Wichita eagle., 1889-08-13
A TEXAS DEEP HARBoR.

recently, was not the only request or
inquiry l had concerning deep water
and the probabilities of securing it at an
early date on the Texas coast that had
while In the north. The widespread
interest manifested in the efforts to
secure deep water was surprising to me-.
A large number of Wichita citizens
whom | met dnring my short stay in
your city, asked many questions about
Sabine Pass and the other places on the
coast that claim to be available points
for deep water ports. Especially those
engaged to any degree in trade or traffic
are interested. As you are probably
aware | am a recent arrival in Texas.
and l am not as thoroughly posted on
deep water as some of the old wheel
! horses of the state, but the proximity of
the city to the gulf and the universal
interest taken by everybody here in deep
water has caused me to make a few
investigations which l will gladly give
to the EAGLE.
! Sabine Pass has now over thirteen
feet OF water at low ebb tide. THIS is
something no other candidate on the
Texas coast for deep water honors can
claim. The depth of the water when
work was first begun in 1888 was six
feet Thirty feet of water is needed.
This would have been accomplished long
ago but for the niggardly appropriations
by the government With twenty feet of
water almost the heaviest ships can pass,
but thirty feet is deemed necessary for
all contingencies by the engineers.
Had the government at first thoroughly
understood the natural advantages of
Sabine Pass for deepwater, the entire
west and southwest would be now ell
joying the prerequisites of a sea port on
the sea coast. 1t has required and will
require big sums of money to procure
deepwater, but the government has
seemed to pursue the idea of false econ
omy so often and fatally followed in ap-
preparations for public works. Sabine
Pass has SO far received 100000 for
work on its jetties. 1t will require ST.
900, 600 more to complete the work. The
engineers appointed to survey the Texas
coast and recommend the necessary ap-
preparations for deepwater at the various
places claiming to be available ports of
entry, said in their report that 81 600, 900
should at once be given to complete
what has already been undertaken at
Sabine Pass.
The Beaumont Deep Water conven-
ton, which was called by the board of
trade of this city and held in Beaumont
on July 16. was brilliant success and
largely attended. | was one of the dele
gates from New Birmingham. l made a
close and minute examination of every
claim made by the friends of Saline Pass
for making that deep water port and
found them verified in every instance.
The convention went by rail to Sabine
Pass and then boarded a steamer and
went out to the end of the ietties.
found the bottom of Sabine Pass to be
black alluvial mud, easily removed, and
it is because of this mud that Sabine Pass
can be made port of entry at less ex-
pense than any other place on the Texas
coast.
The enemies of Sabine Pass are fond
Of using as an argument against that sea
port and against the passage of appro-
priatiOns for it, that there is no harbor
for vessels and no place for wharfage.
Any man who will visit it and take a
trip down to the jetties will become con-
WINGED that such tales concerning Sabine
Pass could originate only in the brain of
an INSCRIPTIONS enemy to that point
and a man whose self interest in some
Pass as a successful competitor in the
race for deep water.
After crossing the bar at the mouth of
the Pass you enter from forty to sixty
feet of water that extends for six miles
through the Pass to Sabine lake. This
lake is about thirty miles long by twenty
wide. The river or Pass from the lake
to the gulf is six miles long, and
that gives six miles of excellent warfage
on each side of it. Sabine Pass is so
located that with the proper fortifica-
tons made upon the oyster reefs in the
gulf few miles out, and then again in
the mouth of the pass, the combined
navies of the world could not destroy
the commerce within that land-lOcked
gate made by nature.
Captain f. A. Hyatt has charge of the
work on the jetties and is prosecuting it
in an able manner. He told me that
with the necessary dredging machinery
(the Eads' dredge, think he said) he
twenty to twenty-four feet deep within
that 100000 will be enough
water at Sabine Pass, and
IT, lllo SUI GULL
poses the bar and which is the only OBJ
struction to commerce at the present
time, is SO nearly the consistency of
water that when once stirred up, the
current takes it out into the gulf before
it can settle again. When the jetties
are completed the current through
them will be nearly as swift as a mill
race. The water on the outside of the
jetties is higher than it Is on the inside
and hence the current created IS greater
and materially augments securing out
the mud.
The other places on the Texas coast
that are clamoring for deep water have
bars of sand which are much
more difficult to overcome than the
mud at Sabine Pass. You can dis
place sand but you cannot. without
great expense, remove it. The tide will
wash it back in spite of all you do. That
is why Sabine Pass is endowed with nat
ural advantages which make it the
cheapest point for deep water on the
Texas coast
Before the war there was deep water
at: Sabine Pass. The Confederate au-
thorities filled I'D the Pass in order to
prevent the Federals from landing
their gun boats, and there is now in
sight the hull of an old man-of-war that |
was sunk during hostilities. Had this
man-of-war been sunk in sand instead of
mud it would have been out Of
sight long ago. \ vessel that gets
stuck in the sand will lash itself
to pieces in a very short time while it
will cradle itself into an easy position in
mud and last life time and not be IN /