DAGENHAM BREACH.
161
London as to the trade of this whole kingdom," and that "The
navigation of the said River is in Danger of being utterly destroyed.
To defray the cost, a tax was levied for ten years, from 10th July,
1714, on every ship coming into the port of London, to pay 3d. per
ton, Coasters 3s. each voyage, Colliers 1d. per chalder, Coasting
Hoys not chargeable. Sect. 16 exempts the Harwich weekly
passage Boat. Sect. 17 provides "that nothing in this Act con-
tained shall charge the Two Colchester Packet Boats above four
times in the year with the said duties of 3s. a voyage, they going
weekly from Wivenhoe to London with Bays, Says, and Perpetu-
anas, and from London to Wivenhoe with Wool to be manufactured
at Colchester." 12
Under this Act, the trustees, of whom the Lord Mayor was one,
met at Guildhall in August to receive proposals, when Mr. Boswell
tendered £19,000, which, at the second meeting, he reduced to
£16,500, Captain Perry's sum being £24,000. This was to stop
the main breach, remove the bank in the river, and make good the
walls from the halfway tree to Raynham Creek.
Boswell's proposal was accepted, and in Captain Perry's book, "An
Account of the Stopping of Daggenham Breach," 1721, he details the
methods Boswell intended to use; but he appears to have changed
his way several times, finding that he could not secure a firm, level
bottom for his pontoons, as the scour was so great. Perry also
states that his floodgates opened only outward, and were not
designed as sluices, and that they admitted more water at flood
tide than was discharged at ebb. He made several attempts, but
failed to do the work ; and the trustees applied to Perry for the
details of his plan.
The opening by this time had been greatly extended, both in
depth and width, forming a gulf over two miles in length.
Captain Perry's plan was approved by the trustees, and he at
once began the work, buying material, engaging workmen, and
hiring a yard at Rotherhithe, in which he prepared a sluice, and
fashioned the "dove-tailed" piles. At the same time he set men
to work at the Breach, as the walls gave evidence of slipping.
Boswell complained of the trustees' action in superseding him,
12 The following independent testimony to the enormous traffic on the river, was penned only
a few years after the time of this flood :
"It is impossible to express the untold multitude of ships and vessels which sail up and down
this river daily, especially in the summer time, when ships, in some of the narrower places, can
hardly avoid running into each other, and often at the same time, cause each other great damage.'
P. Kalm, 174S. Trans, by Joseph Lucas, 1892.