A WAR PORT

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13964, 3 May 1919, Page 3

A WAR PORT

.The traipsfoa-rnatioair of three- a,tfd a-balf- miles, of; marshes, be.tvw.eiir Sandwich, and. Pegwell. .Hay into;au.> important port of British Kiik'tary . supplies to France is' one of the wouders of the war. Where only 28 mouths ago. there were only a. .few shepherds' huts and. a* disused gravel pit and wharf, now stands the military- port of Rich borough > replete with wharves amd; cranesi 'bar.g®building •. yards, 51 depot capable- of ■acconMnodaitingr 20,000 men amd the terminal'for the first train, ferry j acm* .the English Channel. , The • river Stour has been, dredged and 'widened;'■•and', its cowse diverted by i a clean cut of nearly a mil©.through! the marshes. It is now 350 ft wide,j opening to 500 ft for some distance • froim its.; mouth. 'Mud "and'gravel j excavated from the river bed have j beem utilised in. land reclamation, i while the contour-of'the'site < has been reduced to a dead level ovev the whole area. Eighty miles of sidings a:nd a wharf nearly a mile in length have been^constructed. .The ba,rge service alone, which consists of a fleet of 50 tugs and 2132 specially designed barges, has transported j t© ranee. 1,136,600 tons of war | material, since December, 1916, | while by means of the train ferry} the, heaviest guns and 700 tanks have been carried from the airsenal to, the front without leaving, the railroad- , > ■ J