Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

DUNDEE.
237
are likewise several sugar refining houses, can-
dle-manufactories, and an iron-foundry, with
different establishments for making machines.
The export of soft goods from Dundee has
been wonderfully assisted by the establishment
of packing-houses, where articles are compressed
into a small compass, and done up in the neat
manner of English manufactures. About forty
years ago, Dundee was celebrated for the extent
of its tanning and currying establishments, and
the leather which they made was principally
wrought uj) in the town. At that time the value
of boots and shoes exported annually was near-
ly L.7000. In the course of several years,
this profitable trade decreased, and it is now com-
pletely extinct, while leather is imported from
London and other places, for home consumpt.
Dundee has nine vessels employed in the whale
fisheries. About a dozen smacks are constantly
engaged in carrying passengers and goods to
and from London. There are also regular
sailing vessels of moderate burden, engaged in
trade with Leith, Perth, and Glasgow. In-
cluding those employed in the foreign, the
Greenland, and the coasting trade, the total
number of vessels in the proprietory of the
port is upwards of two hundred. The shore-
dues collected in the year ending Whitsunday
1830, amounted to L. 11,224, 9s. Hid. In
that period 2478 vessels entered the harbour,
bearing 182,512 tons of materials, while the
exports of Unt and hemp goods were 464,752
tons. The wealth diffused by a commerce of
such magnitude, may well be conceived to be
great. It has affected every interest in Dun-
dee, and rendered it one of the most thriving
and comfortable towns in the British empire.
A daily communication is kept up with Perth,
by a steam boat on the Tay ; and with the op-
posite coast of Fife there is a constant inter-
course by the same means. The vessel en-
gaged in making these trips to and fro, is
the most effective ferry-boat in the world. It
is quite peculiar in its construction, being com-
posed of two hulls, each seventy-six feet keel,
eleven and a half feet beam, and eleven and a
half feet asunder. They are handsomely and
substantially built, and well bound together by
beams fortified with iron. The whole length
upon deck is ninety-two feet, and tne breadth
about thirty-four. Thirty-two feet of the one
end is left about two feet lower than the rest
of the deck, and railed in for carriages and cat-
tle ; and the side doors at the middle of this
space are so constructed, as to let down like n
draw-bridge to the quay, when the shores are
touched. The more elevated part of the deck
is appropriated to passengers. Twenty-two
feet in the centre are occupied by machinery —
an engine being in each boat, and the paddle-
wheel acting in the canal between. The en-
gines are of fifteen horse power each ; and as
they are connected with the same wheel, they
act together. So smoothly do they work, that
there is hardly any tremor in the boat ; and,
when the doors which inclose the machinery
are shut, there is very little noise. The pad-
dle-wheel has wooden floats, and is so divided,
that though each half has only eight floats, the
whole acts with the same smoothness as if it
had sixteen, and yet the power is not diminish-
ed. Notwithstanding the immense size of the
boat, she obeys the helm very easily. There
are two helms, each constructed of a rectangu-
lar iron plate, four feet and a half in the hori-
zontal direction, and three feet and a half in
the perpendicular. The tiller of each is almost
ten feet long, and is worked by a wheel and
pinion. The machinery is so constructed, as
that either end may go foremost ; and thus the
boat can arrive or depart without the labour or
space required for turning round. The mo-
tion of this vessel during a breeze, or across
the swell, is much more steady than that of
the common steam boats, as a good deal of
the disagreeable rolling of a two-wheeled ves-
sel arises from the unequal hold which its
wheels take of the water. The twin steam-
boat of Dundee is placed under an excellent
system of management, and is of incalculable
benefit in the intercourse betwixt the populous
counties of Fife and Forfar. It sails every
day in the week, and by its constant operation,
almost realizes a bridge across the Tay. At
the end of every haif hour, it leaves one of its
ports, and, as the voyage consumes about twenty
minutes, ten minutes are allowed for landing and
taking on board passengers, goods, cattle, or car-
riages. The present fares are ninepence,and one
shilling. Between Broughty and Port-on- Craig,
about four miles farther down the Tay, there is
a pinnace kept as a ferry boat, the fare for
which is only threepence, being the cheapest
conveyance in Britain. At the spot touched
by the Dundee ferry-boat, commences the main
road to Edinburgh by Cupar, by which route
there is a daily communication by a variety of
stagecoaches. Hitherto, the Law behind the