no other plans to be submitted? Has this been tested and approved, or is Hastings to have the honour (and cost) of making the experiment? 7th. – The floating breakwater is said to keep the breakers from the sheltered vessels, but how does it affect the ground swell? If the craft roll much (as in the case of another experiment some years ago at Brighton) they might as well be in the open sea. 8th. – Suppose the committee or a few enthusiastic speculators decide on adopting the plan proposed, the house-proprietors and ratepayers will have to be consulted I presume before the prosperity of the borough be staked against a crochet.” “Civis”
“A Resident”, dating his letter Sept. 7th, writes:- “Let not the clean, pleasant shingle of our shore be fouled by the inevitable dirt of a harbour of any description. Our beach will now vie with that of any watering place in the kingdom. It is very far superior to that of Brighton. Let us aim to keep up the character we possess in this respect. It would assuredly be lost in the attempt to add marine commerce to the means of health and pleasure. To spoil the beach is to spoil the borough. This I think ought to settle the question. Eastbourne, which is already sheltered by the Beachy Head range from west and south-west gales, would be better for Capt. Sleigh’s experiments.”
Deep Interest”, under date of Sept. 10th, also wrote thus:- “Mr. Womersley is right in stating whether under all the circumstances a harbour is desirable for Hastings and St. Leonards? He honestly thinks it is not, and every such opinion upon such an important question deserves attention. My first impression – the subject coming so suddenly upon me – was that there could be no doubt that such a harbour was desirable, and that the only question could be how to get it; but finding that you and others, equally, if not more competent to judge, differ from me, I feel that I expressed myself too strongly and too hastily..... Allow me to suggest that in a question of so much importance and in which all parties must wish to arrive at a right conclusion, it would be better to drop all insinuations of personal motives or interest, and to discard all angry feeling, and to confine ourselves entirely to an unbiased discussion of the merits of the case. There is no fear or hope of turning Hastings into a Manchester or Liverpool, and I believe the only object at present is to make it of some use as a shelter to boats and vessels, to be extended if found to answer. I plead guilty to the charge of not being a Hastings man or permanent resident, but in everything connected with its prosperity I have a “Deep Interest”.
Much other Correspondence followed, including one or two more letters from Mr. Womersley, one from “Esperanza”, another -
