3-053-804 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The King of Holland declaring the docks open, 1873. 'His Majesty King William III. of the Netherlands performed last week the ceremony of opening the new docks at Flushing, or Vliessengen, on the Walcheren Island, between the two mouths of the Scheldt. These docks are situated at an equal distance from Antwerp and Rotterdam, but on the seacoast, and promise to be useful as an adjunct to those commercial ports...Flushing has lately been the object of much care on the part of the Dutch Government, and a career of commercial prosperity seems about to commence. The first step to ensure that has been taken by the construction of the state railway from Middleburg to Flushing, and the new wet docks or harbours, which were opened by the King on the 8th September, are to be used, we believe, in connection with the steam-boat service of the English Great Eastern Railway Company...[Our illustration shows] his Majesty standing on the deck and waving his hat at the moment of declaring the new docks to be opened'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.