THE HISTORY AND ECONOMIC VALUE OF CANALS. 45 



canal. A large manufacturing center will be developed at the eastern 

 end, where mills will have the advantage of both land and sea transportation. 

 Water abounds in the hills back of the center of the line, and on these hills 

 an increasing summer population will undoubtedly be settled. 



Skepticism as to the success of the canal has been natural, being based 

 on the conditions of the past, when the great majority of the coastwise 

 tonnage was carried in sailing vessels. 



To-day — 



(o) This tonnage is under the control of a small number of corpora- 

 tions, which tow the merchandise in barges containing from 1,000 to 3,500 

 tons. 



(6) The towing companies now require a plant for a three-weeks round 

 trip on account of the dangers and delays via the Vineyard Haven route. 



(c) The cost of this plant will be reduced at least one-third, for the 

 reason that not only is the distance shortened sixty-six miles, but the 

 duration of the trip is greatly diminished. 



(d) Insurance from perils of the sea will be lessened. 



(e) The congested railroad systems of the Atlantic coast are now heartily 

 in favor of water transportation for crude inaterial, tlius relieving their 

 lines for the transportation of high-class merchandise and passengers. 



(/) This new waterway is not in the strictest sense a canal, but a short 

 passage connecting two portions of a much-traveled route through which 

 a known traffic exists. Its conditions are analogous to those at Suez, where 

 the profits have far exceeded the estimates. 



(g) Humanity demands the elimination of tlie dangerous, stormy 

 and fog-bound route around the Cape. The loss of life and property in 

 that locality has been appalling. The record, more or less incomplete, 

 from 1843 to 1903, gives a minimum of 2,131 vessels wrecked in the Nan- 

 tucket Shoals region, 908 of which were total losses. Ten complete crews 

 disappeared with their ships, and in addition, about 700 men lost their lives. 



The completion of the canal will render unnecessary the proposed 

 dredging of Pollock Rip channel at an estimated cost of some three million 

 dollars, a sum which could be much more advantageously used by the 

 Government in the neighborhood of tlie canal rather tlian being wasted in 

 the tortuous and ever-shifting channels oft" Chatham. 



Such is the description of tlie work being done by the Boston, Cape 

 Cod & New York Canal Co., a corporation which is expending twelve million 

 dollars under a charter granted by the State of Massachusetts on June 

 I, 1899. Its promotors are assured that it will be a financial success. The 

 writer shares their opinion, and is proud, as an ex-navy officer, to be asso- 



