Leith.] RENNIE?S REPORT ON THE HARBOUR EXTENSION. ?I2
In 1753 an Act was passed, in the reign of
George II., for enlarging and deepening the harbour
of Leith, but less was achieved than had been done
in the reign of King James II., three hundred years
before. As there were no adequate means provided
by the statute for defiaying the expense, says
h o t , ?nothing was done in consequence.?
Yet soon after we find that a curious scheme
mras formed for enlarging it on a greater scale, by
making a canal from it eastward ?through Bernard?s
Nook to the old Glass House, and from thence
into a basin. To carry this project into execution
a Bill was framed by which an additional duty, from
a penny to sixpence per ton, was to be laid upon
the tonnage of all shipping in the harbour ; but in
consequence of the poverty and lethargy entailed
by the Union, and some opposition also, the scheme
was rapidly dropped.
These suggestions, however, led ultimately to the
formation by the Town Council of Edinburgh of a
short pier in 1777 on the west side of the harbour,
afterwards known as the Custom House Quay;
and the harbourwas at the same time widened and
deepened.
In 1785 a miserable apology for a naval yard
(as it was pompously named) was established in
Leith as a depBt for supplying such material as
might be wanted by His Majesty?s ships coming
into the Forth.
Five bridges now connect North and South
Leith, the latest of which is the Victoria swing
bridge.
One of the drawbridges at the foot of the Tolbooth
Wynd (superseding that of Abbot Ballantyne)
was erected in 1788-9, by authority of an Act of
Parliament. The second drawbridge, opposite the
foot of Bernard Street, was erected in 1800; and
a thud bridge, finished about 1820, connected the
new streets at Hill House Field and the Docks
with Leith Walk.
Notwithstanding the erection of the Custom
House Quay, the accommodation for shipping remained
insufficient and unendurable, the common
quays being the chief landing-places, where the
vessels lay four and five abreast, discharging their
cargoes across each other?s decks, amid confusion,
dirt, and much ill-temper on the part of seamen and
porters. Besides, the channel of the river, at the
recess of the tides, offered only an expanse of uncovered
and offensive mud and ooze, till, as the
kade of the port increased towards the close of the
kentury, demands were loud and long for an ameli.
Oration and enlargement of the then accommodation.
In 1789, the light that had first been placed a1
the pier-end was replaced by a new and improved
131
one, with reflectors, as the Edinburgh Advertiser
specially mentions, adding that ?its effect at sea
is surprising, and the expense of maintaining it
does not exceed that of the former one.?
In 1799, John Rennie, the celebrated engineer,
was employed to examine the entire harbour, and
to form designs for docks and extended piers, on a
scale somewhat proportioned to the necessities of
the advancing age.
The gravamen of his report was that no permanent
and uniform depth of water along the
mouth of the harbour of Leith could ever be obtained,
and that no achievement of science could
destroy or prevent the formation of the shifting
bar, unless by carrying a pier, or weir, on the east
side of the channel, and quite across the sands
into low water, and that, by this means, three, or
possibly four, feet of additional depth of water
might be obtained; but though the soundness of
his principle has been fully vindicated by the result
of subsequent operations which were carried out by
its guidance, little or nothing was done at his suggestion,
nor for many years afterwards, with regard to
the piers or entrance.
The crowded state of the harbour was the cause
of many a fatal accident, and of constant confusion.
Thus we read that, between nine and ten in the
morning of the 13th of August, 1810, as a foreign
vessel, after passing the beacon, was about to enter
the harbour, with two pilots on board, a shot was
suddenly fired into her from a boat. This, the
pilots imagined, was from a Greenland whaler, and
they did not bring to. A few minutes after a second
musket-shot was fired, which mortally wounded
the mate in the right breast, and he expired in
fifteen minutes. The boat belonged to H.M. gunbrig
GaZZanf, of fourteen guns, commanded by
Lieutenant William Crow, which was at that time
what is technically called ?rowing guard.? The
fatal shot had been fired by a rash young midshipman,
named Henry Lloyd, whose hail had
been unheard or unnoticed; and for this he was
lodged in the prison of Edinburgh. As too often
is the case in such calamities, the prints of the
time announce that ?? the sufferer has left a widow
and three young children, for whose relief a subscription
has been opened.?
In 1818 Messrs. J. and H. Morton invented
their patent slip, and the first one was laid down
by themse1ves.h the upper part of the old harbour
-an invention of more than European reputation.
The firm began to build iron ships, but after completing
a few steamers, a sailing-ship, and some large
dredges, the trade came to a temporary stand ; yet
the business of ship-building was not abandoned
.
