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DURING the same
period—1855-61—he was also engaged in improving the harbours of Watchett in
Somersetshire, Lossiemouth in Elgin, and Stranraer and Portpatrick in the
Rhirns of Galloway on the south west corner of Scotland. At Stranraer he
made the acquaintance of Sir John Ross, the celebrated Arctic navigator, and
used to visit him at his house called “North-West Castle,” where he had a
dining room fitted to represent the interior of a ship’s cabin. His
friendship with Sir James and his brother Alexander Caird also began while
these last-named works were in progress.
The improvements at
Portpatrick were undertaken in the month of July, 1858, on appointment by
the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, with the view of establishing a
short sea passage between Scotland and Ireland, in connection with the
railways at that time in course of construction towards that port. The works
proposed, which were sufficient to meet the requirements of the contemplated
service to Donaghadec in Ireland, comprised the formation of a channel 120
feet in width, with a depth of 10 feet at low water, spring tides, requiring
9,789 cubic yards of excavation, and a tidal basin of one and one eighth of
an acre, including the excavation of 65,000 cubic yards, with an entrance 75
feet in width, and of a corresponding depth to the entrance channel, at a
cost of £19,490, and a pier extension formed of large blocks of masonry at a
further sum of £16,943. The undertaking was successfully completed at the
end of 1864, and although, as will be gathered from the dimensions given, it
was comparatively small: it was, nevertheless, one of considerable difficulty
in execution in consequence of the very exposed situation of the port, and
the heavy seas to which the works were constantly subjected while in course
of progression, while much of the deepening had to be effected through hard
rock. |
