Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION THREE.
THE PASSAGE.
VIII. THE PASSAGE POLL-TAX.

After the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Com-
pany had provided the excellent Packet-boats already
mentioned, the one thing lacking was better harbour
accommodation. The International Communication Com-
pany's proposal had included bigger boats and an efficient
water station ; the bigger boats had been provided, but the
latter part of the scheme was postponed because it was no
one's direct duty and interest to take up the work. The
accommodation at the Admiralty Pier landing-stages, which
had been used for nearly forty years, had been provided at
the cost of the Government, and the amount paid for the
user was small compared with the initial expenditure. To
build a Continental Water Station would cost about half
a million pounds, and the question was asked, " Who would
provide the money?" In the olden time, when the men
of Dover had a monopoly of the Passage and the Corporation
took a share of the profits, it was the duty and interest of
the Corporation and the ship-owners to keep the accom-
modation efficient ; but, under present circumstances, the
interest in the Passage has ceased to be purely local. The
Railway Companies, who run the mail and passenger
services, are most directly interested, but they had no control
o\er the Harbour. The Harbour Board itself deri\'ed so
little profit from the steamers that they could not pledge
their estate to provide the expensive accommodation. The
pecuniary interest of the Corporation is nil, and that of the
people of Dover generally is not sufficient to warrant any
financial venture to promote the efficiency and comfort of
the Passage service. The main interest in the efficiency of
the Passage is distributed amongst the many thousands of
people from all over the world who cross the Straits of
Dover; and, ultimately, the difficulty was solved by Parlia-
ment allowing a Passenger Toll to be levied, so that those
who enjoyed the improved accommodation of the Passage
should pay for it.

The Dover Harbour Board turned their attention to
Passage accommodation in i8qo. After taking time to mature
their policy and plans, in 1891 they obtained an Act of
ParUament for constructing a commercial harbour, outside



THE PASSAGE 1 65

the limits of the old works, affording a deep water area of
seventy-one acres. This was intended for the threefold
purpose of giving increased accommodation to general trade,
providing deep water berths for Atlantic liners, but prin-
cipally to construct in the central part of the new area a
Marine Station, where the cross-Channel packets could
land and embark passengers alongside the railway trains in
close proximity to waiting and refreshment rooms. This Act
was obtained, and the work of building the new harbour
commenced before the Government decided to enclose the
whole of Dover Bay for the purpose of a great Admiralty
Harbour. That larger project necessitated the modification
of the works in progress for the local accommodation. As
the building of the Admiralty Harbour proceeded, there were
further modifications, and eventually the eastern side of the
Prince of Wales Pier of the local Harbour, completed in
1902, had to be given up to the Admiralty; and, in return,
the Government handed over to the Harbour Board the old
Admiralty Pier (which they had previou.sly leased) with a
view to its being widened, to build upon it a Continental
Marine Station. These changes, due to the construction of
the Admiralty Harbour, greatly delayed the provision of the
better accommodation for the Dover Passage.

While the construction of the Marine Station was being
delayed, another great improvement was made in the steam-
ships of the Passage. The two Railway Companies entered
into a working union, as a result of which the Port of Dover
became the depot of all the steamers used on the passage
to Calais, Boulogne and Ostend. The assemblage of vessels
occupying the docks exhibiting samples of the cross-Channel
craft of the recent past and the present. The well-known
steamers, which were famous when the London, Chatham
and Dover Railway Company took over the service in 1863,
and which were contemptuously referred to as "cockleshells"
in 1900— the "Petrel," "Foam," "France," "Prince,"
" Samphire," " Maid of Kent," " Wave " and " Breeze "—
are all gone. Even the big steamers built to revolutionise
the service in the " Eighties," have disappeared. The
" Invicta " was first to go; following her those three ships
built at the Fairfield Works— the "Victoria," "Empress"
and "Calais-Douvres" (secundus) which were regarded as very
near perfection, have gone too, and by a very rapid and
costly movement the day of turbines has dawned.



l66 ANNALS OF DOVER

The turbine, to which the present swift and graceful
ships owe their propulsion, was discussed as the coming
motive power by the Hon. Charles Parsons, its inventor, at
the British Association meeting at Dover in 1899; and the
late Sir WilHam H. White, then President of the Mechanical
Section, referred to the invention as one likely to work a
great change in the propulsion of steamships ; but, probably,
no one present on that occasion, excepting perhaps the
enthusiastic inventor himself, anticipated that within three
years a vessel would be built for the cross-Channel service
in accordance with his invention, and that in 1907 the whole
of the services — Dover and Calais, Folkestone and Boulogne,
and Dover and Ostend — would be furnished with the
graceful and swift turbine vessels, which are more than
answering the expectations raised by the inventor at Dover
in the Autumn of 1899.

The first of the cross-Channel turbines was " The
Queen," which took her place on the Dover Passage in 1903.
In 1905 " The Onward " was placed on the Folkestone and
Boulogne route; and, at the same time, the 'Tnvicta," of the
same class, came as a "stand-by" to ensure that there should
be always one turbine on each route. In 1907 were added
two more turbines, " The Empress " and " The Victoria,"
making sufficient to carry all the passengers to Calais and
Boulogne; while in the same year another turbine, "The
Princess Elisabeth " was put on the Dover and Ostend route.
In 191 1, the " Riviera " and the " Engadine " were added
to the Dover and Folkestone turbine fleet, aflfording
travellers between these ports and the Continent such an
absence of vibration and smoothness of passage that it
hardly seemed possible for human ingenuity to go much
further in that direction.

After the two English Railway Companies and the
Belgian Government had done their share in placing an
improved fleet of passenger steamers on the Channel Passage,
and the Government had done theirs in granting the PoU-
Tax, the delay in providing a site for the Channel Passage
Station at Dover Harbour was extraordinary. Pending that
delay, the Passenger Tax money had been regularly collected
for more than twelve years, during which period much of it
has been spent on works of no benefit lo cross-Channel
voyagers. The extraordinary delay was due to want of
foresight and co-operation between the Harbour Board and



THE PASSAGE



167



the Admiralty. The first scheme — a very good one — to build
the site for the Station in the centre of the Commercial
Harbour, was abandoned, and Parliamentary powers obtained
for placing the Station on the western side of the Prince
of Wales Pier, but owing to the northern side of that Pier
being needed for the Admiralty Harbour, it was finally
decided to widen the original Admiralty Pier, at a cost of
;,^40o,ooo. After years of delay, that widening has been
completed, and a Channel Passage Station has been erected
by the two Railway Companies.

The cross-Channel traffic through Dover is very great,
and is rapidly increasing, as the following returns of the
numbers carried in the years mentioned against them
show : —



Dover and Calais.


Dover and Ostenc


1.


1850...


54,036


1878


. 26,270


i860...


76,318


1886


• 31,745


1870...


108,008


1887


. 42,283


i88o...


197,247


1888


• 56,535


1890 ...


262,364


1890


• 75>i5S


1900 ...


316,156


1900


• 114,516


1910 ...


369,069


19IO


• 222,375


1913...


396,100


1913


• 256,474



It will be observed that the total number of passengers
who passed through Dover on the two routes in the year
1913 was considerably more than half a million, and the
figures indicate a certainty of continual increase, the same
remark applying equally to each route. The figures for the
Calais route are only given for the decadal years, so as to
exhibit a long retrospect without using a mass of statistics.
On the Ostend route the earlier figures were not available in
the same way, and the decadal years are only taken from
1890. It will be seen that the number of passengers between
Dover and Calais has doubled nearly eight times since 1850.
The Dover and Ostend totals, though rather smaller, have
increased in a much greater ratio, having multiplied nearly ten
times since 1878. By the two routes from and to Dover,
the passengers now are double the number travelling in 1890.
These figures afford the fullest justification for all that can
be done to increase the comfort and the convenience of the
Dover Passage.



l68 ANNALS OF DOVER.

ADDENDA.



The Dover Passage, as appears from the foregoing
chapters, has been the regular route between Britain and the
Continent from the earliest times, the service of Packet Boats
having been continuous, except in times of war. The records
of suspensions in war times for early dates are not available.
During the Civil War in the Reign of Charles I. the traffic
was not suspended; and in the war between England and
France, declared in 1744, there was an agreement that the
Passage between Dover and Calais should be continued for
six months, to enable those who were abroad to go home;
but from September, 1744, the traffic was suspended until
the Peace of Aix la Chappelle in 1748. In 1756 the Passage
traffic was suspended, and not resumed until 1763. The
next suspension was from 1778 to 1783. The war of the
French Revolution caused the Passage to be closed from
1793 to 1802; and, again, the traffic was suspended from
1803 until the Peace of 1814. From that time until 1914
the traffic was continued, there having been no stoppage
of it during the Franco-German War of 1870, although
there were scarcely any passengers at that time. The Great
War in Europe that broke out at the beginning of August,
1914, caused the ordinary cross-Channel traffic to be diverted
to Folkestone, owing to this Port being a Naval Base.