07Sep1871, Shipbuilding at Barrow

HOLKER, Thursday, September 7th, 1871.
—The Eddies, the Duke, and we went to pay our respects to Barrow and show it off to the Hugh Smiths, whom we pickt up at Furness Abbey. The jute mills are roofed and 60 machines are already up in the weaving shed, to be at work next month. We went on to Barrow Island, where shipbuilding sheds are getting up, and a keel is actually laid down. Rows of wooden huts for workmen have had to be run up here, as cottages were badly wanted to lodge masons, and masons to build cottages ! Mr. Smith in the wing made our blood run cold by describing the awful inflammableness of jute which generates heat in the core of each bale to a horrid extent, unbeknown, of course.