USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 48
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Work was at once begun and the canal was built along the course of the Blackstone River, portions of the river being utilized where it was considered feasible. More than 500 men were employed in its con- struction. The length of the canal was 44 miles and three-quarters ; its depth was four feet; its width 45 feet. At Worcester it was 450 feet above tide level at Providence, and to reach this height there were forty-nine locks, all but one of which were of hewn stone and cost $4,000 each. The canal was opened for use July 1, 1828, when the packet boat Lady Carrington passed through the locks to Worcester, and returned the next day. This boat was seventy feet long, nine and a half feet wide, had a covered cabin for passengers, and could be drawn by two horses at the rate of four or five miles an hour.
The canal did not prove a success, and the investment turned out a total loss. Yet for some years twelve freight boats and one packet belonging to the Providence and Worcester Canal Boat Company, and eleven private freight boats, were used on its waters. Each freight boat carried from twenty to thirty tons of freight, and the packet car- ried passengers.
The causes of the failure of the canal have been summed up as fol- lows: First-It was built nine-tenths of the way, depended on slack water navigation the other tenth, and at low stages of the river the boats would ground on the bars and shoals of the slack water portions, and lie stranded for days and sometimes weeks. Second-The cost of construction was estimated at $500,000, but the actual cost was $750,- 000, while at the outset the projectors could have had all the money
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AN OLD MERCHANTMAN AND WHALER.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
they needed. Third-The canal managers should have bought the whole water power, and organized a canal and water power company, as by this means they would have avoided the resulting disastrous quarrels with the manufacturers who owned the water privileges.
Had it not been for the increase in manufacturing at this period, creating a great demand for the water power, and the building of rail- roads soon after, which provided all required facilities for transporta- tion, the canal might eventually have been made a success notwith- standing the disadvantageous conditions under which it had been built and was operated. While it entailed absolute loss on its stockholders, it was the means of opening up and improving a number of streets at the north end of the city of Providence, where it connected with tide water, many new buildings, storehouses and others, were erected, and a great many people were employed for a long period. The remains of the canal can still be seen on Canal street in Providence and in many places along the Blackstone Valley.1
With the great increase of the manufactures of Providence from about 1840, coastwise trade developed and larger and larger vessels came constantly into usc. As a result it became necessary to deepen and widen the channel of Providence River, which was very tortuous and narrow, but had served well enough during the earlier years of the century when the foreign commerce was dwindling and the vessels were small and of light draught.
The necessity for this deepening and widening became much more imperative after the War of the Rebellion, since which time the size of coastwise vessels has very materially increased. This is especially true of coal carrying vessels, which formerly brought cargoes of 200 or 300 tons, while the present barges and schooners engaged in that trade carry from 600 to 2,500 tons or more.
Providence River is the northeast arm of Narragansett Bay, and is a tidal estuary, between one and two miles wide, that extends for about seven miles from the city southward, into the deeper and wider reaches of the bay. The head of this estuary forms the harbor, which is about a mile by a mile and a half in extent, while out of this a narrow waterway leads up on the west side into the heart of the city of Providence, and on the east side the Blackstone River flows into it. The narrow waterway just mentioned, and to which the term "Provi- dence River" was originally applied, was the scene of the early com- mercial activity of Providence, and on its eastern shore and at its
1Staples's Annals of Providence, p. 366; Providence Plantations, p. 75.
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THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
head, where two small fresh water rivers flowed into the "Cove", the first wharves were built and the early merchants carried on their busi- ness. John Brown was the first inerchant to locate on what is now the harbor, at India Point, and the East India trade that followed brought that water area first into prominence.
The harbor extends from Fox Point, at the entrance to the original Providence River, to Field's Point, a mile and a half south, where the river narrows to less than a quarter of a mile in width. Originally this basin between Fox and Field's Points had many shoals and bars. One of these was at the Crook just south of Fox Point, where there was only four and a half feet of water at low tide. Another was Long Bed, which made out from the east shore to opposite Sassafras Point and only left a narrow deep water channel close in toward the west shore. A third was Little Ohio bar or shoal, subsequently known as Green Jacket shoal, which was on the eastern side of the harbor. There were narrow channels to the Pawtucket or Seekonk River on each side of this shoal.
To accommodate the growing coastwise trade, with its vessels con- stantly increasing in size, it was necessary to widen and deepen the channel to Fox Point. The harbor was surveyed in 1853 by Lieut. Rosecrans of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, $1,500 having been appropriated for that purpose August 12, 1852, when $5,000 was also appropriated to pay for improving the channel. The United States government then expended this amount upon cutting a channel ten feet deep, 150 feet wide and 840 feet long and from nine to ten feet deep through the Crook up to Fox Point, and the work was done under the direction of Capt. George Dutton of the Corps of Engineers.
Nothing more was done until 1867, when the channel was deepened to twelve feet, and the anchorage area enlarged. In 1871 and 1872 the depth was increased to fourteen feet and many obstructions were re- moved. Up to this time all the work on the channel had been confined to the harbor, as the sweep of the tidal currents had been sufficient to keep the waterway of sufficient depth below Field's Point for the ves- sels that could approach the wharves of the port. With the deeper water in the harbor, however, larger vessels could be brought in, and under these conditions the lower channels were found to need improve- ment. One of the most dangerous obstructions in the approach to Field's Point was Bulkhead Rock, just off Silver Spring, and on the eastern side of the main channel. Originally at mean low water there was only a depth of 8.9 feet over this rock, but by blasting the rock this was increased to 14 feet in 1871 and to 20 feet in 1880.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
In 1872-3 the channel through the Crook was dredged to a width of 300 feet at a depth of 12 feet, and in the center to a depth of 14 feet, and in 1873 the western end of Long Bed was removed so as to make the entrance of sailing vessels into the harbor easier.
In 1878, as the outcome of considerable agitation, conferences were held between an Advisory Council appointed by the president of the United States, and consisting of Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen, Prof. Henry Mitchell and Major G. K. Warren, and the Board of Harbor Commissioners of Rhode Island, with the result that the government engineers formulated a plan providing for a channel 23 feet deep and 300 feet wide, extending from Fox Point to the deep waters of the bay off Conimicut Point. This plan also contemplated the excavation be- tween Field's Point and Fox Point of an anchorage basin, to be the same depth as the channel in the center, and to taper off on each side gradually according to the following cross section : 300 feet wide, 23 feet deep ; 600 feet wide, 20 feet deep ; 725 feet wide, 18 feet deep ; 940 feet wide, 12 feet deep, and 1,060 feet wide, 6 feet deep. Up to 1881 a channel 200 feet wide and 23 feet deep had been made up to Field's Point, while in the inner harbor itself a 20 foot depth had been secured and large portions of Long Bed and Green Jacket Shoal had been re- moved.
The plan of 1878 was modified in 1882 so as to provide for a channel 25 feet instead of 23 feet in depth, and also for a system of straight reaches which would be clearly marked and lighted by range lights. From this time the work went on and this great undertaking was sub- stantially completed June 30, 1895, up to which time a total sum of $674,116.36 had been spent, and the channel and anchorage areas had been dredged to full widths and depths. The channel had, however, filled up in places, so that it was less than 25 feet in depth and re- quired re-dredging. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, 73,479 cubic yards of mud were removed from the central part of the 25-foot channel between Fox and Sassafras Points, at an expense of $12,612.08. This portion of the channel had shoaled considerably by the deposit of sewage and wastes brought down by the rivers from the city, but the re-dredging restored about 100 feet of the width to the required depth.
Green Jacket Shoal, lying off the wharves between India and Fox Points on the east side of the harbor, was a very serious obstruction to navigation and anchorage. It was 2,000 fect long by from 1,200 to 600 feet wide, and about 30 acres in extent. On either side of this shoal, between it and the harbor lines, there were narrow ship chan-
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THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
nels, but the water on the summit of the shoal was only one foot decp. The government, in 1885, undertook to remove this shoal to a depth of 25 feet, and work was begun at once. The estimated cost of the im- provement was $112,346.25. Up to 1895 the sum of $103,917.74 had been spent on the work, 24 acres of the original 30 had been dredged to 25-foot depth, and a 16-foot depth had been secured over the central and larger portion of the shoal, in addition to a 20-foot depth in the main channel.
From 1852 to July 1, 1899, $976,500 in all had been spent by the United States government for the improvement of Providence River and harbor, but notwithstanding this large outlay there are still some serious obstacles to navigation, which have been summarized by the engineers as follows :
"First, the narrow passage at Field's Point at the entrance to the harbor ; second, The zig-zag character of the channel, originally made to follow the old lines and the deepest water, but which results through the sharp turns made necessary at the angles in a constant liability to run ashore at the end of the reaches; third, The narrowness of the channel-300 feet-which is not now sufficient, with the constantly increasing size of vessels and the present system of towing, to allow schooners and barges to turn readily without running ashore; and fourth, Shoals and bars in various places."
The present project for the improvement of the harbor and channel, which was incorporated in the River and Harbor Bill, passed June 3, 1896, provides for a ship channel 400 feet in width, and of a depth of 25 feet at mean low water, from Sassafras Point in Provi- dence Harbor, through Providence River and Narragansett Bay, by the most direct route practicable, to the ocean by way of the Western Pas- sage, at an estimated cost of $732,820.
A great deal of this work has been done, particularly in widening and straightening the channel and enlarging it at the angles of the reaches, and the most recent operations have been on the channel through the Western Passage, off Rocky Point, Warwick Neck and Dutch Island.
Meanwhile the channel of the Pawtucket or Seekonk River from Providence harbor up to Pawtucket, a distance of about four miles,, has been deepened fromn 5 feet at mean low water to 12 fect up to the wharves of Pawtucket. This work was begun in 1867, and is now prac- tically completed at the 12-foot depth. The cost has been over $300,- 000. It has been proposed to deepen this channel to 16 feet at an esti- mated cost of $250,000.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
At present, with the exception of some property on the west side of the river, the city of Providence has no ownership in the water front. If the water front is owned privately, such ownership may be a more insurmountable obstacle to the development of trade than sand bars in the channel or a limited harbor area. In fact municipal ownership or control of the harbor frontage is demonstrated both by the experi- ence of foreign ports and by the logic of the circumstances to be an essential condition in promoting and developing the commerce of a port, as only thereby can all parties interested be assured of equal and fair treatment, dues and rentals be made uniform, and prohibitive charges prevented. If the streets-the land highways-are owned by the public and consequently are free to all, and the river channels are also owned by the public and are likewise free to all, while at the same time the water frontage is in private hands, it is obvious that the natural result of this condition will be that the greater part of the ad- vantage of improvement in harbors and channels can be absorbed by the private owner of the water front, because such owner can prevent the use of his property unless his demands are complied with. The same reason that led to the abolition of toll roads within the past fifty years-namely, paramount public interest and the impossibility of administering privately-owned highways in an equitable manner-will lead to the public ownership of water fronts by municipalities.
It is evident consequently that the municipality should own or con- trol the water front as it now does the streets, and that it should not grant perpetual franchises in the one property more than in the other, but should receive a fair and equitable rent.
Another essential to make available the commercial possibilities of the port of Providence is railroad connections. The harbor now has lines of railroad on all sides, and these lines are advantageously placed. The only requisite to provide for is to prevent excessive charges that might be made by the railroad management. The present railroads are all owned by one corporation. Consequently a competing trunk line is almost an absolute necessity if the port is to have a suitable opportunity to expand. Failing that, the community ought to have the right to dictate to any corporation in sole possession of the means of ingress and egress by rail, what the rates shall be, at least to the extent of preventing such rates from being destructive to enterprise, and to insure that they be alike to all.
Providence has a splendid natural harbor and a commodious chan- nel leading thereto, on both of which about a million of dollars have becn spent by the national government. She has, however, failed to
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comply with the essential condition of owning her own water front, with which condition the great ports of the world nearly all comply, as they, almost without exception, either own or control their harbors, docks and quays. She has good railroad connections, but is at the mercy of a single railroad corporation, which may act equitably, but has it in its power to do otherwise.
But even if the problem of the ownership of the water front and the railroad connections could be settled favorable to the interests of the city, there is another obstacle that would prevent the development of commerce desired. In these days when talk of "the open door" is prevalent as applied to the commerce of China and the Orient, no proposition seems more self-evident than that trade is only finally possible when unrestricted. Recent events which have made us the owners of the Philippines, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and virtually of Cuba, present the question of foreign trade in an entirely new light. Cir- cumstances will inevitably force us to a more liberal and intelligent policy than in the past, including at least reciprocal trade with foreign countries.
The future will undoubtedly see the evolution of Providence to much greater importance as a port, but she must develop her local opportunities along the lines pointed out, namely, municipal control of her water front, and the acquisition of the power to regulate rates on railroads reaching her harbor. Having done these things, or while she is working them out, she must also work for unrestricted trade, as only thereby can she find a complete market for the products that it is pos- sible for her to turn out, and in that way only can she become a great free city like the world's great ports of the present or the past.
An important phase of the commercial development of Rhode Island was the establishing of lines of packets which plied regularly from port to port carrying freight and passengers. Joshua Hacker and Benjamin Lindsey, in 1763, had two boats running twice a week be- tween Providence and Newport. A regular traffic had probably been maintained before this time, as the business relations between Provi- dence and Newport were intimate. Without doubt there were likewise vessels running regularly to the leading ports along the coast-to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Savannah and other southern coast
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
towns, as well as to some of the West Indian Islands, and Newport in 1769 had a line of vessels running regularly to London.
After the Revolution this trade to coastwise ports became much more aetive because of the introduction of and inerease in manufacturing that was taking place all over the country, which gave rise to great activity in the home market. The main trade was with New York, and the paekets which were used on this route were in the latter part of the eighteenth century said to be "in speed and aeeommodation equal to any in the world".1 These vessels were sloops of from 75 to 100 tons burden, being of that size in order to get rid of the doekage and pilotage which were charged for heavier vessels at New York. They were built for speed and were fitted to earry passengers as well as freight. Until displaced by steamboats all the coastwise travel was by these vessels, and they earried all the freight that required quiek transportation, leaving the bulkier and eruder merehandise to be transported by other and larger erafts.
The era of the paekets may be said to have been from 1800 to 1830, for although before then they had been employed to a considerable extent, it was during this period that they reached their greatest use- fulness. In 1825 there were lines running from Providence to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Hartford, Boston and Albany, and loeal lines on the bay plying to Newport, Bristol, Fall River, East Greenwich and Wiekford. These boats in many instances were operated in connection with the stage eoaehes, which at that time had become the chief means of land travel, and by the combination of the stages and the paekets quiek through routes were established. The most important of these routes was that between New York and Bos- ton, with Providenee as the point of transfer. The facilities for travel afforded by the stage eoaehes and the paekets were constantly inereased in effectiveness by improvement in the vehieles and high- ways until they were supplanted by the steamboat and the railroad. For many years after the introduction of steamers, lines of packets continued to run as freight boats, and within a few years sueh boats have been used in traffie to the minor ports along the eoast.
In 1825 the paekets running to New York were the following sloops : The Ann Maria, Capt. E. C. Gardner; the Empress, Capt. Seth Thayer; the May, Capt. Gideon Hull; the New York, Capt. Gardner Willard; the Venus, Capt. J. Bliss ; the Providenee, Capt. George L.
'Staples's Annals of Providence, p. 609.
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TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION.
Brown; the Amity, Capt. Jeremiah Munroe; the Almada, Capt. Thomas Hull; the James Lanphear, Capt. James R. Kenney; the Fame, Capt. Folger; the D. B. Jones, Capt. West; the Herald, Capt. Whipple Brown; the Superior, Capt. S. H. Bennett; the Splendid, Capt. John Willard; the Ann, Capt. George Childs; the Huntress, Capt. John Read, jr .; the Gold, Capt. Samuel Curry; the Alonzo, Capt. Justin. The Providence agents for these boats were S. B. Mumford and Stafford & Lothrop, who were succeeded by William H. Bowen, and the New York agents were Talcott & Lyman. The freight carried from Providence was chiefly cotton goods and Smithfield lime, but the teas, china and silk brought in by the East India vessels to Brown & Ives, Edward Carrington & Co. and others, were frequently reshipped and sent to New York by these sloops. The return cargoes were flour, cotton, iron, madder, chemicals and supplies for the cotton mills.
At this period a line of small schooners ran from Providence to Philadelphia. They were about the same size as the sloops sailing to New York, and included the following vessels: The Messenger, Capt. Abner Hull; the Herald, Capt. Edward Hall; the Domestic, Capt. Eldridge ; the Rush, Capt. Kelly ; the Dove, Capt. Ahirah Hall; and the Worcester, Capt. E. H. Rhodes. The Providence agents were Orray Taft & Co., who were succeeded by Captain Abner Hall, and he in turn by Capt. Ahirah Hall. The business of this line increased so that larger vessels were put on, among which were the schooners George Fales, Capt. Hardon Nickerson; the James Martin, Capt. Joshua Hardon ; the Harvey Payton, Capt. Asa Nickerson; the Holder Borden, Capt. C. C. Baker; and the Delaware, Capt. Crowell. The cargoes shipped to Philadelphia were similar to those sent to New York, while the return cargoes were corn, flour, iron, starch, and gen- eral merchandise.
The packets running to Boston were small schooners, among which were the Sally Hope, Capt. Small; the Lydia, Capt. Nickerson; the Crown, Capt. Lincoln Baker; the Maria, Capt. Crowell. The cargoes sent and brought back were very much the same as those exchanged with New York.
About 1825 the Union line of packets was established between Providence and Baltimore, and among the vessels employed on this route were the Ida, Capt. Joseph Smith; the Edward, Capt. Robert Smith; the Union, Capt. Bangs; the President, Capt. Wood; the Queen, Capt. Crowell; the brig Mount Hope, Capt. Edward Sheldon; the Mary, Capt. Joshua Howland. Between 1835 and 1840 this line
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was supplanted by another line owned by Seth Adams and Israel H. Day, which consisted of larger schooners of from 180 to 200 tons burden, and ineluded the White Foam, Captain Arnold Milliken; the Israel H. Day, Capt. Davis Chace; the Sarah N. Sherman, Capt. Samuel N. Sherman ; the Wild Pigeon, Capt. Martin Milliken; the Sea Gull, Capt. Joshua Howland; the Joseph Turner, Capt. Gardner C. Gibbs; the Anna Jenkins, Capt. James R. Potter; the Eliza Gibbs, Capt. Benjamin Gibbs. Mr. Adams was agent for the line for many years, and was succeeded by Mr. Day. This line continued to do business after 1850. Several vessels operated under the name of the Despateh line plied between Providence and Baltimore from 1830 for several years, and there was competition between these paekets and those of the Union line. On the Despatch line were the sehooners Savannah, Capt. David Oliphant; the General Marion, Capt. Leander S. Franklin; the brig Vietory, Capt. Israel L. Joslin; the schooner Eliza, Capt. John Richmond; the sehooner Clarissa, Capt. Benjamin Hill. Willard Joslin and Jessie B. Sweet were agents for this line.
A line of sloops sailing from Providence to Albany was started about 1825, and Israel H. Day and Spellman Metealf were the agents. Among the vessels employed were the Avon, Capt. John Gibbs; the General Battey, Capt. Gardner ; the John, Capt. E. S. Burrough; the Fly, Capt. Spellman ; the Hero, Capt. E. S. Burrough; the Lafayette, Capt. J. E. Spellman; the Oregon, Capt. Samuel B. Joslin. These vessels brought in eargoes of grain, vegetables and fruit, which they unloaded at Providenee near the Weybosset bridge, where this produee was retailed to the citizens.
Packets of from fifty to seventy-five tons eapacity ran from Providenee to Hartford, and on this route were the Commodore Perry, Capt. Aborn; the Rising Sun, Capt. Thomas Farmer; the Two Brothers, Capt. Henry Farmer; the William H. Bunn, Capt. Arnold Irons; the Fair Haven, Capt. Sidney Smith. The eargoes brought in were chiefly hay, grain, and paving stone. Small vessels of from thirty to fifty tons ran regularly to Newport, Bristol, Wickford and East Greenwich. From Bristol the chief export was onions, but vegetables of all kinds were likewise shipped; while from Wiekford and East Greenwich the receipts were wood, eggs, and farm produee. From Fall River nails and eotton waste were received. To all these small ports general merehandise and supplies were shipped.1
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