The Calumet news., 1914-07-29
CANAL PROVIDES
SAFER ROUTE FOR
$4,000 VESSELS
New Cape Cod Waterway Is Great
eT Than the Suez

people Way DOWN East, ana pafIC
ulnrly for tho citizens Of Sandwich
no combined celebration Of tn
towns 975th birthday ann.ycrsar!
with the ceremonies marking the for
nal opening o. the new waterway
The town was Eayly decorated an,
niled with visitors as never before il
it's history. The governor of Massa.
chusetts, Assistant Secretary of tn,
Navy Rooevclt AMI August Belmont
head of the company which built tn,
canal, w,re among the notables in at
| tendance. Vessels of the United
States navy were stationed at either
end of the canal and their salutes add
ed To the impressiveness of the pro-
gram.
The completion of the Cape Cod
canal fulhls a dream of two centur
les. The earliest settlers i'm Massa
chus It's entertained a project for cut
ting a waterway across the narro "
strip of land separating Massachu-
setts Bay from BuzZards Bay and a
| century later recommendation "a
| tn came end was made by George
| Washington. In the middle part of the
last century a company was formed
to build the canal but it was not un-
| I'll 1909, when August Belmont became
| financially interested i'm the project
that work was actually begun and the
enterprise pushed to completion.
Atantic's Most Dangerous Spot.
The canal shortens distances and
[ provides a safer route for 25000 sea
| craft a year which have hitherto had
TO round Cape Cod. The cape has al
ways been one OF the most danger
Gus spots on the whole Atlantic coast
| Hundreds OF disasters have occurred
in the vicinity and the hulls of scores
| of ships may be seen today partially
| buried in the treaCherous sands
spreading from IIyanis to Province
town.
The Cape Cod canal is greater in its
dimensions than the original Suez or
the present Manchester canal. The
canal is thirteen miles long. While
natural waterways are used to a largo
| extent, a cut eight miles long and 100
feet wide at the bottom had to he
made between Sandwich and Buzzards
Bay. The approach to the dredged
chanel is five miles long. and is from
200 to $50 feet wide. The canal has
a minimum depth at low water Of %
feet.
An immense breakwater has been
built at Sandwich, the eastern ex-
tremity. by placing nearly 400, 900
tons Of granite in the water off the
canal mouth. II extends about 700 feet
from shore, four feet above the water
and has been constructed to keep sand
from washing in and blocking up the
entrance to the canal.
No expense has been spared to
make the canal n lasting project. The
sides Of the banks have been rip
raped that is, paved up with stone,
to prevent them from caving in when
the water in the wake of moving craft
washes against them. Route lights
and other special aids to navigation
have been placed along the entir1
course of the canal so that large Graf;
may pass through II both day and
night.
Eliminates Perilous Route.
What the canal will mean to navi-
gators may be realized by the state
mont that, In the past fifty years NOR
than 600 persons have been drowned
on the passage around the Cape, 75C
vessels, barges and steamers destroy
ed and total OF 1850 vessels wreck
ed. All these fatalities occurred among
| the thousands of ships obliged to pass
around Cape Cod instead of across x
1t has been estimated that each yeal
more than 25000.000 tons OF freight
are carried around the Cape. The car.
goes are of various sorts, the prin.
! cipal ones being coal. stone, sand, lum.
ber, ice, oil, cement, lime. Nova SEQ
tia plaster and fruit. The averag,
DELAY per round trip yearly for barge'
and schooners going outside the Cap,
is nearly four days. This means a los.
in money OF 10 cents a ton on tn,
cargoes.
The cost Of the canal has been ap
proximately s12,O00.OOO. 1t is figured
that the rates and tolls have beer
made low enough to capture nearly al
of the traffic that heretofore has gon,
around the Cape. The tolls range al
the way from 50 for the passage o.
motor boats and other small craft {,
800 for trade vessels OF $50 to 90!
gross tons. Merchant ships of owe
1000 gross tons will pay 10 cents pei
gross ton for each passage.
The canal is not very picturesque
being cut through a section of unat
tractive Cape territory. consisting o
pine and oak woodland, swamps an'
sand hills. No attention has been pal,
as yet to improving the appearance o
the banks, all the energy OF the pro
moters having been devoted To rush
ing the actual work of excavation.
/