The trade of Teignmouth and Torquay together, in the importation of
paper-making materials and timber, and in the export of China-clay,
chiefly with English ports, but also with France, Germany, Belgium, and
Norway, amounts to £110,000 in the twelve-month.
[Illustration: Teignmouth]
Plymouth which, as has been already pointed out, is the only large
sea-port in the county, has four times as much trade, and is entered
and cleared by four times as many vessels as all the other ports of
Devonshire put together. Its chief imports are grain (£540,000),
timber (£250,000), sugar (£135,000), guano and manures (£110,000), and
petroleum (£52,000); and its principal export is £52,000 worth of clay.
Its imports and exports taken together amount to 1-3/4 million pounds
sterling, and it is entered and cleared by 1656 ships in a year. Its
chief foreign trade is with France, but its commerce may truly be
said to be world-wide. Thirteen lines of ocean steamers sail from or
call at Plymouth, the principal of which are the White Star, American,
Norddeutscher-Lloyd, and Hamburg-American for the United States; the
Orient and Peninsular and Oriental for Australia; the latter and the
British India for India; the Shaw-Savill and New Zealand SS. Co. for New
Zealand; and the British and African for the West Coast of Africa. There
are also regular sailings of steamers for France, Scotland, Ireland, the
Channel Isles, and various home ports.
It is interesting to compare this sea-traffic with that of London, which
is entered and cleared by 18,491 cargo-carrying ships in the course of
twelve months, and has a total annual import and export trade of 333
millions of pounds sterling; which are respectively about 11 times, and
about 190 times as large as the corresponding figures for Plymouth.
But although Plymouth is a place of considerable maritime trade, a
busy fishing station and a port of call for ocean-going steamers, for
whose accommodation are provided spacious docks and ample quays, its
greatest importance and renown--remembering that we include with it its
sister towns of Stonehouse and Devonport--rest upon its rank as a naval
station, as an arsenal which is second only to that of Woolwich, and as
a naval dockyard which is the largest in the kingdom.
The anchorage at the head of the Sound, once very much exposed and
dangerous in southerly winds, is now protected by a stone breakwater
nearly a mile long, designed to shelter ships of the Royal Navy. It
was commenced in 1812 by Rennie, continued by his son, modified in
the slope of its sides and improved in stability by violent storms,
especially in 1817, and completed in 1840.
[Illustration: Drake's Island from Mt. Edgcumbe, Plymouth]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account