The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1946-01-20
CREATING ISLAND
Immense Biting Head OF
Dredge Pennsylvania
Weighs 100 Tons
Nv JAY JENKINS
st.r-News Staff Writer

star-News Staff Writer
artificial island has beer
....ted in the Cape Fear river and
u.aoond creek is in the process o.
h':ssan,earing as the huge dredge
1 p,ssnsansyylvania continues to sobble
rsi, ,,,,d from the Brunswick river
w . . 24-bour job of creating q
basin for 500 reserve merchant
s'i apIready the big dredge has NOV
n into the Brunswick river dis
Gu NV. NJ 4.3O0 feet, according to
. ID. captain of the Pennsylvania,
me ,r A Hillman. An average
Lsl NM cubic yards Of material per
i d.v has been removed from the
basin. , ..,.A.r -
4as into the Cape Fear, is now be-
; ;lss damned up by J. D. Orrell
ms aamnany Orrell has sunk a barge
o " +hs site to buttress pilings which
O 0re hi heng installed to stop the flaw
az a. m,tpr Once the dam is com.
ulo+ed mud dug up by the dredge
p 1.-The he deposited in the creek.
WIZ Over 175,OOo yards of material
dredged from the point of contact
b h. the Brunswick and Cape
Fear rivers has been dumped into
4be edge of the Cap Far, from
; ;,,o = small island which is roughly
ne1roendicular to the site Of the
Tortb Carolina Shipbuilding COM
pany.
The tug Carl Blades, piloted by
D Orrell took a party Of sight
seprs on an inspection tour OF the
basin late this past week and after
the inspectiaon was complete the
Carl Blades tied up to the Penn.
svlvania, largest dredge east Of the
Mississippi river.
Operating between two cables
anchored on both sides of the river,
the Pennsylvania swings back and
forth from either side Of the river
as a big, 164-ton saw-toothed "cut'
ter-head' bites out chunks OF the
river bottom, feeds it into the 49,
inch mouth of the suction pipe
The pipe, itself 27-inches in dl'
ameter and a quarter OF a mile
long, then carries the material te
Eagle Island where it is dumped
when we started dredging ir
the Brunswick" Capt. Hillmar
said, the "cutter-nead'' dug ur
what appeared to be an old dam
Of six by Pinch pine pilings. Evil
IDENTIFY made out Of hard. yellow
pine Of the long-leaf variety, the
effects Of their long stay in the
outside Of the pilings showed the
water but the inside OF the wooc
appeared as new as if it had beer
there only a week or So"
Civil War Vintage
Capt. Hillman added that from
conversations with various Viii
mington people, he gathered tina
the pilings had been put there
during the Civil War. 1.-THE piling.
were connected by wooded pegs
Hillman said. "You couldn't draw
a string any straighter than the
grain in the wood
While the inspection party wa:
aboard the Pennsylvania, Charlie!
L. Phillips, a native Of Swansboro
N. c., was the operator in thu
lever room',' which is the nerve
center of the dredge. From thu
glassed-in enclosure high abov'
deck, Phillips controlled the move
ment of the cutter-head and thu
movement of the ship by mani
pulating 10 different levers.
Phillips said ne had been engaged
in dredging work for "a years, tn
last 10 Of which he has spent il
the employ of American Dredginl
company of Philadelphia, owner
Of the Pennsylvania.
You have to have about sever
years experience before you cal
operate the lever-room, he said
He pulled a lever and one of tn
two 65-foot "spuds," an apparatu
resembling pile-driver, clanke'
down into the river mud and pulle'
the dredge sidewise five feet.
Those spds weigh "a ton
each" Phillips said. Located OF
the opposite end of the dredg
from the cutter-head, the spud
serve to walk the ship along tn
rlver bottom. One spud is anchor
ed while the other one is raised
When the ship is in it's new position
The other spud is lowered, Phillip
explained.
Monstrous Steel Anger
The cutter-head itself. which re
1mbles a monstrous steel 'auge
with a hollow center while it