The daily gazette., 1878-09-03
Letter from Samuel Townsend.

Frtend Isaac Kno,oles G. L. White, the
railroad agent at this place, handed me
your BreokWdter Light, and in it there
was q small editorial on "the raging shin
canal" and from one or two words in
said article i ives induced to write this
reply. You, think, state that Col Sam
Townsend, of Appoquinimink hundred,
assured you f1ve years ago that the canal
would soon be built. Isaac, you surely
must have been talking In your sleep or
dreaming when you wrote that sentence.
At no time have 1 told you or mortal
man that ship canal with say twenty
hve feet OF water In it would be made
from the waters Of the Chesapeake to the
Delaware; but on the contrary | have
both said and wrote that there never, in
my opinion, would be such canal made
in ten thousand years. / refer to the files
of the DEL. GAZETTE and the Middleto,or,
Transcript. And for the general govern
ment or State of Maryland to put CORDS
OF engineers to survey route for any
such purpose as ship canal would be q
robbery of the tax payers, for on any
line from Lewistown towards Baltimore
at an average depth of IL feet you come
to quick sand, or fine sand and water.
and suppose the country averages 40 feet
above tide water and you want twenty
five feet in the canal, that makes 65, and
then add or feet for the average rise
and fall of the tide, and if 6 feet, you
have II feet, and then deduct II feet
above quick sand and sand and water
and you have 50 or 60 feet in quick sand,
and that sand, as you take it out, more
supplies its place. You cannot pile, for
in would go your piles. Then If you make
it through cut the sand will have to be
removed and the canal treated as a river
And there Is no river from the banks of
Newfoundland to the Rio Grand through
a sandy soil with % feet of navigable wa
ter at low water mark that is less than
from three fourths to mile wide. Now,
Isaac, just think of deepening the chan
mel from opposite Swami Point, on the
Chesapeake, to Queenstown, to 25 feet
at low water; and then canal near 90
miles long and one mile long to Lewes-
town, and then cut to 25 feet at low wa
ter With proper stone jettles to keep
the channel open. And you, Isaac, have
a gigantic work; and if it would be In
tended to lay toll to pay interest, 1t would
take at least one hundred thousand dol
lars to pay the toll on one thousand ton
ship once through either way, and above
and below that figure according to tom
mage of the vessel; and all this to save,
if you are bound from Baltimore to the
northern part of Europe, about ] 80 miles.
If bound due east, or say to the Mediter-
ranean, the capes of the Chesapeake are
as near as the capes of the Delaware.
And for all trade below that line, South
America, the West Indies and Gulf of
Mexico, the Chesapeake has the advan-
tage of the shortest route. And now,
Isaac, l will treat you to the best jana
cia or anything spirituous to drink if you
will never again mention my name as
being friendly to such foolish project
as a ship canal across the peninsula; and
further, Isaac, leave off the "Col" 1 am
not a military man. am of the Quaker
persuasion. But sometimes when | come
across dull lntellects l have to use very
forcible language to make the proper i'm
preston. SAMUEL TOWNSEND.
Townsend, September 2, 1873.