Hydraulic lifts and repairing basins.
But besides these wet-docks and warehouses, it is proposed to construct hydraulic lifts, each with a framework five hundred feet in length and sixty feet in width, capable of receiving and raising the largest class of vessels, and “admitting ordinary repairs and overhauling to be effected with safety, economy, and expedition.” On the eastern side of the basin of these wet-docks there are to be constructed two graving-docks, with sixty feet width of entrance, each eight hundred and fifty feet in length, and having adjoining “lye-bye” berths of sufficient capacity to accommodate and facilitate the working and free entry of the largest description of ships. Between the graving-docks it is proposed to make another dock eight hundred and twenty feet long and one hundred and forty feet wide, to be specially adapted for repairing purposes, with quays one hundred and thirty feet in width, provided with the largest and most convenient class of cranes. These various new docks, with separate entrances from the river, are to be in direct communication with the existing docks, so as to form one almost unbroken line of the finest dock accommodation in this or any other country.
On the southern side of the Dock Estate, that is to the south of the existing docks, there is to be a half-tide basin to the east, in connection with the Brunswick basin, of one thousand one hundred and thirty feet in length and seventy feet in width, surrounded by convenient quays and sheds in direct communication with the railway. Opening from the existing basin, and extending in a north-eastern direction, with a passage of sixty feet in width, another wet dock is contemplated, one thousand three hundred and thirty feet in length, by three hundred feet in width, comprising a water area of eight and three-quarter acres, and a total quayage of two thousand eight hundred and forty lineal feet.
Cost of new works.
Eastward, and in connection with the dock now described, by means of a sixty-feet passage, there is to be an “import dock,” one thousand four hundred and fifty feet in length, with eleven acres and a half of water-space, and a quayage of three thousand two hundred and eighty lineal feet; while at the extremity of the whole, the half-tide basin at present in use is to be more than doubled in size, and another graving-dock constructed seven hundred and forty-five feet in length, with “repairing berths,” which will be applicable for other trade purposes, and if thus used, furnished with forty and twenty-ton hydraulic cranes. When these new works are completed the water area of the Liverpool Docks will be increased by more than one hundred and thirty-three acres, and upwards of thirty thousand lineal feet added to the present vast extent of quayage. Their estimated cost[355] is 4,834,051l., which will raise the borrowed capital of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board to close upon twenty millions sterling.
While the docks are in the nature of a private undertaking, receiving no aid whatever from government, and happily allowing no government interference beyond the right to appoint three members of the board, they are at the same time a public trust; the surplus revenue, after providing for current expenses and the interest of money borrowed, being in all cases applied to the reduction of the rates.[356] The regulations of the Board are very complete, and the dock-charges, as well as the cost of delivering cargoes, moderate.
Bye-laws of the Mersey Board.
The laws framed pursuant to the Acts of Parliament for the government of these vast undertakings are embraced in one hundred and fifty-nine clauses. They state who shall be stevedores or porters employed to discharge or load vessels in the docks, and their duties; they regulate the conduct of masters and pilots, and the conditions alone on which ships will be allowed to enter the docks, inflicting penalties for violation of the rules;[357] they fix the charges for the use of the graving-docks; stipulate the condition of the railway-trucks, and the length of the trains to be used within their docks, requiring great attention on the part of those persons who are in charge of them. No craft of any kind is allowed to ply for hire on the river without being registered at the Dock Office unless a steam or a ferry-boat; and these are, in some respects, under the control of the Board. Certain places are specially appropriated for the discharge and stowage of timber; and all cotton and other merchandise (not being wooden goods) must be removed from the quays of most of the docks within forty-eight hours from the time of discharge. The bye-laws further embrace the conditions on which fires, exclusively confined to the consumption of coal or coke, may be used on board vessels in the docks, and all lights must consist of “oil lamps or candles contained in glass lanterns or globes.”
The pilots, who still maintain an exclusive monopoly, are under the control of a Pilotage Committee elected from the members of the Mersey Board. Subject to the orders of this committee there is a superintendent of pilots, whose duties are of an arduous and responsible character. He has to see that full reports of all occurrences affecting this important service are furnished to him; that the Acts of Parliament and bye-laws are duly observed at the respective stations; and it is his especial duty to arrange that the pilot-boats at these stations are effectively occupied by day and night. He is required to visit occasionally, as time and circumstances admit, the whole of the stations, and record the particulars of his inspection. He is also required to make a strict and careful survey of every pilot-boat at least once every year, reporting upon her condition and equipment, as required by the bye-laws. It is further his duty every five years to visit and survey all the ports and anchorages, lights and lighthouses, buoys, beacons, and seamarks, a thorough knowledge of which is required from pilots on passing their examination; and he is required to carefully note for the good of the service all changes in the buoys, channel, lights, etc., which may have been made since the date of his last survey, and report upon any matters which may appear to him desirable in the interests of navigation. Nor do his duties here end, for it is required of him “to attend promptly to the complaints of shipowners, shipmasters, or other interested persons, in reference to pilots or pilotage, and generally to do all that lies in his power to maintain and increase the discipline and efficiency of the pilot service:” this service, therefore, though exclusive, is no doubt on all occasions most effectively performed.[358]
Conditions of admission to the service.