Whitehaven

Whitehaven, a seaport of Cumberland, near the point where the Solway Firth merges in the Irish Sea, 38 miles SW. of Carlisle and 80 NW. of Lancaster. Dating from 1633, it has owed its well-being to great collieries—some of them extending beneath the town and under the sea—and to the wealth of hæmatite iron ore found in the neighbourhood. There are blast-furnaces, iron-shipbuilding yards, iron and brass foundries, and manufactures of coarse linen, sailcloth, ropes, soap, and earthenware. The harbour has a wet-dock of five acres, two piers constructed in 1824-41, and each over 300 yards long, and a lighthouse; and steamers ply to Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, and Ramsey. Whitehaven was attacked by Paul Jones (q.v.) in 1778, and suffered from a mining subsidence in 1791. It was made a parliamentary borough, returning one member, in 1832. Pop. (1851) 18,916; (1891) 18,044.