142 HAUPT — REACTION BREAKWATER AT ARANSAS PASS. [Oct. 6, 



of Engineers by resolution of the Fifty-fifth Congress, third session, 

 which passed the Senate, May 28, 1898, requesting " the Secretary 

 of War to prepare and submit plans, specifications and estimates for 

 the improvement of the harbor at Aransas Pass, Texas." 



Two members of the former Board composed the one appointed 

 under this resolution. They reported on December 17, 1898, but 

 the report and estimate were not submitted until the hour of the 

 hearing before the River and Harbor Committee, and then was not 

 read in full. It states that the Board is of the opinion that to secure 

 a 20 foot channel of a width of 150 feet at bottom '' it will be ad- 

 visable to build two parallel jetties and to have recourse to dredg- 

 ing." .... Also that "a portion of the old Government jetty 

 and the outer 1000 feet of foundation .of the Aransas Pass Harbor 

 Company's jetty must be removed in any case. " (See Fig. i.) 



The estimate accompanying this carefully matured plan places the 

 cost of the works at $1,525,000, without provision for maintenance. 



Had this plan been adopted it would have destroyed the efficacy 

 of the reaction breakwater almost entirely and would have involved 

 the Government in useless annual expense for maintenance. It was 

 therefore met on the spot by a counter-proposition to complete the 

 existing work as designed, guarantee a twenty-foot channel within 

 two years and secure the Government from loss by filing a large 

 bond of indemnity, conditioned on the payment by the United 

 States of a sum less than one-half the above estimate of the Gov- 

 ernment's engineers, on the completion of the work. The proposi- 

 tion also included the use of the invention at this place gratis. 

 The committee held it under advisement to be put in legal form, 

 which was subsequently done, but before acting upon it the Gov- 

 ernment engineers offered to dredge a channel (without guarantees, 

 however, of any kind) for the sum of $100,000. The committee 

 therefore requested my presence when in executive session, and 

 after a brief discussion as to the probable cost of the several parts 

 of the work and the results to be expected therefrom it decided to 

 insert the following item in its bill : 



" Improving Aransas Pass, Texas : For dredgino^ and other improve- 

 ment of Aransas Pass Harbor, sixty thousand dollars : Provided, That 

 the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to contract for the removal of 

 that portion of the old Government jetty in said harbor from the end 

 nearest the curved jetty constructed by the Aransas Pass Harbor Com- 

 pany to the wreck ' Mary,' in such manner as to in no wise interfere ivith 



