BRISTOL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.
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yards that fringed portions of its waterways ; and if occasionally a foreigner, not constructed
to stand the strain of settling twice in every twenty-four hours on the river’s bed, broke
her back or experienced other damage, the Bristol men were gratified rather than dis
tressed. Their ships were designed for such tidal emergencies, and rarely came to grief.
Over five hundred years having elapsed since its great dock enterprise of the thir
teenth century, another advance was certainly due. It took the shape of making several
miles of the tidal rivers into a floating harbour. This involved something more than
building a dock gate at a selected point. The Avon drains a very large area, and the
Frome has a smaller but not inconsiderable watershed. The Frome was left to flow into
the new harbour, but afterwards steps were taken to carry off some of its flood-waters.
To provide a channel for those of the Avon area an artificial lock was excavated on what
was then the outskirts of the city, and the Cut, as it is called, remains to-day a tidal stream,
often swollen with fresh water after periods of heavy rain. The port ought to have bene
fited enormously from the execution of this great scheme. It provided Bristol with a
huge dock, with water at a fairly constant level, right in the heart of the town, but the
advantage was neutralised by the cost at which it was obtained. The Corporation did not
directly accept the responsibility. Arrangements were made for the formation of a com
pany, upon which the Council and the Society of Merchant Venturers had seats allotted
to them, the rest of the Board being selected from the shareholders. The revenue of
this Bristol Dock Company was to be derived from dues on shipping, goods, and other
charges incidental to the use of the waterways, and also from a rate in aid to the amount
of £2,400 a year to be levied on parishes in the ancient city. Certain dues derived from
shipping and wharves were, moreover, to be still paid to the Corporation and the Merchant
Venturers respectively. An Act of Parliament was obtained on this basis, and the work
was started in 1804" and completed in 1809. The outlay involved the company in
difficulties, and the attempt to meet their liabilities by heavy charges had the effect of
driving away the trade it was desired to encourage. Consequences were so serious to
the life of a commercial community largely dependent upon dock business that a Free
Port movement was started, and the outcome was that the Corporation assumed control
in 1848, and, by making sweeping reductions in the tariff, checked the decline and led to
the commencement of an upward movement.
Meanwhile, steamships were becoming increasing factors in ocean navigation. Their
advent in the North Atlantic trade had been stimulated by the Great Western, designed for
trans-Atlantic traffic and built at Bristol, and there is little doubt that the practical work
of this vessel was one of the influences which led the founder of the Cunard Company
to establish the American service bearing his name. It became more and more evident
as time passed that speed, regularity, and facilities for the inland distribution and col
lection of traffic were to play a large part in the operations of the future. Enterprising
Bristolians desired to see the port accommodating larger craft than could then come
up the Avon and enter the city docks. The outcome must be stated in a few sentences.
Two companies built rival channel docks, the one at Avonmouth and the other at Portis-
liead. Both were designed for vessels of a maximum length of between 400 and 500 feet.
The Avonmouth undertaking was opened in February, 1877, and that at Portishead in
April, 1880. A cut-throat competition that ensued between them was so disastrous to
the older docks at Bristol that the Corporation had to buy both concerns and to
carry them on as part of their dock estate. This union became an accomplished fact
on September 1st, 1884. The city now had more than sufficient room for vessels of
moderate size, but soon the growth of steamships, and the proved economy of large cargo-
carriers, once more brought forward the question of dock extension.' Many wanted the
river Avon canalised, so that it would be easy for navigation to the Bristol City Docks
while ocean leviathans berthed at wharves near its mouth. It was a fascinating project,
and one possessing obvious advantages, but it raised difficult questions connected with
the deposit from flood waters in the dockised river, sewage disposal, and the effect of the
stoppage of tidal ebb and flow on the deep anchorage at Kingroad, at the head of the
Bristol Channel. The last question opened the door to almost unlimited opposition from
other authorities, and. on the advice of experts, Bristol dropped dockisation and built
the Royal Edward Dock at Avonmouth, at an initial cost of about three millions sterling.
This gigantic scheme was commenced in March, 1902, the Prince of Wales (now George V.),
