Editing Old Dock (section)

==History==
The Old Dock was built at a cost of £12,000 and opened on 31 August 1715.<ref>{{harvnb|Picton|1875|p=555}}</ref><ref name="Liverpool: The docks">{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41373|title='Liverpool: The docks', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4 (1911), pp. 41–43|publisher=British History Online|access-date=24 March 2008}}</ref>  [[Thomas Steers]] was the engineer responsible;<ref name="OA" /> and additional advice was obtained from [[George Sorocold]].<ref name="PPS2006-260" /> Originally a [[Dry dock|tidal basin]] was accessed directly from the river,<ref name="Trading Places: Old Dock History" /> and from 1737 access was via [[Canning Dock]]. The dock was built with one [[graving dock]]; a second and third graving dock were added in 1746 and the 1750s. The dock walls were constructed from brick laid directly on to sandstone bedrock. The dock gates would have allowed as much as 10% of the water out between high tides, resulting in a water level drop of several feet. This may have been offset by water entering the dock from a stream.<ref name="timeteam">{{cite web
  |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2008/liverpool/index.html |title=Time Team|work=Channel 4 Television|access-date=22 April 2008
}}</ref> It accommodated up to 100 ships.

Although Liverpool vessels were involved in the [[slavery|slave trade]] before the dock opened, the ''Liverpool Merchant'' sailing for Africa on the 16 Oct 1699,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archive sheet 3 - Liverpool and the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archivesheet3 |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=National Museums Liverpool}}</ref> and selling 220 slaves in Barbados in 1700,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archive sheet 3 - Liverpool and the transatlantic slave trade |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archivesheet3 |access-date=2023-10-21 |website=National Museums Liverpool}}</ref> a second 30 tonne vessel being recorded as sailing for Africa in 1709,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Gomer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVgiAQAAMAAJ |title=History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade |date=1897 |publisher=W. Heinemann |isbn=978-0-7222-9779-7 |language=en}}</ref> it would have served ships involved in the Africa-America trade, propelling Liverpool to world leader of this trade.{{cn|date=October 2023}} 

The dock led to Liverpool's establishment as the leading European port and subsequent world trading port.

[[File:Liverpool 9077.jpg|right|thumb|Map of Liverpool in 1809 showing the Old Dock]]