The morning news., 1889-03-16
THE SPOT TO BUILD SHIPS
HUTCHINSON's ISLAND A SITE FOR
THE NEW NAVY YARD.


The Naval Commission Under
Wrong Impression as to the Depth
of Water on the Typee Bar-savan-
nah Has Nearly the Same Amount Of
Water as Port Royal and sapelo, and
More Than Brunswick-An Effort to
Bring the Commissioners Here.
The possibility that Savannah may secure
the new navy yard which the government
is TO build in the south is exciting a good
deal of interest here. The naval commits
sion, which is now at Beaufort and
Port Royal, is under instructions
from the navy department, but
no mention was made Of Savannah as even
possible site for the station.
An effort will be made to bring the com
mission here to inspect the harbor and
Hutchinson island. This will have to be
brought about through the navy depart
ment.
Capt. Brownson, who is one Of the com
mission, stated to the members of the com
mittee, which went to Charleston on Thurs
day. what the commission understood TO bs
fact, that Sayannah's mean low water
on Tybee outer bar is not more than IS to 16
feet, which was not a sufficient depth %
justify bDt luGdblOn OI bub bUdblOn mere. As
matter OF fact, at mean low water the
depth on the outer bar is 10 feet at the low
est, and the members Of the commission
were SO advised.
WHAT LIEUT. CARTER SAYS.
Lieut.. Carter. in charge Of the Savannah
river and harbor improvement, was seen
last night, and he corroborated tho state
ment that the mean low water depth on the
bar is nineteen feet This depth" Lieut..
Carter said, with the mean rise Of the tide,
gives twenty-six feet at mean high water
At spring tides, Of course, this depth is even
greater. The depth in Tybee roads is
ample for any draught ships. Vessels draw
ing now twenty-five feet can go without
the least obstruction from the city to the
sea-
"The improvements of the Savannah
river, Leus. Garter explained, 'have taken
place within comparatively recent period,
and nearly all of the published charts being
based upon surveys before these improve
ments were completed, fail to show the
depth Of water which Savannah actually
has, and any opinions based upon old coast
survey charts are likely to be very errone-
GUS. At the close of the war; Lieut. Car
ter said 'the average maximum draught
vessels entering the harbor was about ID
feet. At present, vessels % feet can go from
the wharves to the sea-"
THE SAVANNAH RESEMBLES THE CLYDE
The Savannah river resembles to GER
tain extent the Clyde river in that the
stream, above Fort Pulaski, is not a broad,
deep arm of the sea, but a channel compar-
atively narrow, still capable of being easily
improved to any required extent. The
Clyde river did not possess the advantages
which the Savannah river does, and before
1t was improved TO its present condition by
modern appliances it could have been
easily forded at almost any point where the
improvements have been made. The depth
of water on the Tybee bar is about the
same as that of Port Royal or Sapelo,
which has the deepest bars on the South At
lantic coast. None of them have suffi-
cient depth at low water to allow
deep draught ships to enter. Savannah pos
sesses an advantage over Port Royal in
that the water inside Of the bar here is
fresh, whereas at Port Royal it is salt.
Besides, Savannah has the advantage of
being directly connecta ! with the interior
by the railroads. Tho communications here
are largo and transportation quick.
MORE WATER THAN BRUNSWICK.
Lieut.. Carter says that savanna pos
sessed advantages over Brunswick. From
the last coast survey made at Brunswick
about a year ago. he said, 1--WE find about
III feet Of water at mean low water" He
thinks, however, that this depth possibly
has increased since then to about 1875 feet,
under the action of natural currents aud
operations carried on for the improvement
of the channel
The city, several members of the city
council say, will give the government any
site that it may desire on Hutchinson's
island Lieut. Carter says that there is a
pocket in Back river, opposite the lower
end Of Hutchinson's Island three-quarters
of a mile long aud from 500 to 900 feet
wide, which has a depth Of more that 20
feet at mean low water. Any desired iu-
creased depth could be easily obtained in
the soft material by dredging. Sufficient
room can be found on the island for tho
shops and other buildings required for a
naval station.