Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-06-19
PANAMA ENGINEERS BOUND TO
OVERCOME DIFFICULTIES IN
GREAT WATERWAY
BIG DREDGEs WORKING
NIGHT AND DAY IN CULEeRA
Stop Only Sufficient Length Of Time to
Permit Merchant Ships to Pass Turn
-Warships Might Succeed in Navi.
eating Canal, But Would Have, Less
Than Twelve Inches Of Leeway.
Especial Correspondence

Washington. June 19.-In spite OF
slides in the Culebra cut, or, as it has
been renamed in honor of the man who
gave his life to digging it out, Gaillard
cut, traffic through the Panama canal
is being conducted with remarkably
little delay or interruption.
1t will be the policy of the govern
ment simply to keep on digging in the
belief that eventually the strata in the
region of the cut will take something
like permanent position. How long
this is going to take cannot be fore
told
But meantime. the dredging opera
lions are being conducted in the great
cut with indefatigable persistence. One
slide after another has been grappled
with and overcome The latest report
from the canal government shows that
daily dredging operations are being
carried on bat in such way as not
seriously TO halt commerce. These OPP
erations are daily, some of the dredges
working twenty four hours, with three
shifts of men.
The latest report says the last de-
laying obstruction to the canal &C.
CURED early in March. The channel
now has minimum depth of about 80
feet ami d minimum width of about
$50 feet.
Stop While Vessels Pass
The plan of carrying on the dredging
is to suspend work at o'clock each
afternoon TO give right of way to yes
sells passing through the canal and to
resume it just as soon as the vessels
have passed through the slide section.
The vessels in transit are brought to
the upper approach wall OF Pedro Mig
uel lock on the south or TO the passing
station opposite Empire on the north.
and moored. just prior to 2 o'clock.
When the dredging fleet has made way.
the vessels in transit are dispatched
the slides quickly.
Surveys of the channels opposite the
slides are made each day. so that con-
ditions are known TO those in charge
and vessels are handled with corre-
spending certainty
One of the dredges in use is the sea-
going dredge Culebra This ranges
through the channel between Paraiso
and Empire removing about 5000 feet
OF light material which has silted
\ depth of thirty feet is adequate for
the great bulk of merchant ships. The
warships Of the navy could get through
such depth but it would ne risk.
No: Sufficient leeway.
Some of the big dTeadraushts draw
upward Of twenty feet This
means that if the vessels are sent in
to 30-foot channel, they viii have
less than - inches margin Of safety.
Tha navy department. least it's
most expert officers-has been unwill-
ing to send the fleet through the canal
under such circumstances. quite apart
from the international complications.
On the other hand. there is no doubt
the fleet could be put through in an
emergency serious enough to justify
taking the risk. In view Of the steady
nature of the dredging operations,
there is no reasonable doubt, in the
absence OF some most unusual up
heaval in the cut. that conditions will
gradually improve.