FIRST DOCK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1942, Page 4

FIRST DOCK

DEVELOPMENT OF PORT FACILITIES STRUCTURE SERVES FOR CENTURY. ROMANCE BEHIND STORY. February 15th, 1695: A Bill read before the House of Commons for the first time to permit the proposed dock to be constructed at Rotherhithe. Behind this announcement lies an interesting story. Lord William Russel died in 1683 at the hands of the headsman for his share in the Rye House plot. His father, the Earl of Bedford, later the first Duke of Bedford, thereupon became the guardian of Lord William’s son Wriothesley, which was natural, for the lad was not only his grandson but his heir. The boy was less than three years of age at the 1 time of his father’s trial, condemna--1 tion and execution, and the training of ; the future second Duke of Bedford was largely in the Earl’s hands. His . own sons had waited until they were - thirty and even forty years of age be- ■■ fore they had entered into, matrimony. ■ For his grandson Wriothesley, he ar--1 ranged a match when the lad was only I fourteen and a half. The bride was a year younger ,a girl of thirteen. Her ) name was Elizabeth Howland, the granddaughter of Sir Josiah Child, the ) Chairman of the East India Company, - and one of the Childs who established I the great banking family of that name. I This family had intermarried with the ; Howland family of Tooting Bee and ; Streatham, the history of both houses i having been one of trading romance. The wedding took place with due ) pomp and ceremony in the private • chapel of Streatham manor house. A ' hue and cry arose afterwards when ' the bride and bridegroom were miss--3 ing. They had slipped away after - dinner to play together, and in their ; play the costly point lace trimming of I the young lady's dress had been torn 3 to pieces. She was found hiding in a barn, while her new lord and master ’ was found strolling back with appar- ; ent unconcern to the assembled wed- , ding company. The old Earl and the mother of the ■ bride, Elizabeth Howland (senior). : were kindred souls. The lady was as ; good a woman of business as her father ’ had been a man. It was also natural [ that the strong-minded daughter of Sir Josiah Child should be interested in ; the East India Company, and its ves- > seis in which she had a considerable ’ amount of money invested. The Duke, ’ for such he had now become, was also : concerned in East Indian ventures, but his interest went beyond dividends on capital invested and the importation of goods. In company with Mrs Elizabeth Howland he threw himself heart and. soul into-, a new project. Part of the Howland property lay along the Thamesside at Rotherhithe where Greenland Dock in the Surrey Commercial System is now situated, and this had been vested by the marriage settlement in the young children Wriothesley Russel and little Elizabeth Howland. Old Mrs Elizabeth Howland and the Duke determined to develop the land ‘by planning and building a dock thereon, and found themselves under the necessity of applying to Parliament to do so, partly because of the nature of the project, but principally because the young married couple were both minors. The assent of the legislature having been conceded, the building of a dry dock and then of a wet dock was commenced at Rotherhithe the following year, 1696. There is little doubt that the work was completed well before the year 1700, and these businesslike and ambitious guardians had, in their capacity as trustees of the very youthful married couple given England her first wet dock, a fact of which the present Port of London as the premier port of the Kingdom in size and age is justifiably proud. It was called Howland Great Wet Dock and its principal object was to provide a safe repository for ships. Riding at tiers of moorings in the river or tied up at wharves, cables were frequently strained and broken. Gales wrought havoc with the standing rigging and other gear; in winter ships’ bottoms were injured by ice driving under them, adding considerably to the cost of refitting. All of this was avoided in the new dock where the ships were always waterborne and were protected from storms by a belt of trees planted round the docks. Vessels were likewise more effectually secured from the peril of fire, for cooking rooms were provided on shore for the crews, and no fire was allowed aboard the ships whilst in the dock. The accommodation afforded by this small dock of roughly ten acres was greatly appreciated by shipowners. The length was 1,070 feet by 500 feet wide, with an entrance lock 150 feet long by 44 feet wide, and there was a depth of water of 17 feet on the sill at the highest tides. There were no warehouses as we know them now; but as the intention ■ was to provide harbourage for ships and not facilities for handling cargoes,!, there were storehouses, rigging houses. , sawmills, moulding lofts and three dry ; docks for outfitting. i The Howland Dock survived for over * a century, being adapted later for the ‘ purposes of the whaling trade, and its name was changed to “Greenland j Dock.” Warehouses were built and ( from time to time other improvements , were undertaken. When the whaling j industry declined the dock was used for the reception of timber and cornladen vessels. In 1904 a great reconstruction was undertaken by the Surrey Commercial ■ Dock Company, and the original dock of ten acres was expanded to a water acreage of 31 acres with a larger entrance lock. Finally, the Greenland Dock, now an integral j part of the Surrey Commercial Docks c System which developed in the vicin- a ity, was absorbed by the Port London Authority in 1909. 1