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The Louth Canal should be properly entitled the Louth Navigation as it runs parallel to and shares the water of the nearby River Lud. It was opened in 1770 and provided an 18km long waterway link to the sea at Tetney Haven. It was a "broad canal" with minimum lock width of 15ft 3in (4.6 metres) and depth 5.33 feet (1.62 m) over the sill, designed for use by vessels with much broader beam than the "narrowboats" for which most canals in Britain were designed. Sea-going ships (albeit small ones) could access Louth and there were regular sailing to London and other east coast ports by way of the canal. From 1848, the canal faced competition from the construction of the railway to Louth. In 1920, parts of the canal infrastructure were seriously damaged by flooding and the canal closed finally for navigation in 1924. All the locks have been dismantled and replaced by weirs or sluices, the water level has been lowered by nearly 2 metres and the canal is now, in effect, a river which carries most of the water of the River Lud. The Louth Navigation Trust was formed in 1986 to protect, enhance and restore the environmental, heritage and amenity aspects of the Navigation.