at either end. The
tides, thus only slightly confined between the shores and wall-ends
(but allowed to run in their old accustomed channels), would keep their
channels free. The Lords of the Admiralty thought it all over, and on
the 22nd June, 1811, issued an order for the work to begin.

Then no more time was lost. Down to Plymouth went the engineer and his
staff again. They searched for a quarry to dig the stone from, and found
it at Oreston, in the north-east corner of the Sound. In March, 1812,
crowbar and gunpowder began to be busy there. Meanwhile, on the water of
the Sound, two and a half miles south of Plymouth Town, a number of
buoys were moored in two parallel lines, extending over a distance of
one thousand two hundred yards, east and west. They marked the place
where the great barrier was to be built, and their anchors partly lay on
a reef of dangerous, submerged rocks, and partly in deep water. By the
time they were safely fixed, the first shiploads of stone were ready.
But ten of the ships were not like other ships. All along the deck and
all down the middle of the lower part of the vessel, ran lines of rails,
and on these were small trucks each carrying one large stone. The stones
varied in weight from half a ton to ten tons and more. They were
rough-hewn from the quarry, for as Rennie was going to let the sea build
the wall, it was better that the stones should be irregular in shape.
Each ship, being loaded, sailed to the line of the buoys, and, safely
moored to one of them, proceeded to unload. This was done by wheeling
the trucks, one after another, to an opening in the stern, where the
truck was tilted on one end and the huge stone toppled into the water.
The process of unloading took each ship about three-quarters of an hour.
There were forty-five other ships, each capable of carrying some fifty
tons of small stones and rubble. These latter cargoes were shot into the
water in much the manner that ordinary ballast is unloaded.

The first large stone, marking the beginning of Plymouth Breakwater,
went gurgling to the bottom of the Sound on August 12th, 1812, amid the
flutter of flags and the booming of cannon. It was the Prince Regent's
birthday, and Lord Keith, commander of the Channel Fleet, came to
witness the beginning of the great task. The stone fell on a spot called
the Shovel Rock, near the centre of the lines of buoys, and was very
soon covered by rubble from the next ship. Then the processio