Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/449

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entire London trade in that article being now confined to the Victoria Docks. There is also a warehouse covering an area of four acres, appropriated to the stowage of tobacco. A branch railway runs through the whole of the premises, conveying goods from alongside the ships to all parts of the kingdom.

The Millwall Docks, situated in the Isle of Dogs, and contiguous to those of the West India Dock Company, were incorporated by Act of Parliament on the 25th of July, 1864, and opened for traffic about four years afterwards. The property of this Company comprises an area of more than two hundred acres, thirty-five and one-third of which have been converted into a wet-dock capable of receiving merchant vessels of the largest class, with a quay wall frontage of eight thousand two hundred feet, and entrance-locks eighty feet in width. Its capital, comprising ordinary and preference shares and debenture stock, amounts to about 1,130,000l. A graving-dock capable of receiving vessels of from fifteen hundred to two thousand tons has been formed in connection with the wet-dock, thus affording to shipowners the advantage of examining and repairing their vessels without requiring them to be ballasted and sent out into the river. The gates, bridges, warping capstans, and other machinery are worked by hydraulic power. The Millwall Docks, like the Victoria, and all the other docks, except the London and St. Katharine's, are in direct railway communication with the City of London and the various railways of the Northern and Midland districts. Possessing many natural advantages, and affording increased facilities for the more rapid