The Ship Canal From Shoreham To London (Part 2)

It was reported by the international press on the 15th November 1907, ‘that London had grown too big for the Thames.’ This conclusion had been reached because two huge steam turbine powered ocean liners had failed to get into any dock in London. as there had not been enough depth of water in the river for them to pass.

The then depth available to river traffic was 24 feet at low tide between the Albert Dock in the city and Gravesend.

The ships that were under construction at the time in London shipyards such as Woolwich were much larger than their predecessors. Engineers thought they would require a safety margin of a projected depth of up to 30 feet of water to avoid running aground in the Thames. Dredging to this depth in London would have burst the existing subways and tunnels underneath the river and undermined the riverbanks causing the mass destruction of property. The Thames Conservancy Engineer Mr C. J. More pointed this out.

It was reported that ‘adventurous and ingenious spirits’ proposed to avoid the use of the Thames entirely by the creation of a new waterway from the English Channel to London. The proposal was quoted as, ‘A steamship from let us say New Zealand has come to the channel as far as Shoreham, the Sussex port 6 miles west of Brighton, there still remains a sea journey of 300 miles, and that is the most hazardous and often the most difficult length of the entire voyage round the world before the vessel can get up to London. New Shoreham is only distant from London about 47 miles as the crow flies, and the intervening country is, as a rule fairly flat. The promoters contend that the only engineering difficulty at all is the range of hills near Dorking, and they contend that in view of the importance of the scheme this would be a mere a trifle, and at the worst would be a mere question of outlay.’ The Shoreham to London Ship Canal was to be 47 miles long, 300 feet wide and 40 feet in depth. The canal would be lit by electricity, allowing for ships to travel day and night and it was hoped the lights would be large and bright enough to penetrate through fog. As mentioned in the previous article it was proposed the canal would allow larger ships to be built and so increase the tonnage of shipping. It was also planned for the Royal Navy to base it battleships there, to counter any French or German invasion.

It was believed mass unemployment in London could be ended through further industrialisation of the entire length of the canal down to the Shoreham coastline.

Mr More’s response was quoted as characterising the idea as ‘feasible enough if the money be spent; but it would cost a tremendous amount, and the engineering difficulties of the Dorking Hills would be far greater than the proposers seem to think. It is a wild idea, certainly but not an impossible one. As I said, it is feasible enough. But where is the money to come from? So that there is where the matter stands at present, but I do not think we have heard the last of the scheme. London will not readily consent to take a back seat if only as a port.’

If the scheme had gone ahead, southern railway companies, Shoreham as a coastal town and its local industries could have been bankrupted, as no ship would have needed to unload cargo onto rail freight there bound for London. The estimated cost of the project was £30 billion, which was an enormous sum of money for the time. It was eventually decided it would be cheaper to overcome the engineering problems of dredging the Thames. The river and its estuary were subsequently dredged from the coast to Gravesend.

Judy Upton

Source: New Zealand Herald 28th December 1907.

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