Page 823 miscellaneous 914 



index is made and verified. This is forwarded to the printer with the page proof. It 

 is not customary to require a proof of the index. This is proofread in the Government 

 Printing Office. 



914. Intracoastal Waterway Pilots 



A Coast Pilot generally describes all of the navigable waters in the region covered, 

 but there are special Coast Pilots in which this is not done. These Pilots usually de- 

 scribe some particular route, such as the Intracoastal Waterway. 



The ordinary Coast Pilot includes descriptions of the waterways which combine to 

 form the Intracoastal Waterway, but these descriptions are scattered through the book 

 and mingled with the descriptions of the adjacent coast, inlets, and streams; and where 

 there is a special Intracoastal Waterway Pilot they are given only briefly. . 



The Intracoastal Waterway Pilot consists of a continuous description of that water- 

 way and very little else, except descriptions of channels or inlets that connect the 

 waterway to the open sea. 



The development of the navigable channels which form the system of intracoastal 

 waterways is almost entirely in the charge of the United States Corps of Engineers, 

 War Department. This agency maintains District Offices, each of which is in charge 

 of the waterways in a specified area, and each issues, from time to time, a bulletin 

 describing the condition of the waterways under its supervision. The Corps of Engineers 

 also publishes two pamphlets, one describing the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the 

 other, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. 



Coast Pilots of these waterways must differ in some respects from Coast Pilots of 

 coastal waters. They must be written in a manner to permit the greatest use to be 

 made of the reports of the United States Corps of Engineers. The form of these 

 reports should be studied, and the Pilot should be written so that it can readily be 

 brought up to date and supplemented by use of the reports. For this reason, statute 

 miles are used instead of nautical miles. 



These Pilots must be correlated with the Intracoastal Waterway charts, but this 

 should not interfere with presenting much of the detail in the same form and order 

 used in the Corps of Engineers reports. Otherwise the instructions for the preparation 

 of the manuscript of Coast Pilots apply equally to the Intracoastal Waterway Pilots. 



These Intracoastal Waterway Pilots, although published primarily for the use of 

 small craft, must be written for the navigators of the largest vessels that can use the 

 waterways. Information applicable only to vessels too large to use the channels should 

 be omitted. 



Very little detail should be given about the navigability of tributary streams. So 

 much of the navigation is in shoal water that the range of tide is of the greatest impor- 

 tance. Where grounding is likely to occur, the character of the bottom should be noted. 

 Warning should be given of localities where sloughing is likely to occur or where freshets 

 and storms may tend to shoal the channels. Any areas where snags are likely to be 

 encountered or where vegetation may affect navigation should be described. Certain 

 kinds of information become of increased importance in these Pilots. 



Many parts of the Intracoastal Waterways are marked with so many aids to navi- 

 gation that great care must be taken to avoid overloading the Pilot with so many 

 detailed descriptions of these that it will be impossible to keep it corrected. Change- 

 able detail, particularly that concerning aids to navigation, must be avoided so far as 

 practicable. 



