 The venture was a commercial failure, as development of Norwich as a port did not occur and Lowestoft harbour was subject to silting.With income failing to match expenditure, the Exchequer Bill Loan Commission could not be repaid, so they took over the navigation in 1842 and sold it to the railway contractor Sir Samuel Morton Peto.With the decline in the use of wherries for commercial trade on the rivers prior to the Second World War, navigation ceased on several stretches of the Broads, including the section of the river from Geldeston Lock to Bungay, where navigation rights were removed in 1934.