In July last, Admiral the Duke of Edinburgh, with the Naval Reserve
Squadron under his command, arrived in the Firth of Forth and anchored
in Leith Roads. His Royal Highness performed the ceremony of opening the
new dock at Leith, which has been named after him. The "Edinburgh" Dock
at Leith, which was commenced in 1874, consists of a center basin 500
ft. long and 650 ft. wide, and two basins 1,000 ft. long and 200 ft.
wide, separated by a jetty having a width of 250 ft. The total amount
of masonry in the wet docks is 100,000 cubic yards. The north and south
quays are each 1,500 ft. long, and the two sides of the jetty 1,000 ft.
long each, having a total quayage in connection with the dock of 6,775
ft. The walls are 15 ft. thick at the base, narrowing in two tiers to
8 ft. The new dock will cost altogether about £300,000. Leith now
possesses five docks and a total quayage of three miles 808 yards, 1,234
yards of which is the old portion. These works have been constructed, at
a cost of nearly one million sterling, by the Leith Dock Commissioners,
whose chairman, Mr. James Currie, presented an address to the Duke of
Edinburgh, on board the flag-ship H.M.S. Hercules, giving an account of
their affairs. The other docks at Leith are named the "Old Dock," the
"Queen's Dock," the "Victoria," the "Albert," and the "Prince of Wales
Dock." The opening ceremony was arranged to consist of the steamer
Berlin, with his Royal Highness and the Dock Commissioners on board,
accompanied by Sir Donald Currie, M.P., and other gentlemen, passing
through the entrance from the Albert Dock to the new dock, across which
a blue ribbon had been stretched. At the moment when the ribbon snapped
asunder, under the bow of the Berlin, the Duke of Edinburgh, stepping
forward on the upper deck of the steamer, said, "I have now the
gratification of declaring this dock open, and calling it the Edinburgh
Dock." On this announcement being made, a signal was conveyed to a
battery of guns, posted on the sea wall of the new dock, from which a
party of the Royal Artillery fired a Royal salute. The steamer, having
gone round the new dock, was brought up at the quay at the west. His
Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, with Prince Henry of Prussia, the
officers of the fleet, and the Commissioners, disembarked and proceeded
to the saloon in the new dock, where luncheon in honor of the occasion
was given by the Leith Dock Commissioners.--_Illustrated London News,
Aug. 6._
[Illustration: OPENING OF A NEW ENGLISH DOCK.]
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