The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-11
new BOAT NEEDED
FOR RIVER TRAFFIC.
sTERNwHEELERs ON THE MIS-
SOURI, WILL NOT DO.
Colonel Quinn Predicts that Kansas
Ctty's Attempt to Revive the Water
Highway Will Not Succeed Unless
New and Powerful Type Of Boat Is
Introduced.
Snaoial tn The Journal,

Special to The Journal.
Sioux City, Iowa, Sept 11.-That Kansas
City's attempt to revive Missouri river steam
boat traffic must fail, and that transportation
by river will soon cease thruout the United
States, unless new kind of steamboat is in
vented, Is the declaration Of Colonel J. B.
Quinn, United States engineer In charge of
the Missouri river, stationed here.
''Kansas City is trying to build up business
with the old fashioned sternwheeleds steamboat .
said Colonel Quinn, 'and that is the type of
boat that has already failed. The sternwheeler
is mechanical failure, and Its inability to
compete with the railroads on the Mississippi,
much more favorable to commerce than the Ms
souri, goes to prove the fact.
= No River Like It.
I'm the first place, the nature Of the Mis-
souri, river, different from that Of any other
river in the world, must be taken into con-
sideration. The current is exceedingly rapid,
averaging in Missouri probably six miles an
hour. and eight miles at high water. While
the Mississippi river slope is but one and one
half to seven inches TO the mile, that Of the
Missouri averages 1885 inches from Carroll,
Mont, to the mouth.
'.Then there are the snags. The Missouri has
a corroding current, that enables 1t to wander
from bluff to bluff, changing its course con-
stantly, all along its length Thus it has de-
posted silt from bluff to- bluff, and in that
silt are buried thousands of snags. That is
why 1t is impossible to keep the channel free
from these dangerous obstruction without con-
slant work in clearing the channel of them.
The river moves about, and In opening new
channels, uncovers old snags. The government
has already spent $7,O00,O0O in keeping the
river open for probably $4,000, 900 worth Of COM
merce. Now it has stopped and there is no
prospect of its resuming the task.
Pilot Can't Remember All. f..
...Then the changing current and channel
piles up new shoals constantly. They appear so
quickly that it Is impossible for any pilot,
however expert he may be, to know them all.
"For these reasons, &the very first boat that
turned it's nose into the Missouri river, the
Jefferson, in 1919. quickly sank. ,S
with the abandonment Of the river by the
government, conditions will be little better than
in the period when the Missouri became the
greatest inland marine graveyard in the world
High and Unw1eldly. ,: E T.
"For all these reasons, say, the old
fashioned steamboat will not succeed. They
are built with high cabins, by which they are
unwieldy and pilots simply cannot control the
boats. A new kind ct boat Is reuired. 1
can't tell how 1t should be built, for l am
not an inventor - But it must be more com
pact, and more powerful and more easily con
trolled. With it, there would be some hope
Of making way thru the; shoals and snags of
the river. = -. ..> ~. -. ~ 5s<-,sE;.l.
'It may be that some system of barges such
as that in the Mississippi. might be devised
they would have to be- of lighter draft than
on the Mississippi, and even on the latter 1t
is found necessary to dredge the channel at
large expense. = Ey,Ef Efa; E.s-t,sHssS- ,.~s.s