250 



RENNIE'S WAR DOCKS. 



PART VII. 



building of the wall was by this time considerably ad- 

 vanced, so that no great damage was done. On the fall 

 of the tide the dams were repaired without difficulty, 

 and the works proceeded to completion. 



Among Mr. Rennie's other dock works may be men- 

 tioned the new river-wall, with a ship-basin and two 

 building-slips, at Woolwich ; the new dockyard, building- 

 slips, and dry dock at Pembroke ; the new entrance to 

 Deptford Basin ; and various improvements at Chat- 

 ham, 1 Portsmouth, and Plymouth. It was in front of 



PLAN OF MED WAY IMPROVEMENT. 



1 One of Mr. Rennie's most inge- 

 nious plans was that proposed by 

 him for the improvement of Chatham 

 Dockyard. He saw large sums of 

 money expended from year to year 

 in the ineffectual patching-up of the 

 old yards, with little good result ; and 

 he foresaw that eventually the Go- 

 vernment, if it would secure efficiency 

 and avoid waste, must fall back 

 upon some such plan as his Northfleet 

 Docks to obtain the requisite economy 

 by concentration of dockyard work. 



In 1818 he was requested to re- 

 port on the best means of im- 

 proving Chatham Dockyard, and 

 again pointed out the great loss to 

 the nation by maintaining so many 

 separate yards, all of which were 

 being tinkered and mended at an 

 enormous cost. He then boldly 

 recommended that the Government 

 should sell Deptford Dockyard, 

 which he held to be comparatively 

 useless, and devote the proceeds to 

 the improvement of Chatham, after the 

 plan which he submitted. It consisted 

 in cutting a new channel from a point 

 in the river Medway, a little below Ro- 

 chester Bridge, to another point lower 

 down the river at Upnor Castle, thus 

 straightening its channel, increasing its 

 current, and consequently improving 

 its depth. By this simple means the 

 whole of the bend in the present river 

 would be converted into a capacious 

 wet dock, extending along the whole 

 front of the dockyard, shut in by 



