The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-04-04
A QUICK TRIP.
Mayor and Board Of Trade Commit,
tee Home Again.
FROM THEIR ERRAND TO THE
NATIONAL CAPITAL.

The Deepening of Portland's Harbol
Urged Before the Committee on Rivers
and Harbors-The Committee Loud in
Their Praises of Their Treatment in
Washington-The Committee Made a
Pleasant Call on Speaker Reed.
Mayor Baxter and the Board of Trade
committee are home again from their
visit to Washington to appear before the
committee on Rivers and Harbors In the
interest Of the deepening of the channel
in Portland harbor. The gentlemen
made lightning trip leaving Portland
at o'clock Wednesday, and appearing
before the committee on Thursday at 8
1 p. m.
The committee are loud in their praise
of their pleasant treatment by everybody
with whom they came in contact
at the National capital.
Thursday afternoon the committee COM
posed of Mayor Baxter, Mr.. Seth l.. Lar
rabee. Mr.. Il. B. Winslow, Captain j.
S. Winslow, and Mr.. Charles w. L. God
ing met the committee on Rivers and
Harbors.
| Mr.. Larrabee began by stating that
they were there as representing the Port
land Board of Trade and fifty other
boards of trade In the state and that their
purpose was to have some permanent
improvement made in the harbor of Port.
land. he said that it was the finest har-
| Dor naturally upon the AtlanJic coast
that it was the most important of the
Eastern harbors, that it had very stable
waters and had remained in the condition
it now is with such improvements as
have been made by government dredg-
ing substantially
WITHOUT CHANGE FOR CENTU-
RIES,
and that any Improvement that h ad been
made was permanent and that, although,
the harbor had we'll served It's purpose in
the past and had been reasonably ample
for all requirements, yet the condition
of things has SO changed in the oonstruc-
ton of modern vessels and in the in
creased tonnage of the new vessels as
to render it essential that some improve.
ment be made. The present oondi-
tion of the harbor does not ALLOW OF the
manouvering of the transatlantic steam
ers that come to our port. The width of
the channel is not sufficient for them TO
turn in and clear the docks when they
are ready to sail but it is with difficulty
that the larger vessels are able to get
away from the port, and this is much more
noticeable within Ihe last few years be-
cause of the increased size of the ships
coming to our port. The proposition to
| extend the ocean service will necessarily
make our channel still narrower because
the prolongation of the wharves into the
channel as the only place where they can
| be heightened will make it much narrow
| er than itis.noW and that we must length
en- them is true because of the oonstruo-
ton of vessels now already upon the
stocks; they could not be docked by sany
of the now existing docks in Portland,
and that If they could have
A REASONABLE IMPROVEMENT
in the channel by widening ana deepen
ing they could have a dockage as large as
the port of Liverpool. And the large
transportation lines like the Boston &
Maine and Maine Central would like to
| be accommodated with vessels for ocean
transportation. In reply to question by
the chairman, Mr.. Hooker, as to the ex-
pense OF widening, deepening and length
ening the harbor, Mr.. Larrabee said that
they were assured that an expenditure of
from half to three-quarters of a million
would make the harbor Of PORTLAND the
best harbor in the world.
| Mr.. Larrabee then introduced Mr.. Bax-
| ter. He began by stating TO the commit
| tee that Portland was regarded as one of
the very best harbors on the Atlantic sea-
| board. and that in case of war would
probably be- one Of the first places to in
vite attack, as it would afford base for
m litary operations which would be de-
| slred of course by the enemy as we lie so
near Canada. He stated that the present
channel is only 800 feet in width and the
Grand Trunk wharves are the only
wharves which can be now used for ocean
| traffic. The harbor is easy of entrance
| and
REQUIRES NO PILOT
| for incoming vessels, and these are the
only wharves which can be used.
| Above these wharves are twenty other
wtaryes which are from 500 to 1000 feet
in length and which cannot be reached
by ocean steamers at all. The Grand
Trunk wharves are about 400 feet long.
They were long enough for vessels as they
were formerly constructed but not long
enough now. There was at present a
steamer being built to come there that
was $40 feet long. That the Grand Trunk
would have to extend their wharves 100
feet into the channel and that would
marrow the channel up to 200feet, which
would be impracticnble. TIE plan before
| the committee now was to extend 1T to
| 900 or 1000 feet and carry it up into the
inner harbor. AS the harbor was now
even the ooastwise steamers could with
great difficulty get into the inner harbor.
He corroborated what Mr.. Larrabee said
with regard to the permanency of i'm
provements and of the harbor in general; ;
| that the bottom was not of shifting
character and if once excavated remained
SO, so that they could assert positively
that there had been no change for the
1 e.