The Wilson Liner ‘Eskimo’ getting up Steam.
Early in this chapter it was stated that in the first place Hull owes its greatness to its geographical position. It is this position which has made it a great distributing centre for imported goods, and a great collecting centre for exported goods. The Port of Hull has thus become ‘the gateway for the world to the great manufacturing centres of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands.’
Grain Ships Discharging their Cargoes into Lighters.
Much of the transfer and despatch of goods is carried on over the side of the ocean-going steamships into or from the river-going lighters and keels, which are able to make use of two systems of inland waterways. One of these, the Aire and Calder Navigation, dates from the year 1698, and is the oldest as well as the most up-to-date waterway in Great Britain. The other system is known as the Trent Navigation.
The relative cheapness of transit by water makes these inland waterways of very great importance for all heavy traffic in which speed is not required. For fast traffic Hull is served by three railway systems, the North Eastern Railway, the Hull and Barnsley Railway, and the Great Central Railway; and other Companies have running powers over the lines of the North Eastern.
The coming of the first railway to Hull in 1840 was described in the preceding chapter. Five years after this event the merchants of Hull sought to establish a Hull and Barnsley Junction Railway; but the project fell through, and it was not till 1885 that the line now known as the Hull and Barnsley Railway was constructed.
With this new line was also constructed a new dock. This, the Alexandra Dock, is the deepest dock on the east coast of Great Britain, and has a water area of 53½ acres.
The opening of this huge dock gave a great impetus to the export trade in coal. In 1884 not more than 600,000 tons were exported, but in 1910 the quantity exported reached the enormous total of 5,000,000 tons.[[65]] Most of this went to North Russia, Germany, Holland, Sweden and South America.