the sea-coast must depend on the configuration of the adjacent coast-line, the extent and direction of the exposure, the amount of sheltered area required and the depth obtainable, the prospect of the accumulation of drift or the occurrence of scour from the proposed works, and the best position for an entrance in respect of shelter and depth of approach.
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| Fig. 3.—Genoa Harbour and Extensions. |
Completion of Shelter of Harbours in Bays.—In the case of a deep, fairly land-locked bay, a detached breakwater across the outlet completes the necessary shelter, leaving an entrance between each extremity and the shore, provided there is deep enough water near the shore, as effected at Plymouth harbour, and also across the wider but shallower bay forming Cherbourg harbour. A breakwater may instead be extended across the outlet from each shore, leaving a single central entrance between the ends of the breakwaters; and if one breakwater placed somewhat farther out is made to overlap an inner one, a more sheltered entrance is obtained. This arrangement has been adopted at the existing Genoa harbour within the bay (fig. 3), and for the harbour at the mouth of the Nervion (see River Engineering). The adoption of a bay with deep water for a harbour does not merely reduce the shelter to be provided artificially, but it also secures a site not exposed to silting up, and where the sheltering works do not interfere with any littoral drift along the open coast. A third method of sheltering a deep bay is that adopted for forming a refuge harbour at Peterhead (fig. 4), where a single breakwater is extended out from one shore for 3250 ft. across the outlet of the bay, leaving a single entrance between its extremity and the opposite shore and enclosing an area of about 250 acres at low tide, half of which has a depth of over 5 fathoms.
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| Fig. 4.—Peterhead Harbour of Refuge. |
Harbours possessing partial Natural Shelter.—The most common form of harbour is that in which one or more breakwaters supplement a certain amount of natural shelter. Sometimes, where the exposure is from one direction only, approximately parallel with the coast-line at the site, and there is more or less shelter from a projecting headland or a curve of the coast in the opposite direction, a single breakwater extending out at right angles to the shore, with a slight curve or bend inwards near its outer end, suffices to afford the necessary shelter. As examples of this form of harbour construction may be mentioned Newhaven breakwater, protecting the approach to the port from the west, and somewhat sheltered from the moderate easterly storms by Beachy Head, and Table Bay breakwater, which shelters the harbour from the north-east, and is somewhat protected on the opposite side by the wide sweep of the coast-line known as Table Bay. Generally, however, some partial embayment, or abrupt projection from the coast, is utilized as providing shelter from one quarter, which is completed by breakwaters enclosing the site, of which Dover and Colombo (fig. 5) harbours furnish typical and somewhat similar examples.
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| Fig. 5.—Colombo Harbour. |
Harbours formed on quite Open Seacoasts.—Occasionally harbours have to be constructed for some special purpose where no natural shelter exists, and where on an open, sandy shore considerable littoral drift may occur. Breakwaters, carried out from the shore at some distance apart, and converging to a central entrance of suitable width, provide the requisite shelter, as for instance the harbour constructed to form a sheltered approach to the river Wear and the Sunderland docks (fig. 6). If there is little littoral drift from the most exposed quarter, the amount of sand brought in during storms, which is smaller in proportion to the depth into which the entrance is carried, can be readily removed by dredging; whilst the scour across the projecting ends of the breakwaters tends to keep the outlet free from deposit. Where there is littoral drift in both directions on an open, sandy coast, due to winds blowing alternately from opposite quarters, sand accumulates in the sheltered angles outside the harbour between each converging breakwater and the shore. This has happened at Ymuiden harbour at the entrance to the Amsterdam ship-canal on the North Sea, but there the advance of the shore appears to have reached its limit only a short distance out from the old shore-line on each side; and the only evidence of drift consists in the advance seawards of the lines of soundings alongside, and in the considerable amount of sand which enters the harbour and has to be removed by dredging. The worst results occur where the littoral drift is almost wholly in one direction, so that the projection of a solid breakwater out from the shore causes a very large accretion on the side facing the exposed quarter; whilst owing to the arrest of the travel of sand, erosion of the beach occurs beyond the second breakwater enclosing the harbour on its comparatively sheltered side. These effects have been produced at Port Said harbour at the entrance to the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean, formed by two converging breakwaters, where, owing to the prevalent north-westerly winds, the drift is from west to east, and is augmented by the alluvium issuing from the Nile. Accordingly, the shore has advanced considerably against the outer face of the western breakwater; and erosion of the beach has occurred at the shore end of the eastern breakwater, cutting it off from the land. The advance of the shore-line, however, has been much slower during recent years; and though the progress seawards of the lines of soundings close to and in front of the harbour continues, the advance is checked by the sand and silt coming from the west passing through some apertures purposely left in the western breakwater, and falling into the approach channel, from which it is readily dredged and taken away. Madras harbour, begun in 1875, consists of two breakwaters, 3000 ft. apart, carried straight out to sea at right angles to the shore for 3000 ft., and completed by two return
