Opening address

To most port managers dredging is an expensive nuisance and to maintenance engineers it is usually an exasperating chore in which the widow's cruse principle is a curse rather than a blessing. In the biblical parable the constant level of oil, however much she used it, was a comfort and a joy to the widow, but a constant level of mud, however much one dredges out, is a costly chore and a nuisance to the engineer.

In the UK we have been so little dredging minded that a necessity for maintenance dredging has hitherto been almost a decisive factor against proceeding with a project for a port development. This, I suppose, springs from our having had the advantage of an indented coastline in which we have been able to find harbours of adequate depth of water with‐out dredging for the ships of the day. I doubt if we can so continue if we are to develop ports for the requirements of the future.