The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-25
THE HARBoR DREDGING WoRK.
No Need of an Alarm MS TO the Oyster
Reds.


A sensational report has been pub
lished in one Of the daily papers that
the oystermen were alarmed lest the
contractors for the dredging of the har-
Dor should dump the material dug in
the harbor on to the oyster beds. 1t
was stated in this article that the oys-
ter growers owning land outside of the
breakwater had become alarmed at the
arrival of the big dredge Of Hughes
Brothers & Bangs" The article said;
1.-THE story has spread that much Of the
great amount of material which will be
taken from the harbor will be dumped
on the private beds and great damage
done thereby also that several grow
ere We're at the office Of the shell fish
| commission making inquiries concern
| ing the matter.
| Clerk of Shell Fisheries Mathewson
states that none Of the oyster growers
has been to the office Of the shell fish
commission on such an errand, If any
of the growers was alarmed on this sub
ject it was quite an unnecessary scare.
All of the growers who are posted on
the matter know that there is no more
reason.to apprehend any trouble on this
score, than from any previous dredging;
on the contrary, there is less reason to
apprehend It, The danger of any mud
being dumped improperly arises from
| the employment of scows or tugboats
which are not sufficiently seaworthy to
proceed safely to the appointed place
| for depositing the material. Under the
present contract the material will be
| transported in the largest and most sea-
worthy scows that have ever been used
| in the harbor, carrying twelve hundred
yards of material each, and the tugs
employed are such as are capable Of
going In the ocean even in heavy wealth.
er-certainly capable of going in Long
Island sound without difficulty. But
in addition to these favorable conditions
1T has been arranged by the contractors
to deposit the material in the deep wa
ter southeast of Scotch Cap, and the
course to reach this locality crosses
only small extent of cultivated oys-
ter grounds, and these belong principal
ly to Henry c. Rowe, upon whose
grounds the contractors will dump the
material. There is less than half a mile
Of this course in which the tows will
need to cross the ground Of other plant
ers, while if they went to the official
dumping ground they would need to
cross four miles of cultivated oyster
grounds. OF course the risk of dam
age is proportionately lessened by TAX
ing the material to the private grounds.
AS to dumping in the night time, it
is necessary for the accomplishment of
the contract in the allotted time to do
this, but the contractors cannot afford
to take any risks of depositing mud in
the wrong place. because they are liza
bic to pay full damages to the owners
of any ground upon which the material
should be deposited without permission.
They have, therefore, arranged with the
shell fish commissioners and the United
States authorities and with Mr. Rowe,
the owner of the ground, to take eff
fectlve precautions against accident.
The ground is to be carefully buoyed
out, and in the nighttime Is to be
marked with lanterns such as shall be
approved by the United States authori-
ties In addition to this. each Of the
tugs will be equipped with a powerful
searchlght to verify the location every
time that scow4ioad is dumped. More
over, the contractors willlemploy an of
itioi iiopeoeoi " accompany eNeiy LOW
to make sure that it is dumped in the
proper place. 1t was stated in the arti-
Gle alluded to that the inspector would
be on the tug and would not know what
was done on the scow. There will be
nothing to prevent his being on the
scow and knowing with certainty what
takes place on it, The contractors are
not required by law to employ an in
spector where the dumping in done on
private ground but they do so in this
instance in order to take special pre-
cautions against any material being
dumped improperly.