The daily gazette., 1880-01-28
samuel Townsend on Canals.
To THE EDITOR OF THE GAZETTE

To THE EDITOR OF THE GAZETTE
DEAR sIR:--The season Of canal build.
ing has again returned. Last year the
Baltimore ship canal men advanced so
far as to get the general government to
pay out of the National Treasury for
runDing several experimental routes for
a canal across the Peninsula, with q
depth Of 20 feet OF navigable water. In
the reports of the Surveyors the Sassa-
fras route is reported TO be much the
cheapest and TO only cost eight and one
half millions OF dollars. do not, how
ever, recollect the proposed width; but
no ship canal wo1ld be of much account
of less width than 100 feet at the water
line, TO give room to large ships in which
to pass, which would, II cut down to
only require tide-locks at each end
would require width Of 300 feet at the
top. II Is was a through cut without
locks, it would have to be made from
one half a mile to one mile wide to al
low for washing and caving.
In order TO get depth of % feet the
cutting would take you just above Pools
Island In the Chesapeake Bay; the
Chesapeake would have to be deepensd
to the mouth Of the Sassafras river; that
stream would have to be- deepened for
miles, and then the cut over to Liston's
point on the Delaware Bay. Altogether
II Is job too expensive and unremuner-
ative for capitalists to undertake. | see
In the Transcript person recommends
the old Chesapeake and DELAY are canal
route; that would be another dead horse
job To get 20 feet of water they would
have to commence dredging the Chesa-
peake just above Pools Island, the
same AS the start for the Sassafras route,
then up the Elk river TO Back creek and
on to chesapeake city. From there the
canal would have to be dug % feet deep
er and five times as wide az it now is.
Then again there Is a shoal place In the
Delaware from the lower point of Pea
Patch Island towards Reedy Point. The
water off Piston,s Point, after you get
off quarter of mile In deeD. or 8
fathons but both, If The canal could be
made tor reasonable sum, would be a
round about way to the sea from Balti-
more. Ships would have to pay heavy
toll, when in less time ship for not one
cent could sail down the spleHdid Ches-
apeake Bay.
L picked up paper the other day that
states NJ. Lesseps, the Frenchman, SAYS
that dredgers cut the old Sutz to the
Red Sea, which was not a greater Job
than would be the dredging from Nor
ioih lor snip canal bnrOuRn the DIS
NAL Swamp to Alabama Sound.
The papers state that Lesseps says be
can for a reasonable s1m make canal
from Chagras to Panama Bay, near the
Panama railroad, for ships drawing %
feet and Al feet wide; 72,000,000 cuOIc
yards of rock would have to be re-
moved. He thinks the average future
size of ships should be 1000 tons, and
says ships should be built long and mar
row-in other words, iron canoes. Every
sailor knows such vessels would wiring
and twist TO pieces, and the idea of a
ship canal All feet wide for 5000 and
1000 ton ships to pass in Is mistake
one. Not less han 100 feet at water
line would do, and that, according to
Lcsseps, would give about 260, FAC, 1854
cubic yards of rock to be removed,
which, | suppose, would cost In the ag-
gregate $4 yard-making in stone work
alone 81 ,040, 1854 $50. Lesseps also says
that there would be a lock at each end; T;
that might do If the Bay of Panama was
a mill pond. All travellers over the
lsthmus know that there is a rise and
fall of about 20 feet twice in "a hours in
Panama Bay. Could ships be passed
through Those convenient 5000 and
10000 ton iron canoes? 1t Is said that
the earth passed through the ice or gla-
cial age aud the stone age. 1t must now
pass through tlfe humbug canal age.
But capitalists have too much sense tv
be caught in these canal schemes.
: SAMUEL TOWNSEND.
TOWNSEND, Jan. q, 1880.