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Dock Management Progress Section How Successful Dock Operators Have Met Problems of Giving Best Service to Ships Parr Terminal pier located on the western waterfront of Oakland harbor, Calif. erminal at Oakland Attracts ‘Trade HE growth of Oakland as a deep water port of call during the past seven years presents a spectacle unequaled in the annals of industrial history. A_ trifle less than seven years ago that portion of land fronting on the bay and which was known as the _ western waterfront was a waterfront in name only. What little channel there was available was clogged with mud, only small craft of shallow draft being able to negotiate the passage. This area of land, where now stands the Parr Terminal and the industries oc- cupying the adjacent leasehold, was a dreary, marshy strip of ground, un- productive, and tenanted only by sea- gulls. That barren strip of land, which had remained unnoticed and disre- garded for so many years, was, in reality, the open sesame to Orien- tal and European markets. In 1919 Fred D. Parr, head of the Parr Terminal, chose the western water- front as a terminal site, thereby changing the entire aspect of this sec- tion of the city. The breaking of ground for the Parr Terminal un- leashed the stored-up powers of the Reprinted from the Oakland Tribune. BY W. H. SCHETTER Eastbay and gave it an outlet for its latent energy. The campaign for the harbor bonds, which was_ recently brought to such a_ successful ter- mination, owed its inception to the fact that Eastbay citizens had been awakened to the potentialities inherent in their far-flung miles of harbor. And the pioneer work of the Parr Terminal, in developing the western waterfront, has been responsible, in a great measure, in bringing home the necessity for further development. The history of the Parr Terminal, as is usually the case with organiza- tion of a pioneer nature, is one re- plete with losses incurred in the first few years of its existence. The Parr interests erected a commodious ter- minal, modern in every respect, and planned with attention to every de- tail entering into the transfer of cargoes from rail to water and from water to rail, which involved an out- lay well in excess of $600,000. The terminal completed, numerous trans- oceanic lines announced their inten- tion of placing Oakland on their port of call list. The ships came, loaded with cargo, but it was soon found that the shallow channel which led to 33 $9,000,000 the Parr Terminal was inadequate to accommodate vessels of deep draft. Ship after ship grounded on the mud flats, with the resultant loss in free- ing them. Meanwhile, the dredging of the channel, which had been sched- uled for completion before the open- ing of the terminal, dragged on inter- minably. Complication after compli- cation arose to hinder the dredging operations, which were being under- taken by the civic government and the losses attendant upon grounded ‘vessels kept mounting. This obstacle has been eliminated, however, for some time past and the Parr Terminal today has at its com- mand a fine deep water approach. Any liner, irrespective of tonnage, is now able to safely negotiate the passage. Coincident with the securing of deep: water the Parr interests added ma- terially to their original investment and the terminal is now adequately equipped to handle all types of cargo in any quantity. These added facilities have enabled the Parr Terminal to secure the larg-. est single order of steel to be placed in the United States during the year 1925. This order, a tremendous total of 78,000 tons of steel in all, is the