Plymouth Breakwater
Almost two million
tons of stone
Are in the mighty
ocean thrown,
Which forms a wall
that does restrain
The current of the
dreaded main,
That vessels may in
safety ride,
And not be delug´d
with the tide,
And though the work is
incomplete,
Its benefits are very
great;
What is already done
repels
The raging ocean when
it swells;
Which, as a means, it
is believ´d
Has Seamen oft from death retrievd.
In 1822 when William
Gadsby penned his lines the breakwater was already a tourist attraction with
the good pastor spending six hours or more with friends upon that Great National
Undertaking on 30th January of that year.
Charles Dupin
(1784-1873) had visited the edifice three years before and was similarly
impressed: he wrote: “After having exhausted everything most useful and most
ingenious offered to me by France, considered in a maritime point of view, I
turned my eyes towards a people who for a century past have held the sceptre of
the seas, and, without ever reposing on the superiority of their labours,
strive more and more to approach towards perfection“ he was reflecting on a
number of engineering works he had seen on his travels through the British
Isles. Although he was not only talking about the Plymouth Breakwater this was
definitely one of the sights that left a strong impression on both him and the London
publishers of his English text.[ii]
Charles Dupin was
Captain of the Corps of Naval Engineers and a Member of the Institute of France
when he completed his account of two journeys he made to the British Isles. This
account was translated and published (together with copious notes and
criticisms) by Richard Phillips circa 1820. By this stage the Plymouth
Breakwater was far from completed but was already an impressive sight and a
remarkable feat of engineering. Certainly, the publishers of the translated
work thought it important enough to merit including both a plan and a map (see
Fig. 1) of it in the volume.[iii]
Figs. 1a & b. Sketch of Plymouth Sound with the Breakwater and plans of the structure from Dupin´s Narrative. Bovisand Bay is to the east of the end of the breakwater.[iv]
The company entrusted
to execute the map and plan was the well-known London company of S Neele. The
map was engraved by Samuel John Neele who was active at this time and also produced
a number of county maps for atlas-style productions. The map shows Plymouth
Sound and the position of the breakwater in the vicinity of the Shovel Rocks.
Hamoaze is top left at the entrance to the Tamar, while Catwater is top right.
Plymouth Sound at the
beginning of the nineteenth century was open to storms from the Southwest,
making it a dangerous anchorage, and many ships were driven onto the coast by Bovisand.
However, the fate of the East Indiaman Dutton, which was cast ashore on the
night of January 26 1796, caught everyone's attention. Four hundred soldiers of
the Queen's Regiment together with a large number of women and children were on
board the Dutton. The ship was making a run for the shelter of the
Catwater but hit a shoal of rocks and lost her rudder. She then crashed on to
the sharp rocks under the ramparts of the Citadel. Edward Pellew, Captain in
the Royal Navy, saw crowds of people as he was travelling along the Hoe, left
his carriage and followed them. By this time the ship had struck the rocks and
lost her masts. According to reports. the officers on board had given up hope
of saving the passengers and the high seas were making it difficult to rescue
anyone from the ship by the single rope thrown on board. There was chaos and
confusion all around until Pellew took charge of the rescue. Pellew used the
same rope to get onto the stricken vessel while Mr Edsel (midshipman) and Mr
Coghlan (mate) of a small boat risked their lives by bringing their craft
alongside, delivering two extra hawsers from the ship to the shore.
The story is that
Captain Pellew managed to quell the panic on board by threatening to run his
sword through anyone who disobeyed his orders. He had the ropes put out,
ordered the troops to stand back. and put the women and children ashore at the
several points along the deck now available. Larger boats from the Dockyard and
Captain Pellew's own ship, the IndefatigabIe, arrived to help and the
result of Pellew's actions meant there were only 15 casualties.[v]
Although ideas and
plans for some form of protection to the port had been discussed before - as
early as 1788 Mr Smith, the then Master-Attendant at the nearby Royal Dockyard,
suggested constructing a pier from the eastern shore at Staddon to the Panther
Rock[vi] -
the first steps to build the famous breakwater began in the spring of 1806. In
that year Mr John Rennie was instructed by the then First Lord of the Admiralty,
Lord Grey, to prepare a feasibility study.
The choice of John
Rennie (1761 – 1821) was based on his incredible career achievements over the
previous twenty years. The son of a Scottish farmer he showed an interest in
mechanics early on and was fortunate to live near the millwright Andrew Meikle
who invented the threshing machine. After matriculating in 1783 he spent a
short time in Soho, Staffordshire at the premises of James Watt. By 1791 he had
established a business as mechanical engineer and was leading the way in the
use of iron and steel. Between 1791 and 1806 he had already been involved in
several prestigious projects including canal building, aqueducts, river
management, bridges, lighthouses and dock and harbour works.
Rennie began his
subsequent report to the Admiralty by writing: 'In consequence of your
Lordships' directions, we met at Plymouth on the 18th March last, being the day
before the change of the Moon, and it being the Vernal Equinox, the highest
Spring Tides of the season were expected to be on the 19th, 20th and
21st, on which days we were very particular in examining Cawsand Bay, the
Sound, Catwater and the Hamoaze, the set of the Tides, their velocity, and in
general everything that appeared to us necessary to enable us to comply with
your Lordships' instructions."[vii]
Rennie went on to say:
"There is probably no Harbour on the south-west Coast of England so well
situated as Plymouth, for the stationing of His Majesty's Fleets that are to
oppose the Navies of France and Spain. The Bay is extensive, the entrance to
the Hamoaze is deep, its capacity is great, and the Anchoring Ground, and
Places for the mooring of Ships are excellent; a numerous Fleet may find
accommodation there and the magnitude of the Dock Yard enhances its importance
as a Naval station.”
"The Catwater is
also an excellent Harbour. The water is in parts deep and the shelter good; but
the extent is small, and better suited for merchant vessels than ships of war. Possessing
such natural advantages as Plymouth does, it is somewhat remarkable that
nothing has hitherto been done to improve the Sound, and render it a proper and
secure anchoring place for ships of war."
"Cawsand Bay has
in general a sufficient depth of water for large ships: but it is so much
exposed to south-easterly and easterly winds, that it is by no means safe for
large men of war to ride in at low water, they being apt to strike on the bottom
when the swell is great, and to drag their moorings."
“The Sound, though not
so much exposed to easterly winds as Cawsand Bay, is greatly exposed to
southerly and south-westerly winds, which occasion a tremendous swell: and as
the water is rather shallower, vessels are more liable to strike on the bottom
than in Cawsand Bay, and as this bottom is also generally hard, if a vessel strike,
the danger is imminent. It is therefore of the greatest importance, that some
means should be adopted to shelter either Cawsand Bay or the Sound, whichever
may be deemed most eligible, so that a large fleet of ships of war may ride in
safety with any wind, and be always ready to proceed to Sea.”
Rennie´s partner in drawing up the report was Joseph Whidbey, who himself had an impressive reputation in dock projects. Joseph Whidbey (1757 – 1833) was a member of the Royal Navy expedition to Vancouver (1791-95) but had been a Sailing Master at least as early as 1779. In 1799 he was commissioned to carry out a study to see whether Tor Bay could be made safe for fleet anchorage. He recommended a breakwater and a chart is reproduced by John Naish (Fig. 2.) in his article on Whidbey for The Mariner´s Mirror.[viii] He was appointed Master Attendant at Woolwich in 1804 but was already a friend of Rennie´s and the following year became a Fellow of the Royal Society on the recommendation of Rennie and of several other influential scientists of the day.[ix]
Rennie visited the site in February 1806 and only a short time later he returned with Joseph Whidbey and Samuel Hemmans (1745-1819) the Master-Attendant of Plymouth Dockyard. While one annotated version of a map of Plymouth Sound drawn up Fraser in 1788 names all three, another mentions only Rennie and Whidbey. Lodging first at an inn in Plymouth, once the plan had been finally approved Whidbey bought a house at Bovisand Bay and this appears on a number of maps.
Fig. 2. Chart of TORBAY showing site of the intended artificial island to make Tor Bay safe. From John Naish´article and downloaded from New York University copy. (See footnote vii.)
When John Rennie and Jo' (Joseph) Whidbey submitted their report to the Right Honourable Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in April 1806 they included an estimate of the total costs (note the generous allowance for overruns):
E S T I M A T E
Of the probable Expense of a BREAKWATER and PIER, for the sheltering of PLYMOUTH SOUND and BOUVISAND BAY.
|
To 2,000,000
of tons of Limestone in blocks of from one-and-a-half to two tons
weight, in the Breakwater at 7s. 6d. per ton |
£ 750,000
|
|
To 360,000
tons, in the Pier proposed to be built from Andum Point 7s. |
£ 126,000 |
|
Contingencies,
say at £20. per cent, on the whole -
|
£ 175,200 |
|
|
£1,051,200 |
E S T I M A T E
Of the probable
Expense of a Cut-stone PIER and two LIGHT HOUSES, to be built on the top of the
great breakwater.
|
To 42,000
cubic yards of Masonry, in the out and inside walls of the Pier.
27 s. |
£ 44,700 |
|
To 62,000
cubic yards of Rubble filling between the out and inside walls of the Pier.
6 s |
£ 18,600 |
|
To paving
the top of the Pier with large Blocks of Stone, 8,500 square yards |
£ 22,950
|
|
To two Light
Houses, with Reflectors and Argaud Lamps |
£ 5,000 |
|
Contingencies,
£ 20. per cent. |
£ 28,650 |
|
|
£119,900 |
Fig. 3. Chart of Plymouth Sound executed by James Basire showing intended site of the new breakwater.
The plan put forward involved setting a solid wall of stone from a base 210 feet wide to a level just 10 feet above low water mark, where it was to be 30 feet in width. At the time it was estimated that some two million tons of stone would be needed to construct the whole breakwater of some 3,000 feet, and was expected to cost just over £1,000,000, an incredible sum for that time. In addition, lighthouses were planned for each end.
The Report, together with the estimate, was reprinted several times, most importantly in the Papers Relating to Plymouth Sound published in 1812 which also included various subsequent letters and reports together with the Order of His Royal Highness The Prince Regent in Council, authorizing, in the name of and on behalf of His Majesty ... directions for commencing the construction of a Pier or Breakwater in Plymouth and dated 11th June 1811. The report also included a detailed Chart of Plymouth Sound, with The Situation of the Proposed Breakwater and of the Anchorage for 36 Line-of-Battle Ships within the same. This chart (see Fig. 3) clearly showed the position of the breakwater straddling the Shovel Rocks in the centre of the approach, leaving two channels for sailing. Circles (see Fig. 4) indicated the gale mooring positions for the 36 ships referred to in the title. James Basire is given as the engraver and the map was printed with the report by Luke Hansard and Son.
Fig. 4. Chart of Plymouth Sound (detail) showing site of the intended mooring positions for ships at anchor.
Dupin was also able to
describe the entrance to Plymouth very clearly. ’The Sound and the harbour of
Plymouth are, perhaps, the places where nature has done the most for the Navy
and in the situation the most important to the safety of Great Britain.
Industry, power, and wealth, have united their efforts in order to derive from
the situation all the advantages which it was possible to expect. On the
confines of Devonshire and Cornwall, are seen on a coast deeply indented, and
within an extent of three miles only, three rich and populous towns, Plymouth,
Stonehouse, and Plymouth-Dock. Two rivers, the Plym and the Tamar, widening at
a little distance above their entrance, form two spacious basins, Catwater and
Hamoaze, and blend their waters in front of these three towns, in another basin
still more extensive than the two others. This is the roadstead of Plymouth,
called the Sound."
However, other writers
had not always been so praiseworthy. A year before, George Banks wrote:
"These two harbours open into Plymouth Sound and Cawsand Bay, in which
ships employed in the blockade of Brest, or those refitted in Hamoaze, have
been accustomed to assemble and prepare for putting to sea. But the very
exposed situation of Plymouth Sound, and the heavy swell that almost constantly
rolled in, especially when the wind blew fresh from the south-west to the
south-east, made it so inconvenient and so unsafe as an anchorage for ships of
the line, that, of late years, the fleet employed in blockading Brest, has been
in the practice of bearing up, when driven from its station, for the more
distant anchorage of Torbay, though little better with regard to security, and
worse in every other respect, than Plymouth Sound.[x]
Lord Howe is often quoted in the contemporary accounts of the breakwater. John Cooke reported that the Admiralty resolved to carry into execution, this great undertaking …. when it is considered how open and exposed a situation the sound must have been that Lord Howe used to say, it would one day be the grave of the British fleet (Figs 5a & 5b).[xi] But George Banks in his slim volume described Tor Bay as this open and exposed bay bore so bad a character among naval officers that Lord Howe used to say, it would one day be the grave of the British fleet.[xii]
Figs. 5a & 5b. John Cooke´s Interesting Particulars, relative to that Great National Undertaking the Breakwater c. 1820 included both a sketch of Plymouth Sound and Lord Howe´s warning concerning Torbay as a harbour.
Be that as it may, the
breakwater was started in 1812 with the first stone being laid on August 12th.
Part of Dupin's interest was probably because a similar enterprise, but on a larger
scale, had been carried out at Cherbourg in France, and which had experienced numerous
setbacks due to the fact that the French had placed large stones on top of
small ones. When bad weather washed the small stones away, the breakwater was
completely ruined and work had to commence again. The Plymouth plan was to
place large stones in place and cover with smaller ones. Granite for the
enterprise was all local with most of it from Plymouth: the quarries at Oreston
opened on 7th August on land that had been sold by the Duke of
Bedford for £10,000, and Mr Whidbey was appointed superintendent.[xiii]
Dupin saw some of the
boats at work and described them in some detail: The vessels employed for
carrying off the large blocks of stone, are of a peculiar construction, adapted
to convey with ease, masses of marble weighing from three to five tons each.
These great blocks of marble are placed on trucks at the quarries, and run down
thence on iron railways, to the quays against which the vessels lie with their
sterns. The two stern ports are made sufficiently large to receive the trucks
with the stones upon them. Each truck is passed separately through the
port-hole, on an inclined plane, and run to the forepart of the vessel in the
hold on an iron railway (Fig. 6.).[xiv]
The structure first
appeared above the waves on 31st March 1813 at low water of the
spring Tide. On 12th August 1816 the work was considered to have
been half completed and had cost some £364,000 by then and by the end of that
year about 1 million tons of stone had been deposited. The accountants
calculated that each ton had cost eight shillings and three half-pence.[xvi]
Fig. 7. Plymouth Breakwater from the West. The illustration shows one of the specially constructed boats delivering stone.[xvii]
By 1821, when Mr John
Rennie died (his sons, Sir John Rennie and George Rennie, taking over), the
breakwater was already a prominent feature of the landscape and appeared in many
maps, plans and guide books and it had become something of a tourist
attraction as Rev. Gadsby explained (Fig. 8.). Guides pointed out that for the information of persons visiting the
Breakwater, it is necessary to observe, that there is a safe and commodious
landing place at all times of the tide, near the centre of the inside, facing
Plymouth. An interesting pamphlet on the above subject, with maps, &c. is printed
and sold by the publisher of this work.[xviii]
At this time the estimate had not risen and still stood at £1,171,100 to
complete the project and Joseph Whidbey was still Superintendent.
The breakwater showed
its future value as early as 1817: the gales of 1816-1817 were more frequent
and tremendous than for many years. On the night of January 19th there
was a hurricane with the tide rising six foot higher than normal. The Jasper,
a sloop of war, and the schooner Telegraph were both lost, being driven
to the head of the sound by the storm, but a collier, anchored in the shelter
of the breakwater, rode out the gale.[xix]
Fig. 8. Plymouth Breakwater as it would have appeared to Charles Dupin in 1820. One of three plans prepared by a local mapmaker, John Cooke and included in Interesting Particulars.[xx]
Storms in November
1824 and January 1828 also served to illustrate the usefulness of the great
project. The story of the ketch Coromandel, bound from Faro to London
(November 24th 1824), was certainly dramatic. The crew saw the Eddystone
lighthouse about half past two in the morning and made for Plymouth. About four
o´clock she was struck twice in quick succession and the helmsman washed off
the deck. The master, two of the crew and a passenger, after recovering from
the battering they received climbed into a coal-hole while the water rose under
them, from six inches at first to nearly four feet. After some six hours, and
with water up to their chins, the vessel struck the breakwater. A second wave
struck the boat and blew the hatch cover off, revealing the ship to be stranded
on the western end of the breakwater. Waving one of their flags as a distress
signal they were seen by Mr Eddy, a pilot, who rescued the unfortunate
sufferers.[xxi]
As mentioned above, by March 1813 the corners of some of the stones had appeared above the surface at low water spring tides. However, in 1815 it was decided to raise the structure to 20 feet above low water instead of the 10 feet as originally planned. Then the 1817 hurricane displaced some of the rocks and altered the seaward slope from 1:3 to 1:5. Despite the damage causing a more natural slope, work continued on the original plan. However, the even more violent storm of November 1824 removed about 200,000 tons of stone and reduced the slope once again to 1:5. Consequently the centre line was removed 36 feet towards the shore and the width of the top reduced from 55ft to 45ft. The slope on the landward side stayed at 1:2.
The Breakwater as
constructed comprised a central portion of 1,000 yards in length and two arms
each 350ft long and formed at an angle of 120 degrees to the main section. It
was 45ft broad and some 80 ft deep.[xxiii]
There was a lot of interest in the breakwater and there were many visitors
besides Charles Dupin. There was even a Royal visit: On the breakwater is a
commemorative stone to Prince Wm Henry, Duke of Clarence, and to the Duchess of
Clarence dated July 17th 1827. One of Dupin´s compatriots,
Joseph-Marie-Francois Cachin (later Baron Cachin) as Inspecteur-General des
Ponts et Chaussees, used the breakwater with which to compare the much larger
Cherbourg undertaking although he appears to have taken his statistics from the
Enyclopaedia Britannica.[xxiv]
A later Frenchman, possibly L Simonin, after describing Plymouth as the Toulon
des Anglais, wrote ecstatically sa bale est magnifique and went on
to describe the breakwater and the Eddystone lighthouse une des merveilles
du Royaume-Uni.[xxv]
By 29th February
1828, 337 yards of the upper part had been completed.[xxvi]
On the 14°' March 1828 the first stone was laid for finishing the upper part of
the breakwater (Fig. 9.). This was according to plans revised by
Whidbey, all other plans having failed up to that time.
On 22nd February, 1841. the foundation stone for the Light House (Fig. 10.)[xxvii] was laid at the west end and a writer in a guide published by William Wood of Devonport wrote that it will be built of granite, 14 feet in diameter in the clear, and the centre of the light 55 feet from the top of the breakwater. He was also able to claim that, although the breakwater was originally estimated to cost £1,200,000 the present outlay does not approach that sum by £200, 000, and from authentic documents we find that 3,362,727 tons of stone have been deposited.[xxviii]
Fig. 10.: The Lighthouse designed by Walker and Burgess.[xxix]
The number of workmen
employed on the project at any one time was apparently 765. The actual cost of
the work was quoted as £1,500,000, some £300,000 over estimate. However, reliable
figures as to cost are difficult to find.[xxx]
The breakwater itself was officially completed in 1841 but it is reported that
there was still 70 yards of the eastern arm left to be finished as well as the
construction of the lighthouse, lit for the first time in 1844. However,
another plan by John Cooke shows that more stone was added in 1846 and 1847 (Fig. 11.) making a total of 3,645,240 tons already used and a small portion
on the landward side is noted as work in progress.[xxxi]
Fig. 11. Cooke's Plymouth Breakwater. This plan was completed c.1843 and revised in 1847.
Sources of Illustrations.
All illustrations are from the author´s collection except Figs 2. and 10.
Fig. 2. This is illustrated in John Naish (1992) - Joseph Whidbey and the Building of the Plymouth Breakwater - in The Mariner's Mirror; Routledge; London; 78:1; pp. 37-56.
Fig. 10. Illustration taken from The Civil Engineer blog at https://www.ice-imagelibrary.com/image/1715/Lighthouse-for-Western-End-of-the-breakwater,-Plym.
NOTE: Further illustrations will be posted on a separate page only accessible through this link:
Plymouth Breakwater images.
[i] William
Gadsby in Christ the Believer´s Breakwater; 1822; published by W Byers
of Fore Street, Plymouth-Dock.
[ii] Pierre Charles Francois Dupin; Narratives of Two Excursions to the
Ports of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1816, 1817 and 1818; published in
London by Richard Phillips circa 1820.
[iii] Although the work outlines other engineering achievements in the British
Isles none of the others are illustrated.
[iv] Executed by Neele for inclusion in the translation of Dupin's work; Narratives
of Two Excursions. Map is signed Neele & Son sc. 352 Strand.
[v] The story was told in
more detail on an internet site (now hijacked by another company and no longer
active) and where I read this account. Other reports suggest he swam with a
rope and there are many impressive paintings on-line depicting the scene, e.g. at https://plymouthhistoryfestival.com
- /2020/05/24/dutton-wreck/.
[vi] A map was also produced, for example, that found at the website ramehistorygroup.org.uk
(/files/Plymouth breakwater). Unfortunately, no source for the map is given.
[vii] Extracts from the government report, including Rennie's reports, are taken from Papers Relating to Plymouth Sound: ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 12 & 19 February 1812. The first part (including the passages quoted here) was reprinted not only in Interesting Particulars (1820) but also in The Traveller's Directory, and Stranger's Guide to the Three Towns; published and sold by John Cooke (1828) in Stonehouse, who prepared a number of maps and plans of the sound and the breakwater.
[viii] John Naish (1992) in Joseph Whidbey and the Building of the Plymouth Breakwater; The Mariner's Mirror; Routledge; London; 78:1; pp. 37-56. This excellent article has since been published on-line by Taylor & Francis from a copy held at New York University; access: DOI: 10.1080/00253359.1992.10656384.
[ix] All references to the life and works of John Rennie and Joseph Whidbey are from Wikipedia (2022) and John Naish (ibid).
[x] A Sketch of the Breakwater and Plymouth Sound, 1819. Probably
written and published by George Banks who engraved the map of Plymouth
Sound or by J Johns of Plymouth-Dock who printed the work.
[xi] Interesting Particulars relative to that Great National Undertaking, the Breakwater. Printed for and sold by J Johns, Plymouth-Dock, and John Cooke, Stonehouse, plans and map dated 1819 and 1820, advertisement (to the reader) dated January 1821.
[xii] George Banks; A Sketch of the Breakwater and Plymouth Sound; p.4.
[xiii] While working the quarry … were found several bones of the rhinoceros,
in a perfect state, and containing less animal matter in them, as any fossil
bones that have yet been dug out of rock or earth. A Sketch of the
Breakwater and Plymouth Sound, George Banks, p.11. See also https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1823.0011
for a contemporary account with plans and images of the fossils. In the 1880s
human bones some 140,000 years old were found nearby at Cattedown Caves.
[xiv] Charles Dupin; London 1820.
[xv] ibid, page 67 in a note of the translator who occasionally scolds Mr
Dupin for his mistakes.
[xvi] The Panorama of Plymouth, written by Samuel Rowe, a local man, and published by Rowes of Whimple
Street, 1821.
[xvii] Illustrated in Devon Illustrated, pub. Fisher, London (actually published in
parts: this print appeared in Part 3, November 1829).
[xviii] The Tourist's Companion, Being a Guide to the Towns of Plymouth,
Plymouth-Dock, Stonehouse, Morice-Town. Stoke, and their Vicinities; published by J Johns of Plymouth as well
as Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown in London; 1823.
[xix] John Cooke. 1828. The Traveller's Directory, and Stranger's Guide to the Three Towns.
[xx] John Cooke. Interesting Particulars Relative to that Great National Undertaking, the Breakwater.
[xxi] The Plymouth and Devonport Guide written by H E Carrington, published W Byers.
Devonport, Fourth Edition (1840).
[xxii] This was John Cooke's second major breakwater plan and
appeared in The Traveller's Directory of 1828.
[xxiii] From an internet site: plymouthdata/Breakwater which seems to have
ceased.
[xxiv] Baron Cachin in Memoire sur la Digue de Cherbourg,
comparee au Breakwater ou Jetee de Plymouth published Didot, Pere et Fils,
Paris, 1820.
[xxv] L Simonin in Le Tour du Monde pages 353-400
(issued in weekly parts) covering the mines of Cornwall and other sights;
published June 1865.
[xxvi] The Traveller's Directory: John Cooke, 1828.
[xxvii] This was designed by Messrs Walker and Burgess and built of the best
white granite from Luxulyan in Cornwall.
[xxviii] The Stranger's Hand-Book, to the Western Metropolis: Compiled by a Naval Officer and
published William Wood, Devonport, 1841.
[xxix] Illustration taken from The Civil Engineer blog at https://www.ice-imagelibrary.com/image/1715/Lighthouse-for-Western-End-of-the-breakwater,-Plym. Held in their Rennie Collection.
[xxx] Even at the time there was disagreement. Dupin reported that the cost
had been £100,000 per annum up to his visit. However, the commentator to the
translated work explained that in 1817, no more than £50,000 were voted for
that object. It would appear that as the breakwater progressed smaller and
smaller sums were expended.
[xxxi] Cooke´s Plymouth Breakwater. This was separately
published, possibly 1843, and later revised (after his death in 1845). The
third of Cooke's major breakwater maps with the intriguing note engraved in
his 80th year. Note the statistics
covering 1846 and 1847 and extreme left — part now in progress.
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