n
1588; that Essex gathered his expedition to conquer Cadiz in 1596; and
from here sailed the _Mayflower_ with the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620.
Plymouth harbor's maritime and naval history is, however, interwoven
with that of England.

PLYMOUTH.

The port of Plymouth comprises what are called the "Three
Towns"--Plymouth proper, covering about a square mile, Stonehouse, and
Devonport, where the great naval dockyard is located. Plymouth Sound is
an estuary of the English Channel, and receives the Plym at its
north-eastern border and the Tamar at its north-western, the sound being
about three miles square and protected by the great breakwater a mile
long, with a lighthouse, and defended by forts. The Plym broadens into
the Catwater, used as a haven for merchant-vessels and transports and
capable of furnishing anchorage to a thousand ships at one time. The
Tamar broadens into the Hamoaze, which is the naval harbor, and is four
miles long, with sufficient anchorage-ground for the entire British
navy. Sutton Pool is a tidal harbor now used by merchant-vessels. The
coasts of Plymouth Sound are rocky and abrupt, and strong fortresses
frown at every entrance. It is the naval dockyard that gives Plymouth
its chief importance: this is at Devonport, which is strongly fortified
by breastworks, ditches, embankments, and heavy batteries. The great
dockyard encloses an area of ninety-six acres and has thirty-five
hundred feet of water-frontage. There are here five docks and also
building-slips, where the great British war-ships are constructed.
Another enclosure of seventy-two acres at Point Keyham is used for
repairing ships, and a canal seventy feet wide runs through the yards to
facilitate the movement of materials. Immense roofs cover the docks.
East of Devonport, divided from it by a creek, and adjoining Plymouth,
is Stonehouse. Here are the great victualling yard, marine barracks, and
naval hospital. The Royal William Victualling Yard occupies fourteen
acres on a tongue of land at the mouth of the Tamar, and cost $7,500,000
to build. Here the stores are kept and naval supplies furnished, its
great features being the vast government bakehouse, the cooperage, and
the storehouses. Its front is protected by a redoubt, and to the
eastward are the tasteful grounds of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe's winter
villa. The marine barracks, which have the finest mess-room in England,
will accommodate fifteen hundred men; the naval hospital, north