Report of the committee on the utility of wet docks in connection with quarantines, and the propriety of placing the entire establishment under the jurisdiction of the United States government / Jno. W. Sterling, Alex. H. Stevens, Jno. McNulty, committee.

  • National Quarantine and Sanitary Convention.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the committee on the utility of wet docks in connection with quarantines, and the propriety of placing the entire establishment under the jurisdiction of the United States government / Jno. W. Sterling, Alex. H. Stevens, Jno. McNulty, committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    15/32
    That the construction of Wet Docks has done much to at- tract and facilitate commerce, is an historical fact. The first Wet Dock in Great Britain was constructed in Liver- pool about the year 1708, at which time Liverpool was but an inconsiderable town. This, however, was the commence- ment of her commercial importance; and the accommodation afforded by her Wet Docks is one of the circumstances that has most strongly conduced to her extraordinary increase in population, commerce, and wealth. The Liverpool Docks now enclose an area of ninety acres of water. The West India Docks were the first constructed on the Thames. They Were commenced in February, 1800, and partially opened in 1802. The Export Dock is eight hundred and seventy yards long by one hundred and thirty-five wide. Its area about twenty-five acres. The Import Dock is of equal length, and one hundred and sixty-six yards wide. The South Dock, which is appropriated to both import and export vessels, is one thousand one hundred and eighty-three yards long; the locks at each end are forty-five feet wide, large enough to admit vessels of one thousand two hundred tons. At the highest tides the depth of water in the docks is twenty-four feet, and the whole will contain with ease six hundred vessels of from two hundred and fifty to five hundred tons. There are other docks per- taining to this department, which, together with the above and the warehouses, comprise an area of two hundred and ninety-five acres . This spacious and magnificent structure was formed by subscription, and vested in the West India Dock Company, their capital being £1,380,000 sterling, and has proved a profitable as well as beneficial investment. In addition, there are on the Thames, the East India, London, and St. Catharine's Docks. For further information on this subject, we refer to McCullough's Commercial Dictionary. But these docks are on a much more extensive scale than is needed for Quarantine purposes. Being intended chiefly for Yellow- ever vessels, a dock capable of accommodating thirty or forty vessels at a time would be sufficiently capa-