The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-03-10
Right to the Title:
Deep Water City.

/
The Journal Is somewhat amused
at the figures presented by the Key
West Citizen in support of its claim
to the title of Deep Water City of the
Gulf, and at the assertion of Editor
Thompson in effect that The Journal is
disputing 'the God given right to the
title" which it is alleged, is vested
wholly in the Island City. One thing
| is painfully apparent, and that is that
the editor of the Citizen failed TO
examine into Pensacola's claims be.
fore bringing the twelve inch guns
Of figures, 80 which will not lie, to bear
upon the discussion.
The Citizen very truly says:
In selecting a harbor there are three
main points to be considered The first
would be depth of water though the chan
nels to the harbor and depth of basin:
the. second would be the size Of the har-
Dor and its capacity for anchorage and
the third the protection AFFORDED ship
ping during a severe storm
AS this appears to be a plain and
fair proposition The Journal accepts it
as basis of argument and will con-
test, to finish, the claim of superior
ity upon each of these points advanced
by the Citizen.
The Citizen says:
AS to the depth of the water in our har-
Dor. and channels we can obtain affida-
Wits from our pilots that there is a
depth of over thirty feet in the main
channel leading into the harbor and a
vessel OF 80 feet draft may come into the
hs cbor safety. She can find 81 feet of
water at several of the docks at mean
low tide, hence we can safely and with
out fear of contradiction lay claim to q
feet of water at all times
Very good indeed, but hardly good
enough. Pensacola has 33 feet of
water in the channel aud any vessel
drawing less than 33 feet may enter
in safety. At the docks vessels may
load to % feet. or more, which is
proven by the fact that the steamer
Strombus loaded to 20 feet as the
docks and went to sea on July s, 1903;
the. steamer Pectan, at a later date,
loaded to q feet 10 inches at the
wharves of Pensacola. Each of these
vessels was loaded to capacity, but had
the capacity been greater and draft
more, egress from the harbor could
have been made in safety. While not
contradicting Key Vests claim to %
feet of water at the docks Pensacola
has exceeding Is feet at the docks and
SO feet in the main ship channel
Regarding size and safety OF the
hatbo- the Citizen talks at consider
able length, the substance of the argu-
ment being set forth in the paragraph:
We have thirty feet of water. in our
, harbor and twenty-seven at the docks.
We have nearly twenty square miles of
anchorage in all of which there is thirty
feet and it is so protected from the fury
of the storm that no vessel has ever been
injured while riding at anchor during a
| hurricane.
Good again-yery good-hut still
lacking when compared with the mag
nihcent harbor of Pensacola. So Key
West has twenty square miles of an
chorage. has it? Considerably more
than we thought, but not SO much
that it could not be completely lost in
Pensacola bay. Why, bless you, those
twenty square miles could be pac;.ed
safely away in the space between the
docks of the city and the navy yard
and still leave ample room in the llar-
Dor to anchor the navies of the world.
The Citizen says:
As to the third point, history viii
prove the justice OF our claim OF super
iority for our harbor as a haven when the
tropical storms visit this section We
had the storm which destroyed CALVES
ton and the one which wrecked Pensa-
cola not long ago swept over us in all its
fury and in the past century we have had
hundreds of others which have carried
death and disaster to other ports. vet
through them all Key Vests harbor has
sheltered its shipping and there is not a
single case on record where a vessel has
been wrecked in the harbor during a
storm
As to the claim of Key West that
the harbor is "a haven when the trop-
icai storms visit this section The
Journal would respectfully call the at
tention of the Citizen to the fact that
the tropical storms" in question were
spring zephyrs compared 10 The blow
experienced last September in Pensa-
cola, The Galveston storm did not hit
Key West, although its influence may
have been felt there; the storm that
struck Pensacola did not sweep ever
Key West in all its fury" but a sui
seQuent storm did pass over the nolth