242 RENNIE'S WAR DOCKS. PART Vll. 



intricate, and the upper part too shallow for ships of large 

 burden. Then, as for Sheerness, his opinion was that the 

 yard there, besides being on too small a scale to adapt it 

 for the purposes of a national harbour and arsenal, would 

 be exposed to great risk in event of a war, being almost 

 incapable of effectual defence. " On the whole," he 

 observed, " it appears to me, on consideration of all the 

 facts I have been able to collect respecting the principal 

 naval arsenals of the empire, that they are far from pos- 

 sessing such properties, either in point of situation, extent, 

 arrangement, or depth of water in the harbours, as the 

 large and growing naval power of this country demands." 

 In reviewing the sites of the different arsenals, 

 Mr. Eennie says he was struck with surprise to find 

 them mostly placed on the lee shore of their respective 

 harbours the worst of all positions. Plymouth, Ports- 

 mouth, Chatham, and Sheerness were thus situated ; 

 Deptford was on the weather shore, and Woolwich had 

 the prevailing wind blowing across it. He also pointed 

 out that, at all the royal dockyards, vessels had to 

 take in their stores and be rigged and fitted out in 

 open harbours ; and, with the exception of Plymouth, 

 the materials were clumsily and expensively conveyed 

 from the shore to the ship's side in lighters. There being 

 no wet docks at any of the royal yards, vessels in ordi- 

 nary lay moored out in the open tideway ; and the ex- 

 pense of moving them, of placing men on board to watch 

 them, and the various accidents to which they were thus 

 liable, were the constant cause of heavy loss to the nation. 

 Viewing the subject in all its bearings, and with a view 

 to despatch, efficiency, and economy, he strongly recom- 

 mended the construction of capacious wet and dry docks, 

 in some convenient situation on a 'weather shore, pro- 

 vided with sufficient storehouses and workshops, fitted 

 with engines and machinery on the most improved plans 

 for the building and repair of ships ; and he expressed 



