Channels

Our waters are shallow with many shoals and sandbanks. The safe channels have been known for many centuries and some, such as the Spitway, are mentioned in old documents. There are also our rivers which have names for the different reaches and creeks. As the same term often applies to both the bank and the channel, i.e. Ray Sand, some items are allocated to both categories.

Tizard, writing in 1890 defines the channels in the Estuary:

…the channels between them[the banks], trend in a north-east and south-west direction: this is doubtless due to the fact that the stream outside the estuary is running to the northward whilst the tide is ebbing from the river, and, consequently, the ebb stream in the estuary is deflected to the north-east-ward. 1The north-east set of the tide is reinforced by the Coriolis effect due to the Earth’s rotation.


The channels into the estuary, therefore, must be classed under two headings : (a) those which follow the main line of the flood and ebb streams, and (b) those which do not follow the general stream of the tide.


In the former category are the Warp, West Swin, Middle Deep, East Swin, Barrow Deep, Oaze Deep, and Black Deep; in the latter are the Middle Swin, Queen’s Channel, Prince’s Channel, Alexandra Channel, Duke of Edinburgh Channel, Gore Channel, &c., which are all more or less of the nature of swatchways across the main line of the sand-banks of the estuary. In the Black and Barrow Deeps, which are the deepest and straightest channels through the estuary, the ebb stream runs 7 hours and the flood 5 hours, and the ebb is much stronger than the flood, the stream setting fairly through. In the Duke of Edinburgh Channel, the deepest swatchway of the estuary, the streams at the north and south ends are of a rotatory character, revolving with the hands of the clock.

Tizard, T. H. (Thomas Henry). The Thames Estuary. 1890

Some terms:

Reach, Deep, Fleet, Swatch, Swash, Channel, Gat, Way, Warp

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Notes

Questions

Sources

Footnotes

Image Sources and Credits

  • 1
    The north-east set of the tide is reinforced by the Coriolis effect due to the Earth’s rotation.

Image Credits and Sources

  • Deben-Plate: Source UKHO Archive. Copyright Protection has now lapsed
  • 1902-Chart-of-Ray-Sand-from-Messums-East-Coast-Rivers: 1902 Chart of Ray Sand from Messums East Coast Rivers
  • FI Bawdsey-Seamark-from-Di-Coulting-1447×2048@2x_cr: Courtesy of Coulting, Di - Boathouse Cafe Bawdsey | All Rights Reserved

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