THE GIBRALTAR OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12401, 14 October 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GIBRALTAR OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

Wiikn* the new harbour: at Dover is completed it will be the largest made harbour in the world. Also it will be one of the most important. The bulk of the vast water space enclosed by the giant breakwaters will be used for naval purposes, and one little section will be set aside for the mercantile marine. In other words, there will be two harbours .Admiralty harbour and a commercial harbour. ' . The idea of constructing a great naval harbour at. Dover has been in the air for* the past two generations. At present there is no harbour on all the coast between Portsmouth and the Thames where the fleet can put into. In the old days our wooden walls could moor "all in the Downs;'' but that was before torpedoes and such like underhand devices were imported into warfare.

Some of the most wonderful and interesting machinery in the world is at work at it dredging out the bottom of. the sea as a little boy scoops out a miniature harbour on the sand, and placing the huge 40-ton blocks of concrete in position on tbe breakwaters as easily as a child handles wooden bricks.

The excavation of the sea-bed is done by huge grabs like that shown in the picture. The grab is let down with its mouth open, so to speak. Then its teeth bite into the earth, and the grab comes tip dripping with ♦bout three tons of the uttermost parts of the sea in its triumphant jaws. Each grabfid is dropped into a barge, and when the barge is filled she goes out and drops her cargo in deep water, restoring the sea its own again.

Interesting as the naval harbour is to the strategist, the commercial harbour will he equally interesting to the tourist. Landing

A fleet that lay moored in the Downs in the time of war to"-day would be inviting annihilation.

or embarking at Dover with the present accommodation is distinctly unpleasant. When the new works are completed, however, the steamers will come close to the train, and the passengers will practically step from one into another. An excellent buffet is also promised.

With a protected harbour at Dover for its base, the fleeet will hold the key of the Channel. Dover will be the Gibraltar of the English Channel.

The scheme is, roughly, to build two long i The'commercial harbour will further open breakwaters, curving slightly inwards, like up a hew line of goods traffic between Dover protecting arms, and a third breakwater and the many Continental centres to which across the space they enclose, leaving just a it is the nearest British port.

little space at each end for ships to come in at. The western arm will be an extension of the Admiralty Pier seawards of about 2000 ft. The eastern arm will be over 3000 ft long. The breakwater stretched between the two will be about three-quarters of a mile long.

The naval harbour will be 610 acres in extent, and a fleet will be able to ride ill it. The commercial harbour will be sixty-six acres in extent, so that the combined area of the two will be in the neighbourhood of 700 acres. The cost of the work is estimated at £3,500,000, and it will probably take three more years to complete. _____

The following table of distances shows how lose and convenient Dover is to the Conine lit : — Miles. never to Calais 22 Dover to Boulogne ... ?-1' Dover to Flashing' 88 Dover to Hook of Holland and Rotterdam 118 Dover to Dieppe 70i Dover to Havre 110 The Kaiser, who is an expert- in harbours, xpressed his warm admiration of the plans. The photographs of the works are pubished by the courtesy of Messrs. S. Pearson and Sons, the famous contractors, who ire building the harbour.