The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-16
DEEP WATER ALL THE TIME.
CAPT. GILLETTE ADVISED WAR DE
PARTMENT ABOUT THE HARBoR.

GAIT. GILLETTE ADVISED WAR DE-
PARTMENT ABOUT THE HARBoR.
Vessels Drawing Twenty-Three Feet
of Water Can Go Out Any Day,
Under Ordinary ConditiOns-GoV-
eminent Wants to Be Able to
Move Troop and supply ships at
Any Time 1t May See Fit to Issue
the Orders-snvnnnnh Meets This
Important Requirement.
Capt. c. E. Gillette. United States Army
Engineer Corps, has notified the
army authorities that a vessel draw
ing % feet of water can leave Savan-
nah on any day and pass out to sea
That is to say, a troop ship
or vessel carrying supplies for the army,
whose draught is % feet, need never be
delayed at this port for special tides or
special winds.
On any day the war department should
see fit to direct the sailing of an expedi-
ton from Savannah to Cuba or Porto
Rico the vessels could up anchor and
steam out.
What the officials at washington desir-
ed to know in investigating the merits of
the several ports offered as sites for en-
campments, was what depth of water
could be relied upon under any and all
circumstances. They did not care to
know what the depth was TO the sea I'M
der special conditions, but what it was
every day in the year. The fact that a
vessel once left a port drawing "a or 25
feet of water was of no value TO them.
What they wanted was to be able TO send
vessels out any day knowing that with a
certain draught they could proceed safe
ly to the ocean.
The depth of the channel from Savan-
nah to the sea at mean high water was
given at 26 feet when the work on the
river was completed. There may have
been some slight shoaling since then.
Capt Gillette's statement is accordingly
safely within the bounds of all possibili-
ties In all probability vessels drawing
231z feet, or perhaps even more, could go
to sea on any day on two tides. but %
feet is guaranteed the war department.
AT Charleston the conditions are not so
favorable. In December, 1896, steamship
left that port drawing pa feet OF
water and it was deemed
worthy of special note in the report of
the government work. Again, in Febru-
airy, 1887, one went out drawing % feet 3
inches, as is mentioned in the report for
that year. At mean low water there is
stated to be is feet of water there from
the city to the sea The range of the rise
and fail of tide at the city is 81 feet, and
at Sullivan's Island 51s feet giving, at
oh 70 RI
sea.
In addition to a deeper channel Savan-
nah has also the advantage of a greater
mean rise and fall in the tide, it being
6.79 feet at Tybee, 6.63 at Fort Pulaski,
and 81 feet at the barge office in the city.
There are 20 feet of water on the bar
at low water, giving over 26 feet there at
high water on an average tide.
Special charts in the Office of Capt Gil
lette give four hypothetical cases of YES
sells leaving Savannah and proceeding to
sea, two on one tide and two on two tides.
They are as follows;
No. /, going out on two tides, In hours
and 30 minutes, and lying over between
| tides in the blight, starts from the city
twenty minutes before high water on the
first tide with nearly twenty-five feet of
water Reaching the blight with twenty -five
feet of water, she lays over unhl one hour
and thirty minutes before high water on
second tide. and then makes the run to
the ocean, starting with A12 feet of water
and passing over bar with q feet of water
No. 2 starts on the first tide forty-f1ve
minutes before high water with 241z feet
water, runs to Venus Point with 241a feet
there to her credit, stops there until one
hour and fifteen minutes before high wa
ter on the second tide and makes the run
to the ocean, passing over the bar with
nearly twenty-five feet of water under
her
No. starts one hour and thirty minutes
before high water with little less than
twenty-four feet, makes the run to the
| ocean on the one tide and crosses the bar
with 231k feet of water there Her time
from the city to the sea is placed at two
| hours and thirty minutes
No starts two hours before high wa
| ter with 23A feet of water, and making
the run on the one tide gets to the bar in
| three hours and thirty minutes with q feet
| 10 inches Of water there.
Vessels drawing 221h to Q feet of water
| might, accordingly, get out on the one
| tide without trouble. But Capt Gillette
| preferred, evidently, to be absolutely on
| the safe side in advising the government
In comparison with Savannah and its
| twenty-six feet Of water at high tide, the
| Florida ports have but little showing AT
| high tide Fernandna has but II feet from
| docks to ocean, Jacksonville IS feet; Port
| tampa, n leels AldIills 10 le$ts Key west
| has % feet of water at high tide but its
use for an encampment and point of en-
barkation is, of course, out of the ques-
| ton.
President D. G. Purse of the Savannah
| Board of Trade took steps yesterday to
| correct any erroneous impression that
might be created by dispatches sent out
! from Washington Tuesday night, compar-
| ing the depth of water at Savannah and
Charleston and other ports on the South
| Atlantic. In these dispatches a paragraph
read: Savannah has from IS to 20 feet,
and Charleston about q feet at mean low
| water"
This sentence, as constructed" said
| Capt Purse, "says that Savannah has is
| TO 20 feet of water at all stages, while
| Charleston has q feet at mean low water,
| and, therefore, is a misstatement. Had
the sentence been punctuated so that the
words mean low water would have had
equally qualified the depth of water al
| Savannah, the statement would stiH be in
error, because Savannah is credited with
a mean low water depth of 20 feet and a
mean rise of feet, while the mean rise
! at Charleston Is only feet.
'''TO secure a prompt correction of fhis