PORT OF WILHELMSHAVEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17008, 15 November 1918, Page 6

PORT OF WILHELMSHAVEN.

CRADLE OF GERMAN NAVY. MARSHY WASTE RECLAIMED. The German,port of Willielmshaven, like Kiel and Hanover, has been the scene of revolt* by soldiers and sailors within the past fortnight. Only 65 years ago. the site of the now ongly-fortified town, given over chiefly to shipyards, drydocks, fitting-out harbours, iron foundries, and boiler factories, was a desolate, low-lying, marshy tract of laud on the edge of a shallow inlet of the North Sea known as Jade Busen or Jade Way, which had been formed by inundations in the thirteenth aDd sixteenth centuries. Id 1652, however, the nascent ispirit of Prussianism awoke to the fact that the kingdom did not own a single inch of eoa-coast on the North Sea. In order to acquire a foot, hold on the western shore of Europe, the Prussian king purchased from the Grand Duke of Oldenburg the marsh, four square miles, upon which now stands Wiihelmshaven, and the purchase price was about £71,000. For 17 years a large body of workmen was engaged at great expense in building the town, dredging the bay,.and sinking piles in the peaty soil upon which to srect the docks and shipyards. It was a herculean task, and frequently month* of labour would bo wiped out in a single hour by a high tide or a violent storm. [11 the end, however, the work was completed, and the harbour was formally opened by King William, afterwards Emperor William 1., in the presence of many Britiih naval ofllcers, who little imagined what a momentous ceremony they were witnessing, for with the dedication of Wilhelmshaven began in earnest the development of modern Germany's seapower. One of the odd difficulties with which Prussia had 4 to contend in the building of Wilhelmshaven was the unfriendly attitude of the kingdom (soon thereafter to become a Prussian province) of Hanoter, which refused to allow the construction of 1 railroad across its territory from Prussia into Oldenburg, so that all the material for the harbour had to be shipped from Prussia by the long sea route The town is given over almost ontirely to the need# of the German Navy. It has extensive arsenals and mine ' depots, machine shops, iron foundaries, and boiler •hops. The shipyards are surrounded by lofty walls, ana access to the enclosure, aven prior to the outbreak of the war, was eery restricted. Afore than a third of the population of 35,000 before the beginning d/ hostilities in 1914 was made up of army ind naval forces. I