Chap. VIII.
39S
Sandwich and Sandown Castle, which formed a part of the project. In the reign ofElizabeth, a commission was appointed to make a new survey ; but nothing more was at-tempted until the year 1736, when M. Labelye, the engineer to Westminster Bridge, laiddown a scheme for sheltering ships in the Downs, by means of a navigable canal and basinin the direction of the old cut, and by aid of sluices, which joined the river Stour.
Fig. 395.
RAMSGATE HARBOUR.
Parliament was afterwards applied to, and an order in consequence issued from the Ad-miralty by which five persons were named to report upon the means of making a betterand more commodious harbour than the present haven of Sandwich; they proposed thattwo stone piers should be carried out, each 2096 feet in length from the shore, to 12 feetdepth of water, at low water, and that a clear opening should be left between the heads ofthese piers of 300 feet, to narrow from that to 100 feet, and that the middle line shouldpoint south-south-east, half east by the compass, that is nearly south-east by the truemeridian. The estimate for this work was 389,168/. 13s. 2 d. exclusive of the value of theground to be purchased.
'This grand project, however, was never undertaken, and it was not until a violent storm,on the 16th December, 1748, when several vessels were wrecked, and a few found safetyin the little harbour of Ramsgate , that attention was turned to this port, and soon after anact of parliament was passed, when Mr. Robins and Mr. Turner, engineers of Gosport, wereappointed to mark out the site of Ramsgate harbour. It was found that in consequence ofthe pier constructed in 1715, having been lengthened, a bar had been cast up, which wasabout 2 feet 6 inches in thickness, and as this accumulation was the result of 34 years, itwas reasonably presumed that when a greater depth of water was made by two piers in-stead of one, the filling up would be less considerable than before.