Autograph letter signed ("affectionately your dear Father") to I. K. Brunel ("my dear Isambart" [sic]), 2 pages on scrap paper with integral address leaf, 27th Nov, [18]41.

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Autograph letter signed ("affectionately your dear Father") to I. K. Brunel ("my dear Isambart" [sic]), 2 pages on scrap paper with integral address leaf, 27th Nov, [18]41.
Written only a day after the previous letter, when the breakthrough of the shield into the shaft is imminent. Although there has been an implied difficulty with the forward movement of the shield, "the Frames move easier." The join needs to be effected quickly in order to end the flooding, and with the least disturbance to the ground which is showing a tendency to sink.
"My Request of this day will come to you from the Board. I have only to say that the poling Boards are hardly 7ft. ⁶ from the Shaft -- and that the influx at the East side is just the same but only a few gallons from the shaft. The Frames move easier and no obstacle would have been felt if the Shield had been kept easy no fractures neither ---- Now we must do the least we can -- to break into the Shaft -- and turn off the water ---- The ground has sunk again several feet in the middle of the Wapping wharf at the back of the shield ---- no increasing of water. fare you well --"
With the post-script: "Nothing seems to impede further progress."

Lot Essay

Brunel's statement "that the poling boards are hardly 7ft. 6 from the Shaft" indicates that the tunnel was now only this short distance from completion after being driven from the Rotherhithe to the Wapping shore. Oak poling boards, each three inches thick and propped in place by two poling screws, were used to secure the face of the tunnel and were in fact all that stopped it from caving in, while rollers above the head of the frames carried two top staves to support the roof.

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