Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION TWO.
THE PORT OF DOVER
X. JOHN SMEATON'S REPORT.

When a larye portion of the Passing Tolls was
allotted to Dover Harbour in 1756, there were great
complaints from the ship owners who navigated the
Channel that the harbour bar so frequently made the
Port inaccessible. In consequence of those complaints,
the Commission invited Mr. John Smeaton, a ¦ engineer,
who had then become famous by the completion of
the great Eddystone I>ight House, to report how Dover
Harbour could be improved and its acf'ommodation
developed. He presented his report in 1769, wherein
he recommended an extension of the South Pier, and an
alteration in its form, which, together with other recommenda-
tions, was not adoj)ted. But, although the report from this
eminent man was disregarded, some passages of it should be
embodied here because it gives an exact description of the
Harbour as it was in 1 769. He wrote: — '' The mouth of the
'¦ i)resent Harbour was originally cut through the beach to let
'¦ off the land waters, pent up inside the Harbour. From that
" state the present Harbour has been gradually improved,
" the entry whereof is now defended by two piers, composed
" chiefly of wooden piles, tJie inside filled in with rough hea\y
'¦ stones. After passing the entry the vessels arrive in a
" caj>ac!ous outward harbour where they may lie defended
"from all winds; but, having an open communication with
" the sea, the water flows and ebbs therewith; and at low water
" spring tides the whole is left dry. Above this the harbour
" is divided by a dam, called the Crosswall ; in which there is
" an opening of 38 feet wide at the top and about 36 feet
" at the bottom; and in this is placed a large pair f)f gates
" j)ointing to the landward, through which at high-water,
" vessels may pass out of the exterior harbour into the interior
" basin were occasionally they are kept afloat. The Cross-
" wall besides the great gates, has two other openings of
" 12 feet wide in each of which is ])lacetl a ])air of draw-
" gates."

" The interior basin is again dixidcd bv a second dam
" or cross-wall. ha\ing an o]n'ning of more than 20 feet, for



THE PORT OF DOVER II3

the passage of smaller vessels, which is also furnished with
a pair of gates pointing to landward ; this dam has likewise
another opening furnished with three draw-gates, by which
the water can occasionally be let off so as to scour the basin.
Into this upper reservoir, which is called the Pent, the
freshwater river, which springs from the chalk hills north
of Dover, empties itself, and makes its way through both
sets of gates through all three harbours and lastly betwixt
the pier-heads to the sea."

" This general disposition of the harbour appears to me
as judicious as can be contrived, and it is upon the same
general idea as the Port of Cherbourg, upon which the
French spended an immense sum of money before it was
destroyed by the English in the late war."

" When, by hard gales from the South-West a quantity of
beach is brought round the Western Pier head and lodges
itself between the heads, the basin and Pent are then filled
partly by taking in sea water and partly by fresh water
afforded by the river, and there retained until it be low
water. The drawgates in the sluices in the Cross-wall are
then opened with all possible expedition, and the body of
water contained in the Basin and Pent, by making its way
between the pier-heads cuts down and removes the bar of
l)each, which at the time of spring tides is done with so
great effect that at one single operation, as I am informed,
a good jjassage is opened for vessels ; and at two tides the
whole mouth of the harbour can be cleared; and could
this be done with equal ease and expedition at all times
when wanted, then would the evils that are now complained
of not subsist; and this port would then be nearly in the
best condition its situation is capable of, and which indeed
is very respectable as a tide-harbour, having a good capacity
with from i6 to i8 feet of water at common spring tides,
but it so happens when there are hard gales from the
South-West and at the same time neap tides that such
a quantity of beach will be lodged between the pier-heads,
and to so great a height that, according to my information,
a vessel drawing but four feet of water can hardly get out
of or into the Port. At those times the water from the
sluices has not sufficient fall to drive out the beach, which
is obliged to remain until the spring tides, which at some
times may be an interval of a week, producing great



114 ANNALS OF DOTER

" obstructions to the Packets between Dover and Calais as
" well as the Mercantile trade of the place."

Mr. Smeaton very fully discussed the cause of the
accumulation and the remedy. His opinion was that the
beach which travelled along the shore eastward had
originally been flints in the chalk cliffs whicli had fallen
and broken up in the sea, and his remedy fo» keeping the
beach out of the Harbour was the elongation of the South
Pier of the Harbour about 90 feet, and to make the head an
angle instead of being round, and not e.xiend the north
head, by which means the south head would shoot the
shingle into deeper water. By that plan the shingle would
be kept out of the Harbour mouth, where it did injury,
and carried forward into the Bay, where it would bene-
ficially support the Harbour walls.

It was the Earl of Holderness, the Lord Warden, who
invited Mr. Smeaton to make a report, but the Board of
Commissioners rejected that simple and economical plan,
because it adopted a principle which they and their fore-
fathers had been taught to believe was rank heresy. Because
the projection of Henry VHI.'s Pier first caused the shingle
to accumulate in Dover Bay, they believed that every
j)rojection into the sea, no matter what its form, direction
or position, would have the same effect. Captain Perry had
aihised the extension of the South Pier in 171S, which the
('ommissioners rejected, and, to be consistent, they rejected
Mr. Smeaton 's i)lan too.

The Karl of Holderness, as Lord Waidcn, haA'ing
failed to induce his Assistant Commissioners to adopt Mr.
Smeatons proposals to prevent the formation ol the Harbour
bar, he next called into council the experienced pilots and
mariners, judging that their local knowledge would help to
solve the problem, but their opinions differed so diametrically
from each other that he could found no policy on their
diverse proposals. So the Earl abandoned his efforts, and
no further works were undertaken before his death, which
occurred in 1778.



tHE PORT OF DOVER I15