CHAP. IX. 



NORTHFLEET DOCKS. 



245 



Mr. Eennie was also consulted respecting the im- 

 provement of the old royal dockyards, and submitted 



of the details being highly ingeni- 

 ous. Had it been adopted, the fol- 

 lowing would have been amongst its 

 certain advantages. We use Mr. 

 .Ronnie's own words : " All mate- 

 rials," said he, " used for building 

 ships will be brought to the ship with 

 a prodigious saving of labour and 

 time, compared to what can be done 

 in any of the present yards. When 

 launched from the slip, the vessel 

 will immediately go into the dry dock 

 to be coppered ; after which she will 

 proceed to the masthouse-quay to 

 take in her masts, which will be 

 placed in her with the assistance of 

 the sheers, and in a state of perfect 

 dryness. She will then proceed to 

 the entrance-basin, and successively 

 take in her ballast, stores, rigging, 

 sails, cables and cordage, victuals and 

 water, guns and shot, anchors, and, 

 finally, her crew and boats, and so 

 proceed to sea, almost without the 

 possibility of any delay occurring in 

 the successive stages of her equip- 

 ment. Then, in case of a ship coming 

 in for repairs : where they are slight, 

 she will go into either of the dry 

 docks in the entrance or eastern basin, 

 and there have her copper repaired, 

 her bottom scrubbed, or any other 

 slight repairs effected, and return im- 

 mediately to sea, without experiencing 

 more than a few days', perhaps only a 

 few hours', detention. If she requires 

 a more thorough repair, she will de- 

 liver her anchors at the wharf next 

 to the pound in the entrance-basin, 

 then her guns on the gun-wharf, 

 then turn out her crew into one of 

 the receiving-vessels moored in the 

 entrance-basin for the purpose, with 

 what provisions they may require 

 during the process of repair, deliver- 

 ing the remainder into the victualling 

 yard. She will next deliver her ca- 

 bles into the cable storehouse, and, 

 successively, her cordage, her sails 

 and rigging, and her small stores, as 

 she passes along the wharves with 

 their storehouses specially appro- 

 priated for their reception. She will 



then deposit her ballast on the ballast 

 wharf, and pass through the com- 

 munication lock into the great wet 

 dock, where she will go alongside the 

 sheers to have her masts taken out ; 

 and, finally, go into one of the dry 

 docks to be repaired. In coining out 

 of the dock, she will move by the 

 same course reversed, and, having 

 taken her men on board in the en- 

 trance-basin, she will then be ready 

 to proceed to sea again." In con- 

 cluding, he observes : "I should hope 

 that the benefits accruing to the ser- 

 vice from the superior quality of the 

 stores manufactured under the imme- 

 diate superintendence of the agents of 

 Government, as well as the economy 

 produced by the substitution of ma- 

 chinery for hand-labour, would prove 

 an ample indemnity for the expense 

 incurred in the establishment of the 

 respective manufactories." But the 

 cost was the real difficulty ; Mr. Ren- 

 nie's estimate of the total outlay re- 

 quisite to complete the works amount- 

 ing to four millions and a-half sterling. 

 Yet the plan was so masterly and 

 comprehensive, and so obviously the 

 right thing to be done, that the Port- 

 land Administration determined to 

 carry it out, and the necessary land 

 was bought for the purpose. Fre- 

 quent changes of Ministry, how- 

 ever, took place at the time; the 

 resources of the country were heavily 

 taxed in carrying on the w r ar against 

 Napoleon in Spain; the public at- 

 tention was diverted in other quar- 

 ters ; and no further steps were 

 taken to carry out Mr. Rennie's de- 

 sign. He knocked at the door of one 

 Administration after another without 

 effect. In 1810 we find him writing 

 to Lord Mulgrave, the First Lord ; to 

 the Right Hon. George Rose; to the 

 Earl St. Vincent, and others ; but 

 though the more the plans were 

 scrutinised the more indisputable did 

 their merits appear, he could find no 

 Ministry strong enough to carry them 

 out. When peace came, Government 

 and people were alike sick of wars, 



