The Penn's Grove record., 1906-09-07
Work on the River Channel

the Delaware river channel is in earnest
and at a dozen places along the river big
teel -jawed dredges are clearing the stream
or the onward march Of civilization and
commerce.
From theIPennsylvania State line down
tosPigeon's Point the American Dredging
Company has seven large dredges Of the
"clamshell' class deepening the channel
to thirty feet and widening it to about 500
feet.
At League Island the work of dredging
is also III progress, and from Ridley Creek
to Chester Island several diving crews are
busy placing charges OF dynamite to re-
move large quantities of solid rock. These
boulders are caught by a dredge of the
Hell Gate class with a set of special rock
claws which i'll themselves weigh fifteen
tons, and are deposited on the scow and
later removed to the Pennsylvania shore.
At Ilnicum Shoal the crew of the Hell
Gate is removing a very fine quality Of
sand IN s cubic yard bites, and depositing
it on the farm Of Albert Ward, OF Essing-
ton. The He'll Gate can dredge 1000 cubic
yards a day, working twelve hours. The
"clamshell," which does the dredging, is
a semi-circular steel bucket about eight
ieet in diameter and weighing eight tons
In another river OF a slower and les
violent course the work could be done by
thn drndUo olona uitIo,+ +Io oec;c+onoa or
the scows and costly r~ehandling boats.
But if that method were used in the Del
aware-to dig the earth from the channel
and dump it in the river bed, the already
trong current would be augmented and
he deepened portion would soon be filled
again by it.
The Hell Gate, one of the boats which
does the actual removing has a crew OF
fourteen men, while the Cataract, which
is a pump rehandling machine, has a
crew OF t%wenty-four men. Between these
two boats a small fleet of scows are con-
~tinually plying. Lately, however, Ia
different and more modern method was
put in practice.
The mighty suction dredge Delaware,
which was at League Island for repairs,
commenced work beside the He'll Gate.
The Delaware is propelled by her own
power and has a removing capacity of
$4,000 cubic yards a day, or more than
six times as much as the He'll Gate. Hay
ing a 5000 cubic yard tank, she needs no
scows to transfer the mud to rehandlers,
but when filled she steams off to shore
and deposits her W cargo.
Dredging men give unstinted praise to
the Delaware and her work. Her power
full suction mechanism, though not well
adapted to rock bottom, is almost ideal
for the work she will be called upon to do
The sucker, or more properly speak
ing, the pump is fitted with a giant agi.
tator, which has a tendency to push this
water away and thus move the boat for
ward, but the agltator, being invested,
has a tendency to draw matter towards it.
The great steel blades are plunged dir
ectly into the river bed, and from there
they throw material back into the pump.
Thence it is drawn up into the tank or
hold of tie vessel.
As the dredges work down the river
tie difficulty OF finding a dumping ground
becomes a veXatious question. The farm
ers or land owners are willing to have the
earth bumped on their water front and
their properties are thus made larger and
more valuable, but they do not want 10
pay the price Of piling and retaining dikes
to hold the newly-acquired land. They
want the government to give the ground
and then improve it for them.
TO expedite the work Of dredging the
thirty-foot channel, Major j. c. Sanford,
who is in charge of the work, has applied
to General Mckenzie, of the Quarter
masters Department at Washington, for
the loan OF the suction dredge Key West,
which is now idle. General Mckenzie
has said his department had no objection
to the transfer Of the dredge providing
the consent of Colonel Kingman, who is
in charge of the Florida section, with
head quarters at Savannah, Can be obtain
ed. Major Sanford has written to Colonel
Kingman and expects that he will not
offer any objections.
The Key West is regarded as being par
t~icularly adapted for such use as it would
be put to in the Delaware. The dredge
draws only fourteen feet, which is six
feet less than the draft of the big dredge
Delaware. With the use of the Delaware,
with daily capacity of over TO- 0 cubic
yards, and the 1000 cubic yards capacity
of the Key West and the 1000 yards
capacity OF the clam shell dredge Hell
Gate, the 100000 cubic yards to be
dredged from the range OF $500 feet will
be accomplished in a short time.