The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-27

engineer officers. Uncle Sam does MOI
build many forts, therefore that work
would not be enough to keep them
busy So. in addition to being his fort
builders and seeing that his cannon are
placed properly ard watching all hfs
bridges and submarine mines and roads
! and pontoons and hundreds of similar
things that he would need in war, thew
have great works of peace to do Thus.
they have charge of every body of wa
ter from Boring straits to Florida, and
in the Philippine Islands and Porto
Rico and Hawaii, that is deep enough
for any vessel to float in. Tney musr
see that none of these ''navigable wa
terways" is INSTRUCTED. If anyone
dumps anything in them that may
I harm Them. the engineers must get
after the offender If anybody wants
to bridge them, he must ask the per-
mission of Uncle Sans engineers.
They study the tables that show how
much traffic there is, how high are the
masts or smokestacks of the craft that
ply there and how wide channel they
need, so that they will know if the
bridge would interfere with navigation
II vessel sinks in any of these nav
lgable water ways, Uncle Sans engi-
neers anchor buoy over it first to
warn other craft. Then they try TO
communicate with the owner, and if he
refuses or fails to raise his ship, they
blow it UP to clear the channel
r. Also, If storm or tides wash sand and
mud into channel so that it becomes
shallow, the engineers must clear it and
restore it to it's original condition.
They spend weeks and months on dir
ty mud scows and dredgers in melan-
choly sWamps and dangerous, stormy
ocean waters widening channels that
the ships may be safe.
Many large cities owe a great part
of their wealth to the work of these
engineers. For they not only MAINTAIN
the original channels, but cut new
ones. They have done more or less
of this for every seaport of the coun-
try from one end to the other.
There is not any glory in this work.
Just now the engineers are digging a
huge sea channel for the port of New
York, and if you were to go aboard
the dredgers instead of men with
swords and gold lace and epaulettes
you would see men in overalls, with
lead pencils behind their ears, watch
ing to see how many cubic yards Of
sea mud is being removed by the con-
tractors.
Uncle Sans officers planned how to
build the mighty floating dredging
machines that do this work. In fact.
they built some of the first ones them
selves. Mighty indeed they must be
to cut channels deep and big enough
for such vast ships as the Celtic Lu-
CANA, Campania and Pennsylvania
that come roaring into port, shreking
with all the power of their steam-tilled
steel lungs for "Rooml Room! Room"
They want a channel almost a mile
wide to turn in, for in three minutes
they can cover that distance and in
three minutes all kinds of things can
happen in busy port like New York,
where often the water is as crowded
with tugboats, and sailing vessels, and
ocean fiiers and excursion steamers,
and canal boats, and barges, and
steam yachts, and rowboats and tows
and launches as the busiest street in
your city is crowded with wagons.
If the ocean fliers had any sentiment
they would salute and dip their flags
whenever they pass the dirty dredgers
with the men in overalls. For those
muddy, ugly things with their mighty
arms of steel and their Shiny scoops
are silently but swiftly giving the
beautiful ships the room for which
they are shrieking.
Wonderful machines they areas
wonderful as they are ugly, which
is saying a great deal. They are vast
ly improved over the first machines
of years ago, that used to take up
shovelful after shovelful, painfully and
slowly. Some of them still use scoops,
but the big ones actually swallow the
bottom and spit it out again into the
scows alongside. For, instead of scoop
ing up the mud and stones, they suck
it up with mighty pumps. So tremen-
dous are these pumps that great bowl
ders, weighing many hundred pounds,
are sucked up and shot out into the
receiving scow just as a boy would
blow bit of putty through his putty
blower.
When the men are ready to COM
mence work, they lower an immense
tube into the sea till it reaches the
bottom. At the other end is the pump
and when the engines are started the
great lungs of the machine begin to
inhale and draw the ocean bottom
up, just as a man would suck lem
onade through a straw. But the lem
onade that is brought up from the
bottom of New York harbor is dread
full mess, foul and black as mud may
be expected to be after having been
under the sea for millions of years.
]. w. NJ.