THE CHANNEL FERRY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 169, 11 April 1919, Page 8

THE CHANNEL FERRY

NEW SCHEME FOR GOODS AND PASSENGERS. A new proposal for tho establishment of it cross-Channel ferry. of 25,000 tons is made by Sir John Pilter, honorarj president of the British Chamber of Commercc in Paris, and it. 11. J. do Cordemoy. They point out British exports to Prance by way of Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk in 1913 amounted to 530.934 tons, and that French exports to England through the Mine' ports totalled 18:<,133 tons. They calculate that an etfieient service would attract additional traffic, and, after allowing for goods from the North, wjiich could not in any circumstances be conveyed to the South Const by rail, they consider that an average 'daily transit df 4000 tons must bo prepared for. To deal with this ton* nago would require 'the departure from either side twice in the twenty-four hours of a ferry able to embark 3110 tenton wagons. A ferry of sufficient size to carry this number of wagons on two decks above the water line would need a length of 0001't., a breadth of 85ft., a water draught of 29ft. Bin., and a gross tonnage oi' 23,000. The ferries, they suggest, would berth in a specially-con-strutted diu*k iifcled with ft btockudc to allow tlio trains to be run on the several docks by means of cable and winch. Por passenger traffic it is proposed that the coaches should be embarked immwiiatclv on their arrival alongside the fo-ry and the transfer on board could lie effected i'l a maxinmni period of ten minutes. "i'assengers could alight from tiie train as soon iis it was fixed on deck. The passage would occupy about ninety minutes, ami passengers v,ould be reclined to entrain as soon as the ferry arrived ill port. The tram would move with- i iu twenty minutes of '■' lc &,• would then be run off the ferry, llie stockade is despribed as a special feature of the proposal. It is said to bo a metallic structure of considerable size, which would allow trains to bo ran s\ and off the ferry at all tunes of tlio tide. While the outer port at Dover could receive a boat -until a draught of 295tt. at any time, the French coast has no port offering tlio aamo facilities. It is claimed, however, that a new deepwater port could be constructed at a point iust south of Cape Oris NCz called ~ies distant only twenty-three miles from the British coast. Prench contractors estimate that the cost ot establishing such a port would, be, roughly 75 million francs (.63,000,000). and that tlio work would take about four years. Pending the construction of the port, the authors of the whemP submit (hat the ferry could possibly be run as: a lidal service. The rstimalcd cost of the whole enterprise U put at l-5.g00.080. ti,„ FLUID M AGXF.SIA is SIT\RL\NI)'S. More freshly made than imported kinds. GnarnntPMl Ingies, strength and purest <iuahtj. Laii.u boltie—lower pricc.-Advt. Major-Gencral James Franklin Well, of the U.S. Army, died of heart disease on his sixty-third birthday. He >\as auaided the Congressional Medal of ilonoui for distinguished galtentiry at Luzen during tlio Spanish-American War.