The pier's design incorporated the innovations Brown was known for; after he retired from the Royal Navy he had sold his patented wrought-iron chain to the Admiralty, which used it for the next hundred years as anchor cable on ships.
The pier's design incorporated the innovations Brown was known for; while serving in the Royal Navy he had experimented with using chain instead of rope in sailing ships' rigging, and in 1808 he had patented a new kind of wrought-iron chain. He sold it to the Admiralty, which used it as anchor cable on ships.