Re: Re: Limerick Docklands ~ Ted Russell Docks

I agree about Fleming’s chapter; it’s a pity it’s such a bitty book. I wanted it to be followed by a chapter on Limerick’s nineteenth-century economy, but there it wasn’t.

I think the problem with relying on the current was that it tended to propel vessels towards rocks. Have you read Honest Tom Steele’s *Practical Suggestions on the General Improvement of the Navigation of the Shannon between Limerick and the Atlantic, and more particularly of that part of it named by pilots, The Narrows. With Some Remarks intended to create a doubt of the fairness of not keeping faith with the Irish Roman Catholics after they had been lured into a surrender of Limerick, (their principal fortress), by a Treaty* (Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, London, 1828)? It’s available (free of charge) on the interweb thingy and a very entertaining read.

The “super floating dock” was Thomas Rhodes’s suggestion, made (IIRC) after Alexander Nimmo had died; Noel P Wilkins in *Alexander Nimmo: Master Engineer 1783–1832* (Irish Academic Press 2009) said that other engineers feared that it might flood most of the city, so it was abandoned in favour of building quays.

bjg