Panama City pilot., 1908-11-05
PANAMA CITY. FLA. NOV. S. 1908.
Proposed Removal OfDredge
Caucus"

Under the above heading the Pen
sacola News comments as follows
upon recent editorial in the PILOT
relative to the proposed removal of
the dredge caucus" from Pensa cola.
ga fairly good example of prejudi-
cial blindness, slightly inoculated
with envy, is the following, from the
Panama City Pilot, anent the removal
of the dredge Caucus from this port,
which was considered by the govern
ment some time since. After stating
that "much excitement is being Gre
ated in Pensacola owing to the gov
ernment ordering the dredge Caucus
from that point" the Pilot goes on to
say:
at is possible that the Csucus was
built as claimed to work continuously
at the entrance of Pensacola harbor,
that the port might be utilized by
vessels drawing over % feet of water.
That it has been steadily at work
there, and barely kept the channel
open, demonstrates the necessity of
a dredge being constantly used to
maintain such a channel there.
Therefore the anxiety of the Pensa-
colians when it is proposed to take
the dredge away even for a brief
time"
Now, wouldn't that jar you? And
especially so, coming from a newspa-
per whose editor is thoroughly famil-
lar with the fact that Pensacola has
33 feet of water in the channel at the
entrance to the harbor?
Even before the dredge was as
signed to Pensacola vessels drawing
over 80 feet passed out of the harbor
safely, and Rear Admiral Dickins, in
an article published in Pensacola
several years ago, stated that "Pen-t
sacola had 81 feet of water over tba
baf at the entrance to the harbor."
The purpose of the dredge Caucus
was not to maintain such a chan
mel" but to widen it and, incidentally,
deepen it in places SO as to give 33
feet of water. This work has been
accomplished, hence the proposition
to remove the dredge elsewhere.
Pensacola has no fear that the ship
channel will fill up, but desires that
the dredge deepen an inside channel
to the quarantine station before being
ordered elsewhere, and, possibly,
deepen the channel between Pensa-
cola bay and the Blackwater river
If it is ordered elsewhere Pensacola
is generous enough TO wish that it be
sent to st. Andrews bay for the pur-
pose of dredging the entrance to that
harbor so as to allow vessels of more
than II or 13 feet draft to enter thus
assisting in the general development
of West Florida, which all patriotic
citizens of this section of the state
have at heart.
st. Andrews bay only needs deep
water across the bar to make it one
of the finest harbors in the south and
The News sincerely hopes that Con-
gress will recognize its Importance
with a substantial appropriation. In
the meantime let's bury the hammer
quit knocking, and all pull together
for the development of West Florida.
1t is very natural for Brother
Thomas to laud Pensacola's magnifi-
cent harbor, and to draw the long
bow in describing conditions there
But as a prominent U. S. Engineer
recently said in connection with the
subject "engineers deal only with
facts" and the News through failure
to investigate, or otherwise, is badly
mixed on its facts.
In front of the entrance to Pensa-
cola's harbor lies a bar that is so far
seaward that it cannot be removed,
and the channel through it can only
be kept open by constant dredging
when heavy westerly gales are NOV
ing the sands from the flats that lie
to the westward into it.
Just now the Pensacola papers are
noting the closing of the entrance to
Perdido bay, which lies just to the
west of this bar, through the gales
filling it with the shifting sands of
those shores. History shows that
tropical storms have entirely closed
many channels along that shore in
day that were eighteen feet and over
in depth. The Ship Island passage
has been closed time and time again
by such gales. One has but to read
Martins History of Louisiana to get
a thorough understanding of the
power and result of such gales. To
come down to later days the destruc-
of Isle Denier and the inundation of
Galveston show what one day of such
gales on such shore will do. Pen