PART OF WILHELMSHAVEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1918, Page 6

PART OF WILHELMSHAVEN.

CRADLE OF GERMAN NAVY

MARSHY WASTE RECLAIMED

The German port of Wilhelmshaven, like Kiel and Hanover, flias been the scene of revolt by soldiers and sailors within the past fortnight. Only 65 years ago. tho site of the now strongly-forti-fied town, given • over chiefly to shipyards, drydocks, fitting-out harbors, iron foundries, and boiler factories, was a desolate, low-lying, marshy tract of land on the edge of a Shallow inlet of the North Sea known as Jade Busen or Jade Bay, which had been formed by iuundaiions in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1852, however, the nascent spirit of Prussinnism awoke to the fact that the kingdom did not own a single inch of sea-coast on the North Sea. In order to acquire a foothold on the western shore of Europe, tHie Prussian king purchased from tho Grand Duke of Oldenburg tho marsh, four square miles, upon which now stands Wilhelmshaven, and the purchase price was about £71,000.

For 17 years a large body of workmen-, was engaged at great expense in building (iiio town, dredging the bay, and sinking piles in the peaky soil upon which to erect the docks and shipyards. It was a herculean task, and frequently months of labor would be wiped out in a single hour by' a high tide or a violent storm. In the- end, however, the work |was completed, and the harbor was formally opened by King William, afterwards Emperor William 1., in the presence of many British naval officers, who little imagined what a momentous ceremony they were witnessing, for with the dedication of Wilhelmsihay*n began in earnest the development of modern Germany's sea-power. *"

The town is given over almost entirely Prussia had to contend in tiic building of Wilhelmshaven was the 'unfriendly attitude of t!ho kingdom (soon thereafter' to become a Prussian province) of Hanover, which refused to allow the construction of a. railroad across its territory from I'vir-sia into Oldenburg, so that all the material for the harbor had to be shipped from Prussia by the long sea route. The town is gien over almost entirely to tlho needs of the .German navy. It has extensive arsenals and mine depots, machine shops, iron foundaries, and boiler .shops. The shipyards are surrounded by lofty walls, and access to the enclosure, even prior to the outbreak of the- war, was very restricted. More than'a third :of the population of 35,000 before the of hostilities in 1914 wa&