Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-26
HE KNOWS THE DELAWARE
Bed of the River Is as Familiar to
Ellis D. Thompson as Broad Street
to a Mounted Traffic Cop
BY GEORGE NOX MCCAIN


planned or /supcrintcnded over $3j000, 900
| of such work
lie knows the bed Of the Delaware river
rrctty nearly as well as he knows Broad
| street
The removal of Smith and Windmill
| islands that prior to 1890 stemmed the
| current of the Delaware between the foot
of Market street and Camden, was under
his charge. He was principal assistant en-
ginccr for the late Colonel w. c. Raymond
in all the government operations for i'm
| proving the Delaware.
| Up and down and across the old stream
/ hC has been dredging for tweuty five years,
! turning it into great highway to the sea.
! lie built the new Delaware breGkwatcr and
the now Cape May and its harbor.
| lie told me some very interesting things
| about drCdging-thC romance of it, for
/ instance. | never knew there could be any
! thing odd or interesting about such pro j
! sale mud and water proposition.
| OuT in his home in West Philadelphia Mr..
" Thompson has choice pieces of old china,
| coins the case of an ancient silver watch
and even some hOrscShoes that were drcdgrd
cut of the Delaware river.
Mr.. Thompson tells me that the china was
| brought up with clam shell dredgc from
! beneath fifteen feet of mud above petty's
Island
The coins and watch case and horscshoes
came from the bottom of the river where the
New York shipbuildinG plant now stands
below Camden. The coins date from about
1S3n
This is the story:
OnC hundred years ago wher tho Wares
of that day cleaned the streets Of PhilNGel
phia, they carted the sweepings down to the
river and cmptied them into ba@ges. These
uprp hp riv nulf
the Jersey side.
a few years ago. when they started work
on the great shipbuidng plant, hydraulic
dredge of the suction type began carrying
through its pipes all sorts of things, even
Crowbars.
1t wasn't long until a pile two feet by
four by six of old horscShOes were piled up
There were copper coins, too. and ono man
was said to have found gold watch. Mr..
Thompson has the case of a silver watch
that was thrown out.
The drcdgc was working on the sweepings
of the Philadelphia streets OF hundred
years ago and less. The coins indicated
that the Jersey dumping plan had been in
operation up until eighty five years ago.
Mr.. Morse. then president of the ship
building company, heard of the treasure
trove, took charge of it and the dredge men
never knew after that what other stuff was
found
The mystery of the old china has never
been cleared up. There was no wreckage
with it. How did it get in the river? The
curious part of it all is that the blue figures
on it are as brilliant and distinct as ever.
TOSEPI S. HASSKARL. assistant direc-
- tor of the Department of Wharvcs. Docks
and Ferries. was one of Mr.. Thompson's s as
sstants for years. 1t was splendid train
ing for his career as a Philadelphia dock
engineer.
1t required five years to build the new
Delaware breakwater. Mr.. Thompson tells
me. 1t is about 5000 feet long. It rises
from depth of twelve feet of water at the
upper end and from fifty four feet at the
lower end 1t required 1 800, 900 tons of
stone and cost S2,50O.OOO.
The old Delaware breakwater is the old
est piece of harbor improvement in the
United States. Work was started on it in
1927 and continued for seventy years.
1t was built under the old method. Great
stones were taken in sailing ships to the
site selected for the sea wall and dumped
overheard. Two generations of men were
engaged on it before the work was finished
| CINCE the organization of the Emergency
| ~ Fleet Corporation, Ellis d. Thompson has
been engineer in charge of dredging. He
! has 140 dredging plants under his control.
| 1t is the biggest job of its kind ever handled
by one man IN I'M" country
1t is his work TO see that the river.
| stream or bay is dredged deep enough that
once a ship is launched it will not stick in
the mud.
He has done the dredging for every ship
! that has been launched since the war
began.
There was no private dredging done
during the war. The government took over
everything. There were thirteen big dredg
ing concerns along the Atlantic coast that
formed themselves into what was known as
t"rued t"r % their pants over and helped along
with thes work on a cost plus basis. The
| War Department and the government dredges