Notwithstanding the great difficulties he has had to contend with from almost incessant bad weather, with the wind blowing dead on shore nearly the whole of the month of January, and consequently preventing the tides from ebbing sufficiently out to allow of the work being properly proceeded with, and notwithstanding the occurrence of more than one storm at the most critical period of the work, he has, as I fully relied upon his doing, succeeded in so far protecting the ship, that she has been comparatively unaffected by violent seas, which, there is no doubt whatever, would otherwise have seriously damaged her. We may now calculate with tolerable certainty upon preserving her without further injury until the finer or at least more settled weather sets in. In the work which Captain Claxton undertook, and has so successfully completed, he has been compelled to vary very materially the mode of proceeding first laid down; he has, in fact, been obliged to adapt his plans to his means of execution, and almost from day to day to devise modes of proceeding with only the experience of the past day to guide him. Numerous unforeseen difficulties have occurred, upon which he kept me daily informed; and simple as my plan might have appeared to others, it required much skill, contrivance, and unwearying perseverance to carry out so many alterations and improvements as it progressed. I had relied confidently on success when my friend Captain Claxton undertook the work, and the result has fully confirmed my expectations. It is now necessary to turn our attention to the best mode of removing the ship. I hope in about a fortnight from the present time to be able to give you some opinion upon this point, but it is one requiring much consideration; and until I had the opportunity of conferring with Captain Claxton on the subject, and also had before me all the measurements and data which he has collected, it was useless to attempt it. * * * * * The construction of the breakwater will be understood by the following extracts from a report made by Captain Claxton to the Admiralty. ‘Great Britain,’ July 16, 1847. ...Mr. Brunel’s instructions to me were principally by word of mouth; the difficulty to be got over, in his opinion, being the foundation upon sand, varying in depth according to the points or hollow of a substratum of rock, and according to the quarter from which the wind blew.