The Black Deep is in the outer

Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...

. It is the greatest of three mainly natural shipping channels linking the

Tideway The Tideway is a part of the River Thames in England which is subject to tides. This stretch of water is downstream from Teddington Lock. The Tideway comprises the upper Thames Estuary including the Pool of London. Tidal activity Depending on ...

to central zones of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

without shoals, the others being the Barrow Deep and Princes Channel. Between these, a few others, and the shores of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

are many long

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

s in the

, broadly shallow enough to wreck vessels of substantial

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

at low tide. Its open sea end is distant from but due east of Foulness Point and due south of

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea is a seaside town in the Tendring District in the county of Essex, England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District with a population of 56,874 (2016). The town is situated a ...

(both in

) and is bounded by two large typical sandbank form of shoals, the Knock John and Sunk Sands to the north-west, and the Girdler and Long Sands, the largest of those away from the shore spread out to the south and east.

Nautical markers

Deep- draught vessels making for the

Port of London The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Sea ...

from the

use it to approach from the north-east from the position of the Sunk lightship, thence into the narrow Knock John channel, to enter the

(lower Thames).Port of London Authority Area Procedures
, accessed 26-08-08. Passing south of the West Knock buoy off

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it ...

, large

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

s also tend to use the channel when entering or exiting the Medway estuary as it has a minimum depth of 14 metres as far as

Kingsnorth Kingsnorth is a mixed rural and urban village and relatively large civil parish adjoining Ashford in Kent, England. The civil parish includes the district of Park Farm. Features The Greensand Way, a long distance footpath stretching from Hasl ...

. Black Deep

United Kingdom Hydrographic Office The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is the UK's agency for providing hydrographic and marine geospatial data to mariners and maritime organisations across the world. The UKHO is a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is ...

, accessed 26-08-08.

History

Before reliable maps, navigation tools and warnings, such as buoys and lightvessels, the outer Thames Estuary was hard to navigate due to its many sandbanks. The whole zone is also known as the Thames Shoals. One of the earliest references to

maritime pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who maneuvers ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots are regarded as skilled professionals ...

age dates from 1387 and refers to a pilot "of the Black Deeps" in the estuary.History of Pilotage Part 1
''The Pilot'' (Official Journal of the United Kingdom Maritime Pilots' Association), accessed 27-08-08 Richard Caundish, sixteenth-century maker of the oldest known English

maritime chart A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land (topographic map), natural features of the seabed, details of the coa ...

, who had charted the Thames shoals, was assisted by a pilot who had found a new, safer route through the Black Deep.Taylor, E. G. ''The Haven-Finding Art'', Bodley Head, 1971 pp.192-193, A dark rumour of London in that century, put to paper by the

chronicler A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

John Rastell John Rastell (or Rastall) (c. 1475 – 1536) was an English printer, author, member of parliament, and barrister. Life Born in Coventry, he is vaguely reported by Anthony à Wood to have been "educated for a time in grammaticals and philosophi ...

and

Edward Hall Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was also sever ...

, by a continuer of

John Hardyng John Hardyng (or Harding; 1378–1465) was an English chronicler. He was born in Northern England. Biography As a boy Hardyng entered the service of Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur), with whom he was present at the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403). He the ...

's chronicle and later by

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.S. Bendall, 'Speed, John (1551/2–1629), historian and cartographer', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (OUP 2004/ ...

, had it that

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

, aided by the priest of Sir Robert Brackenbury, had disposed of the bodies of the murdered

Edward V of England Edward V (2 November 1470 – mid-1483)R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al, ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286. was ''de jure'' King of England and Lord of Ireland fro ...

and

Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

in the Black Deep, "whereby they should never rise up, or be any more seen".Speed, in Weever, J., ''Antient Funeral Monuments, of Great-Britain, Ireland, and the Islands Adjacent'',

William Tooke William Tooke (1744 – 17 November 1820) was a British clergyman and historian of Russia. Life Tooke was the second son of Thomas Tooke (1705–1773) of St. John's, Clerkenwell, by his wife Hannah, only daughter of Thomas Mann of St. James's, ...

(editor), 1767, p.291 As of strategic importance, access to the Deep has been restricted in wartime, while during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

naval forts stood at Sunk Head and Knock John to deter German

minelaying A minelayer is any warship, submarine or military aircraft deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for installing controll ...

. Until 1967 the daily

sludge Sludge is a semi-solid slurry that can be produced from a range of industrial processes, from water treatment, wastewater treatment or on-site sanitation systems. For example, it can be produced as a settled suspension obtained from conventiona ...

from London's main

Crossness Crossness is a location in the London Borough of Bexley, close to the southern bank of the River Thames, to the east of Thamesmead, west of Belvedere and north-west of Erith. The place takes its name from Cross Ness, a specific promontory on the ...

and

Beckton Sewage Treatment Works Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, formerly known as Barking Sewage Works, is a large sewage treatment plant in Beckton in the east London Borough of Newham, operated by Thames Water. Since construction first began in 1864, the plant has been exten ...

was dumped in the Black Deep away from

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

for three decades after Barrow Deep was used, after which it, better chemically treated, became legal to use as field fertiliser.Bazalgette and London's Sewage
portcities.org, accessed 26-08-08. From the same time a programme of dredging by the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

increased the depth of Knock John channel to open the Knock JohnBlack Deep route to large tankers.Port of London Journal, v52 (1977), p.6 Through much of the 1980s, Knock John Deep was the anchorage spot for

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...

's ''

Ross Revenge MV ''Ross Revenge'' is a radio ship, the home of Radio Caroline, as well as having supported Radio Monique and various religious broadcasters. Funded by the Icelandic government, she was constructed in Bremerhaven in 1960 and served as an I ...

'' ship.

Scope and soundings

To explain the numbers on the inset map a depth of 1₁ is a formula of six feet (i.e. one

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. Hi ...

) and 1 foot. It is fathoms. Some of Long Sands is less than this. Black Deep extends many more miles to the north-east. This excerpt shows clearly the detailed shallows which affect vessels of greater draught such as ships most severely. The southern connector to the Princes/Queens Channel, the South Edinburgh Channel is among the small deep channels that require good power and/or understanding of tides and position to navigate correctly – the

South Edinburgh Channel Wreck The remains of an eighteenth- to nineteenth-century cargo vessel were discovered in the South Edinburgh Channel, Outer Thames Estuary, northwest of Margate, Kent, England, in 1976. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 2 ...

was a wreck of a cargo vessel of about the 1810s.

London Array

The

London Array The London Array is a 175-turbine 630 MW Round 2 offshore wind farm located off the Kent coast in the outer Thames Estuary in the United Kingdom. It was the largest offshore wind farm in the world until Walney Extension reached full prod ...

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

is immediately to the east of the Deep.London Array: Location
, accessed 26-08-08.

References

{{reflist North Sea Geography of the River Thames Thames Estuary

Nautical markers

History

Scope and soundings

London Array

See also

References