Factually flawed it may be, but they might be right about the length of the docks.
Take for example, seven miles of the river bank. Build docks. Each quayside has an outer quay and an inner quay, usually of roughly the same length. And then add in the two side quays between them.. In that way 200 yards of riverbank becomes 800 yards of quayside, if the dock were square, and so on.
Here is an extract from 'Study of European Ports 1909 - The Port of Liverpool.'
"At present, the docks and basins consist of 427 acres of water area and 26 miles of lineal quayage on the Liverpool side of the Mersey River, and 165 acres of water area and 9 miles of lineal quayage on the Birkenhead side, making a total water area of 592 acres, and a total lineal quayage of 36 miles.
The area of the Dock Estate consists of 1,171 acres on the Liverpool side, and 506 on the Birkenhead side, or a total of 1,677 acres. On the Liverpool side the docs extend from the Hornby Dock on the north to the Herculaneum Dock on the south, a distance of over seven miles, with not a foot of property between these limits the Mersey Dock Estate owns large areas of foreshore property for future extensions of this great system."
Read more: The Port of Liverpool - Study of European Ports, 1909
http://www.gjenvick.com/PortsAndHar...-StudyOfEuropeanPorts.html#ixzz20W74s4wLThis seems to be an excellent site for shipping document collections.
I'm sure the people of Southampton would benefit from reading the full article so that they don't have to speculate about who is taking who's shipping trade. We can draw our own conclusions (and often do), but if you read the article, you will see such facts as approximately 6000 ocean-going vessles using the north end of Princes Landing Stage each year.
And don't think these ships were small, just because it was over 100 years ago. I've just been looking at some sailings from Liverpool made by Cunard ships in 1913. In that year, Cunard alone was running fourteen ships across the Atlantic, nearly all from Liverpool. Cunard were running a weekly service to New York, and a fortnightly service to Boston.
The 'Ivernia' and her sister 'Saxonia' were quite small by comparison, at just 1964 passengers each compared to some of the others. 'Carpathia' could carry 2550 passengers, 'Carmania' 2650, with sisters 'Franconia' and 'Laconia' each holding 2850. The 'Lusitania' and 'Mauretania' held 2165 each.
By comparison, a modern cruise ship, built about ten years ago, will typically hold a similar number of passengers.