The first row is designed for breaking the force of the waves, and the
second for lending its aid in times of high tempests, and stopping the
surge that has escaped from the first.
The extreme simplicity of this project has permitted its promoter to
affirm that in a few months, and with nine millions, he can inclose the
Havre roadstead.
The Little Roadstead, being thenceforward protected, will become an
excellent port of refuge in bad weather. In addition, a system of
lighters, or, better, a few floats connected with the shore and forming a
rock, will permit vessels to take on their cargoes with great rapidity.
Mr. Froideville's project presents the further advantage of rendering it
easier to put the port of Havre quickly in defense. A certain number of
floating batteries, anchored behind the breakwaters and protecting the
advances of torpedo boats by means of their firing, would make a
formidable defense. Not having to perform any evolutions, they might
without danger be invested with armor plate thicker than that of ordinary
ironclads. In order to complete the system, there might be erected upon
the Eclat shoal an ironclad fort like that which defends the entrance of
Portsmouth.
An English chronicler of the fourteenth century, in speaking of his
country, places it above all others, and declares that men are handsomer,
whiter, and purer blooded there than elsewhere, and he says that this is
so "because it is so.
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