Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

ABERDEEN
but two or three common sewers in the new principal
streets, besides the Den Burn, the Holburn on the S, the
Powis or Tyle Burn on the N, and a few tinier rills.
Furnishing water-power to numerous works, these
streams threw up the filth that they received; the Den
Burn, too, though often in summer almost dry, and
though the outlet, within 600 yards, of between 40
and 50 minor sewers, was disposed in cascades, and
carried along an ornamental channel. Small wonder to
find it described as 'highly polluted,' as ' bringing down
to its mouth at the harbour a thick and fetid slime
that exhales, at low water, great volumes of poisonous
gas;' nay, even in the best quarters of the city some
houses were solely drained into back-garden cesspools.
Much has been done since then; the Den Burn in its
lower course having been covered over, and £62,695
expended during 1867-72 on the purchase of old and
the construction of new sewers within the municipal
bounds. In 1875, however, these works were described
by Mr Alexander Smith, C. E. , as far from perfect, ' the
main sewers having been laid in zones, almost on dead-
level intercepting sewers with reversible outfalls, in-
stead of being laid in a position to take advantage of the
natural outfalls.' By one of the four main sewers 44
acres of the Spital lands were successfully irrigated in
1871; and in 1876 it was proposed thus to utilise all
the sewage of the low-lying parts of the city, 624 acres
being required for the purpose. Two schemes were laid
before the town council, the cost of one being £31,221,
of the other £29,540. Up to September 1892 the total
amount spent on the drainage system amounted to
£128,000. The earliest Gas Light Company (1824)
had their works near the present site of Guild Street
station, whilst a new company (1840) had theirs at the
Sandilands, just off the links; and on these companies'
amalgamation, the former premises were sold to the
Scottish North Eastern. In 1871 the Sandilands works
themselves were acquired by the corporation at a total
cost of £120,809.
For ages a mere expanse of open water, the harbour,
so far back as the 14th century, seems to have been pro-
tected by a bulwark, repaired or rebuilt in 1484. A stone
pier on the S side of the channel was formed between
1607 and 1610, in which latter year a great stone, called
Knock Maitland or Craig Metellan, was removed from
the harbour's entry ' by the renowned art and industrie
of that ingenious and vertuous citizen, David Anderson
of Finzeauch, from his skill in mechanics popularly
known as Davie do a' thing.' The eastward extension
of the wharf, whereby a fine meadow of ground was re-
claimed, was carried on slowly (1623-59), and before
1661 a shipbuilding dock had been constructed at Foot-
dee; but all improvements notwithstanding, navigation
continued difficult and perilous, owing to a bar of sand,
on which at low tide was scarcely 2 feet of water. To
remedy this evil, the magistrates in 1770 procured a
plan from Smeaton, in accordance wherewith the new
N pier was built (1775-81) at a cost of £18,000. Curv-
ing slightly northwards, it had a length of 1200 feet, a
height of from 16 to 30 feet, and a breadth of from 20 to
36 feet at the base, of from 12 to 24 at the top, its dimen-
sions increasing seawards. By Telford this pier was ex-
tended (1810-16) to a further length of almost 900 feet,
at a cost of £66,000; and to protect it, a southern
breakwater, nearly 800 feet long, was finished in 1815, at
a cost of £14,000 more. The next great undertaking
was the construction (1840-48) of the Victoria Dock, 28
acres in extent — 7J above Kegent Bridge — with 2053
yards of wharfage, and tide-locks 80 feet wide, the depth
of water on whose sill is 21 feet at ordinary spring
tides. This left about 18 acres of tidal harbour, and so
things stood till Dec. 1869, when was commenced the
southward diversion of the Dee from the Suspension
Bridge downwards. The new channel, curving a little
over a mile, and at its bottom 170 feet wide, was com-
pleted at a cost of £51,585 in 1872, the total sum ex-
pended on harbour improvements up to that date since
1810 amounting to £1,509,638. Other works under
the Act of 1868 have been the building of a new S
ABERDEEN
breakwater of concrete, 1050 feet long and 47 high, at
a cost of £76,443 (1870-73); a further extension of the
N pier by 500 feet, at a cost of £44,000 (1874-77); and
the filling up of the Dee's old bed, on which, in June
1885, a new and spacious graving dock was formed.
Its total length is 524 feet; the width at the floor, 48
feet, gradually increasing to 74 feet at the cope, the
length of the floor being 500 feet, and the depth on the
sill 20 feet. The dock is furnished with hydraulic
machinery, and cost about £50,000. Girdleness Light-
house, with one fixed and one revolving light, 115 and
185 feet above mean tide, was built in 1833 to the S of
the harbour entrance, which, widened now to 400 yards,
leads out of Aberdeen Bay, a safe enough anchorage
this with offshore winds, though not with a NE, E,
or SE wind. The harbour is managed by 19 commis-
sioners chosen from the town council, and by 12 other
elected commissioners. The aggregate tonnage regis-
tered as belonging to the port was 310 in 1656, 4964 in
1788, 17,131 in 1810, 34,235 in 1821, 30,460 in 1831,
38,979 in 1841, 50,985 in 1851, 74,232 in 1861, 99,936
in 1871, 109,471 in 1881, 101,922 in 1891, and 108,719
in 1894 — viz. 47 sailing vessels of 47,406, and 143 steam-
ships of 61,313 tons. The harbour revenue, again, was
£7215 in 1811, £9161 in 1821, £12,239 in 183C£1S,657
in 1841, £20,190 in 1851, £28,436 in 1861, £32,292 in
1871, £59,320 in 1881, when the local salmon fishings
(now the property of the harbour commissioners) yielded
£5706, and £52,800 in 1890, when the expenditure was
£37,375. Both lists show almost constant growth ; as
likewise does the following table, giving the aggregate
tonnage of vessels that entered and cleared from and to
foreign ports and coastwise, in cargoes, and also — for
the last four years — in ballast: —
Entered.
Cleared.
Year.
British.
ForeigD.
Total.
British. ( Foreign.
Total.
1845
269.731
8,781
27S,512
211.117
3,639
214,756
1856
2S3,831
10,072
293,903
209,956
2,286
212,242
1869
339,299
32,815
372,114
202,630
13,512
216,142
1874
431,110
45,908
477,018
433,781
42.971
476,752
1880
482,132
51,907
534,039
471,044
48,419
519,463
1891
712,829
65,753
778,582
693,261
46,155
739,416
1S94
795,261
57,813
853,074
793,854
53,777
847,631
Of the total 3144 vessels of 853,074 tons that entered
in 1894, 2614 vessels of 769,765 tons were steamers, 187
vessels of 33,348 tons were in ballast, and 2775 of
716,739 tons were coasters ; whilst the total 3102 of
847,631 tons that cleared included 2572 steamers of
762,361 tons, 1237 vessels in ballast of 380,684 tons,
and 2931 coasters of 786,032 tons. The trade is mainly,
then, a coasting one, and more an import than an export
one; and coal is a chief article of import, 415,908 tons
having been received coastwise here in 1890. The num-
ber of vessels that arrived at the port from Montreal
since the Canadian cattle trade commenced in 1887 up
to the end of 1891 was 85, while from Holland there had
been 9, from Denmark 3, and from Iceland 1 — in all,
98. The numbers landed were — cattle, 41,896; calves,
248 ; sheep, 4022— 46, 163. Other imports are lime, flax,
hemp, jute, timber, oats, wheat, flour, salt, iron, bones,
guano, etc. ; exports are flax and cotton fabrics, woollen
cloths, grain, oatmeal, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, pork,
butter, eggs, salmon, preserved meats, granite, and
Scotch pine timber. The amoimt of customs in 1862
was £92,963; in 1868, £80,415; in 1879, £98,632; in
1887, £186,008; in 1890, £79,478; and in 1894, £83,044.
Shipbuilding was carried on as early as the 15th
century, and in the days of wooden ships, the Aberdeen
' clipper bow,' of Messrs Hall's invention, won for itself
a wide repute. Its fame endures, but iron since 1839
has by degrees superseded wood, and this again has
given place to steel. During 1832-36 there were built
here 38 vessels of 6016 tons, and during 1875-79 48 of
28,817 tons, of which 22 of 9595 tons were steamers; in
1880 the number was 7 of 5849 tons, all of them iron
steamships; and in 1894 the number was 9 of 2287 tons,
all of them steel steamships. Aberdeen is head of the
13