Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Port of Manchester was established as a customs port on the 1st of January 1894, located in Salford, North West England. It extended along the full 36-mile length of the Manchester Ship Canal, from Eastham in the west to Manchester in the east.
The Pioneer, a steamer owned by the Cooperative Wholesale Society, was the first merchant vessel registered at the Port of Manchester. It docked on the 1st of January 1894 and unloaded a cargo of sugar from Rouen.
The Port of Manchester declined in the 1960s because ocean-going vessels were growing too large to navigate the Manchester Ship Canal. The port closed in 1982.
Manchester Liners was a shipping company established on the 3rd of May 1898 to provide a fortnightly transatlantic service between the Port of Manchester and North America via the Manchester Ship Canal. The company operated vessels registered in Manchester for more than 80 years, until 1985.
At its height, the Port of Manchester was the third-busiest port in the United Kingdom. Between 1904 and 1964, it ranked in the top five most important customs ports in the UK for 39 out of 55 years for which figures exist. Its peak tonnage year was 1959.
By 1907-1908, about half of the cotton used in Lancashire cotton mills passed through the Port of Manchester, approximately 216,570 bales of Egyptian cotton. American cotton imports also grew from 121,336 bales in 1895-1896 to 377,264 bales by 1907-1908.