Show THAMES TELLS ITS TALE y ab V A 1 0 t weighing a shipment of elephant tusks on a london wharf from every corner of the earth come ships that ply this river prepared by national geographic society washington D C S service elvce THAMES HAMES traffic makes lon adon 1 don the worlds foremost river port since roman galley days when britons traded grain slaves and dogskin for european salt and horse collars commerce has flowed between london and the continental countries along the schelde the rhine and the elbe after drake nerved england to smash the spanish armada london ships gained in time the lions share of ocean borne trade names immortal in discovery and conquest are linked with this water front from here frobisher went seeking the northwest passage and hawkins to puerto rico and vera cruz from here lancaster made his voyages to the east before the downfall of portugal and the rise of the british east india company raleigh sailed from here to explore the orinoco to popularize tobacco and tradition says to start the irish planting potatoes it was londona Lon dons dar daring i ng money which sent sebastian cabot to found the russia company opening tra trade with that land london merchants merchant and skippers promoted the turkey african virginia and hudsons Hud sons ba bay companies london emigrants helped colonize in the americas in australia new zealand china india africa and the rich islands of the sea english spread from here from this water front went the english language in drakes day only a few millions spoke it now it is a world tongue of all letters telegrams books and papers printed eddow now it is estimated that 70 per cent are in english london alone uses enough newsprint every day to cover a ranch of acres or nearly 15 square miles of paper the smell from that big paper mill at bayswater Bay swater is one of the marks I 1 steer by on foggy nights a thames pilot will tell you exploration of londona Lon dons crowded docks reveals not only what amazing piles of food a great city can normally eat but also what odd items from live bats to rhino horns are mixed in the life stream of world commerce imponderable in variety and magnitude are these fruits ts of mans barter here too his work ranges from rat catching and opium sampling to dredging the thames and handling annual cargo enough to fill a road with loaded trucks from the yukon to patagonia to say that every day some craft big and little pass through the thames mouth tells only half the story more significant is what happens on the docks commission ends confusion even london people themselves dont dream what incredible activity is here few ever see it confusion on this crowded river in days gone grew so intense that waiting boats often lay unloaded for weeks goods were piled in disorder on r river 1 v e r banks bank S and pilfering was enormous one river bandit stole almost a whole shipload of sugar to combat this chaos the west india merchants built their own forklike fort like docks with more trade came more docks and more toll rate wars and other confusion this ended in 1909 when the port of L ondon london authority a royal commission took full control under act of parliament it paid pounds for privately owned london docks spent millions more to make the lower thames the worlds longest deepwater channel and to enlarge and re equip cargo handling facilities it has dredged mud enough out ol of the thames to build a chinese wall and has constructed the worlds mos most t extensive dock system one of its cranes the london mammoth lifts tons finally with characteristic british financial genius it sold its debentures on the stock exchange and now its operations usually pay all costs and interest and leave a profit which is used for more improvements giant docks and yard the PLA is not in trade it is merely custodian of merchandise that may range from wild animals for the zoo to a shipload of molasses from which to distill fuel alcohol it weighs goods reports on their quality and condition it opens bales and boxes for customs inspection furnishes samples for buyers and looks after re packing and loading for those who ship from london to other ports on the north bank of the thames scattered for miles downstream from the tower stand these great PLA docks london st katharine east and west india Mill wall victoria and albert king george V and the tilbury on the south bank near londona Lon dons heart are ancient surrey commercial docks with a lumberyard that covers acres besides the railways and truck lines that tie these docks to the outlying kingdom some thames barges handle goods to and from ships sides each dock has its own character st katharine docks are built on the site of the old church of st kath arine by the tower founded by queen matilda in 1148 what heterogeneous goods they store w wool 0 0 1 skins wines spices sugar rubber balata tallow ivory barks gums drugs coffee iodine hemp quicksilver canned fruits and fish coir yarn coconuts and brandyl brandy navy at one dock west india and Mill wall docks lie in a river peninsula known as the isle of dogs here the passerby passer by may smell puncheons luncheons ons of rum a million tons of sugar and ship loads of dates victoria and albert and king george V docks form one h huge u g e structure the worlds largest sheet of enclosed dock water often 40 or 50 ships equal to a good sized navy tie up here at one time tilbury is the first dock one sees when sailing up the thames its long landing stage forms a homeland gateway for people from australia st new zealand india china and other eastern countries w who it a land or embark here fast trains of the london midland and scottish railway touch the docks edge and whisk passengers away to all parts of the kingdom in the city PLA has still more warehouses at its butler street building are 70 rooms full of oriental carpets enough to cover a farm of acres people buy most carpets in in june for wedding presents you are told there are electric ovens too for c conditioning raw silk a mountain of havana cigars and leaf tobacco enough to last one man say keaist years this is the worlds ivory and tooth market it takes artificial teeth from the united states every year and some 2000 elephant tusks from africa and asia not many tusks are from newly slain elephants most of them come from mud holes hoIes left by animals long from mud holes boles left by animals think of the ships a year that now form smoke lanes from london to every nook of the world where goods can be bought or sold and you begin to see why this 70 mile stretch of london river is incomparably the worlds busiest water front |