Douglas Harbour
| Douglas Harbour | |
|---|---|
Douglas
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| Location | |
| Country | Isle of Man |
| Location | Douglas |
| Coordinates | 54°8′48.2″N 4°28′2.5″W / 54.146722°N 4.467361°WCoordinates: 54°8′48.2″N 4°28′2.5″W / 54.146722°N 4.467361°W |
| Details | |
| Opened | 1660 |
| Operated by | Isle of Man Government |
| Owned by | Isle of Man |
| Available berths | 16 |
| Piers | 4 |
| Port Pilot | Captain Stephen Carter |
| Port Manager | Captain John Clayton |
| Statistics | |
| Passenger traffic | 635,269 (2008) |
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Website IoM Gov't Harbours Division |
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Douglas Harbour (Manx: Purt Varrey Ghoolish) is located near Douglas Head on the southern end of Douglas, the capital town of the Isle of Man. It is the island's main commercial shipping port.
Douglas Harbour is composed of the Outer Harbour and the Inner Harbour separated by the Bascule Bridge and Flapgate. A sea terminal building is located on the northeast end of the harbour co-located with the harbour control.
The Outer Harbour features two jetties, four piers, eleven berths, and an area designated for lifeboats. The piers are:
The two jetties are:
The Inner Harbour allows access and berthing of small vessels.
By tonnage, the port's primary traffic is from the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company fleet.
In the vicinity of the Sea Terminal are the following stations/stops which facilitate passenger transport connections:
By connecting with the appropriate bus or tramway, sea passengers may also transfer to the Manx Electric Railway to points north.
The earliest recorded history indicating the presence of infrastructure facilitating the use of Douglas Harbour dates back to 1660. From the beginning of the 19th Century many things happened to open up the Island to an increasing amount of traffic.
Work on the Red Pier had commenced in 1793 and was completed in 1801. By then the sides of the small Douglas River basin had been shorn up and an attempt had been made to push some sort of protective structure out to sea. It had failed. In 1787 the first pier was reduced to rubble following a series of winter storms and so for many years Douglas Harbour was fully exposed to the easterly gales whilst in the Bay the perilous Conister Rock claimed many vicitms. The Red Pier, built with money from the British Treasury cost £25,000 (equivalent to £1,717,600 in 2015). It was driven out to the limit of low water, and went more than 50 yards beyond the end of the old wrecked pier which had proceeded it.
Even with the establishment of the Red Pier it was still not until 1871 that passengers were finally able to dispense with the arduous task of having to board rowing boats in order to be ferried to any vessel lying off. The reverse applied when they were disembarking. The scene could be chaotic, and quite often in the winter months passengers would reach the Red Pier from the vessel soaking wet and exhausted.
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Wikipedia