“Commencing at the river Mersey, we propose to dredge out and widen Wallasey Creek at least to the depth of three feet under low water of spring tides, being four feet below the sill of Prince’s Dock, and this for 200 feet in width up as far as the entrance into the basins; to lay the sill of the greater entrance lock at that level, also the sill of the basin of the barge lock. The barge entrance lock to have a lift of ten feet; the ship lock four feet; so as to give the same water when the gates are opened as into the Prince’s Dock. The side of Wallasey Creek will be quayed for four hundred yards below the entrance of the dock, to facilitate transporting vessels into and out of the basins.
“The tide basin is 1000 yards long, and 100 yards wide in the middle, curving on the north side towards the locks at each end, the south side receding 100 feet, so as to give berthage to timber vessels, and in the front of them a sloping wharf and bonding yards for timber; a line of barge canal between these yards and the warehouses on the main dock will facilitate the removal of the timber without interfering with the shipping.
“The entrance lock into this basin from the tideway will be fifty feet wide, the entrance wing walls widening gradually to 100 feet, to afford easy access to the shipping when both gates are thrown open. At low water, neaps, or half tide, two or three vessels may pass at a time. The upper lock between this basin and the canal to be double; one large lock, forty-five feet wide and 160 feet long, for great ships, and another, twenty-five feet wide, for smaller vessels, with gates at each end, pointing both to land and seawards. These locks to rise to four feet below the old dock sill of Liverpool, and thus to have twenty-two feet water in the canal on the level of an eighteen feet tide, which we propose to make the surface level of the canal.
“The ship dock parallel to this basin will be 400 yards long and 100 wide, with warehouses on each side, supported by iron pillars, so as to form a covered wharf, as at the St. Katherine’s Dock in London; behind these warehouses a parallel barge canal fit for river flats, forty feet wide, which will, as in Holland, be found a singular convenience. These canals communicate with a dock and basin for flats only, whence the barges may be let down into the creek during the ebb; and as they navigate at the lowest water they will be ready to pass up the Mersey with the first of the flood; and in like manner, coming down with the last of the ebb, will get into the pool and enter the dock without losing a tide. Ships from the Mersey, in like manner, may enter the basin with half-flood, and be ready to proceed down the Swash with the first of the ebb.