DAGKNHAM IJRIiACH. l6l 



London as to the trade of this whole kingdom," and that " The 

 navigation of the said River is in Danger of being utterly destroyed, 

 'lo defray the cost, a tax was levied for ten years, from loth July, 

 1 7 14, on every ship coming into the port of London, to pay 3d. per 

 ton. Coasters 3s. each voyage. Colliers id. per chalder, Coasting 

 Hoys not chargeable. Sect. i6 exempts the Harwich weekly 

 passage Boat. Sect. 17 provides "that nothing in this Act con- 

 tained shall charge the Two Colchester Packet Boats above four 

 times in the year with the said duties of 3s. a voyage, they going 

 weekly from Wivenhoe to London with Bays, Says, and Perpetu- 

 anas, and from London to Wivenhoe with Wool to be manufactured 

 at Colchester." ^- 



Under this Act, the trustees, of whom the Lord Mayor was one, 

 met at Guildhall in August to feceive proposals, when Mr. Boswell 

 tendered ;^i9,ooo, which, at the second meeting, he reduced to 

 ^^16,500, Captain Perry's sum being ;^24,ooo. This was to stop 

 the main breach, remove the bank in the river, and make good the 

 walls from the halfway tree to Raynham Creek. 



Bos well's proposal was accepted, and in Captain Perry's book, "An 

 Account of the Stopping of Daggenham Breach," 1721, he details the 

 methods Boswell intended to use ; but he appears to have changed 

 his way several times, finding that he could not secure a firm, level 

 bottom for his pontoons, as the scour was so great. Perry also 

 states that his floodgates opened only outward, and were not 

 designed as sluices, and that they admitted more water at flood 

 tide than was discharged at eblj. He made several attempts, but 

 failed to do the work ; and the trustees applied to Perry for the 

 details of his plan. 



The opening by this time had been greatly extended, both in 

 depth and width, forming a gulf over two miles in length. 



Captain Perry's plan was approved by the trustees, and he at 

 once began the work, buying material, engaging workmen, and 

 hiring a yard at Rotherhithe, in which he prepared a sluice, and 

 fashioned the " dove-tailed " piles. At the same time he set men 

 to work at the Breach, as the walls gave evidence of slipping. 



Boswell complained of the trustees' action in superseding him, 



12 The following independent testimony to the enormous traffic on the river, was penned only 

 a few years after the time of this flood : 



" It is inipos-.ible to express the untold multitude of ships and vessels which sail up and down 

 this river daily, especially in the sununer time, when ships, in some of the narrower places, can 

 hardly avoid running into each other, and often at the same time, cause each other great damage.' 



P. Kalm, 1748. 'J'rans. by Jiisei'H Lucas, 1892. 



