Attached to this Port are two capacious harbours, substantially built, and so completely sheltered from storms, that the vessels moored within them have rarely been found to suffer injury even in the severest weather. These harbours are furnished with ample quay and shed-room, and also with a commodious graving-dock--the oldest in Scotland. The largest vessels that trade to the Clyde are found at this port; such is the facility of access to this harbour, that vessels which draw twenty-one feet of water are towed up and down the channel with the greatest ease and safety.
A very important addition to the harbour accommodations of Port Glasgow was obtained a few years back in the erection of wet-docks. The then existing harbours having been found much too small for the increasing number of ships belonging to the port, the inhabitants of the town resolved to avail themselves of their local advantages, by converting the Bay of Newark, naturally adapted to the purpose, into a spacious dock, where vessels of the largest class might lie securely afloat in every state of the tide. The trustees of the harbours obtained an act of parliament, investing them with the necessary powers for carrying this desirable object into effect; and funds having been secured, they were enabled to commence the work, which was soon in rapid progress, and completed about twelve years ago. This dock, having spacious quays, with a twenty-five feet depth of water alongside, holds out special advantages to the trade, both in point of safety and convenience.
The charges levied at this port are on the most moderate scale, and considerably below the rates imposed at the neighbouring ports. To merchants engaged in trade with the Clyde, Port Glasgow thus presents the double advantage of low charges and very superior accommodation; while, at the same time, the privileges of the warehousing system are on a footing equal to those of any other port in the kingdom. Warehouse-room is provided on a very extensive scale, and is open for the general accommodation of the trade, on very moderate terms. In addition to the regular bonded warehouses, there is a large area for receiving wood into bond, and an excellent warehouse for crushing refined sugars, in which large quantities of that article are prepared for exportation to the Mediterranean markets.