STREETS AND HOUSES
whole space between these two points, for the erection of storehouses and other buildings. The proposal fell through, and by the time the "New Dock" was built, in 1790, to the west of the Marine House, several large docks had been built, not only on the Calcutta side of the river, but also on the opposite bank at Howrah and Sulkea. "The "New Dock" never became old, for, in 1808, it was filled up again, having apparently been of little use during the eighteen years it was open.
The earliest, as well as the most important, of the Calcutta docks was established about the year 1780, by Colonel Henry Watson, chief engineer under Warren Hastings' Government,—the Colonel Watson who acted as Francis's second in his duel with Hastings. Colonel Watson obtained from Government the grant of land at Kidderpore, "for the establishment of wet and dry docks and of a marine yard, in which every facility should be created for building, repairing, and equipping vessels of war, and merchantmen."
A feature of this dock, in Colonel Watson's scheme, was the utilization of the Govindpore Creek, which then joined the river some hundred yards further south than at present. He meant to use it as a backwater to scour out the Dock `
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