Sheffield is ambitious to become port. It is not without a waterway to the sea, but the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Canal, which connects ip with the great trade funnel of the Humber Estuary, is a means of transport so inadequate according to modern standards that no town would dare to claim the status of a port on the strength of it. Going out from the centre of Sheffield the canal crosses country for about 43 miles until it joins the River Trent at Keadby. For, the first 14 miles it follows the course of the River Don. This route misses Gode; a boat journeying by it would go down the Trent and, entering the Humber at Trent Falls, would proceed thence direct to Hull. Gode, which is 40 miles' from Sheffield, may be reached by branching northward at a point some 28 miles from Sheffield into the New Junction Canal.
In a recent report on the, condition of the canal, the standard depth of water in the Navigation was assumed to be 6} ft., but it was expressly stated that this depth could not be depended upon throughout, particularly in the river Teaches between Tinsley and Rotherham, where a good deal of silt is brought down in times of flood. Many other reaches were also stated to be deficient in depth and requiring extensive dredging. The majority of the locks are only large enough for boats about 62 ft. long. The ordinary boats at pre. sent trading between Sheffield and the Humber are 61} ft. long, and have a carrying capacity of about 110 tons. But when drawing 6 ft. of water (which is the deepest draft that can conveniently be accommodated above Rotherham) their capacity is reduced to about 86 tons, and frequently part of the cargo has to be removed from heavily laden boats before they can proceed. This is one of the maze striking facts illustrating the i adequacy of the canal. There are, too, difficulties with respect to locks, bridges, and sharp bends in the course of the canal, which need not be particularized. Clearly the system is out of date.
The Sheffield Development Committee will have a definite engineering scheme to lay before the Ministry of Transport. In February, 1919, they commissioned Sir John Wolfe-Barry, Lyster and Partners to inspect the Navigation and report upon its condition. Out, of several proposals submitted by. the consultants they have chosen 4 scheme for widening and deepening the canal, and carrying out certain other structural alterations, 50 that the type of boat at present in use can come in all the way to Sheffield carrying its full load of 11 tons and drawing up to seven feet of water. On the reconstituted canal these boats would come and 80 in trains of three or four drawn by @ tug. At present all boats on the canal are drawn by horses, and whereas the journey to Gode now occupies two or three days, under
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.