52 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
Manchester’s Harbor Development 
Land-Locked Anchorage for Yachts--Large or Small--Plenty Water at all Times 
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HANGES and improved conditions are frequently 
taken as a matter of course, and the situation re- 
heved with its many disadvantages becomes a vague 
memory. This, we believe, is true of Manchester Har- 
bor, which has been greatly improved in recent years 
and a plan of which with the various projects year by 
year, is shown above. 
Prior to 1890 the inner Harbor of Manchester, 
crooked and shallow, had received little attention and 
was no longer navigable at low water for any craft, 
above Read’s Wharf, and for the lightest draft vessels 
at high water. 
Efforts had been made, however, to interest the 
Federal Government and in 1888 a report of the Chief 
of Engineers recommended an appropriation of $2,500 
toward the work here. This was followed by appro- 
priations in 1890, 1892, 1899 and 1902 until there had 
been appropriated $24,300. This was expended in 
dredging a channel some 60 feet wide from Proctor’s 
Point to the town wharves, to a depth of four feet at 
mean low water. 
The report of the chief of engineers made in 1888 
is interesting at this time and the following quotation 
therefrom is of interest; ‘‘The outer sheltered harbor 
or roadstead contains approximately 300 acres with 
five fathoms of water. The entrance channel from the 
roadstead to Proctor’s Point is everywhere at least 100 
feet wide and 614 feet deep at mean low water and is 
unobstructed. At the narrows, distant 1,400 feet in- 
side of Proctor’s Point, the depth in the channel was 
reduced to one and one half feet at mean low water; 
thence to the town wharves, a farther distance of 2,500 
feet no low water channel originally existed. Near the 
town wharves the channel is crossed by the Boston & 
Maine R. R. by a bridge which has an opening of 28 
feet in width.’ 
The work of the Federal Government relieved this 
situation greatly, but only temporarily, as the succeed- 
MANCHESTER MASS. 
OELIAS. BAER 
PLAN SHOWING 
VARIOUS DREDGINGS 
MANCHESTER HARBOR 
SCALE 111 10 200 FT 
Rav CALLER Cro Enoe.. 
ong winters with their ice dragged the surrounding 
mud into the dredged channel, quickly refilling it. The 
death of Senator MeMillan about this time removed 
one who had been a very interested and influential 
friend of Manchester in Washington, and since that 
time no appropriation has been made by the Govern- 
ment for this work. 
Subsequent to the work above outlined matters 
rested for several years until in 1907 the need of further 
work became so apparent and pressing that the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts undertook the dredging 
of a channel 1,800 feet long, 75 feet wide and 6 feet 
at low water. The town also appropriated $2,500 and 
this was expended along the same lines as the state, and 
under the direction of the Harbor and Land Commis- 
sioners. 
This work was followed in 1910, 1911, 1912 and 
1913 by appropriations by the town and state in co- 
operation until at the present time there has been spent 
in Manchester Harbor exclusive of what the Federal 
Government has expended, the sum of $62,000, of which. 
Manchester has contributed $27,500. This will be in- 
ereased by some $18,000 in 1914. 
These several pieces of work are shown clearly 
upon the map and a study of the work done will well 
repay the time taken. 
Remembering the condition of 1888—no channel 
whatever above Read’s wharf at low tide; a long and 
erooked channel below the Point of Rocks; and a 28-ft. 
entrance to the Inner Harbor—and contrasting these 
with the present conditions of broad channel and an- 
chorage, direct cut across Glass Head flats, and a 50-ft. 
entrance to the wharves, Manchester may well feel that 
the money and effort expended to attain these results 
has been to good purpose. 
This is amply borne out from the increased busi- 
ness of yacht building and repairing; the growing use 
of the harbor as a rendezvous for all sorts of craft and 
