Sussex (England) -- Description and travel; Sussex (England) -- History; Sussex (England) -- Pictorial works
will always be a rather anxious place to get in and out of, especially
as there is a very strong tide in the Ouse. A dozen miles or so farther
westward along the coast is the modern entrance of Shoreham Harbour.
This harbour has a rather awkward bar, and it is not infrequently
necessary to wait for the tide; moreover the tideway runs like a stream
right athwart the mouth, and therefore tends to make one run dangerously
near the pier-heads if the wind is light, but, once this bar is crossed
and the piers past, Shoreham still affords very good moorings for a
small boat, and it also is well situated for proceeding in any direction
inland; but one must be careful to take the right-hand or eastern branch
of the harbour, and not to go up the river on the left-hand side, as the
former is deep, secure, and well-wharfed, while the latter has steep,
shingly banks, and soon becomes extremely shallow.
At much the same distance from Shoreham that Shoreham is from Newhaven
will be found the harbour of Littlehampton, which is in some ways the
best of all as a centre or goal for small craft. Its great drawback is
its bar, which is the worst in the whole county, worse even than that of
the Rother. In spite of continual dredging this bar is perpetually
appearing above the surface at low spring tides, and it is hopeless to
attempt to enter at any draught of water before half-tide. The bar is,
however, quite close to the end of the pier; there is good holding
ground for anchor, and signals of showing from the pier-head
signal-staff clearly indicate the depth over the bar at any moment. The
heavy gales from the south-west, which are the only dangerous ones on
those parts of the coast (with the exception of some very rare
south-easterly gales), are broken for Littlehampton by the Owers Bank,
and to some extent by the group of rocks which run eastward from them,
and there are very few days when it is not safe to anchor outside and
wait for the tide.
Once inside, the Arun will be found the most practicable and the most
delightful of Sussex rivers for the sailor. There is depth for seagoing
vessels all the way up to Arundel, the approach to which is perhaps the
most striking approach to a port to be found in England. Half-way on
this journey is a rolling railway bridge, but there is no other
obstruction and plenty of water all the way. At Arundel is the first
permanent bridge, but a small boat, or a boat with a lowering mast, can
go on much farther up the river. The tide will carry one, when there
is
[Illustration: THE ARUN, NEAR PULBOROUGH]
[Sidenote: THE ARUN]
no backwater or flood, as high as Pulborough in the heart of the county.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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