The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-17
WORKING OH DRFAHWAIER
THE METHODS EMPLOYED
Important Extension Which is to Add to Harbor
 Moorage.

New Haven harbor has seen many changes since the first steamer ran out of it. It was a rather uninviTing place for stranger to enter then. The channel was narrow and crooked while shag Bank had a trick of moving around and shoalng the best water whenever the tide struck it right Then there were rocks that were only cov- cred deep enough to hide them. The pilots of that day had to use the houses, trees or other objects along the shore for marks and poor ones they made in fog or on dark nights. Perhaps if these old timers could see the present condition of the place they would be as uncomplimentary as Mark Twain, who says the government has destroyed the art of piloting by setting lights, building walls and driv- ing stubs; but be that as it may, stranger can safely come up here now
 The improvement of the harbor has gone steadily on since about 1S46 when the old lighthouse on Five Mile Point was erected
 New Haven bay is naturally a very rough piece of water and to make harbor of refuge of it has been no small feat of engineering. Without mentioning the stone wall x-eighths of mile long that surrounds the bar to keep it from shifting. there has been rock enough to make a mountain dumped to build the ten thousand feet of breakwater already completed, and now over thousand tons of stone a day is being added to the vast pile. These enormous walls will average twenty-five feet in height from the sea bottom. The present site of opera ton is in 27 feet of water and 1t is safe to calculate 15 to 20 feet more will have to be added to the height of the wall to make up for settling in the mud and projection above water. So It's surely 45 foot wall that is being built.
 stupendous as the work seems the men who are doing il. handle 1t so cas- fly that one almost has to watch to see that anything is going on.
 Inside middle breakwater a huge barge swings at anchor her build shows she was ship originally, but her masts are gone and nothing about her upper works stands to. remind you that shee sailed deep water once as the good ship Ellen M. Baxter of Boston On deck is a large frame house of one story--the home of the laborers and the general storehouse of Hughes Brothers & Bangs, the breakwater contractors. These contractors make headquarters in New York and send their own tugs, barges and skilled la borers wherever they are awarded a job. TO hire either labor of boatmen in the locality of the work would mean to invite loss through their lack of experience.
 Two tugs, the Atkins Hughes of New York and the Harbor of Phila- delphia, a huge dumping scow and a lighter with two enormous steam der ricks make up the marine outfit
 The stone are lowed from the ledge near Guilford in the scow or lighter, depending upon whether they are to be used for foundation or upper lay- CTS. If for foundation the scow is used. She is so arranged that the en- tire load dumps through the bottom which is secured on hinges. To place this heavy laden craft in he exact position determined on by the engi- neers, and already shown on the haT- bor charts, is a neat problem in tug boating, A United states inspector watches the operation and when he is satisfied that everything is all right down goes the boulders t1 the battm of the sea. When the material is ln- tended for building the upper layers it is brought on the lighter which is drawn along side the breal1water and made fast to two buoy m5Qsiags. From these moorings the craft warps herself Into a handy position for working the steam derrlcks, and unloading the huge blocks of granite begins. One at a time they are carefully laid in position by the big derrick. The gov- ernment inspector taking note of each one In this manner about two loads of stone are disposed of each day,