STREETS AND HOUSES
that shipbuilding would become the leading industry of Calcutta.
One of the dockyards from which several good ships were launched was Gillet's Dockyard, which lay to the south of the New Dock at the Bankshall, opposite to the western entrance of St John's Church. Some years later, when Gillet's Dock had been filled up, the site was occupied by the Calcutta Mint; and when this was removed, in 1829, to the New Mint, which had been built on the Strand, the Old Mint passed into the hands of Messrs. Moran & Co., indigo brokers. Long years afterwards, when this firm removed to Mango Lane, they carried with them the well-known designation of "The Old Mint Mart," to become a puzzle to later students of local topography.
In 1890, just one hundred years after the New Dock had been built, a portion of its walls were once more uncovered to the light of day, before being finally destroyed. In that year, the western extension of the Small-Cause Court was built, and, in digging, the foundations, the workmen disclosed masonry remains, which were easily identified as those of the New Dock, which, it was found, had measured fifty-three feet ten inches across, at the level of the first step.
The excavations of 1890, which uncovered
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