. at high water, while the channel outside it will be flanked on either side by jetties extending outwards to low water. The dock itself, together with the greater part of the entrance lock, lies within the line of the Humber bank. The fact of there being no expensive reclamation works to be undertaken, and of the deep-water channel lying so close to the shore, renders the site an ideal one for a deep-water lock.

In its construction 3,500,000 cubic yards of material will have to be excavated, and about 1,250,000 cubic yards of mud and stone lifted by dredgers. The contractors' estimate is for 350,000 cubic yards of concrete, 500,000 cubic yards of timber, 35,000 cubic yards of brickwork, 80,000 cubic feet of granite, and 2,000 tons of steel work for girders, before the completion of the work.

Not the least of the problems with which the masters of the fishing industry find themselves confronted is that of the transit and distribution of the fish itself, which may be yearly estimated at 800,000 tons (£5,000,000). It is a problem with which over 500 merchants are concerned, and it has been satisfactorily solved for them by the Great Central Railway, whose sole property are the market and fish wharves, over a mile in length, at which their business is transacted. Prior to the year 1854 little or no fish was sent away from Grimsby; the following table shows the growth of the traffic since that date:—

It is to figures that the historian of the Grimsby docks and fishery must return, over and over again, if any faithful impression is to be conveyed of the stupendous and ever-increasing growth growth of the fishing industry. The port is one of the five on the east coast which in 1904 contributed 1,214 (or 94 per cent.) to the total of 1,288 first-class steamers of 45 keel and upwards engaged in fishing on that coast. In 1905 the