The Downs (ship anchorage)

From the Elizabethan era onward the presence of the Downs helped to make Deal one of the premier ports in England, and in the 19th century it was equipped with its own telegraph and timeball tower to enable ships to set their marine chronometers.

Storms from any direction could also drive ships onto the shore or onto the sands, which—in spite of providing the sheltered water—were constantly shifting, and not always adequately marked.

The Downs served in the age of sail as a permanent base for warships patrolling the North Sea and a gathering point for refitted or new ships coming out of Chatham Dockyard, such as HMS Bellerophon, and formed a safe anchorage during heavy weather, protected on the east by the Goodwin Sands and on the north and west by the coast.

[2] The Downs lie between the Strait of Dover and the Thames Estuary, so both merchant ships awaiting an easterly wind to take them into the English Channel and those going up to London gathered there, often for quite long periods.

The Battle of the Downs took place here in 1639, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge in neutral English waters.