The Manchester Ship Canal Works. 35 



Chester had for many years longed for better access to the sea, 

 and in 1825 application was made to Parliament for powers to 

 construct a ship canal from the mouth of the River Dee, on the 

 Flintshire side, to Manchester. The project met with the most 

 determined opposition, and the bill was thrown out. At a con- 

 versazione held at Manchester in January, 1841, convened for 

 the discussion of the improvement of the Mersey and Irwell 

 navigation, a letter was read from the late Sir William Fair- 

 bairn. In this letter Sir William made the following prediction, 

 which had every prospect of fulfilment : — " I would earnestly 

 recommend the public to encourage a more searching inquiry 

 into the subject. It is one of deep interest to the community, 

 and any improvement which will enable ocean-going vessels to 

 discharge their cargoes in a commodious wet dock in Manchester 

 would form an epoch of such magnitude as would quadruple 

 her population, and render her the first as well as the most 

 enterprising city in Europe." There could be no doubt that 

 this eloquent description of the potentiality of a capacious water- 

 way between the sea and Manchester did much to kindle the 

 enthusiasm of the public. After narrating the history of the 

 inception of the undertaking, the lecturer went on to say that 

 the point selected for the entrance to the canal proper from the 

 tideway was at Eastham, the channel at which point was now 

 being dredged to a depth of about forty feet below high- water 

 spring tides. As the land rose about seventy feet from the shore 

 of the Mersey estuary up to Manchester, the canal had to be 

 constructed in sections, forming level reaches at different levels, 

 separated by locks, through which the change of level would be 

 accomplished. 



The total length of the canal, from its commencement 

 at Eastham up to its termination at the Manchester and Salford 

 docks, was thirty-five and a half miles, divided into reaches of 

 very different lengths. The various reaches were described 

 by the lecturer, who said that vessels would rise sixty and 

 a half feet in passing the four sets of locks from the tidal 

 reach below Latchford to the locks at Manchester. Above 



