THE PORT OF COPENHAGEN

AN INTERNATIONAL BASE FOR THE BALTIC TRAFFIC Where the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen (»Merchants' Port<<) now stands, with its 700,000 or more inhabitants, natural conditions had already, in prehistoric times, created a Viking stronghold. The deep sheltered water at this point offered these daring seafarers a splendid refuge. It was, therefore, not long before the fishermen and traders of primitive times discovered the place and its great advantages, and the subsequent historical period showed this to be the first germ of a permanent trading and shipping centre. Danish rulers soon realized the importance of this harbour which offered itself as a natural stage on the fairway between the Baltic and the great oceans.

As early as the 12th Century so much importance was attached to >>Hafnia<< as it was called that Bishop Absalon, that renowned statesman, who by his warlike campaigns extended the sovereignty of Denmark to the Baltic countries, protected this busy shipping centre on the East coast of Zealand with a fortified castle. Around this fortress, on the site of which the castle of Christiansborg now stands (containing the suites used by the King for representative and official purposes, the Houses of Parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Foreign Office) the town of Copenhagen grew up. And gradually, as the town grew during the centuries, the port was steadily extended and improved.

In the 17th Century especially, in the reign of King Christian the Fourth, a great deal was done to increase the value of the port and to keep it abreast of the demands of the growing traffic. Not only was the port itself very considerably extended, but a new town, Christianshavn, which is now wholly absorbed by Copenhagen, was founded on the island of Amager by Royal Decree, from which place access to the harbour was facilitated by special privileges accorded to skippers and merchants. Trade flourished and, under the influence of increasing enterprise, shipyards and new port institutions were established in the course

of the next two centuries, whilst important commercial and shipping firms grew up; and from now on the harbour of Copenhagen became more and more the object of constant expansion and modernising.

But it is naturally during the past generation that the port has continued its development on a scale corresponding to the mighty proportions of the international intercourse of recent times, and has become a prominent factor among the shipping centres which deal with the international traffic of the present day. Both to the North and to the South more extensive areas have been incorporated in the port. To the North, in the beginning of the nineties, the Free Port of Copenhagen was founded as a special section of the port, and to the South the Gasworks Harbour was built, and later on enlarged by means of great extensions at Enghavebrygge and Islandsbrygge. The construction of a dam, which was built at the extreme southern end of the port between Zealand and Amager, and which makes it possible to regulate the flow of the current by means of a system of lock's, provided another great extension of the port area.

In the past few years alone during and since the war about 36,000,000 kroner have been spent on extensions and improvements. The water was considerably deepened at places where this was still necessary, and wholly new channels into the port system were constructed, whilst at the same time about 5,000 metres of new quays were built and 80 hectares of fresh land areas were incorporated. Of these areas the East Asiatic Company at once acquired about 90,000 square metres as sites for factories, which means a further extension of the company's already very great activities in the treatment of raw materials imported from the far East.

Work is still constantly going on for the purpose of improving both the depth and the quay area of the port.

PRESENT EXTENT AND CAPACITY

In its present form the port of Copenhagen stretches from North to South over a total length of 13 kilometres, and covers an area of 1925 hectares. The total length of quays is about 75,000 metres. The depth of the water is not less than 7 to 8.1 metres at the berths for ordinary tonnage, while in all the main channels and at the overseas quay's it is 10 metres.

Beside a naval base and dockyard on the East side, a description of which is, however, outside the scope of this article, the port of Copenhagen comprises a general Customs Port and a Free Port.

The Customs Port, i. e. the ordinary trading port, is divided into an outer port, situated farthest to the North, an adjacent inner port (also called »The Old Port«), bounded on the North by a Customs House barrier, and on the South by the swing bridge >>Langebro« which, like the lever draw-bridge »Knippelsbro«, connects Amager with Zealand, and the South Port which stretches from Langebro to the southernmost outlet of the port. On the West side of the outer port lies the Free Port, comprising a number of larger and smaller basins and very considerable land areas, which are carefully enclosed from the other parts of the port and from the town, to the eastern part of which it is immediately adjacent, close to the main railway line on which the through traffic runs.

All sections both of the Customs Port and of the Free Port are equipped with every kind of modern facility for loading and discharging, storing, transport and repair, as well as for coal and oil bunkering and provisioning of every kind.

Along most of the quays there are railway lines, mostly double tracks, and a railway net, served by four railway stations, extends over the whole of the port area. Altogether, the port disposes over fourty electric cranes with a capacity of 12 to 221⁄2 tons, 13 fixed cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 25 tons, 5 up to 4 tons, one up to 20, one up to 8, and 6 with a capacity of 5 tons, besides 26 coal elevators with a working capacity varying from 30 to 80 tons per hour. In addition there is Messrs. Burmeister & Wain's 100 ton crane, the Harbour Board's floating steam crane of 40 ton's capacity, and that of the Royal Naval Dockyard, capable of lifting 75 tons. In the Free Port there are also three electric grain elevators with a working capacity of 120 to 200 tons per hour, and in the inner port three elevators with 20 to 60 tons capacity per hour. The Free Port has two silos, each of which holds up to 11,000 tons of grain, and its warehouses and sheds have a total floor space of about 200,000 square metres, whilst many similar big warehouses are to be found in the other parts of the port, side by side with great manufacturing plants, shipyards and docks. Messrs. Burmeister & Wain's shipyard has

a floating dock capable of lifting 13,600 tons, another of a capacity of 7500 tons, and a graving dock of about 150 metres in length. The Copenhagen Floating Dock and Shipbuilding Company have, beside three floating docks with a capacity of up to 3,900 tons, four graving docks of up to 160 metres in length, as well as cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 100 tons.

Moreover, a considerable amount of work is continually being done in order to increase the equipment of the port, and to keep it equal to the most modern requirements.

THE ADMINISTRATION

REDUCTION OF THE PORT CHARGES

The Port of Copenhagen, (apart from the Naval Base) is, in accordance with the Act of April 29th, 1913, constituted as an independent institution which, financially and administratively, manages its own affairs, although one or two matters, such as port charges, require the approval of the Ministry of Public Works. In accordance with this Act, and a Resolution of March 30th, 1914, the port has its own Harbour Board, to which is attached a Port Management with a Director at the head. The Harbour Board, which is presided over by the Lord Lieutenant (Overpræsidenten) of Copenhagen, consists of sixteen members, who are appointed or elected for a period of six years at a time in a proportion laid down by the Act, some of them by the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Commerce, some by Parliament and by the Town Council of Copenhagen, and others by a number of organisations which represent trade, shipping and industry.

The Harbour Director, Captain-Commander Th. Borg, directs all the affairs of the port in accordance with existing statutes and the decisions of the Harbour Board.

The Free Port, the establishment of which was determined by an Act of March 31st, 1891, and which was opened to traffic in November, 1894, was built by the Harbour Authorities and is thus a component part of the Port of Copenhagen, but its equipment of cranes, railway lines, warehouses, etc., belong to the Copenhagen Free Port Company Ltd., which was established in the summer of 1894 with the object of carrying on the working of the Free Port in compliance with the regulations comprised in the concession then granted. The board of directors of the

company consists of eight members, half of which are elected by the Ministry of Public Works and by the Copenhagen Harbour Board from among its members, and half by the shareholders. The manager is Captain J. F. Bergsøe.

Since just before the turn of the century, when the Port of Copenhagen took its place as an important link in the modern traffic of the world, its management, with a farseeing comprehension of their task and with much skill, directed their endeavours towards promoting the capacity of the port and its competitive powers. One important measure of this kind is the reduction of the port charges, which was effected in the summer of 1923 and again at the beginning of the year 1924.

In 1913 the trade of the port attained its highest point, but, as in other places, the great war led to stagnation of traffic, while at the same time the generally higher level of prices involved increased charges. In later years, however, the traffic improved greatly, and in 1922 it increased by leaps and bounds. This had the effect that the Harbour Board decided to reduce the charges in 1923, and a reduction was put into effect as from July 1st that year, corresponding to about 500,000 kroner of the port revenues. As the increase of the traffic continued during the whole of the year 1923, the Port Authorities decided to reduce the charges still further and, from January 1st, 1924, these were again brought lower down and now they are 20 per cent. lower than the reduced charges in 1923. Thus it may safely be asserted that the cost of using the port of Copenhagen is now so low that this great Danish port is in this respect too quite able to hold its own in competition with the other ports of the world which handle the international overseas traffic.

DEVELOPMENT OF TRAFFIC

To show the increase in the use of the Port of Copenhagen which followed upon the decision of the Port Authorities to make so considerable a reduction in the port charges, some figures communicated by the Director of the Port may be of interest.

In 1913 the traffic of the port totalled 21,600 ships, with a total of 4.7 million register tons, whilst, during the war, in the years 1917 and 1918 these sank to 10,000 or 11,000 ships, totalling about 2,000,000 net register tons. An improvement then set in which continued during the succeeding years. In 1921 traffic had