Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 17 Sep 1908, p. 23

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ran out into the sea 'at Quarry Bay Point. Labor, 'however, is the. cheapest commodity in China, and an army of coolies have leveled the mountain to Like ants they worked women, and and the unmusical quick tap of the hammer the ringing granite became one of the sounds which were listened for as Quarry Bay was ap- proached. The granite thus hewn from the mountain has been used in the construction of the dock, the slip- ways, and all the immense works ap- pertaining to a large ship building and repairing yard, and the result, even in its present unfinished state, presents an appearance of solidity and beauty that is remarkable. One does not associate beauty with engi- neering works usually, but the blue- gray granite reflects the sunshine, and the unsightly look of works in course of completion 1s wholly lacking here. the ground. it--men, not on children-- on By reclamation and the excavation 1,600,000 cu. yds. of material (51% acres) of land have been added to the service of man, and three parts of the foundations of the works are of solid granite. The dock itself is the largest in the far east, being 787 ft. long on the coping and 750 ft. on the keel blocks, with a width at the top of -- 120 ft. in the center and 83: ft. 6. in. at the bottom. It is built of cement concrete faced with granite, and is closed at the entrance with a sliding steel caisson weighing 400 tons. On the southern side of the dock three large siipways are in course of completion. Slipway No. 1 is claimed to be the largest in the world, and is 1,030 ft. long and 80 ft. wide. "It is very difficult," says the cor- respondent who sends us the photo- graphs from which our engravings have been prepared, "for westerners to realize the up-to-datedness in en- gineering matters of these far-distant colonies, and one certainly finds it hard to associate the new Quarry Bay dock yard with a small island off the China coast." There are no docks in Japan, the Straits Settlements, or the Philip- Pines that can in any manner com- bete with this latest addition to far eastern facilities, and the new dock cannot fail to have the very greatest -afluence on commerce between east and west, The grain barge P. P. Miller went aground north of White Lake harbor but was released without damage, -of construction. "TAE. MARINE REVIEW - PROPOSED CHICAGO-TOLEDO CANAL. Much interest is being evinced in all parts of the country regarding the projected waterway from Chicago to Toledo, O., the construction of which would reduce the present lake route by 500 miles. The Chicago Association of Com- merce has taken up the project and will endeavor to push the cause through its deep waterways commis- sion. This commission is now active- ly engaged in exploiting the lakes-to- the-gulf deep waterway plan, but so soon as that is well in hand will take up the Chicago-Toledo work in earn- est. The canal, as proposed, would be 244 miles tong and 20 ft. deep. It would start below South Chicago, cut across Michigan, and strike the lake about the entrance of the Maumee river, 10 miles below Toledo. From this point traffic could be diverted up the river-to the great elevators at and above Toledo, or a straightaway run "for Buttalo and" dake Ontario would be open. -- Captain William C. Clark, who has given the question of water transpor- tation careful study, said recently that the agitation for such a waterway was merely another indication of the very general awakening to the superiority of water freight transportation over railroad and land carriage in availabil- ity and dispatch. The New -York Central & Hudson River, the Penn- sylvania, the Erie, the Delaware & Lackawanna, the Lehigh Valley and other great trunk line railroads have for many years owned and operated their own propeller lines on the Great Lakes. between Buffalo, Chicago and other great western ports. Railroads have recently been claiming great losses because of the overwhelming advantage of waterways over rail- roads in moving freights. Even debt- burdened Russia is about to com- mence the expenditure of $800,000,000 in the vast improvement of her canal system; some of her great. water highways of commerce are to be pro- vided with a uniform depth of 35 ft. of water. In this line of water trans- portation improvement the great Mis- sissippi river and tributaries are to be extensively improved at no distant dates, while New York's own barge canals connecting Lakes Erie, On- tario and Champlain with the Atlan- tic ocean, are under slow progress "When our state barge canals are completed," contin- ued the speaker, "they will prove to ney See so" facilities at a vast 23 ote the most beneficial work of the kind ever attempted and consummated in the history of man. "Following immediately upon the heels of these greatest of undertak- ings comes a perfectly feasible prop- osition of shortening the great water route--a long stretch of 500 miles be- tweerl New York and Chicago--by cutting a canal across the peninsula from Lakes Michigan to Erie known as the state of Michigan; -Nor is this all the advantage to be gained by excavating this short-cut canal across that flat stretch of territory. It will not only shorten the water route to the great advantage of pro- ducers and consumers living in a 'large section of our great common country, but it will also build up a wide stretch of. country through' which it directly passes. Last, but not least, it will prolong the great lakes navigation season for weeks both in the spring and fall, because of the fact that it goes far to the south- ward of the Mackinaw Straits, or the present route bordering along the cold Canadian shore. There is every ar- gument to be made for speedy com- mencement and the hasty completion of this work, and it is just the time now to do it in these times of busi- ness depression when an army of the unemployed are seeking after some- thing to do. At this juncture it will not only prove a God-send to thou- sands of willing workers in a large' line of trades and callings, but will also prove a safe and sound invest- ment, for every dollar honestly ex- pended thereon by the directly inter- ested states will be returned to them over and again in expediting and cheapening the cost of transportation for the benefit of the people living in a very large section of the United States. ; "The proposition as put forth is to excavate this ship canal to a 20-ft. depth with corresponding locks' and widened channel. My idea is that this great short-cut canal should be- provided with at least 25-ft. depth of water to accommodate the future grain, flour, provision, iron, ore, steel, coal, copper, lead, stone, lumber and other available products. This canal would 'then be 10 ft. shallower than debt- burdened Russia is going to give her 1,000-mile link canal, which is not a short-cut-off waterway like this of only 250 miles long at the most. Our Canadian neighbors have been making hay while the sun has shone in providing free terminal and water-

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