3-008-814 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Dock in course of construction at Boulogne, [France], 1862. 'The entire dock, including the sluice-entrance, will cover nearly seventy English acres...the total cost...is estimated at something like two millions of sterling...on the right...is the lifting apparatus for raising the material excavated, which is carried round behind to form a battery facing the sea and commanding entrance to the port; on the left is the pumping-engine used to raise the water from the works. The bottom is being formed of ten-ft. concrete...and solid marble blocks, each weighing thirty-two tons, are being prepared for the reception of the sluice-gates. A large proportion of the sand excavated has been...[used] in the creation of the military work just mentioned, from which guns are pointed in the direction of the Channel...vessels, instead of proceeding to Calais, as at present, will be enabled to put in here with more safety...the Boulogne Dock...will be sufficiently large and deep to accommodate vessels of the greatest bulk and heaviest tonnage, even to the extent of men-of-war fully armed and equipped...As may be seen from our Engraving, the dock will be entered on the south-east or right-hand side, as vessels proceed up the harbour from the sea into Boulogne'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.