SOME TYPICAL PORTS 2¥
feature of the port of Rotterdam is not altogether favour-
able to the commercial prosperity of the city, since the
community derive little or no benefit from the goods
which pass through their hands—or rather which are
merely transferred overside in the harbour waters. The
city lacks the warehouses and showrooms, the depots and
markets for the reception of goods and the subsequent
negotiations for sale, which react so much to the financial
advantage of an entrepot port. The tonnage of shipping
frequenting Rotterdam, which approximates very closely
to that of Hamburg and Antwerp (roughly in the neigh-
bourhood of 30 million tons in all, inwards and outwards),
is, therefore, no real criterion of its actual local trade.
Nevertheless, Rotterdam is a very great port with an
enormous volume of traffic on the broad waters of the
Maas. Notable features are its: fleets of coal grabs and
grain elevators, for handling cargoes of coal at rates of
200 to 1,000 tons per hour, and of grain at 200 tons per
hour.

From the fact that water carriage is so convenient
and relatively cheap, it will be realized that although the
railway service of the port is in every way satisfactory,
it is quite insignificant as an avenue of trade. Ninety
per cent or more of the goods arriving at the port are
forwarded by water to their ultimate destination inland.

The accommodation of the port is excellent. It has a
well regulated and commodious entrance channel 20} miles
in length from the North Sea, with a serviceable depth of
30 ft. at low water and 35 ft. at ordinary high water.
Dredging operations are in hand to increase the depth to
36 ft. at low water. There are numerous and extensive
basins, aggregating over 1,500 acres of water area. Some
of them are very large. The Maashaven has an area of
148 acres and the Waalhaven an area of 403 acres (destined
to be increased to 765 acres). A natural consequence of
transhipment is that many vessels lie at buoys and dolphins
in mid-stream. Even if a ship is berthed alongside a

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