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THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the collection of 
 James Collins, 
 Drumcondra, Ireland* 
 Purchased, 1918, 
 
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 FOR THE 
 
 IMPROVEMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 DUBLIN HARBOUR, 
 
 SUBMITTED BY 
 
 1 re\**\-T/ie Directors General of Inland Navigation 
 
 TO 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY THE LORD LIEUTENANT, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY'S TREASURY 
 
 OF 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Dublin: 
 
 Printed by A. B. King, His Majesty’s Stationer, 
 36, Dame-Street. 
 
 1805. 
 
His Excellency The Lord Lieutenant having 
 directed the following Representation to be printed, the Reader is 
 requested to favor the Directors General of Inland Navigation with his 
 Opinion, and to point out to them any Matter which will improve the Plan 
 therein proposed . Or if he shall think that any other Plan will more 
 effectually promote the desired Object, he is requested to suggest it to the 
 Directors, with the Grounds upon which he founds his Opinion. 
 
 Drawings of the Surveys referred to in the 
 Representation are hung up in the Board's waiting Room where they may 
 be viewed. 
 
 The Map annexed hereto shews generally 
 the Design of the Nezv Pier; but is not intended to mark any decided 
 Situation or Form thereof. Those Points remain for Decision, and the 
 Reader s Opinion upon them is particularly requested. 
 
” "ir 2, t 
 
 REPRESENTATION 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 IMPROVEMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 / 
 
 DUBLIN HARBOUR. 
 
 Navigation Office, 
 
 19th December s 1804. 
 
 May it please your Excellency. 
 
 On the 11th of August 1801, we had the honor to 
 lay before your Excellency our ideas for the improvement of the Harbour 
 of Dublin, according to such plans and reports as had been then made 
 to us. But having soon after received a suggestion from the Corpora¬ 
 tion for preserving and improving the Port of Dublin, that a Pier from 
 the shore at Clontarf to the Spit Buoy would be more likely to conduce 
 to the object sought after than if it were to run from the point of the 
 North Wall, and seeing strong reasons for concurring in their Opinion ; 
 we did by our application of the 28th of the same month, request your 
 Excellency to permit us to suspend a decision upon this important 
 matter, until the plan proposed by that Board, and to be more detailed 
 by them, should be well considered and the whole of the subject be 
 thoroughly revised. < 
 
 Ballast Office 
 suggest a Pier 
 from Clontarf. 
 
 We 
 
 4037 . 18 ' 
 
4 
 
 John Rennie, 
 Esq; comes 
 over. 
 
 Papers referred 
 to him. 
 
 II is report 
 
 and other pa¬ 
 pers printed 
 
 and distributed. 
 
 other plans. 
 
 Difficulty of 
 the subject. 
 
 We then invited John Rennie Esq; a civil engineer of distinguished 
 eminence and extensive practice in Great Britain to come hither. We 
 communicated to him the several papers respecting this Subject, parti¬ 
 cularly the report from the Committee of the House of Commons in 
 1800, on the State of Inland Navigation in Ireland, with the papers 
 thereunto annexed ; the reports made by Sir Thomas Hyde Page of the 
 Royal Engineers ; Captain William Bligh of His Majesty’s Navy; and 
 Captain Daniel Corneille of the Engineers now engaged with our Board; 
 together with a statement in writing with which we were favoured by 
 the Corporation before-mentioned. 
 
 Mr. Rennie inspected Dublin Harbour and Bay and such parts of the 
 coasts adjoining thereto as he thought proper to visit, and he was 
 furnished with a copy of Captain Bligh’s chart, and with borings, sound¬ 
 ings and levels taken in such directions as he required. Upon considera¬ 
 tion of all which Mr. Rennie made his report of the 26th of July 1802, 
 accompanied with drawings of the works proposed by him to be con¬ 
 structed for the improvement of the Harbour. We caused all the 
 reports before-mentioned to be printed ; with charts of Dublin Bay and 
 Harbour, upon a reduced scale taken from Captain Bligh’s, on which 
 were delineated the several works proposed by each reporter.—These 
 were distributed to such public bodies and individuals as we deemed 
 to be interested or knowing in the subject, that from their opinions 
 we might be assisted in our judgment of the most probable means of 
 producing the effect desired ; and copies of the plans at large were 
 hung up in one of our offices tor general inspection. A volume of 
 the said reports we humbly beg leave to transmit herewith. 
 
 Many other j3lans have been communicated to us, which, however 
 ingenious in their designs, do not appear to us sufficiently free from 
 decisive objections to warrant us in adopting their consideration. We 
 shall therefore confine ourselves to those plans which are considered 
 
 or proposed in the reports of the engineers 
 
 That the subject is difficult has been acknowledged, and will not be 
 denied by any one who considers how different are the plans given by 
 men of the highest reputation in their professions. We trust therefore 
 that no apology will be necessary on our parts for having taken much 
 time to the determination of a matter the consideration of which 
 
 extends 
 
extends much beyond any one limited view; which, with an heavy 
 expenditure of the public money, embraces combined attentions to the 
 lives of a most valuable class of our fellow subjects ; to the conservation 
 of the property and interests of individuals; to the security of the public 
 revenues; to the safety, facility and enlargement of the trade o f 
 Dublin, and consequently to the general increase of the national prospe¬ 
 rity. We must not limit our views to alterations of the Harbour calculated 
 for ships of particular built or burthen, for particular times of tide or 
 for particular winds. We must attend to the consequences which such 
 alterations may have in regard to ships coming from the north or south ; 
 or directly across the channel ; or sailing out for an equal variety of 
 destinations ; to vessels of all sizes whether small or great; to all times 
 of tide ; and to w r inds gentle or tempestuous from all points of the com¬ 
 pass. We must consider what will be the effects upon the convenience, 
 the interests and the health of the city, and to what extent the pro¬ 
 posed alterations are likely to bring advantage to the general trade of 
 the port beyond what it now enjoys. The state of that trade is 
 great and flourishing, and we must not hazard the injuring it in one 
 respect by an inconsiderate attempt to benefit it in another. 
 
 Your Excellency having signified your intention that our Report be 
 printed, previous to your deciding upon the measures therein proposed, 
 and being solicitous to place the whole and every part of the subject 
 together, that at one view it may be open to more extended and general 
 consideration, we are emboldened to trespass upon your Excellency’s 
 patience and that of the Lords of His Majesty’s Treasury, by a full 
 though perhaps a tedious detail of our opinions and of the grounds 
 upon which we have formed them. 
 
 We have inspected with care the old charts of Dublin Harbour, of 
 all which copies traced off are herewith submitted, viz. No. 1, by 
 Captain Grenville Collins, the survey made between 1681 and 1688 
 and published in 1693.—No. 2, by Gabriel Stokes in the year 1725. ' 
 The soundings taken as far as the Bar by Thomas Burgh, Esq; and 
 Captain John Perry.—No. 3, by Messrs. Scale and Richards, Land 
 Surveyors, published in 1765.—No 4, by Murdoch Mackenzie, sen. 
 
 e begun 
 
 Considerations 
 which it em¬ 
 braces 
 
 Cautionary at¬ 
 tentions. 
 
 This Report to 
 be printed. 
 
 Old Charts. 
 
Compared with 
 Capt. Bligh’s. 
 
 Collins’s chait. 
 
 6 
 
 begun in 1762, and published in 1775. —And No. 5, by Mr. John 
 Cowan, Published in 1800. 
 
 "We compared these with Captain Bligh’s chart, (also accompanying 
 this report) in the hope of ascertaining what changes have happened 
 in the state of this Harbour during the last century, and from the 
 progress of those changes to judge of their causes, and from thence 
 to conclude upon the best means of inmproving the Harbour with a 
 probability of success. But upon examining the charts they appear to 
 be deficient in some points, faulty in others, and in general to fall so 
 short of the accuracy of Captain Bligh’s that we can venture only to 
 form general conjectures from the comparison. We state them never¬ 
 theless, because, so far as they indicate the operations of nature in the 
 Bay, they tend to confirm the principles on which our report is 
 founded. 
 
 Before the publication of Captain Grenville Collins, the only maps 
 of the British coast had been made by the Dutch and were very 
 erroneous. Captain Collins therefore had the command of a yacht 
 given him by King Charless II. in the year 1681 and was employed to 
 make a maritime survey of the coasts of Great Britain, which he 
 finished in 1688. He took that opportunity of making, and has pub¬ 
 lished in his Coasting Pilot, a chart of Dublin Bay. In favor of that chart 
 we must presume that as a navigator he was particularly attentive to the 
 entrance and channel of the Harbour. He has described the bar and laid 
 down the buoy as it seems much to the eastward of its present position. 
 On his chart very few land marks are noted but their sites are well 
 known at this day, it may be therefore fairly concluded that some of 
 those were the bearing points by which he laid down his chart. Drawing 
 lines upon his chart from Kilbarrack to the Muglin, from Sutton House 
 to Newtown Castle, from Merrion Castle to the Head of Ilowth, and 
 from Ringsend Point to the Green Bailey, their intersections are very 
 nearly at that point where' he has laid down the buoy of the bar. 
 Drawing lines from the same points upon Captain Bligh’s Chart we find 
 their angles and intersections nearly correspond, which strengthens the 
 presumption that Collins took his bearings upon some of those points and 
 laid them down with care. Upon the point of intersection aforesaid there 
 
 «V 
 
 % 
 
 r.- 
 
 are 
 
7 
 
 are now between twelve and thirteen feet of water by Captain Biigh’s 
 chart; and the Bar, upon comparison of the two charts, appears to 
 have been driven in westward upwards of half a mile since Collins’s 
 survey, the present eastern edge of the Bar as marked by Captain 
 Bligh’s being so far distant from that point of intersection. Blit while 
 we incline to this presumption upon the immediate nautical part of 
 Collins’s chart, we are not free from doubt arising from the error of his 
 coast line. As this survey was not part of the charge especially com¬ 
 mitted to him, he may have been satisfied with taking the bearings of 
 his points from the buoy on the bar, without taking their bearings in 
 respect of each other, or the actual measurement of any distance ; on 
 which supposition the relative situation of the Bar, as laid down by 
 him, may be perfectly correct, though the line he has given of the coast 
 be much otherwise. But however it may have happened, taking the 
 distance by his scale between points which certainly bave not varied, the 
 Green Baily and Dalky Island, we find it by Collins only four English 
 miles and an half, whereas Captain Bligh makes it six English miles and 
 a quarter, and in other parts there are similar disagreements. We 
 therefore must be satisfied with a mere conjecture from Collins’s chart 
 that the bar has since moved to the westward, and refer to other 
 observations for confirming the probability. 
 
 At the time of Mr. Stokeses survey the piles and frame-work on the 
 south side of the channel were in progress. Respecting his chart 
 No. 2, we are subject to some uncertainty, the one part of the survey 
 not assisting us to ascertain the presicion of the other. The object of 
 that survey respected Captain Perry’s plan, (very justly exploded,) for 
 carrying a canal on the north side from Sutton to the Liffey at Rings- 
 end, and nearly shutting out the access by the channel. The south side 
 of the Bay and Harbour is therefore totally neglected, and we have no 
 points of bearing from whence by intersecting lines we can compare the 
 positions on that survey with Captain Bligh’s. Now though we may not 
 question that Captain Burgh and Captain Perry, assisted by persons ap¬ 
 pointed by the Ballast Office, took the distances and soundings of the 
 Channel and Bar correctly, yet the chart not embracing the whole of 
 the Bay, nor pointing out cross bearings of those soundings by any land 
 marks, we cannot, from the chart by a comparison with Captain Bligh’s, 
 
 say 
 
 His coast line 
 erroneous. 
 
 Stokes’s chart 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 
8 
 
 Chart by Scale 
 and Richards. 
 
 -Effect of Im¬ 
 provements to 
 1765. 
 
 say positively that the Bar has shifted so much as by those soundings 
 measured from Ringsend it appears to have done. But, subject to 
 that uncertainty, the chart affords ground for presuming that in 1725 
 the Bar was more to the westward than in 1688, but still considerably 
 to the eastward of its present situation. 
 
 We understand that in the year 1748, the South Wall from Rings¬ 
 end to the Pigeon House was begun and was finished in 1755. In 
 1761, the foundation of the Light House was laid and the building 
 finished in 1768. It does not appear in what year the survey was made 
 for the chart by Messrs. Scale and Richards, but it was published in 
 1765, ten years after the South Wall to the Pigeon House had been 
 finished and four years after the foundation of the Light House had been 
 laid and the Pier commenced from thence westward. So that whatever 
 alteration the building of the South Wall was naturally to have occasi¬ 
 oned in the state of the Harbour must, when that chart was made, have 
 begun to manifest itself. Accordingly the chart shews an approach in 
 the forms of the North Bull and the Bar to their forms on Captain Bligh’s 
 chart. Bv so much of the South Wall being finished, the Liffey was 
 checked from spreading upon the South Bull, and the flood, skirting the 
 east side of the South Bull, passed across the mouth of the Harbour. 
 But a considerable length between the Pigeon House and the Light 
 House being only piled, having a bed of stones laid between the ranges 
 of the piles, whenever the tide rose above the level of that bed it passed 
 through the piles into the river, and upon the ebb, the river with the 
 tide partly passing back through the piles washed down over the South 
 Bull. The exclusion of the back water of the Liffey from the South 
 Bull was not complete. Upon a comparison of Scale’s chart with 
 Captain Bligh’s and tracing the Bar, as we have done, upon Scale’s 
 chart by the soundings of six feet, it will be seen that it connected with 
 the North Bull; that the North Passage (or as it is sometimes called the 
 East Channel) across the Bar had seven feet water whereas now there is 
 but little trace of such a channel; that the South Buoy had but six feet 
 water whereas it has now nine feet; that the deep water of the West 
 Channel passing immediately round the Light House was not so ex¬ 
 tensive as it is now; and that Cock Lake and a gully running by 
 hi err ion Castle were still kept open by the back water of the Liffey 
 passing through the piles to the southward near the Pigeon House 
 
 The 
 
 
 
.9 
 
 Hie chart given to the public ten years after by Mr. Mackenzie is 
 upon too small a scale and furnishes too few soundings to point out ex¬ 
 actly the form of the Bar. The chart describes the South Wall and 
 Light House as finished and in general it shews that the North Bull had 
 then approached nearer to the form now delineated upon Captain Bligh’s 
 chart, that the Gully on the southward of the South Bull was filled up, 
 the gut of Cock Lake was much lessened and the White Bank had 
 begun to rise at the back of the new pier. At this time that pier had 
 been some time closed between the Pigeon House and the Light House. 
 
 Mr. Cowan, who had been assistant to Mr. Mackenzie on other parts 
 of his general survey, published a chart of Dublin Harbour in 1800. 
 It was put together from Scale’s and Mackenzie’s charts, with such 
 alterations as Mr. Cowan observed to have taken place since, and with 
 corrected soundings. Tracing those soundings upon his chart, the 
 forms of the South and North Bulls and of the Bar will be found to 
 come nearer to the forms given by Captain Bligh ; and in this chart is 
 noted the dry patch upon the North Bull. 
 
 On further comparing the old charts with Captain Bligh’s there is 
 reason to judge that the quantity of sand in Dublin Bay has not been 
 increased in the last one hundred and twenty years. The area of sand 
 dry at low water appears rather to have diminished. This we do not 
 attribute to any diminution of the quantity of sand but to its being 
 driven from the east and south and heaped upon a smaller space. 
 Comparing Mackenzie’s chart, published after the South Pier was 
 finished, with Captain Bligh’s taken in 1800, (as far as the generality 
 of the former and the accuracy of the latter will allow of comparison) 
 measurements taken of the following distances plainly indicate that since 
 the fiinishing of the South Wall the sands of the Bay have diminished in 
 surface and have been beaten back f:om the eastward, viz.—Breadth of 
 the North Bull taken on the line of the meridian from the low water 
 mark to the shore at Kilbarrack church.—Center of the Bar from 
 Ringsend.—From Ringsend to the angle of the South Bull at the shore.— 
 Edge of the South Bull from Ringsend measured on a line parallel to the 
 river.—All which distances by Captain Bligh’s chart are much less than 
 by Mackenzie’s. 
 
 * * . . 
 
 v * . * % w V • 
 
 I .. c We 
 
 
 Mackenzie’s 
 
 chart. 
 
 Effects of Im¬ 
 provements as 
 on that chart. 
 
 Cowan’s chart. 
 
 Effects appear¬ 
 ing thereon. 
 
 Sands not in¬ 
 creased. 
 
 t 
 
Observations 
 on the altera- 
 tionsinthe state 
 of the Bay and 
 Harbour. 
 
 Effects on the 
 South Bull. 
 
 White Bank . 
 raised. 
 
 10 
 
 We have thus traced the alterations in the state of the Bay, Harbour 
 and Bar of Dublin in the course of the last century so far as a comparison 
 of the several charts (subject to the doubts accompanying them) throws 
 any light upon the subject. Its present state is so fully described, and 
 with so much accuracy by Captain Bligh’s chart, that upon it we shall 
 rest our further observations. 
 
 While the Bay and Harbour were open from Lazar’s-Hill to the Bar 
 and before any embankment or piers were raised, the Liffey, the Dodder 
 and the Ballybough River, with the currents of the tide, divided and 
 spread in various directions and were often altered in their course by 
 floods and by storms from different points of the compass; throwing up 
 bars and shoals in different parts. Vessels got up to Clontarf Pool, 
 Salmon Pool, Poolbeg, Iron Pool, or Cock Lake as the wind favoured 
 them at their arrival, and from thence proceeded to the City by the most 
 convenient channel. The back waters, not directed or restrained by any 
 artificial works but falling over the sands sometimes on the north and 
 sometimes on the south, washed those sands down towards the sea, and 
 as westerly winds prevail here for eight months of the year and heavy 
 gales more frequently come from that quarter, the sand banks were 
 kept low and spread far out towards the sea, partly covered with very 
 shallow water; and such is their appearance in the charts No. 1, and 
 
 t - 
 
 2. The river at low water still kept the deepest channel open through 
 the sands on either side, and near the mouth of that channel, the tide of 
 flood meeting the main current of the river and making still water, a 
 portion of the disturbed sands was there deposited and formed the Bar; 
 still with such a depth as should allow the water of the river to discharge 
 itself. As improvements took place which embanked and cleared the 
 channel and checked the spreading of the back waters, those sands 
 driven in by easterly winds were not w T ashcd back again so far down as 
 formerly and settled more to the westward. 
 
 By the building and finishing of the South Pier vessels in the Harbour 
 are sheltered from the swell of the Sea, in southerly winds, and the 
 current of the River is confined and excluded from the South Bull. 
 The South Bull not being any longer washed down from the west by 
 back waters, a great embankment of sand (now called the White Bank) 
 has been thrown up by the easterly winds at the back of the New Pier; 
 
 the 
 
 4 
 
11 
 
 the water in the Bay on the eastward of the South Bull has been deepened 
 and the limit of the South Bull has been driven more to the westward. 
 By a survey which at our desire Captain Corneille made of the White 
 Bank on the 25th of September last, compared with one made by 
 Captain Bligh in November, 1800, we find reason to be assured that all 
 these effects have in that short space of time considerably increased. 
 Copies of those surveys are anexed, with a drawing by Captain Cor¬ 
 neille of both together, by which the extent of the variation occasioned 
 -in four years, is at once distinctly shewn, It will there be seen that the 
 White Bank is carried to the westward ; and as the sands behind it on 
 the west are rising every year, it may be expected that in process of 
 time the works at the Pigeon House will appear standing upon a mound 
 of dry sand. In consequence of those changes in the South Bull, the 
 tide of flood, running round by the eastern verge of that sand, has, in 
 conjunction with the ebb from the river, worn off part of the south 
 point of the bar, and crossing the mouth of the harbour has made a 
 deep and extensive impression upon the North Bull to the eastward and 
 northward of the Spit Buoy. We have traced in a blue colour upon 
 Captain Bligh’s Chart (accompanying this Representation) the boundary 
 of his soundings about the bar at six feet, and in red the boundaries of 
 the soundings at nine feet, by which it will be seen that the impression 
 above-mentioned is not slight or superficial, but shews its effect to 
 those depths at the lowest water spring tides. It is this space which 
 Captain Bligh observes gives room to the shipping to extend their tacks 
 and enables them to enter the Harbour. The preservation of this effect 
 is attended to in the proposed site of the New Pier Head and Light 
 House ; which are intended to stand to the westward of the present 
 Light House, so as to permit the flood tide to cross the Harbour’s 
 mouth and bear upon the North Bull. 
 
 The bar also has undergone this further alteration, that the northern 
 
 channel over it is almost filled up, vehile the water on the southern 
 
 • •, • 
 
 point of the bar (as already observed) has been deepened. 
 
 The foregoing statements tend to shew what was the original wretched 
 state of this harbour, how much it has been improved, and that the 
 further improvement of it may reasonably be hoped for. Before the 
 last century, vessels from foreign parts did not venture into the harbour, 
 
 ■ 1 but 
 
 Surveys of it 
 compared. 
 
 South Bull rises 
 to the west¬ 
 ward. 
 
 Impression of 
 the flood tide on 
 the North Bull. 
 
 Effects upon 
 the Bar, 
 
 Ancient and 
 Present State of 
 the I.Iarbour 
 compared. 
 

 Losses by Ship¬ 
 wreck. 
 
 Causes. 
 
 Not peculiar to 
 Dublin. 
 
 12 
 
 but discharged their cargoes in the bay near Dalkey. The improve¬ 
 ment planned by Captain Perry, pretended to no more than making an 
 artificial port at Sutton for vessels drawing twelve feet water, which 
 were to unlade their cargoes into small boats to be brought by a canal 
 to Dublin ; but by the progressive improvement of the Harbour it now 
 receives vessels of three hundred tons, and vessels of considerable 
 burthen run up to the Custom House and immediately discharge there. 
 
 The losses by shipwrecks in stormy winters call feelingly and forcibly 
 for means of prevention, and such we hope to offer, as far as can 
 reasonably be accomplished, by improving the access to the Harbour 
 and making the Harbour itself secure. But it is not to be expected that 
 provision can be made against every possible misfortune in the Bay of 
 Dublin; and distinguishing between cases applicable peculiarly to the 
 situation, and those misfortunes which might equally befal vessels upon 
 a lee shore making for any other port, through the ignorance or insuffi¬ 
 ciency of the crew, or the condition of the vessel, we have reason to 
 believe that if we were to collect the accounts of vessels bound to other 
 parts of His Majesty’s dominions, it would be found that in proportion 
 to the number of shipping frequenting this Harbour, the disasters which 
 have happened here are comparatively few. Many trading vessels which 
 reach this port after long voyages are heavy laden, have met with bad 
 weather, are ill manned, the crew exhausted with fatigue, the vessels 
 ill found and generally with insufficient cables and anchors. So cir¬ 
 cumstanced it is not surprising that a feeble crew should be unequal to 
 the management of the ship in situations which demand activity and 
 exertion, or that vessels ill found should in a swelling sea be driven 
 from their anchors. Such we find to have been very frequently the 
 case; and a great proportion of the ships which have suffered in this 
 Harbour have been driven on shore and from their anchors after they 
 had passed the Bar and got within the Light House. Thick haze, or 
 storms of rain or snow, when neither the lights nor the land can be seen 
 will occasion accidents in the approach to the safest harbours ; and such 
 misfortunes must be imputed to causes which cannot be prevented by 
 any works of art. It is some alleviation of the dangers of this Bay, 
 that when vessels chance to be stranded at the ebbing tide upon the 
 sands called the North and South Bulls, the loss of lives is seldom the 
 consequence, if the crew have fortitude and patience to w r ait the 
 
 falling 
 
I 
 
 13 
 
 falling of the tide, when those sands are dry and the people can walk, 
 on shore. That the Harbour of Dublin, even in its present state, is 
 not generally thought (by those who ought to know) to be more dan¬ 
 gerous than others, appears from hence, that the insurance to Dublin is 
 not higher than to Cork, Waterford, Belfast, or Glasgow, or to any 
 other ports in this Channel; and that from Liverpool to Dublin it is no 
 more, even in the y winter, than from one and a quarter to one and a 
 half per cent, at which sum the Liverpool coast and the channel are 
 joined in the hazard with Dublin Harbour. We cannot therefore yield 
 to the unfavourable opinion which rises against the Harbour of Dublin 
 whenever storms set misfortune before our eyes, as if it were so bad an 
 Harbour that nothing can be done to improve it with any considerable 
 effect, and that new artificial harbours must be resorted to ; nor could 
 we hope to satisfy the compassionate anxieties raised by calamity, unless 
 harbours were constructed near every place where any vessel was 
 wrecked. 
 
 Certainly, notwithstanding the building of the South Pier, the 
 Harbour still continues exposed to the open swell from the sea in 
 easterly winds, against which little shelter has been obtained. And 
 accidents still happen in southerly storms when vessels are not suffici¬ 
 ently moored or anchored; because the Wall, though completely 
 stopping the swell of the sea, does not sufficiently shelter vessels from 
 the wind in storms from the south or west, when they happen not to be 
 well provided with ground tackle. 
 
 The improvements therefore to be sought after must have in view the 
 giving shelter and smooth water within the Harbour, the deepening 
 the Channel for the lying of ships, the increasing in a certain degree the 
 current at the mouth of the Harbour on the ebb and directing it im¬ 
 mediately against the Bar, and the lowering or, if possible, entirely 
 removing the Bar. 
 
 A Pier to be constructed from some part of the Clontarf Shore to the 
 Spit Buoy, suggested by the Ballast Office Corporation, and recom¬ 
 mended by the reports of Mr. Rennie and Captain Corneille, will, in 
 
 d our 
 
 * 
 
 Present Defect 
 of the Harbour. 
 
 Improvements 
 to be sought. 
 
 A Pier from 
 Clontarf to the 
 Spit Buoy. 
 
14 
 
 To be Solid 
 throughout. 
 
 Its advantages. 
 
 Further Works 
 planned by Mr. 
 Rennie. 
 
 our opinion, tend very much to the effect of all these purposes. But we are 
 averse from the idea of leaving an opening at the North for the passage 
 of the tides by the Gut of Clontarf or Sutton Creek, which would, in 
 so much, defeat the object at which we aim. With the flood tide the 
 sands of the North Bull would be carried through that passage into the 
 Harbour, and with the ebb the back water passing through it would 
 wash the sands down upon the Bar. The Pier, solid throughout, will 
 embrace within the Harbour a great expanse of water, which at the 
 ebb will flow out only at the contracted space between the Spit Buoy 
 ■and the Light House, and consequently increase the body and force of 
 the current against the Bar ; the sands of which, being turned up and 
 dispersed by the constant operation of vessels furnished with proper 
 machinery, will be carried out into deep water or cast upon the North 
 Bull; the communication of Clontarf Shore with the Sea the Channel 
 and the City, will remain unobstructed ; the shelter of the Harbour 
 from the swell in an east wind will be greatly improved, as the sea over 
 the North Bull will be totally excluded, and as the swell, after coming 
 in at the mouth of the Harbour, will spread itself within and lose great 
 part of its force ; whereas were the sea confined between parallel walls, 
 a swell from the open Bay might run up the whole River, and being 
 continually pressed forward and increased by an east wind, would, at 
 such time, make uneasy lying for the shipping, and possibly rise so high 
 in the City as to overflow parts of it, especially during land floods. The 
 Pier from Clontarf also giving smoother water within the Harbour, any 
 additional 'Works for directing the course of the river and tides, for 
 deepening the channel, for securing, sheltering, or accommodating 
 vessels, will be more easily, certainly, and steadily effected; the North 
 Bull being shut out will receive no back water from the Harbour to 
 assist the falling off of the ebb in carrying with it any of that sand to 
 the Bar, and the sands of the North Bull, not being washed down as at 
 present, will not continue the Bar but will be driven back from the 
 south and east, and accumulated against the Pier from Clontarf. 
 
 In addition to this Pier, Mr. Rennie has proposed an embankment of 
 the South Bull from the South Wall to the Blackrock, in order to form a 
 Great reservoir open to the channel at Ringsend, and thereby adding a 
 considerable increase to the body of water flowing out of the Harbour 
 against the Bar. Mr. Rennie also proposes additions to be made to the 
 
 North 
 
15 
 
 North and South Piers, extending them eastward until they reach the 
 Bar; that the current at the ebb, being discharged immediately upoa 
 the Bar, may produce a more decided effect. 
 
 W e esteem ourselves happy in being so far possessed of that gentle¬ 
 man’s ultimate ideas, that we or our successors may have the power of 
 taking up the consideration of those further improvements if they shall 
 be thought necessary; but we cherish an hope that the measures herein 
 proposed will answer every desirable purpose for the trade of this port. 
 If nevertheless we should be disappointed in that hope, any or all of 
 those additions may be made, without prejudice either from or to what 
 is herein recommended to be immediately carried into execution. 
 
 Among the instances of loss or damage suffered, especially by 
 strangers coming to this port, some appear to have been occasioned by 
 ignorance of the Harbour, insomuch that, when a Pilot has not been 
 got on board, the Master has carried the vessel on the south side of the 
 Light House, where she was wrecked. The erection of a second 
 Light House at the extremity of the New Pier will so decidedly point 
 out the Channel, that such an unfortunate error can hardly happen 
 again. 
 
 We are further humbly of opinion that a Bason, similar to that at the 
 Pigeon House, should be constructed on the north side of the channel 
 where the deepest water is to be found within the Harbour, and as near 
 to the head of the New Pier as may be. This will give protection to 
 vessels drawing much water when the tide has so far fallen as to prevent 
 their getting higher up to a well sheltered birth. Such a resting place 
 near to the mouth of the Harbour would also be of great service under 
 certain circumstances of wind and weather to large vessels outward 
 bound. They could from thence get out into the Bay at a critical time, 
 when they may not be able to do so from a more distant situation. We 
 are not yet prepared to say whether it will be most adviseable to 
 construct this Bason at the same time w r ith the Pier, or whether it 
 would not be better to delay it till it may be seen whether other shelter 
 within the New Pier Head can be obtained to answer these purposes. 
 We have thought it right however to bring forward the idea here, and 
 at a proper time it will be subjected to further consideration. 
 
 Defered for the 
 Present. 
 
 Second Light 
 House. 
 
 Bason on the 
 North Side of 
 the Channel. 
 
 Having 
 
16 
 
 Objections to 
 the Clontarf 
 Pier considered 
 
 Objection to 
 the Contraction 
 ot the Entrance 
 of the Harbour. 
 
 Sufficient width 
 will be left. 
 
 Objection that 
 the Current of 
 the Ebb will 
 impede the En¬ 
 trance. 
 
 No serious im¬ 
 pediment. 
 
 Having stated generally what we humbly recommend to be done, 
 with our reasons for prefering the constructing a Pier from Clontarf to 
 the Spit Buoy, rather than adopting any other of the plans under con¬ 
 templation ; we shall examine the objections to which it may be ex¬ 
 posed, not being so sanguine as to expect that any plan shall be totally 
 free from them. All we hope for is, that upon due consideration the 
 advantages of our present proposal will be found greatly to outweigh 
 the objections against it. 
 
 The first objection to be considered is that the entrance of the Harbour 
 will be too much contracted. We beg leave to state that in our humble 
 opinion, the Head of the North Pier with a Light House, should stand 
 at the point marked cl upon Captain Bligh’s Chart near the Spit Buov, 
 which is now dry at low water ; consequently the extent of the deep 
 water will then be quite as great as it is at present. Measuring from the 
 present Light House to that point cl w T hich Captain Bligh described as 
 the limit to wffiich the North Pier should be extended, the distance is 
 about eight hundred yards, and from that point, in a straight line at 
 right angles to the South Wall, about six hundred and twenty yards, a 
 space not very much less than the entrance of Cork Plarbour between 
 Ram Plead and Prince Rupert’s Castle. That contraction also will be 
 of very inconsiderable length, and a vessel passing through it will 
 quickly have broader water within as well as wdthout. 
 
 Another objection may be stated that the current of the ebb, increased 
 by a contraction of the Harbour’s mouth, will, in certain circum- 
 tances, prevent vessels from stemming it and entering the Harbour. 
 Our intention certainly is to increase the body and current of the ebb 
 water to concur with other means for removing the Bar j but we are not 
 desirous to give any extravagant force to that current, and therefore the 
 opening proposed at the mouth of the Plarbour is not inconsiderable. 
 The effect which we expect from the exclusion of the North Bull by the 
 New Pier, induces us to desire but a moderate increase of the current to 
 assist in removing the Bar, nor do we think that the increase occasioned 
 by the contraction we propose wall be any serious impediment to the 
 navigation. For supposing the objection to be so far well founded that 
 vessels may at some few times find a difficulty in stemming it, in ? 
 
 moderate 
 
17 
 
 moderate weather they can wait for the turn of the tide, and in rougli 
 gales, should the wind be fair, that difficulty will not subsist. Under 
 other circumstances such a vessel as would be impeded by an addition 
 of current would be ill able in the present state of the Harbour to make 
 her way. It is further to be remarked, that the sands, as soon as they 
 begin to dry, now confine the current as much as the Pier will do. In 
 this, however, we desire to be understood as speaking only of the 
 current of the tides, uninfluenced bv land floods. 
 
 7 j 
 
 Another objection may be urged, that the tide of flood entering only 
 at the contracted passage will spread over the inner Harbour, and being 
 thus slackened in its progressive force, the rise between the walls will be 
 diminished. Should such a consequence follow, we have reason to think 
 it will have but a trifling and very insignificant effect. Doctor M c Mahon 
 has been long a studious and scientific observer of the tides in Dublin 
 Harbour with instruments invented by him for that purpose and erected 
 at the Custom House, and at the Light House ; and from his informa¬ 
 tion we are authorised to state that the sensible difference in the natural 
 level of low water at the Light House and at the Custom House does 
 not exceed two inches, that the rise of the tide in both places is equal; 
 and that the difference in time between high water at the Light House 
 and at the Custom House is about six minutes. From hence it is 
 manifest that the high water at the Custom House is not occasioned by a 
 current but by the impulse or pressure of the rising water at the Light 
 House rapidly communicated to the water at the Custom House. We 
 may therefore justly conclude that in the flood tide there will be but 
 little if any sensible alteration of the height of the water within the 
 Harbour or at the Custom House to be apprehended from the proposed 
 Pier. Tire swell indeed, now often to be complained of in easterly 
 winds, will be favourably affected by the new Pier. For at present, 
 in those winds, the swell is carried at high water from the open sea over 
 the North Bull up to Ringsend and raises and disturbs the water between 
 the walls; but, by the erection of the new Pier, that portion of the 
 swell will be stopped and no other will be felt than what shall be raised 
 in the space within the Harbour or brought through the contracted en¬ 
 trance, and this latter swell will be much abated by its spreading over the 
 1 Iarbour after it shall have passed the entrance. 
 
 Objection that 
 the tide will 
 not rise suffici¬ 
 ently in the 
 Idarbour. 
 
 There will be 
 little difference. 
 
 E 
 
 The 
 
18 
 
 Objection, in¬ 
 crease of the 
 hollow swell 
 at the Harbour. 
 
 Deepest water 
 where the swell 
 will be. 
 
 Objection that 
 sands will be 
 driven into the 
 l Iarbour on the 
 flood. 
 
 The state of the Harbour during the ebb is materially different and 
 leads us to the consideration of another objection, viz. that the increased 
 current meeting with a wind in the opposite point will occasion a greater 
 swell and consequently a deeper hollow in the wave, so that if a portion 
 . of the Bar be not taken ofF equal to the increase of that hollow, the 
 .depth of water upon the Bar will in heavy gales be so much diminished. 
 
 Somewhat of the matter upon which this objection is founded subsists 
 at this day. The currents of the Liffey, the Dodder, and the Bally- 
 bough River (which check the force of the flood tide) add to the power 
 of the ebb; and in time of land floods, when those streams become 
 torrents, severely increase its violence ; and vessels are then obliged to 
 wait for the turn of the tide. From what we have already said of the 
 situation and form of the sands of the North Bull, it follows that at low 
 water the Pier will not make any alteration ; but from high water to the 
 last quarter ebb the current of the ebb will doubtless be increased 
 between the Pier Pleads and more particularly during the land floods. 
 It must be allowed that at such times the immediate entrance of the 
 Plarbour will be more difficult and the swell be greater when the wind 
 sits in the eastern points. But this difficulty will be but of small extent; 
 because the current will be strongest immediately between the two Pier 
 Heads, and in that space (where consequently the greatest swell may be 
 expected) is the greatest depth of water. And it may further be ob¬ 
 served that the easterly wind, which we suppose to raise the swell, is 
 the leading wind to carry vessels into the Plarbour, and that there they 
 will lie at ease. We should indeed be much disappointed if the mea¬ 
 sures we propose should fail in removing much more of the sand than 
 will be requisite to allow for any increased depth of the hollow swell 
 upon the Bar. But of this we shall beg leave to speak more at large in 
 another place. 
 
 It has been suggested that by confining the entrance of the Harbour 
 and thereby increasing the current of the flood, any sands set afloat, 
 whether by the natural operations of the tides or waves or by artificial 
 means, will be carried into the Harbour, and being there deposited in 
 the first still water, will not be carried out again. So far as this objec¬ 
 tion refers to the sands of the North or South Bull, we are confident it 
 
 has 
 
19 
 
 has no foundation. There is no doubt that the sand of the South Bull 
 has been exceedingly accumulated since the building of the South Wall, 
 that it has been driven back in every easterly wind, that the water of the 
 Bay upon its verge has been deepened, and that these effects are gradu¬ 
 ally in a state of continual progress; and we have every reason to 
 expect similar consequences in respect to the sand of the North Bull so 
 soon as the North Pier shall be finished. If the apprehension refers to 
 the sand of the Bar, we will (for a little while only) admit that it will 
 be so carried into the Harbour, and must then insist that a very essential 
 benefit will be obtained to the navigation. The very objection supposes 
 a continual diminution of the Bar, consequently in course of time a 
 complete removal of it. That sand would then be transferred from its 
 present exposed situation, where gabbards cannot lie to dredge and 
 carry it away, to some situation within the Harbour where such work 
 could be easily and effectually performed. But in point of fact we 
 cannot admit that the bulk of the sand of the Bar will be carried into 
 the Harbour. For in the course of the experiments made by Captain 
 Corneille under our orders to ascertain the drift of the sand of the Bar, 
 when disturbed by the Shoal Scrubbers, it was observed that in various 
 winds the first of the flood carried the sand towards Sutton; that in the 
 progress of the flood tide the sand was carried northward directly upon 
 the North Bull, and lastly in a north west direction towards Clontarf; 
 but at no time of the flood was it carried directly into the Harbour. 
 Allowing that the same consequence may not always follow in an east 
 wind, even then we think the quantity of sand carried in would not be 
 great, it might quickly be removed by dredging, or we might refrain 
 from any artificial means of disturbing the Bar in unfavorable winds. 
 But with winds in any point from the west and especially the south west 
 so prevalent here, there is every reason to believe that the disturbed 
 sands of the Bar will be carried by the tide of flood upon some part of 
 the North Bull. This disposition of the flood tide sufficiently accounts 
 for the degree of accumulation which has already appeared on the North * 
 Bull since the building of the South Pier; so great that a considerable 
 stripe of it remains dry at high water and has on it a growth of Marine 
 f Plants. This confirms our hope that when the North Pier shall shut out 
 the back water of the Harbour from washing over the North Bull the 
 accumulation of its sand and the deepening of the water at its verge 
 will as certainly succeed as at the South Bull. But without entering 
 
 further 
 
 The objection 
 supposes a con¬ 
 tinual diminu¬ 
 tion of the Bar. 
 
 Sands of the Bar 
 drifted up on 
 the North Bull. 
 
 Accumulation 
 of sand on the 
 North Bull. 
 
20 
 
 Sands will be 
 more carried 
 out of than into 
 the Harbour. 
 
 Especially if the 
 New Pier be 
 built. 
 
 Objection that 
 the removal of 
 the Bar can be 
 but temporary. 
 
 Sands do not 
 come from the 
 \rklow Banks. 
 
 further into a refutation of the objection, we may rest upon this, that 
 by the land waters the flood tide is checked, whereas by the same cause 
 the ebb lasts longer and is more powerful than the flood, especially in 
 the rainy seasons and in the prevailing winds from the westward ; so 
 that without any other argument it is reasonable to believe that sand 
 will be more readily carried out of the Harbour than into it. 
 
 We are aware that after the building of the New Pier whatever 
 sands shall then remain lodged within the Plarbour will gradually be 
 carried out; for in hard gales of westerly winds such sands will be raised 
 and floated in the water and be carried aw r ay by the ebb current. 
 Wherever that current shall be stilled those sands will be deposited and 
 probably some part of them will sink upon or near to the Bar. But if 
 it should be thought proper in laying out the direction of the New Pier 
 that the western sands of the Bull be as much as possible excluded 
 from the Harbour, such accession to the Bar will be but little, will 
 gradually lessen, and in some time will entirely cease. 
 
 It is feared by some that the removal of the Bar, should it ever be 
 effected, will be but a temporary improvement, tor that a new Bar will be 
 formed by sands brought by the southern tide from the Arklow Banks. 
 Such an apprehension seems to us to be groundless. The main tide in the 
 middle of the Irish Channel sets north and south and the banks are 
 thrown up in the same direction with the stream, at two leagues dis¬ 
 tance from the coast, leaving trom ten to fourteen fathom water between 
 them and the shore ; this interval of deep water will seldom be passed by 
 the sands 5 and if the banks have been formed of sands separated and 
 carried out by currents and counter currents of the tide from the shore, 
 it is more probable that this order should continue, than that nature 
 should change its course and sands be brought back from the banks to 
 the shore. If the rocky skeleton of the coasts and the course of the 
 tides have remained the same for ages, it may justly be inferred that 
 nature has long since ceased to vary its dispositions ; and that no such 
 incourse of the sands as is apprehended will take place unless some 
 great convulsion should alter the head lands. Were it otherwise, the 
 entire Bay of Dublin must before this time have been filled with sand. 
 But an observation of fact will do away the apprehension. For by com¬ 
 paring 
 
21 
 
 paring the ancient charts with Captain Bligh’s, it appears that although 
 the internal disposition of the sands has been changed, the quantity of 
 sand in the Bay and Harbour has not perceptibly increased in the last 
 hundred years; it may then be fairly presumed (from such data as are 
 now before us) that the Bar once removed will never be replaced (after 
 the building of the second wall) by sands from a distance, nor by re¬ 
 turns from either the North or South Bulls. The more distant sands are 
 kept off from the North by the promontory of Howth, and from the 
 South by Bray Head. And as the back water which now flows over the 
 North Bull will be intercepted by the New Pier, the sands of the North 
 Bull will not be washed down from the west but will be beaten back 
 from the sea, and heaped up as those of the South Bull have been, and 
 the water of the Bay on that side will be in some degree graduallv 
 deepened. 
 
 But the most discouraging assertion we have heard is that the Bar 
 never can be got rid of. That its formation stands upon an immutable 
 principle of nature, that a river running into the sea is opposed by the 
 weight of that greater body of heavier water, and that wheresoever its 
 current is stilled, there it will form a deposit of whatever materials it 
 brought down ; therefore though the present Bar could be removed it 
 will be formed in another part of the Bay, or could it for a time 
 be entirely taken away, a new Bar will arise wherever the current shall 
 be stilled by the sea. 
 
 We are not so rash as to speak with a presumptuous confidence, 
 being well aware that the sea often contradicts the best speculations ; 
 but admitting that the principle above-mentioned be, true if applicable 
 generally to shoals, we do not admit it to be universally true if applied 
 to the formation of bars across the mouths of rivers. Omitting to 
 mention many other great rivers similarly circumstanced we may instance 
 the Thames, the shoals in the channel whereof lie parallel to the stream, 
 so that with good pilots there is no positive obstruction to the navigation. 
 If it be probable that this circumstance is owing to the greater body of 
 water coming down with the stream, we maybe permitted to hope that 
 somewhat of a similar effect will follow the increasing the body of the 
 ebb water and giving it a straight direction across the Bar. And if once 
 that sand shall be broken through and a deep channel formed, there can 
 
 f be 
 
 Quantity of 
 sand in the Bay 
 not increased. 
 
 Bar once re¬ 
 moved will 
 never be re¬ 
 placed. 
 
 Objection that 
 the deposits 
 from the River 
 will continually 
 renew the Bar. 
 
 
 X 
 
 % 
 
 ' 
 
go 
 
 The Bar is a 
 continuation ot 
 the North Bull. 
 
 Renewed by 
 sands from the 
 North Bull. 
 
 Cause of the 
 dry patch on 
 the North Bull. 
 
 Bar not formed 
 of Stuff from 
 
 the river. 
 
 Bar is of clean 
 sand. 
 
 be no apprehension of its filling up again, the same means being 
 sufficient to keep it always open. We indulge ourselves in a further 
 hope that when the new Pier shill intercept the back water, of the 
 Harbour from washing down the sand of the North Bull, a considerable 
 effect will follow towards removing the Bar. For observing the sound¬ 
 ings laid down by Captain Bligh upon his chart, it is evident that the 
 Bar is no more than a continuation and gradual declension of the North 
 Bull running from the east end of the Bull opposite Sutton in a south 
 west direction and ending at the South Buoy; and by Captain 
 Corneille’s reports it appears that in northerly winds the sands of the Bull 
 are sometimes washed down nearly as far as to the South Buoy. The 
 Bar therefore appears to us to be a part of the North Bull remaining 
 under low water mark, and not yet thrown up high enough to be dry at 
 low water, being continually renewed by the sands from the North Bull 
 washed down by the back water, especially in northerly winds. But 
 when the back water shall be cut off and the sands be no longer washed 
 down into the Bay, we have reason to expect from the experience of 
 the South Bull that some part (perhaps in time the whole) of the Bar 
 will be thrown up on the North Bull, where as we before observed, a 
 portion has already become dry since the building of the South Wall, 
 owing in all probability to the partial check which that wall has given 
 to the power of the back water in southerly winds. But further, upon 
 considering well the nature of the Bar, we are of opinion that it is not 
 made of stuff brought down by the river, but of sand from the North 
 Bull. The river keeps open the deep channel, and if no river existed, 
 the Bar would be driven westward, and with the South and North Bull 
 would complete the semicircle of sand from Sutton, to Dunleary. But if 
 on the north side, the supplying of sand to the Bar shall be cut off as it 
 has been on the south, and if the river does not bring down materials to 
 the Bar, we do not see the improbability of the Bar being gradually 
 thrown up from the south and the east upon the North Bull by the opera¬ 
 tion of the sea, and that the Channel may maintain its full depth of water 
 through that space which the Bar now occupies. If the river brought 
 down the materials of which the Bar is composed, some positive indi¬ 
 cations of it would appear. But the Bar consists of a fine, even, clean, 
 loose sand, such as that of the North and South Bulls; and when dis¬ 
 turbed is instantly carried to a distance by the current. The stuff which 
 the river brings down in common weather is no more than soft ooze 
 
 from 
 
 A' 
 
23 
 
 from the sewers of the City-; and what is not sufficiently heavy to 
 subside between the Walls, is floated all over the Harbour and depo¬ 
 sited on or near the shores. In great land floods boggy and earthly 
 particles are brought down by the Liffey; heavy gravel is also brought 
 at such times into the Liffey by the Dodder; but this and all other 
 weighty matter is soon deposited near Ringsend where the river, ex¬ 
 panding itself, loses much of its progressive force. The fine particles 
 of ooze or loam which float long in the water are dispersed, and such 
 parts of them as are light enough to reach the salt water of the Bay 
 become therein the more buoyant and will not sink upon the Bar, but 
 be carried to the higher shores. Accordingly no such deposit of ooze or 
 soft stuff is found upon the Bar; the sand there is clean as on either of 
 the Bulls; and the soft ooze is found high up at the back of the South 
 Wall near Ringsend, on the Strand between Clontarf and Ballybough, 
 and the northern parts of Sutton Creek. If the removal of the Bar, be 
 deemed to be within possibility, from the operation of the sea when the 
 new Pier shall be built, we may look for that effect with great probability 
 when it shall be assisted by artificial means. 
 
 . • We propose to have a chart made of the Bar in the course of the 
 next summer upon a large scale, with numerous soundings taken upon 
 lines from one to another of the most remarkable objects on land and 
 extending to the adjoining parts in the Bay as far as to soundings of 
 twelve feet. From hence we may hereafter know in every year what 
 alterations shall have taken place from the commencement of any works, , 
 and be assisted in our judgments for their future progress. 
 
 Having endeavoured to obviate the objections which may be made to 
 the proposed Pier for the Improvement of the Harbour, we beg leave 
 to state other measures which we humbly recommend to be pursued, in 
 order that, in every part of the Harbour the utmost advantages may be 
 obtained for the trade and navigation of this port. 
 
 At the Custom House there are from five to seven feet of water at 
 low water spring tides, whereby vessels have some portion of the strain 
 taken off as they lie upon the ground and are entirely water-borne 
 sooner and for a longer time than they can be in shallower parts of the 
 
 river; 
 
 Gravel from the 
 Dodder sinks 
 near Ringsend. 
 
 Ooze floated 
 down the Lif¬ 
 fey is more 
 buoyant in the 
 sea. 
 
 Chart to be 
 made of the 
 Bar to ascer¬ 
 tain its future 
 changes. 
 
 Other measures 
 proposed. 
 
 * 
 
24 
 
 Shallows in the 
 River to be 
 ' dredged. 
 
 To obtain deep 
 water through¬ 
 out. 
 
 Additional 
 dredging ves¬ 
 sels and men to 
 be employed. 
 
 By the Ballast 
 Office. 
 
 Their means 
 not sufficient. 
 
 river ; Poolbeg has about the same depth of water; and from the White 
 Bank to the Light blouse, (the distance of an English mile) there are 
 from ten to sixteen feet of water in the Mid-channel. The dredging all 
 the intermediate spaces so as to gain (as far as may be practicable) an 
 equal depth of water through the entire Channel up to the Custom 
 House would be of infinite importance to the safety and dispatch of 
 
 < 
 
 vessels, enabling them to run up at once to the higher and more 
 sheltered situations, and to reach their proper births or places of discharge 
 without waiting for spring tides. To accomplish this will require a 
 considerable expense in the first instance for the providing an additional 
 establishment of proper vessels, and will for some time induce a conti¬ 
 nual charge for maintenance of those vessels, and employing a sufficient 
 number of dredgers. Such Improvement of the Harbour, however it 
 may come under our consideration as connected with the main object of 
 the Act of Parliament, is still within the immediate jurisdiction, powers, 
 and duties of the Corporation for preserving and improving the Port of 
 Dublin. And confident of the zeal and ability of that body, we are 
 persuaded that their talents and application will ever be exercised as far 
 as their means will -allow in perfecting the Harbour; improving and 
 securing the safe lying of vessels; continually deepening and levelling 
 the channel, so as, besides providing the quantity of ballast necessary 
 for shipping, to supply gravel or filling for roads and streets; providing 
 rings in the walls, and causing proper moorings and buoys to be laid 
 down in the channel to secure vessels in storms; pointing out the course 
 of the deep water by perches shifted from time to time as changes 
 happen in its channel; and removing the foundations of the old perches, 
 and any rocks, stones, or other accidental causes of injury to vessels, or 
 obstructions to their safe lying. Of these and every other matter re¬ 
 specting the Inner Harbour that Board are the most experienced and 
 competent judges. We should not therefore have touched upon this 
 part of the subject, had we not apprehended that by the works already 
 executed by that Corporation, their present means may be unequal to 
 the expense attending such an extended exercise of their department. 
 We therefore humbly offer our opinion, that it would be perfectlv con- 
 
 s 
 
 sistent with the objects committed to our charge by the Act of the last 
 Session of the Parliament of Ireland, if our Board (in case, the Ballast 
 Office Board should desire it) were to assist that corporation in such 
 
 \ 
 
 manner 
 
25 
 
 manner as shall be agreed upon between us towards a more speedy a nd 
 extensive execution of one part especially of their trust, provided your 
 Excellency and the Lords of His Majesty’s Treasury shall be pleased to 
 approve thereof. That is, that a considerable additional number of 
 dredging gabbards should be employed, that the business of dredging 
 in the main and direct channel should be carried on without intermission, 
 so that vessels need never wait for a supply of ballast; that the gravel 
 thus raised and not immediately called for should be deposited in conve¬ 
 nient situations, one on each side of the river, to answer demands for 
 the raising and leveling of new streets or filling the ground before new 
 buildings, and in one or more other situations convenient to the Harbour 
 where vessels might lie and receive their ballast; and that the price of 
 the ’gravel furnished for purposes at land should be so reduced by a 
 bounty from our Board as to induce persons to purchase from these de¬ 
 posits in preference to other places. The deepening of the River being 
 once completed the keeping it in order will no longer be an exceeding of 
 expense, nor will any assistance from our Board be afterwards necessary. 
 By such works the bottom will be levelled, and injury prevented to 
 ships taking the ground ; it will add to the depth of water, and by 
 laying the current lower will the more assist to remove the Bar. By 
 dredging we do not desire to confine the mode of working to the 
 method now pursued, but mean it to apply to any mode which shall be 
 found most effectual. 
 
 Should this general idea be approved, we will confer with the mem¬ 
 bers of the Ballast Office Corporation, and submit to your Excellency 
 and the Lords of His Majesty’s Treasury such a specific plan as shall be 
 adjusted by mutual agreement. 
 
 The securing of the South Pier by a sloped embankment of loose 
 stones on its south side from the Light House up to the White Bank, 
 requires all the attention which the Corporation are now giving it, as the 
 water on that side is deepening every year, the sand being driven back 
 in easterly winds. 
 
 Matters of smaller concern suggest themselves for the Improvement of 
 the Harbour, and though any one would be alone of no great effect, yet 
 the concurrence of all may materially contribute to it. For instance, 
 
 g whatever 
 
 
 Assistance pro¬ 
 posed from this 
 Board. 
 
 Bounty for gia- 
 vel raised lor 
 filling. 
 
 South Pier to be 
 secured by a 
 sloped embank¬ 
 ment. 
 
Mud of the 
 Liffey to be 
 raised for ma¬ 
 nure. 
 
 Drains from the 
 South Wall to 
 fall on the South 
 Bull. 
 
 Jetties to be 
 deferred. 
 
 Regulations for 
 
 O 
 
 vessels’ anchors 
 and cables. 
 
 96 
 
 whatever mud remains in the streets after the labours of the scavenger, 
 is washed by the rains into the Liffey. Impregnated with salt water it is 
 a manure of the richest and finest sort. That stuff taken out would in¬ 
 crease the body of current water, and heaped in proper situations, would 
 by its sale pay for the labour, or -at least reduce the expense of dredging 
 it to a small matter. 
 
 Again, before the South Pier was built, the swell of the sea from the 
 south was greater than from the north, and induced the builders to make 
 the Parapet Wall from Ringsend higher on the south side of that Pier 
 than on the other. The declination of the road between the parapets 
 was at the same time laid towards the north, -consequently the drains 
 after rain fall into the river carrying with them some portion of sand and 
 dirt. The rising of the White Bank and of the whole sand of the 
 South Bull has since so reduced the swell of the sea on that side that a 
 more elevated parapet on the south is not now wanted. Were the inclination 
 of the road laid down to the south, the drains would fall to the back of 
 the wall on the South Bull. This advantage will appear trifling, but a 
 small benefit continually operating is worth attention. We mention it at 
 this time because the parapets are in a state of decay and must soon be 
 repaired, as many of the stones, being of a slaty substance, are moul¬ 
 dering away. Whenever this repair shall take place, the parapet on the 
 south may be considerably lowered, and the sound materials taken there¬ 
 out would be nearly sufficient to replace the decaying parts of the north 
 parapet. The benefit of this alteration may be small, but the additional 
 expense of it would be insignificant. 
 
 ’The making jetties upon the flat shore on the north side of the channel, 
 for directing the course of the water or stilling the swell, may perhaps 
 be found necessary ; but we desire to defer the consideration of such 
 constructions, which cannot be decided upon now, whether in respect of 
 their situation, their direction or their extent, so well as upon due 
 observation of the state of the Harbour after the New Pier shall have 
 been built. 
 
 fif r J 
 
 Captain Bligh’s observations upon the fatal consequences of vessels 
 being ill found with cables and anchor; call for regulations. But they 
 are properly for the considerations of the mercantile bodies and of the 
 
 * 
 
 insurance 
 
27 
 
 insurance companies. Yet, as they come from such authority, and apply 
 to the saving of lives and properties, we think it may be of service to 
 repeat them here. 
 
 Speaking of- vessels riding at anchor in the Bay, he says, “ If the 
 “ anchor drags, which it will do if the ship is brought up with too 
 “ short a scope of cable out, she will most probably go on shore. 
 
 “ There is in this respect what is very reprehensible in the conduct of 
 “ merchant ships. They seldom have sufficient scope of cable to ride 
 “ by, and frequently have very bad ground tackling. And here I take 
 
 “ the opportunity to observe that underwriters would find it to their Captain Bligh’ 
 
 “ advantage when a ship has been stranded which they were concerned observations. 
 
 “ in, if they examined the wreck speedily and narrowly, how she was 
 “ found in her anchors and cables, for I have seen vessels come into the 
 “ Harbour which if they had been obliged to anchor in the Bay would 
 “ have been lost, and the insurance paid, although they had not com- 
 et plied with the tenor of the agreement. There would be great 
 “ humanity in preventing the owners of ships from sending them to 
 “ sea not properly found, which, on account of the expense, they 
 “ frequently do, and such neglect is the cause of their being lost, with 
 
 “ many valuable lives. Coasters depend so much on getting into a ' 
 
 <£ secure harbour as to risk, every thing;” and he adds, “ Yet under 
 
 “ all these circumstances I believe there are fewer shipwrecks in 
 “ Dublin Bay, than in any other similarly circumstanced.” 
 
 V* 
 
 It still may be expected from us to state why we do not adopt any 
 other of the plans which have been officially before us ; and it may not 
 be useless to do so as the grounds of objection to them will throw more 
 light upon the propriety of that which we herein humbly recommend. 
 We think also that the public mind should as far as is possible be satisfied 
 upon every part of a subject of such high and lasting importance, 
 especially as every plan has its earnest advocates. All the plans cannot 
 be adopted, a choice must be made from among them, and a statement 
 of advantages to be expected from only one pl^n is not a proof that the 
 selection has been well made, unless some comparison be made of it 
 with the others, to shew that under all circumstances it is the best. 
 
 Objections to 
 other plans. 
 
 * 
 
 We 
 
28 
 
 We repeat our wishes that every part of the subject may be fully 
 considered. The more we open ourselves to criticism, the more hope 
 we entertain of being made to understand any errors we have fallen into, 
 and the more certainly shall we be enabled to correct them ; and we 
 acknowledge that this is the more expedient, as some points which lead 
 our opinions are not exactly those which have been hitherto commonly 
 received. 
 
 Question on 
 new harbours 
 to allow increase 
 of burthen in 
 trading ships. 
 
 One popular idea to which the attention of the public has been called, 
 is to encourage the increase of the scale of our trade, by constructing 
 new harbours in deep water on each side of the Bay for vessels of greater 
 burthen than now use this port, perhaps of eight hundred tons. How¬ 
 ever plausible in appearance this object may be, in our opinion the 
 expected advantage would never compensate the expense. We con¬ 
 ceive, though an artificial harbour equal to such an idea should be com¬ 
 pleted, that the general scale of our shipping would not be much 
 increased, nor that so far as it might chance to be increased, it would 
 proportionably benefit the trade of this City. The Harbour, even its 
 present state, admits vessels of from two to three hundred tons ; a scale 
 equal to all the general purposes of trade. Such vessels are equally 
 capable of long voyages, they are as well able to live in rough seas, 
 they can more readily shelter themselves in safe lying than larger ships 
 can, they are speedily laden and discharged, they can therefore go 
 earlier to a distant market and make their returns much quicker than 
 vessels whose greater burthen requires their cargoes to be made up by a 
 number of merchants, and which must be delayed in foreign ports so 
 much longer in the discharge of their cargoes and in completing their 
 lading for return. Ships from two hundred to three hundred tons are also 
 better suited to collect their cargoes at different ports, and such can be 
 built at home. We apprehend that in all commercial countries the 
 greater proportion of the trade is carried on in vessels of such burthen ; 
 and we are not therefore particularly anxious for an excessive enlarge¬ 
 ment of our shipping. We hope indeed to pursue means which will 
 admit of increase to the tonnage of our shipping, but we chiefly seek 
 for the better admitting and protecting ships of the burthen used in our 
 general commerce. Should the proposed means not sufficiently answer, 
 or should any future circumstances in the trade of Ireland require some 
 
 vessels 
 
 V 
 
29 
 
 vessels of very great burthen, a new Harbour may then be constructed 
 for those few, or they may be dispatched from others of our ports. 
 
 Such an artificial harbour has been planned for each side of the Bay, 
 and from thence it has been proposed to carry great ship canals, five, 
 six or seven miles long, one hundred and sixty feet wide, and twenty 
 or twenty-four feet deep, with proportional banks and towing paths, by 
 which ships of great burthen may be towed up to some proper place of 
 discharge; on the south side, to a Bason to be made adjoining the 
 Grand Canal on the level of the Grand Canal Harbour, or to the 
 present Grand Canal Bason near Ringsend ; and on the north side, to 
 the Royal Canal Docks. 
 
 In considering the expected benefits of such an harbour, we must 
 not forget that with an off shore west wind there is smooth water in our 
 Bay, with a north wind there is shelter under Howth, and with a south 
 wind under Dunleary. The mischiefs therefore which we must endea¬ 
 vour to prevent are chiefly to be refered to storms from the eastward, 
 especially when pilots cannot get on board the ship in distress. In 
 other weather, vessels of reasonable burthen would choose to run into 
 the present Harbour, or to keep out in the Bay, where there is space 
 to manoeuvre till the tide should permit them to cross tlje Bar. And 
 we are not without apprehension that the entering an artificial harbour 
 (built on the edge of the coast where the water cannot have a thorough 
 passage) when the storm lies full and an heavy sea rebounds from it, 
 may be hazardous and require a ready vessel and more dexterity and 
 quick exertion in the management of her than is always to be found in 
 a common crew. Should they miss the entrance, they must be closely 
 engaged with the land and could not escape rocks or shoals. We know 
 that even in the open entrance of Dublin Harbour, vessels coming too 
 near the Light House, have, by the rebound of the sea, lost their 
 power of steerage and been wrecked. Had Dublin no Harbour, the 
 construction w T ould be indispensable ; but, as it is, our expectations of 
 service from such an harbour would not extend to the general trade of 
 the port, but be limited to the occasional convenience of a few ships. 
 We therefore think that the advantage would not in any degree com¬ 
 pensate the great expense, and deem it unnecessary to trouble your 
 * h Excellency 
 
 Great harbours 
 with ship ca¬ 
 nals. 
 
 Hazards ot new 
 artificial har¬ 
 bour on the 
 edge of the 
 coast. 
 
30 
 
 Ship Canals. 
 
 'Difficulties in 
 their use. 
 
 Channel of the 
 Harbour not li¬ 
 able to the same 
 
 objections. 
 
 Excellency further respecting the different situations in the Bay 
 proposed for such constructions. Very strong and pointed observations 
 are made by Captain Iluddart in his letter to Mr. Rennie upon their 
 advantages and disadvantages, and in them we find enough to deter us 
 from proposing any such harbour till our expectations from other means 
 shall fail us. 
 
 As to a ship canal from such an Harbour, the advantage must be 
 measured by the use which will be made of it. Whether it will be 
 used by the general trade of the port, or only occasionally by a few 
 vessels. If by a few only, the expense would not be justifiable—we 
 have been used to see only the common canal boats upon such waters, 
 and may not be aware of the great expense and difficulty which must 
 attend the towing up a large vessel, heavy laden, with her masts, 
 yards, and rigging standing, against a contrary wind and sw r ell upon so 
 long a reach of deep water. Should the wind lie across the canal, it 
 must be considered what number of horses, if any, would be sufficient 
 on the windward towing path to keep her off the leeward side of the 
 canal, and in such case the towing path on the leeward side could not 
 be used. Should many ships arrive and many be to go out on the same 
 day, as very often happens, nothing can be more probable than that 
 some of them would run foul of others. If this be a frequent 
 accident in a wider space, how certainly may it be expected where 
 there is but room for two to pass. By one such accident, what would 
 be the delay to all the other vessels and what confusion and quarrel 
 would be the consequence ? If the canal be to cross a frequented 
 road, obstructions must arise to the intercourse by the road or to the 
 passage by the canal. Should any breach happen in the banks, or 
 material injury to any of the locks and works, should the water fail in 
 summer or be hard frozen in winter, the passage by the canal 
 would be shut up. No vessel would entangle herself in so many em¬ 
 barrassments. 
 
 To such obstructions a vessel navigating the Harbour Channel is not 
 liable. If the wind be contrary there is space enough for her to work 
 up by tacking. With the assistance of the tide she may run up to her 
 birth or place of discharge in the middle of the town without expense, 
 
 w 
 
 trouble. 
 
31 
 
 trouble, or delay, and the tide of ebb gives her similar assistance in 
 her sailing out. Upon the whole, we think the general trade of the 
 City will use the navigation of the River, and there is little reason to 
 siippose that many occasions would offer in the course of a year on 
 which the canal would be used in preference to the natural channel 
 of the Harbour. But (passing over the magnitude of the expense or 
 any difficulties which might attend the execution of the works by the 
 sea shore, or upon an higher level, the taking up or shutting out the 
 streams in the way and particularly the River Dodder which is dry in 
 summer but a destructive torrent in winter or in autumnal rains, the 
 obtaining so continual a supply of water as would be requisite to keep 
 up such a great body at all times to balance the waste by lockage, 
 leakage, soakage and evaporation.) We will suppose the canal to be 
 complete, and the vessels by it arrived at the bason proposed for their 
 discharge at a distance from the Custom House and from the trading 
 part of the City. It must necessarily follow’ either that the discharge of 
 cargoes in a remote situation will be attended wdth an heavy additional 
 expense of land carriage, and with great hazard to the public revenues, 
 or that sufficient offices ;and stores must be erected there, with a separate 
 establishment of revenue officers ; and that the merchants must remove 
 thither from their central situations in the town. In every view 
 therefore of the subject, seeing that great ship canals will be attended 
 with enormous expense in their construction and maintenance, that the 
 navigation of them must be chargeable, subject to obstruction, delay, 
 and difficulty, that so far as they might be used they would change the 
 situations of trade, be injurious to the interests of individuals and re¬ 
 quire new and expensive arrangements for the collection of the public 
 revenues, w^e must at present object to them. But chiefly because w r e 
 are persuaded they w'ould be very little frequented, as the navigation 
 to the City by the channel of the river assisted by the tide, is incom¬ 
 parably more expeditious and free from expense or interruption, and 
 because if the meditated Improvements of the Harbour should be 
 successful, the canals w r ould be useless. 
 
 Navigation of 
 the River pre¬ 
 ferable. 
 
 Objection to 
 the discharge 
 of goods in a re¬ 
 mote situation. 
 
 Ship Canals 
 w r ould be sel¬ 
 dom used. 
 
 With respect to a canal to be carried from the anchorage between 
 Howth and Ireland’s Eve, or from Sutton along the north shore of the 
 Bay and Harbour up to Dublin, the general objections to a ship canal 
 
 apply 
 
32 
 
 Ship Canal on 
 the North Side. 
 
 Forming the 
 Bar into an 
 
 island. 
 
 Works begun 
 and afterward 
 abandoned be¬ 
 come nuisances 
 
 Great Pier off 
 Sandy Cove. 
 
 J 
 
 of small aid to 
 the general 
 trade of Dublin. 
 
 apply. If some be peculiar to the Southern Canal, others are peculiar 
 to the Northern, and as the necessity of such canals will be suspended 
 if the Harbour of Dublin may be effectually improved, we are of 
 opinion that the consideration of these w'orks should be postponed 
 until the progress of the works on the immediate Harbour shall shew 
 whether the others be requisite. 
 
 The idea of converting the Bar of Dublin into an island is to us a 
 novel idea; but however ingeniously it has been conceived, yet as it 
 would obstruct or derange the salutary effects which we hope to see 
 produced upon the Bar and the North Bull, and as it would make 
 great alterations, the consequence of which it is impossible fully to 
 foresee, in the navigation of the Harbour, we deem it adviseable to 
 defer any thoughts of it till it can be seen whether other means may not 
 .attain the great object of public expectation. 
 
 With regard to all these works, one general observation demands 
 particular caution, viz. That they are of such a nature as that if they be 
 once undertaken they must be completed before they can be of use ; 
 and that if from any future circumstances it should be deemed expedient 
 to abandon them, the partially executed work would become a nuisance. 
 Considering therefore the objections, the expense, and the difficulties 
 which may occur in the execution of all, except the Pier from the 
 North Side of the Harbour, we desire to defer them until we shall sec 
 which of them be matter of indispensable*necessity. 
 
 The great Pier proposed to be constructed in deep water off Sand) 
 Cove Bay is designed with attention to the tides and currents, and we 
 do not make a doubt that when completed the anchorage within it 
 would-continue of the same depth as at present without danger of the 
 passage being choaked with sand, and that it would afford a good 
 shelter to vessels from easterly winds. Considering it as an accompani¬ 
 ment to a ship canal, it must follow whatever shall be the decision 
 with respect to that latter work. Considering it independently, we 
 think it an admirable idea for the sheltering of such ships as might 
 desire to anchor in the Bay. But as a substitute for the natural 
 Harbour, or. as an aid in the general accommodation of our trade, .we 
 
 think 
 
think the advantage would not bear a comparison with the very heavy 
 expense. No trading ship that could pass the Bar would run behind 
 Sandy Cove Pier, unless perhaps for the purpose of smuggling ; and in 
 moderate weather, in off shore winds, or at times of high water it 
 would not be frequented. It would be of absolute necessity only during 
 storms from the open easterly points; and it appears that such easterly 
 winds do not prevail more than three months in the year, that of those 
 not more than the space of one month is stormy, and even during this 
 period ships would generally prefer running up the Harbour, if they 
 arrived at such time of the tide as would give them a sufficient depth of 
 water over the Bar/ 
 
 For the practicability of the work we should rest entirely on the pro¬ 
 fessional skill and abilities of the engineer, and do not make a question 
 whether a work of such a nature in deep water and in open exposure to 
 a tempestuous ocean would be attended with any hazard of ultimate 
 success in the execution ; but if it be undertaken, we hold it to be 
 indispensable that it be finished; for should it stop short of comple¬ 
 tion, or fail through the power of the elements or through any un¬ 
 foreseen accident, some of the best anchorage and shelter in the Bay 
 would be destroyed and’the unfinished work, instead of affording pro¬ 
 tection, would become a new occasion of danger. The idea of this 
 great work has sprung from a consideration of the defects of our 
 'Harbour, but the estimate of the expense, even in its rough state, 
 greatly exceeds double the amount of the whole sum as yet granted for 
 the Improvement of the Harbour and for all the great purposes of the 
 general system of inland navigation. If therefore there be any pro¬ 
 bability that those defects may be removed and at a comparatively 
 moderate expense, we do not hesitate to say that in respect to this port 
 the construction of the Pier off Sandy Cove Bay should be defered till 
 the more natural and less burthensome means of Improving the Har¬ 
 bour be tried. 
 
 As a roadstead for ships of war, for the assembling of fleets and 
 convoys, or for the general trade of St. George’s Channel to Liverpool 
 and other British ports as well as to Irish ports, we conceive it to be 
 an imperial concern, beyond the limits of the trust committed to us, 
 
 i and 
 
 If undertaken 
 the finishing it 
 is indispensable 
 
 In respect of 
 this port, should 
 be deferred. 
 
 As a roadstead 
 for convoys, 8cc. 
 
 Beyond our 
 trust. 
 
34 
 
 and not within the contemplation of the law under which we are to act. 
 The magnitude of the object in that view, the extent of the work 
 requisite to meet such an object, the choice of the situation with respect 
 to sea room, depth of water, and the sands, (particularly that called 
 the Kish) which lie off the entrance of this Bay, become new conside¬ 
 rations beyond our reach. 
 
 Daikey Sound 
 
 Not fit for 
 square rigged 
 vessels. 
 
 i 
 
 With respect to the making the Sound of Daikey a place of resort for 
 square rigged vessels, we have many opinions of the best authority to 
 convince us that the sound is too narrow to admit square rigged vessels 
 to turn into it with a heavy gale of wind from the eastern points, and 
 that no such vessel could under those circumstances be brought up to her 
 anchors in sufficient time to prevent her being dashed by the surges 
 against the rocks of the main land; which are there so steep that if a 
 vessel were wrecked, there could not be the smallest probability of 
 saving a single life. In the several enquiries we made into this point, 
 we could not find that square rigged vessels had under such circum¬ 
 stances taken shelter or attempted to do so within the Sour.d; and it is 
 unreasonable to suppose that a place so well known, and which is laid 
 down in all charts of this Bay, should not have been constantly used by 
 square rigged vessels if it were at all suitable for their purpose. Captain 
 Bligh’s remarks upon Daikey Sound and the anchorage in it are full 
 and clear. His and Captain Huddart’s observations with the evidence 
 of other captains and pilots whom we examined, demonstrate the hazard 
 which square rigged vessels must risk (in turning into or out of that 
 
 sound) of drifting upon the rocks before they could be brought up to 
 ♦ 
 
 their anchors ; and it should here be remembered that much the greater 
 number of vessels wrecked or stranded in this Bay or Harbour so 
 suffered by the anchors dragging, by the cables parting, or by the 
 vessels not answering the helm in a heavy swell; any of which circum¬ 
 stances would be fatal at Daikey. Therefore from every information 
 we have been able to collect, we deem it imprudent to recommend the 
 present execution of any works at Daikey, professing to invite square 
 rigged vessels to enter that sound in heavy gales from the east. We 
 must not in too sanguine zeal hold out expectations of relief and safety 
 which would be fatally disappointed. 
 
 But 
 
35 
 
 But with % respect to pilot-boats, coasting-sloops, and other small 
 craft, the objections which arise from the narrowness of Dalkey Sound, 
 do not so strongly apply. They are more manageable than square 
 rigged vessels, and do not require an equal space for anchorage or for 
 working in or out. Under the old church on Dalkey Island there is a 
 recess where the bottom is of mud and affords some anchorage for small 
 vessels; and if the sea shall be prevented from breaking into the Sound 
 over the low rocks adjoining to that recess, better shelter will be 
 obtained for vessels of the description before mentioned. 
 
 We are therefore of opinion that it will be proper to construct a 
 breakwater pier from Dalkey Island to Lamb Island which shall keep off 
 the sea from breaking over between those islands; by which, and by 
 taking up the loose rocks which lie within the Sound to the westward of 
 that intended pier and blowing up the fixed rocks which lie in the way, 
 that recess will be cleared and completely protected against the breaches 
 of the sea to which it is now exposed, and the shelter will be so ex¬ 
 tended as to afford protection to a greater number of small craft. 
 Between Dalkey and Lamb Islands the water over the rocks is shallow 
 and the distance short, the expense of a work for so much will conse¬ 
 quently be light, and the execution will not be subject to the difficulties 
 which might arise in deeper parts, where the power of a tempestuous 
 sea is to be encountered. From the nature of this work it would be 
 difficult to make an accurate estimate, or to form a settled judgment 
 upon any proposal for executing it by contract. But should such an idea 
 for the Improvement of Dalkey Sound meet with approbation, we will 
 lay before your Excellency and the Lords of His Majesty’s Treasury 
 plans for the execution, and such an estimate as can be well made of 
 the expense. 
 
 In surveying the state of the coast on the north side of Howth 
 the construction of a Pier from that Head Land and another from 
 Ireland’s Eye has been proposed, to improve the shelter of ships 
 that might occasionally take refuge there; but on considering the 
 description of the Sound given by Captain Bligh, and many doubts 
 which offer themselves with regard to the effect of works constructed 
 there, we do not think the necessity to be so pressing for them as for 
 :. the 
 
 For shelter of 
 small craft. 
 
 Pier from 
 Dalkey Island 
 to Lamb Island. 
 
 Piers between 
 Howth and Ire¬ 
 land’s Eye. 
 
36 
 
 From Ireland’s 
 EyetoThullock 
 recommended. 
 
 Doubts as to 
 others. 
 
 the Improving the immediate Harbour of Dublin. The utmost We 
 should recommend would be the making a Break Water Pier on the 
 ridge of rocks between Ireland’s Eye and Thullock, according to 
 Captain Bligh’s report. Our doubts are these: That the entrance 
 between Howth and Ireland’s Eye to the Sound has the same exposure 
 
 with Dublin Harbour and is open to a tremendous sea with an east 
 
 • \ 
 
 wind; that entrance being contracted, the power of the tide and 
 swell will be more formidable ; that the sands of Baldoyle are at a short 
 distance from and directly opposite to that entrance which must then be 
 dangerous, and consequently that with the same wind which makes 
 the entrance of Dublin Harbour dangerous, the entrance between 
 Howth and Ireland’s Eye may not be very safe; that from the quantity 
 of sands in that neighbourhood the inside of the New Piers will be 
 filled up though perhaps not quite so soon as has happened to the old 
 Pier at Howth; the reefs of rocks running on one side from Poolscad- 
 don and on the other from Ireland’s Eye furnish evidence of the 
 likelihood of such an event, the sands being now settled within them ; 
 the tide of flood there sets through the Sound of Ireland’s Eye before it 
 passes round on the east side of the island and a slight rising of the sand 
 is formed at the north of the Sound j we are not convinced that if the 
 force of the first current of the flood should be increased by a contrac¬ 
 tion of the entrance it might not occasion an eddy in the Sound, or that 
 
 the slight bar of sand now very trifiling might not be increased, and 
 
 / 
 
 cause obstruction in the northern entrance of the Sound; and that 
 entrance is the most important because the greater number of vessels to 
 . Dublin come from the North. 
 
 To be deferred. 
 
 These doubts induce 11s for the present to suspend our judgments on 
 this proposition. The shelter between Ireland’s Eye and the main is 
 now frequently used by small vessels, and whether the proposed 
 works at llowth and Ireland’s Eve would make the Sound an eligible 
 place of resort for ships of great burthen, preferably to the anchorage 
 and shelter at Lambay Island, must be more fully ascertained before 
 the expense be engaged in. We certainly think if the entrance ot 
 Dublin Harbour can be successfully improved the necessity of these 
 works will be done away. 
 
 We 
 
37 
 
 We beg leave to state that a shoal scrubber having been built in con¬ 
 sequence of the approbation of your Excellency and the Lords of i hs 
 Majesty’s Treasury upon our representation of the 20th of December 
 last, repeated trials have been made of it on the Bar by Captain Cor¬ 
 neille, and we have the satisfaction of finding from his reports that the 
 principles upon which the machine was constructed are proved to be 
 just, and that such a machine may have powerful effects in assisting the 
 removal of the sands upon the Bar. 
 
 Trials of the 
 shoal scrubber. 
 
 Having stated our opinion that a Pier from some part of the Clontarf 
 shore to the Spit Buoy will probably obtain the objects most to be 
 desired for the Improvement of the Harbour, we consider the choice or 
 rejection of this proposition to be the first point for decision and shall 
 refrain from recommending the precise part of the shore from whence 
 such a Pier should spring, the form, to be given it, or the nature of its 
 construction, until we know whether our general idea be honored with 
 your Excellency’s approbation and the approbation of the Lords of His 
 Majesty’s Treasury. We will then submit especial plans and estimates 
 for such a line of Pier as will promise to give the safest shelter and the 
 deepest water, will best avoid the forming of eddies and assist the 
 cleansing and deepening of the Harbour, the removing the Bar, and 
 preventing any fresh accumulation of sand thereon. And although in 
 the erection of any work which we may be authorised to put in hand 
 we shall consider ourselves bound to use every economy that can be 
 consistent with substantial execution, yet as to the situation, form, and 
 construction, we do not think that the consideration of expense should 
 weigh against the choice of that plan which shall be deemed most 
 likely to produce important and permanent advantages. 
 
 Special plans 
 and estimates 
 for a Pier from 
 Clontarf to be 
 hereafter sub¬ 
 mitted. 
 
 We are aware that difficulties or objections may be started against 
 every proposition which can be made upon the present object, and 
 possibly, under all its circumstances, it is not in the nature of the parti¬ 
 cular subject to admit of improvements which shall be free from every 
 possible objection; but having the success of the measure most sin¬ 
 cerely at heart, having devoted much time to the consideration of it, 
 and sought for every satisfactory information, we submit to the well 
 
 k informed 
 
38 
 
 Preference of 
 the proposi¬ 
 tions herein. 
 
 When execut¬ 
 ed, other works 
 (if necessary) 
 may be added. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 informed judgment of your Excellency and the Lords of His Majesty’s 
 Treasury those ideas which in our humble opinion are the most free 
 from well founded objections, will at the least expense to the public or 
 injury to individuals offer the most advantageous and permanent im¬ 
 provement, and will most readily admit of such amendments or addi¬ 
 tions as time and experience shall shew to be necessary. 
 
 The amount of an exact estimate for a Pier from Clontarf will de¬ 
 pend upon the site and form determined upon : And if it mav be found 
 adviseable to construct a great part of it with large loose stones having 
 a proper slope and base, it will considerably lessen the expense, obviate 
 much difficulty, and may be executed without interruption. When that 
 Pier shall be finished, and some experience shall have been had of its 
 effects upon the harbour, it may be then a proper time to consider 
 whether the embankment of the South Bull to make a reservoir for an 
 additional force of water be expedient or necessary; and again, after a 
 trial of that embankment, whether the further extension of the North 
 and South Piers as designed by Mr. Rennie be adviseable. Those works 
 will consequently follow in their order, and no expense will be engaged 
 in beyond what exigencies shall gradually call for. And it is to be ob¬ 
 served that the building of the Pier we have recommended must neces¬ 
 sarily precede those other works. 
 
 i • *• 
 
 To recapitulate shortly the substance of our statement—We humbly 
 represent that it appears to us that from the commencement of the works 
 between Ringsend and the Light House (which at first did partly and 
 since the finishing of the great South Pier have entirely separated the 
 South Bull from the Channel) The sand banks have been driven up 
 from the sea and accumulated—That the South Bull not having any back 
 water from the River has been formed with an extensive dry bank 
 increasing from year to year—That the whole of the South Bull rises 
 gradually and is beaten back from the sea and that the water of the Bay 
 on the eastern verge of that sand becomes deeper—That from the same 
 time the North Bull has in some degree (owing to the partial shelter of 
 the South Pier) been beaten back to the northward, but being still ex- 
 
39 
 
 
 posed to the back water of the River and Harbour is washed down atrain 
 and occasions the continuance of the Bar—That since the finishing of 
 tlie South Pier the tide of flood running north ward by the South Bull 
 after passing the-Light House crosses the mouth of the Harbour and 
 bears upon the North Bull—That the tide has a tendency to lower the 
 Bar at the south end and to raise it on the north where it is connected to 
 the North Bull—That by a Pier from the Clontarf shore to the Spit Buoy 
 cutting off any communication between the North Bull and the back 
 water of the River and Harbour, it may be expected that the sands of 
 the North Bull will be thrown back and even more rapidly (by south 
 west winds) than has happened on the South Bull—That hereby the 
 body of back w T ater will on the ebb be confined to the mouth of the 
 Harbour and directed against the Bar—That this stream co-operating 
 with the course of the tide will tend to remove the Bar more to the east 
 and North, and forward its accumulation upon the North Bull—That as 
 these effects naturally may be slow, the assistance of such machines as 
 shall be found most effective in disturbing the sands of the Bur will very 
 much hasten these good consequences—-That according as the water 
 upon the Bar shall be deepened small vessels will be enabled to enter 
 the Harbour at all times, larger vessels much nearer to the time of low 
 water, sooner ,on the flood and later on the ebb than heretofore; and 
 vessels of greater burthen than hitherto could enter the port will pass 
 the Bar at high water—If the Bar shall happily be entirely removed, 
 all these advantages wil be proportionably extended, and the utmost 
 expectations for the Improvement of the Harbour may be fulfilled— 
 That by the second Light House the entrance of the Harbour can never 
 be mistaken—That by the New Pier and by the deepening of the 
 Channel the trade of the port as much as can be hoped from artificial 
 works will be secured from loss or damage within the Harbour—That 
 the general depth of water in the Llarbour will be increased, and that 
 the Harbour will become a great bason of generally tranquil water 
 which may be improved and the Channel smoothed and deepened as 
 shall be found necessary, without the difficulties which now attend such 
 endeavours—That the communication by water between Dublin and 
 Clontarf will not be interrupted and that the Clontarf coast will 
 be protected from the surge which now breaks down its banks 
 
 * and 
 
 1 ,. 
 
40 
 
 and often renders the road impassable;—and that no alteration will 
 be made by this plan which will injuriously affect the city, the re¬ 
 venue, the property and interests of individuals, or interrupt the usual 
 course and habits of the trade. 
 
 All which is submitted with the utmost duty and respect to the 
 consideration of your Excellency and the Lords of His Majesty’s 
 Treasury by your Excellency’s 
 
 Most obedient, 
 
 And most humble servants, 
 
 S. HAMILTON. 
 
 HANS BLACKWOOD. 
 FRANCIS TRENCH. 
 ROBERT RUTTLEDGE. 
 
 MICH. BURKE. 
 

 
 
 
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A Description of the Shoal Scrubber, invented bp the Chairman of the 
 Board, executing under the Direction of Captain Corneille bp the 
 Board's Order, and referred to in the foregoing Representation ; with 
 an Engraving bp which the Nature <• of its Operation map be 
 Understood. 
 
 It consists of a float sixteen feet square, formed of three tier of balk timbers, the 
 tiers laid across over each other strongly braced, and forming one mass of floating timber. 
 On each side are two scrubbers, the poles of which pass freely through two rings or 
 cleets, so that notwithstanding the float rises and falls with the tide, the scrubbers will 
 always lie upon the sand. By the undulation of the sea the float is moved and works 
 the scrubbers in all directions. The poles are of forged iron and the spherical scrubbers 
 are of wood armed with iron points. To prevent the weight of the iron from pressing 
 the scrubbers too much into the sand and arresting their operation, the buoyant wood is 
 so proportioned to the weight of the iron, that no more than the necessary pressure will 
 be suffered on the sand; and as the poles are of iron, that pressure will not importantly 
 vary with the depth of the water. The machine is to be anchored at two of the angles 
 with such a length of cable as will allow it room to shift its place with the wind or 
 current, but not enough to admit of the cable’s being engaged with the scrubbers. 
 
 Trials have been made with a machine somewhat differently construced but precisely 
 upon the same principles and have proved satisfactory. The scrubbers were before 
 applied to the sides of a vessel built for the purpose with intention that persons should be 
 on board to observe the effects, but the motion of the vessel in rough weather and on the 
 exposed situation of the Bar was so violent that no one could stand the deck. The ob¬ 
 servations were then made by Captain Daniel Corneille, Engineer, in a boat along side. 
 The sand and shells were thrown up with great force to the surface of the water, and 
 exposed to the influence of the waves and currents, and the rougher the gale the greater 
 was the effect of the machine. The poles being of deal did not sufficiently withstand 
 the shocks against the sand in an high sea. The construction is therefore altered to the 
 present form. 
 
 This machine will work incessantly, without the labor or expense of men, at all times 
 and seasons, in the most exposed situations, in all weathers, and with the greatest effect 
 in heavy gales when no machine wrought by men could be used. The construction is 
 simple, so that it may be easily amended ; and although this be particularly calculated for 
 the Bar of Dublin, it will admit of alterations and improvements suitable to the effects 
 which may be desired in very different circumstances and situations. 
 

 
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