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Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.

Nothing has been done here during the past fiscal year, and no work is contemplated during the next.

Block Island Harbor, Rhode Island.

During the fiscal year there have been 25,227 tons of rip-rap granite put into the break-water, and 517 tons of bowlders removed from the anchorage sheltered by it.

The break-water now extends out 1,425 feet from the shore. A detached piece 300 feet in length has been built from a point 200 feet from the head or outer end of the main work.

A contract has been made for completing the work with the above dimensions, with the available funds. When this is done the harbor for local purposes will be completed. No further appropriation is asked for this work.

Pawcatuck River, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

No work has been done here during the past fiscal year and none is contemplated during the next.

Little Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The improvement in this bay was begun during the fiscal year, and 4,015 cubic yards of material, including bowlders of a size less than one cubic yard, were removed by contract at a cost of thirty cents per cubic yard, and 69 cubic yards of bowlders exceeding one cubic yard in size at a cost of $5 per cubic yard. There were also removed by hired labor 131 cubic yards of dangerous rocks.

The estimated cost of the projected improvements is $51,000, of which $15,000 has been appropriated, leaving $36,000 still to be appropriated to complete this work.

This improvement is designed to make a safe channel through the shoals where the ruling depth is now 44 feet at mean low water, of not less than 7 feet at mean low water, and 200 feet width. The mean range of the tide is about 24 feet.

The United States Advisory Council is still composed of Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen, U. S. N., Brevet Major-Gen. G. K. Warren, U. S. A. and Prof. Henry Mitchell, U. S. C. S.

We have consulted at intervals during the year with the members of this board, in addition to the formal interviews detailed in our last annual report, and have received counsel and assistance which we deem to be of great value to the State.

Respectfully submitted,

J. HERBERT SHEDD,
N. F. POTTER,

JEDEDIAH WILLIAMS,

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Harbor Commissioners.

APPENDIX.

A.

COMMUNICATION TO GEN. G. K. WARREN.

PROVIDENCE, July 31, 1878.

To Gen. G. K. Warren, United States Engineers, Newport, R. I.:

DEAR SIR: In response to your communication requesting an expression of opinion by this board upon the question of the improvement of Providence Harbor, we respectfully submit the following statement:

It is provided in Chapter 611 of the Public Laws, as follows: "Section 4. The Harbor Commissioners are authorized and empowered, whenever they deem it necessary, to apply to Congress for appropriations for protecting and improving any harbor in the State." It is also provided that the Harbor Commissioners shall have the general care and supervision of all the public harbors and tide waters within this State, and it is their duty to make such investigations as are necessary to protect and develop the rights and interests of the State in such harbors and public waters; and to recommend legislation for the preservation and improvement of the harbors and public tide waters and the promotion of the interests of the State connected therewith. The Harbor Commissioners therefore are the recognized representatives of the State in all matters relating to the public tide waters in which the General Government and the State are jointly interested, and it is their especial duty to promote the improvement of these waters for public use.

Recognizing this duty, the Harbor Commissioners gave their early and careful attention to the improvement of the channels, and in connection with the United States Advisory Council, appointed by the President to cooperate with this board, they devised such improvement as seemed necessary for the safety and convenience of commerce in passing between the sea and Providence Harbor. Having done this, they petitioned Congress "to make an appropriation for the removal of obstructions, so that vessels of the larger class may find convenient and safe passage to this important harbor." It was estimated that the cost of doing this work would amount to about half a million dollars. The petition, supported by your able report upon the matter, ultimately resulted in an appropriation of $50,000 for the commencement of the work.

It was supposed by the Harbor Commissioners that this money would be expended at your discretion, under the broad language of our petition, so that the immediate results should be as beneficial as possible to the passage of vessels of the larger class. The only conditions which might control the language of the petition, so far as we are aware, are contained in the Senate Ex. Doc. No. 34, 45th Congress, 2d session, in which you report to the Chief of Engineers: "The first improvement to be undertaken is to make the deep channel for ocean steamers from Providence to the sea, and let the widening for anchorage and for a beating channel for sailing vessels follow. For making such a channel 200 feet wide and 23 feet deep at mean low-water, I have estimated would require," etc. You, however, refer to a communication to you by the Harbor Commissioners, which is appended to your report and printed as a part of the same in which they say the improvement "demanded by the interests and for the safety of commerce would be accomplished, first, by widening and deepening the main channel from Fox Point * * to Field's Point." A width of 1,060 feet and a depth of 23 feet are mentioned.

But, subsequent to the printing of this document, and before an appropriation was reported upon in Congress, the House Committee on Commerce to whom the matter had been referred, gave to representatives of the Harbor Commission, the Board of Trade, the city of Providence, and prominent business men of the State, a hearing upon the subject, at which the needs of commerce were explained, and the requirement for immediate relief to accommodate vessels now visiting the port and needing slightly greater depth than now exists was dwelt

upon.

We had therefore supposed that the object of Congress in making the appropriation was mainly that stated at this hearing, and was that of beginning the improvement contemplated as a whole, by an expenditure which should give immediate relief so far as possible.

This relief can, in our opinion, be best accomplished by making a channel from 200 to 300 feet wide and about 20 feet deep at low water. Such a channel would be wide enough to be safely navigated by vessels of deep draught, if few in number, and it would be deep enough for the large ocean steamers, during about half of every tide.

We suppose that such a width and depth can be secured, with the appropriation now available, and we believe its expenditure in this way would receive the hearty approval of nearly all the business men of this community.

The Harbor Commissioners would approve of the dumping of excavated material on either side of Providence Harbor at a suitable distance within the harbor lines, or in deep water near Sand Point, east of Prudence Island.

Respectfully yours,

J. HERBERT SHEDD,
N. F. POTTER,

JEDEDIAH WILLIAMS,

Harbor Commissioners.

B.

ABSTRACT OF REPORT OF GEN. G. K. WARREN, TO CHIEF OF U. S. ENGINEERS, FOR 1878.

Improvement of Pawtucket or Seekonk River, Rhode Island.

No work has been done in this river during the past fiscal year. The remainder of the last appropriation is reserved to deepen certain shoals which are reforming, or for the removal of any accidental obstruction.

For a history of this work see Annual Reports of the Chief of Engineers for 1874, Part 2, page 227; and for 1876, Part 1, page 207.

Pawtucket River is in the Providence collection district, and that place is the nearest port of entry. The amount of revenue collected there during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, was $171,553.79.

MONEY STATEMENT.

July 1, 1877, amount available....

July 1, 1878, amount expended during fiscal year.

July 1, 1878, amount available..

$1,511 28 127 75

1,383 53

Improvement of Providence River and Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

Providence River is an estuary extending from Nayat Point, Narragansett Bay, to Providence. Its length is about 7 miles, with a width varying from 1,000 feet to 2 miles, and a depth from 12 to 50 feet at mean low water. At its head this estuary is joined by another called the Seekonk or Pawtucket, extending 4 miles further to the town of Pawtucket. Providence has upward of 100,000 inhabitants, with large manufacturing and commercial industries. The legislature of the State has established Harbor lines as far down as Field's Point, about 5 miles above Nayat Point. The parts above Field's Point are called Providence Harbor. From Providence to the sea is about 28 miles, with ample width and depth below Nayat Point for the movement or anchorage of any number of the largest vessels.

The improvement sought is for a channel

23 feet deep at mean low-water, 150 feet wide.
20 feet deep at mean low-water, 600 feet wide.
18 feet deep at mean low-water, 725 feet wide.
12 feet deep at mean low-water, 940 feet wide.
6 feet deep at mean low-water, 1,060 feet wide.

The general government has expended about $56,500 in the improvement of this harbor between Fox Point and Field's Point, making a depth of 12 feet at

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