There is still boating to be had at Wells Harbour on England’s northeast coast. But in 1781, the harbor, then already 300 years old, was clogged with silt, useless and inaccessible to ships. The port had served ships for 300 years. Sluices hadn’t worked. But the harbor commissioners seized on Sir Martin Browne ffolkes: Had his man-made embankment rerouted the natural flow of water and choked the port? The case went to a jury. Ffolkes brought in Robert Mylne, a London-based engineer, who