THE TRADE OF PLYMOUTH. 385 
GREAT WESTERN DOCKS. 
Business done in 1877. 
Tons. 
Tonnage register of vessels entered and cleared . 520,170 
Gross weight of goods (inwards and outwards) . 258,124 
Gross weight of china-clay shipped (outwards) . 27,019 
Cattewater, a very important part of the harbour of Plymouth, 
which in the future will probably be very greatly developed by the 
Cattewater Commissioners. There are wharves on its banks where 
cargoes are discharged; but its principal value at present is the 
good and safe anchorage that it affords, and the moorings in deep 
water for large vessels that it contains. 
Sutton harbour, which is inside Cattewater, in the heart of the 
old town of Plymouth, and the still older town of Sutton. This 
is no doubt a very ancient harbour indeed. It is situated near the 
mouth of the Plym; and before the Great Western Docks were 
made, nearly the whole of the trade of the port was carried on 
within it. Here are the Custom House and the bonded warehouses, 
which bound trade hand and foot in the old days of complicated 
restrictions on commerce, when nearly everything was subject to 
duties levied in a great variety of ways, when nothing could be 
done except in the presence of an officer, and when the documents 
to be signed and countersigned in a sort of mystic fashion were 
innumerable. 
Sutton harbour within the old eastern and western piers has an 
area of twenty-nine and a half acres, and a depth of water at 
ordinary spring tides of nineteen and a half feet. It is at present 
a tidal harbour, and this circumstance has prevented the trade 
within it from increasing in proportion to the increase of the 
general trade of the port. The Sutton Harbour Company have 
powers under Acts of Parliament to make a dock, with tramways 
in communication with the railways; and the design they con- 
template is to make a floating-dock of twelve and a half acres, 
with a depth of water of eighteen to nineteen feet. 
SUTTON HARBOUR. 
Business done in 1877. 
Tons. 
1,300 vessels entered and cleared, registered tonnage 94,428 
Goods entered and cleared : , : . 140,000 
China-clay shipped . : : ‘ ; 1,785 
