Belfast Port in the Nineteenth Century

The port is very advantageously situated for trade at the mouth of the Lagan in Belfast Lough, sometimes called Carrickfergus bay, a noble arm of the sea forming a safe and commodious harbour, well sheltered and easy of access; the entrance is about six miles in breadth from the point between Groomsport and Ballyholm bay, in the county of Down, and White Head in the county of Antrim; the length from the latter point to the quays at Belfast is 12 miles, decreasing gradually in breadth towards the bridge, where it is very much contracted by the different quays and landing-places, and the embankments of Ballymacarrett. The preservation and improvement of the port and harbour were vested in the Ballast Corporation, constituted by act of parliament in 1785, which was repealed by an act obtained in 1831, and a new "Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port and Harbour of Belfast" was created, consisting of "the lord of the castle" and "the sovereign," the parliamentary representatives for the counties of Antrim and Down, and the boroughs of Belfast, Carrickfergus, and Downpatrick, and sixteen other commissioners, of whom four go out of office annually, and their successors are elected subject to the approbation of the lord-lieutenant and privy council. Their annual income, arising from pilotage, tonnage, quayage rates on imports and exports, ballastage, &c., on an average of five years, ending Jan. 5th, 1836, amounted to £8868. 18. 8., and the expenditure to £8789 8. 4.

The objects of obtaining the new act, in 1831, were to enable the commissioners to purchase quays and grounds for the improvement of the harbour, and to render the enactments suitable to the present state of the trade of the town, which had increased nearly tenfold since the passing of the former act. Below the bridge a fine range of quays extends along the north-west bank of the river, with two graving docks, which were constructed soon after the port was frequented by large vessels; three of these wet docks extend into the principal streets of the town. A spacious graving dock was completed in the year 1826, at an expense of £26,000, by the Ballast Corporation; and several extensive wet docks, quays, and warehouses are now being constructed below the town, under an act of parliament obtained in 1829, by Messrs. Holmes and Dunbar, who have already expended £35,000 in this undertaking: the first of these docks, completed in 1832, is 400 yards in length and 100 yards in breadth, and is intended for the large ships in the timber trade, and for those in the coal trade till the other docks are constructed. The harbour commissioners, under the act of 1831, contemplate the deepening and enlarging of the harbour, the formation of a new channel from the quays to the Mile-water river, the construction of floating docks with entrance locks, additional quays, and other improvements; but these works are at present delayed.

The custom-house, a very indifferent building, is situated on Hanover-quay. The Lagan navigation, extending in a line of 22 miles from the port to Lough Neagh, by way of Lisburn, was constructed under an act of the 27th of George III., confirmed by others to the 54th of the same reign, by which the proprietors were invested with a small duty on beer and spirits in the excise district of Lisburn, since commuted for an annual money payment out of the consolidated fund: the number of debentures issued from 1785 to 1793 was sixty-two, amounting to £62,000. The navigation is continued partly in the bed of the river, and partly by collateral cuts to a mile above Lisburn; but, from its circuitous course and the high rate of the tolls, goods are conveyed by land with greater expedition and at less expense. Divers new roads have been formed in the immediate neighbourhood of the town; and, under an act of parliament obtained in 1832, a railway from the harbour to Cave Hill is now being constructed, in a double line, which is the first work of the kind in the North of Ireland.