Some of the “flensing” apparatus, and one or two of the instruments used in “making-off” the blubber, he variously modified and improved, substituting for some very clumsy contrivances employed in the latter operation, compact and well-adapted instruments.
The _ice-drill_, a handy and very effective instrument for setting an _ice-anchor_, was his contrivance, being a great improvement upon the old _ice-axe_.
The talent for contrivance and improvement, as thus practically evinced, was by no means limited in its exercises to subjects of a mere professional nature. The town and harbour of Whitby, with regard to some important modern improvements, have reaped conspicuous benefits from my Father’s suggestions.
His views on various matters of improvement in the town and harbour, with their respective approaches, were first put forward in a pamphlet which he published in the winter of 1816-17; and in 1826, about three years after his retirement from the sea, the substance of the original pamphlet, revised, extended, and illustrated by engraved plans, was again brought out under the title of “An Essay on the Improvement of the Town and Harbour of Whitby, with its Streets and neighbouring Highways; designed also for the Maintenance of the labouring Classes who are out of Employment.”
The improvements herein suggested, appear so far to have commended themselves to the local executive authorities, that, in certain important particulars, corresponding improvements have already been carried into effect.
Of these various suggestions, the one by far the most important of all is evidently that designed for deepening the harbour-channel, and rendering the entrance more safe and accessible.
For a long period the harbour of Whitby had been protected, seaward, by two principal piers,—one running from the eastern cliff about 215 yards, in a north-westerly direction, and the other (a fine specimen of massive and substantial architecture) running north-north-easterly, along the western side of the harbour, and extending beyond the line of the west cliff, a distance of about 940 feet into the sea. This longer pier, at the time my Father wrote, stretched out a distance of about 100 yards (reckoned from the general direction of the coast) farther than the head of the other, leaving, however, a clear width, for the entrance of the harbour, of about ninety-two yards.