SUGGESTED HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. 49 



ply, and sewerage system; port defenses, fortifications, and maga- 

 zines; and to lay out a town site, having in view the prospective 

 increase in commercial importance of the port. The following extract 

 is taken from the report of the board: 



The bay of Sail Luis de Apra has a deep anchoring ground, extending about 1 

 mile north and south and about 2 miles east and west. It is broken, however, bj^ 

 several outlying reefs. It is protected except to the westward. Luminan Reef gives 

 sufficient protection, but Kalalang Bank, with a depth of some 30 feet, does not, the 

 swell making round the end of Luminan Reef even with the prevailing northeasterly 

 wind. It would therefore be necessary, in order to thoroughly close the harbor 

 against the ocean swell and storms, to build a breakwater along these banks, extend- 

 ing from Luminan Reef to Spanish Rocks, leaving a deep entrance between Spanish 

 Rocks and Orote Island 2,000 feet wide. 



The board did not recommend that such a breakwater should be })uilt, 

 on account, among other considerations, of its great cost and the 

 uncertainty of the force of storms against a breakwater on this narrow 

 bank with deep water so close to seaward. Even if such a breakwater 

 were built, the proposal which had been made of utilizing some of the 

 coral reefs in the harbor as sites for coal depots could not be followed 

 out, as test borings made in these reefs showed that nearly all of them 

 are formed, not of solid coral, but of coral sand interspersed with 

 occasional coral heads, with growing coral of various kinds on the sur- 

 face, so that they would make poor foundations for retaining walls. 



After duly considering various plans the board recommended that an 

 opening 30 feet deep be dredged through the reef separating the deep 

 water of the main harbor from an inner basin south of the old fort, 

 Santa Cruz, and not far from the village of Sumai on Orote Peninsula; 

 that this basin be enlarged by dredging, and the top of a small reef in 

 the outer anchorage, near Cabras Island, be removed to a depth of 6 

 fathoms; that the naval base and coaling station be established on Orote 

 Peninsula, near Sumai, and be supplied with water brought from 

 Paulana, a branch of the Atangtano River; that batteries be located on 

 Orote Peninsula and Cabras Island with good military roads leading to 

 them from the posts and boat landings; that the town site be established 

 on the high land of Orote Peninsula, back of the naval station, and that 

 commercial docks be constructed in places indicated by the board; and 

 that a light-house be constructed on Orote Point with a light of the 

 fourth order. The report of the board was published^' and handed to 

 the Naval and Conniierce Committees of Congress. An appropriation 

 of $150,000 for the improvement of the harbor of San Luis de Apra 

 passed the Senate, but the House failed to concur and the measure was 

 lost. The sum of $40,000 asked for the acquisition of land was granted 

 by Congress. The retention of Guam as an American possession after 

 its capture, as provided for in the peace protocol at the close of the Span- 



a Report of the Guam Survey Board to the Secretary of the Navy, July 25, 1901. 

 9773—05 4 



