The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1914-07-31
CAPE GOD CANAL
. OPEN FOR TRAFFIC
August Belmont Formally Opens
East Coast waterway That
Means Much to Shipping. /

BUzZARDs BAY, Massachusetts
July 3O.--(Assoeia Press by Federal
Wireless)- THE Boston, Cape Cod and
New York Canal, connecting Buzzard.
Bay with Massachusetts Bay aud en-.
abling coastwise vessels TO avoid the
dangerous passage around wreck -strawn
Cape Cod, was formally opened yester.
day by August Belmont Of New York,
president of the constructing and op.
enting company. The canal shortens
by seventy miles the shipping distance
hetween the ports to the north and
south of Il.
Although the canal has actually been
open from one end to the other since
early this month, no vessels other than
those belonging to the owners of the
canal have been allowed to pass through
it. The canal will be open to traffic
today and will be completed IN all It's
details about the first of October.
The Cape Cod Canal is thirteen miles
long, including a cut through sand and
boulders from Buzzards Bay to Sand,
wieh, Massachusetts,. II has bottom
100 feet In width, shelving out TO 800
aud 400 feet at the passing points, and
has draft of twenty-five feet at low
tide. Greater in its dimensions than
the Suez Canal as originally construct
Jed, II can accommodate the largest
eoastwise vessels afloat, with one or
two exceptions
At the eastern end is a massive
breakwater, 5000 feet long, which con.
tains more than 100000 tons of granite.
This is designed to protect vessels using
the canal from the storms that sweep
across Cape Cod Bay.
The $l2,000,000 which has been ok.
pended in the constructing Of the canal
has been spent largely in excavatinp
some 100000 cubic feet of sand and
boulders. In order 10 keep the wash
from passing vessels from wearing away
the banks, they have been rip. rapped,
or paved, with granite blocks and small
boulders. This rip-rapping, large nor.
tion of which was done by hand, runs
from six feet below, to four feet above
the high.water mark. At the eastern
end much money has been spent in The
building Of a "sand -catcher,'' a device
calculated to keep moving sand from
choking up the mouth. y.,. s,aa
The canal is in reality a river, max.
ing all of Cape Cod an island. for there
is considerable difference between the
tides in Massachusetts, Bay and b.,
yards Bay, causing q sluggish current.
The canal is destined to play an I'm.
portant part in the future commerce
along the Atlantic coast of North Am.
erica. At the, present time more than
25,O00,OO0 tons of freight are trans.
ported over the Cape Cod route annual.
~, including coal, 100000 tons;
stone, 100000 tons; Nova Scotia plast
err, $4,000 tons; Rockland Rockport
lime, 10000 tons; cement, $4,000
tons; oil, 2l0 tons; ice, 100000 tons;
lumber, 100000 tons, and sand, so,
900 tons. Other commodities carried
in barges and freighters amount to g..
OOO, 1000 tons, while regular steamsh'p
lines Of the higher class carry as cargo
100000 tons of freight around the
cape every year.
An absense Of fog along the course
OF the canal will make it particularly
desirable to both freight and passenger
carrying vessels, Because of the heavS
fogs that prevail off the cape at ali
times of the year many freighters and
barges are forced to lay to until the
weather is more favorable for a pass
age. s... -.
1t is estimated that 100000 persons
a year are carried around Cape Col
In the past sixty years, it is said, two
thousand vessels of various kinds have
been wrecked while attempting THE pas
sage and between seven and eight hun.
dred lives have been lost.
Tolls for vessels passing through the
canal will average in the neighborhood
OF seven cents per cargo ton per pass.
age and for vessels without cargo, over
500 tons gross register, the rate viii
be about five. cents per ton. Motor.
boats, yachts and other vessels not en-. |
gagged in commercial trade may pass
through the canal for as small a toll
as 80. The tolls depend upon gross
tonnage and length overall.
n