The Sun.
London, England, 1830-06-14 00:00:00

STEAM-BOATS AND WATERMEN.

On Saturday morning the Navigation Committee
of the City of London met for the purpose of view-
ing the site of the proposed new pier, at the end of
the Custom-house, for the embarkation and disem-
barkation of passengers on board the steam-boats.
It was, however, rumoured in the morning, that
active and powerful interest was made by various
persons concerned in the St. Katherine's Docks to
secure to them a monopoly of the convenience of
embarking passengers at once from their wharf. A
petition was presented to the Committee from cer-
tain inhabitants of Gravesend, setting forth that the
inhabitantslof Gravesend and Milton, by grant of
Richard the Second, and by virtue of divers Acts
of Parliament, have the exclusive privilege of convey-
ing passengerson the River Thames from Gravesend
to the city of London, and that the Citizens of
London had the like privilege of conveying pas-
sengers from the City to Gravesend. These privi-
leges had been exercised for nearly five centuries,
the Gravesend sailing boats having the right of taking
passengers direct from the wharf to Billingsgate,
without the intervention of small boats to put pas-
sengers on board. At length these sailing boats
and passage boats were superseded by the use of
steam-boats, which were at first introduced by
strangers. The petitioners had expended a sum of
between 20,0001. and 30,000/. in building steam
vessels suitable to the passage, and those vessels bad.
ever been moored within the boundaries of the City
in pursuance of their Charters. They prayed that
they might now be allowed accommodation similar
to that which had been obtained by the proprietors
of St. Katherine's Dock, and that permission
be given them to drive piles into the bed of the river,
for the erection of a temporary platform for the em-
barkation of passengers. Unless this permission was
given them, they would be obliged to stop short of
the e;ty boundaries, to_ the grievous injury of the
property of the petitioners, to the great menu-
venience of the citizens of London and of the pub-
lic in general, and also the destruction of the ancient
ferry. uttgliti

At half-past one o'clock the Navigation Com‘
mittee, attended by the Water-bailiff, the Harbour-
master, and the City Surveyor, went in their barge
to the spot where it is proposed to erect the tempo-
rary pier, opposite the east end of the Custom-
house. Mr. Hall, the proprietor of the adjacent
wharf, waited upon the Committee and asked of
them permission to drive piles eleven feet beyond
the piles at present placed there, which world make
a projection of 71 feet from the side of the wharf.
The CHAIRMAN said the Committee were disposed
to grant that space, but he wished to know how it
could be made use of, since that distance still left
a considerable space between the outer piles and the
vessels.

Mr. HALL endeavoured to show that a platform
might be projected from a lighter or covered vessel,
which was to be kept within the proposed piles,
and that this platform might be made to reach the
steam vessels. The details of the plan were, how-
ever, not matured, and the Chairman professed his
inability to understand it.
Mr. MATTIIEWX, the Town Clerk of Gravesend,
said, he attended on behalf of a body of freemen
of that town, who were also citizens of London.
He submitted, that for the preservation of their an-
cient passage the Corporation of London were
bound to provide accommodotion for the embarka-
tion of passengers with the same safety and conve-
nience that had always been insured in the case of
the old passage boats.
One of the Committee observed, that the Cor-
poration had not the means of effecting every pro-
posed improvement or alteration.
Mr. MATTHEws said, that rather than allow pecu-
niary considerations to be interposed as an obstacle
to the improvement, the petitioners would under-
take to make the erection at their own expence. He
did not disguise from the Committee that they con-
sidered the improvement could not be effected, unless
they were permitted to drive piles to the extent of
low water mark, or thirty feet beyond the space
usually occupied by vessels loading from the wharf.
The CHAIRMAN said, they could not be allowed
to do that by any means.

We understood him to say, in answer to a further
pressing inquiry from:Mrs Matthews, as to the ground
for stating that permission could not be given to
drive piles down at the low water-mark, that an im-
pediment to the navigation must be the result.
The petitioners then left the Committee-barge,

and were put ashore.
The watermen on shore having learned what had
taken place, were in high glee, and exclaimed, " they
won't do us with their Pier."
It would appear, from what has occurred, that we
are to have a continuance of the existing nuisance,
inconvenience, and danger.

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