The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-25
WATER CRAFT IN NEW YORK.
Some Statistics OF Business Done on
the Water Front.
From the Ne,o York Star.


From the Nsso York Star.
There are, on an average. over 5000 YES
saIs-craft of all sizes and kinds, devoted to
all kinds of servlce-lying in the port of
Nav York at all times. The harbor system
n New York has a water front of $50
miles. of which eighty miles are occupied by
locks and piers, and here most of these
S-sssels lie. Twenty-three hundred of
me 600 are solely harbor craft This num-
her includes 374 sailing vessels under twenty
TONS uominally in the coasting trade, but too
nall to make more than an occasional trip
IN the sound. They are sail lighters, or do
JIty as oyster and fishing boats. The
lasting trade has enrolled in New York
074 'sailersn of over twenty tons, and 500
srasm vessels. These put In frequent APP
oaarance. sometimes daily, anu often there
re 900 or 800 of them in port at one time.
Exclusive of the harbor craft, about 500
vessels are generally lying in the harbor and
11cinity, When awaiting berth or getting
ready to slip out to sea, where the bay be
Inns to curve in around by the Erie Basin,
and lust out of the stream, Is favorite
Dlsce Of anchorage.
During the year ending June so, 1888 the
LATEST statistics obtainable), 1851 vessels, of
56S3371 tons, entered the port of
New York from foreign countries. These
fgnres are approximately correct for to-
dev. Only one-fifth Of these vessels were
American bottoms. There were PAT arrivals
of American steamers, 1,9lS of foreign
build From this port only 3S9 vessels are
Tagistered as being in the foreign trade
945 sail and Al steam. But the list con-
FINALLY repeats itself. One vessel arrives
many times, and vessels come in which are
registered at other ports
New Works imports during the period
mentioned amounted to $40, 426, TIA; the
exnorts. 500, 627, 1876. The principal items
of the former were $51 100000 worth of
coffee. and S31 900. 900 worth of sugar. The
chief exports were grain, worth S57, 10000
and oil crude and refined, worth $31 ,000,-
400. One seventh of this was carried in
American vessels. The harbor has ga place
for everything The principal commodi-
ties brought into it have their own especial
localities. and the chief exports are in dis
~.icts of their own. The grain comes off
me cars or the canal boats, and is lightered
across the harbor to the stationary grain
elevators at the South ferry or the Atlantic
basin, Brooklyn. Here the tramp steamers
load The regular liners take in the grain
at their own docks. For this there Is feet
of thirty to forty floating elevators.
On the Long Island shore at Bay Ridge
is the place where the yaC hts lie, in and out
If commission. Further cltyward are dry
docks, cotton storehouse and the lumber
wards about the Gowanus canal In the
Erie basin and around the bend of the bay
are shipyards, great naval store yard and
warehouses for general merchandise and
cotton. About the Atlantic basin and
along down South ferry are stored jute,
tobacco, molasses and sugar From South
street TO little below Wall street come the
great sugar warehouses. Below to the
bridge are stored coffee. spices and East
India goods; beyond this more sugar and
tobacco. On the other side of the navy
yard lies the oil district, dotted with lumber
yards and sugar refneries-
On New York's east side, from the Bat
terry to the bridge, long row of piers is
devoted to loading sailing vessels. At
Coenties' slip congregates the canalboat
fleet, and here the up-river lows are made
up. The fish boats collect opposite the
Fulton market. Beyond the bridge are
domestic steamship liues, the dry docks and
scattered piers. Over across the city the
first mile of water front is held by railroad
docks and ferries. Then come the berths OF
foreign and local steamers. AT the foot of
West Tenth street. Charles street. Perry
street aud West Eleventh street IS the haunt
of the oysterman, aud here his boats may
be found. just above Is great brick
loading locality.
From Communipaw and the Jersey flats
to Weehawken stretches out long line of
railroad piers, sandwicbed in with a few
docks belonging to foreign steamship lines
and a couple of sugar refineries. AT Con-
stable Hook and Bayonne are the high and
mighty oil works. On the Staten Island
shore are great cotton warehouses and docks,
and here the new terminal of the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad, now nearing completion,
Is TO come. The Lehigh Valley railroad
10 caiH oil &c 70 h,1itd n IA taol
the flats at COmmunipaw, but the location
Is under water at present.
There are half dozen sets of coal docks
lnJersey City and Hoboken, but that article
is mostly brought up in tows from Perth
AmbOy. Twenty-one regularly established
canal lines have terminus in'New York,
and there are nearly fifty regular steamship
lines
The records of what are actually harbor
craft are rather uncertain to go by. The
law is that every craft of over five tons
SHALL be licensed; if over twenty tons it
must have two SETS of papers, be lice. 4sed,
and also enrolled. An exception is made,
however, in the case of barges and lighters,
which are always about the harbor and
never carry other than domestic merchan-
disc. They need no papers. There are not
many of them, and they are principally
coal boats. Very few canal beats are on
tuo DOOhs mere. 1u9y are 0nTOlI0Q ana
licensed principally at inland ports, such as
buffalo and Plattsburg. But they are slip
perry craft, and often evade the getting of
any papers at all. There are other small
boats which are conducted in the same
way.
Enrolled here are $50 barges. Under this
mead come lighters, excursion barges, fiat
poats, scows, railroad aud ice barges. AL
lneSe are without motive power of their
own, and are designed to be pulled along by
tugs For pleasure only, there are 21e
Vessels whose motive power is steam
number nearly 1900. OF ocean passenger
noats which make regular coastwise trips,
Tue record books show Al; of inland passen-
ger boats merely about the rivers, the sound
ana the bay, there are 1894. There are 13(
1Ieereryboats, 32l tugboats and towing craft
lVo freight boats and 116 steam yachts. In
Tue llst headed miscellaneous" are enumer.
aIea lighters, 9 fishing boats. IL elevators
88uIedglng vessels (many of these are CLASH
hea as lighters, 5 canalboats, 3 fireboats
~ oyster boats and 10 water boats.
me fleet of Sandy Hook pilotboats con
Ss| OF twenty-five New York and eighr
Jersey boats. There are some 200 pilots il
a pl The harbor has two police boats-tht
aaLrol and the Judge Moore. The latter II
attached to Brooklyn. There are three fire
21oats-the Seth Low of Brooklyn, the
Z!phar Mills and the W f. HaVefneyer OF