Come for a walk along the Humber Dock or on the Riverside Quay and, according to the season of the year, we shall see unshipped cargoes of plums from Germany; new potatoes and other vegetables from Jersey, France, and Holland; cranberries from Russia; bananas from the Canary Isles; apples from Australia, Canada, and the United States; oranges, lemons, grapes, nuts, tomatoes and onions from Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Last of all we will pay a visit to the St. Andrew’s Dock, and watch the entrance and unloading of the steam trawlers and steam carriers of the Hull fishing fleets. From the fishing-grounds of the North Sea, the White Sea, and the stormy seas around Iceland each brings its ‘catch.’ As quickly as it can be brought up from the hold—tubs of plaice, turbot, halibut, codfish, ling, hake or herring—it is sold at auction to the fish buyers who attend from all the large towns of the north of England; and as quickly it is packed on board the waiting ‘Fish Trains,’ which will distribute it among the fifteen million people who live within reach of the port of Hull.
We shall now be able, perhaps, to understand what is meant when we call Hull ‘England’s Third Port.’ The following table shows the position of Hull in comparison with the other large ports of Great Britain:—
| Name of Port. | Annual Value of Imports and Exports in 1910. | ||
| London | 360 | million | pounds. |
| Liverpool | 341 | " | " |
| Hull | 73 | " | " |
| Manchester | 47 | " | " |
| Southampton | 46 | " | " |
| Glasgow | 44 | " | " |
| Grimsby | 32 | " | " |
The growth of Hull’s shipping industry has meant a corresponding growth of its manufacturing industries. Most of these find their home on the banks of the river Hull, along whose winding course we can find oil and cake mills, flour mills, saw mills, paint, colour and varnish works, starch, blue and black-lead works, coal tar works, and cement works—all one after another.
Among these mills and works are some that rank as the largest in the British Isles. Thus the ‘British Oil and Cake Mills, Ltd.’ have the largest oil refinery, the ‘Hull Oil Manufacturing Co.’ are the largest producers of castor-oil, and the firm of ‘Blundell, Spence & Co.’ own the largest paint works. There are forty different firms engaged in the saw-milling industry, and an equal number in the manufacture of paints, colours and varnishes.
The N.E.R. Riverside Quay.
That ‘England’s Third Port’ is still going ahead may be seen in recent shipping and industrial developments. One of these has been the building of a new Riverside Quay, available for large ships at any state of the tide, and the inauguration of a daily service of steamers to and from the Belgian ports. Another is the construction of a new Joint Dock by the North Eastern and the Hull and Barnsley Railways. This is planned to have eventually a water area of 83 acres, and to be thus an imposing rival of the Great Central Railway’s new dock at Immingham on the Lincolnshire shore of the Humber.