Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-16
ON THE RIVER FRONT
STEAMBOAT OWNERS ANXIOUS
ABOUT 4TH MARCH BUSINESS.
Ice May Stop Arranged Schedules
Good Fishing Season Anticipated
Around the Harbor.

The steamboat owners who have been
| overhauing their vessels and putting them
| in trim for service the river about the
| 4th of March are becoming very anxious, as
| the outlook for the ice being out of the
| river by that time is very uncertain. Six
| teen days are all that remain between now
| and the 4th. and unless there is continued
| warm rains and warmer weather there will
| be enough ice on the river about Inaugural
| ton time to keep the side-wheel steamers
| tied up In their docks.
two-steamer ferry service, trips to Mt.
Vernon and excursion runs down the river
have been arranged by the different steam
| boat companies and the enforced idleness
| of the steamers would mean the loss of
| many dollars to the steamboat men. They
| had been confidently looking for thaw be
| fore this time, but the continued cold
weather and the hardening of the ice is
making them very blue.
| The supply of fresh fish on sale at the
| wholesale fish market on the 18th street
| wharf was ample to meet a very light de-
| mand, there being plenty of mullets and
| trout and few shad and herring from far
! southern waters on sale. Owing to the very
| cold weather the fish hucksters have with
| drawn from the streets and this has made
the demand dull for the grades of fish now
| on sale.
On the oyster wharf the demand for the
| bivalves is fair and prices keep at the high
d
few oysters on sale from the beds in the
Potomac, the bulk of the stock coming
from the vicinity of Norfolk. The few wild
ducks on sale are coming from North Caro-
lima and command high prices when in good
condition.
The fishermen are looking for successful
season on the river this spring and are pre-
pared to put their nets overheard as soon
as the ice will allow. 1t is stated by those
who have made a study of the Potomac
fish that the catch of shad and herring is
always large after a hard and long con-
tinued freeze, but that the season, as
general thing, was late. Shad and herring
are now working their way slowly up the
coast and are looked for in the river about
the middle or latter part of March
The bugeye Willie Gibson. while on her
way to Baltimore early in the week with
cargo of oysters, was cut through and sank.
The accident occurred a short distance
above Annapolis. The master of the Gibson
and his crew of three men escaped on the
ice and were picked up by the tug Carter,
which had the bugeye in tow.
General River News.
The United States coast survey steamers
Endeavor and photographer. and the
schooner Matchless are lying at a Norfolk
shipyard. being overhauled and made ready
for service in the early spring. 1t is I'M
derstood that the Endeavor and the Match
less will return to the Potomac to re-
sumo their survey work as soon as the
season opens. Several weeks survey work
remain to be completed on the Potomac
between GlymOnt and Maryland Point.
A letter received from Colonial Beach
states that the ice in the vicinity of the
beach is over twelve inches thick, but
that no damage has as yet been done. The
beach residents are fearful. however that
when the ice breaks up and begins to drift
the wharves and new boardwalk may
be damaged. The wharf a Colonial Beach
was somewhat injured by the ice last
spring.
The lighthouse tender Maple, with light
house supplies and a number of spar buoys
from the supply station at Portsmouth,
Va. has arrived at Baltimore.
The heavy ice in the harbor prevents the
driving of the new piles needed to COM
plete the repairing of the ferry wharf at
the foot of 18th street. The piles are on
the wharf and the driver will go to work
as soon as the weather will allow.
Much of the trouble experienced by the
Norfolk line steamers in the ice is due to
the condenser strainers becoming clogged
with ice and stopping the proper working of
the engine. When the steamers are locked
this spring for painting new strainers will
be put in them low down by the keel and
this, it is thought, Will put stop to the
trouble should there be heavy ice another
winter.
Capt Thos L. Todd, master of the Z. s,
army tug Gibbon, is confined to his quarters
at Fort Washington by severe attack of
the grip. Capt. Michael Robb, master of
the Fort Washington launch Cygnus. is in
command of the Gibbon during the illness
of Captain Todd.
Mr.. John Dare. purser in the Weems
line has retired from steamboat service
and will go into business.
The repairs to the boiler of the steamer
Wakefield have been completed and the
steamer is ready for service She will be
used about inauguration time and will then
go to Newport News for repair work to her
hull.
The tug Marion Cameron, now employed
in general towing on Chesapeake bay, will
it is stated, come to the city early in the
spring and will tow sand and gravel laden
barges for the Potomac Dredging Com
pany between Piscataway creek and this
city.