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LIFE OP CHARLES HALT DAY. CX111
of the harbour below Ringsend, that is to say, between
Ringsend and the bar.
The earliest printed account of the port and harbour, by
Gerard Boate, writing in 164-!), describes the harbour amongst
" the barred havens of Ireland." 1
Over the bar there was at that time only six feet water Harbour in
at low tide.
"
With an ordinary tide you cannot go to the
quay of Dublin (he says) with a ship that draws five feet of
those of greater draught cannot come nearer than the
water ;
Ringsend, three miles from Dublin Bay, and one mile from
Dublin. 1 This haven (he adds) falleth dry almost all over
with the ebb as well below Ringsend as above it, so as you
may go dry foot round about the ships at anchor, except in
two places, one at the north side, half-way between Dublin
and the bar, and the other at the south side not far from it,
one called the Pool of Clontarf, and the other Poolbeg, where
it never falleth dry, but ships can remain afloat in nine or
ten loot of water. Besides its shallowness (adds Boate),
there is hardly any shelter, so that early in November, 1637,
ten or twelve barques were driven from their anchors and
never more heard of." 2
But these pools, as we have seen by the petition of the
Corporation to Parliament, had become greatly filled up in
1698. On both accounts the merchants of Dublin, in January,
1715, gave it as their opinion that the south side of the
channel below Ringsend should be piled in, which would
raise the south bank so high as to be a great shelter to
shipping. 3
The Ballast Board accordingly began to pile below Rings- New channel
end (that is to say, in the line from Ringsend towards the begun^f D.
site of Pigeon-house) ; so that on 19th of October, 1716, 1717-
1 " Ireland's Natural History ; Samuel Hartlib, esq. ;" p. 29, STO,
being a true and ample description, London,
&c. Written by Gerard Boate,
* Hid.
late Doctor of Physick to the State Appendix, p. 235.
in Ireland, and now published by
1 652.