The CHAIRMAN. Can you just indicate on one of those maps so that we will have clearly in mind the relation of the two things? Mr. CHERRY. I can. I was trying to find out where Buzzard's Bay is here. Mr. GREENE. This map does not show it. It is way back in there [indicating]. Mr. CHERRY. About here [indicating]; it would begin in Buzzards Bay, the Cape Cod Canal, going right across here [indicating] and continuing until it gets into Cape Cod Bay, down here at Plymouth, is it not, Captain? A schooner which is carrying low-priced freight can not take advantage of that because they can not pay the rate plus the towage to enable them to go through the Cape Cod Canal. Mr. MURRAY. Has that rate been fixed yet? Mr. CHERRY. What is that? Mr. MURRAY. That rate has not been fixed yet, has it? Mr. CHERRY. Just tentatively; 10 cents per ton. That would take your vessel through loaded and bring her back light, provided you are using the canal all the time. Mr. MURRAY. Won't you just say for this record something about the nature of the ownership of the Cape Cod Canal, as to whether it is publicly or privately owned? Mr. CHERRY. My understanding is that it is privately owned. I am not fully advised, though, as to just how it is owned. It is generally understood that it is a project of Mr. Spellman's that he has put through. The CHAIRMAN. It is a privately owned canal? Mr. CHERRY. Yes: a privately owned canal, and it may be very beneficial, and we do not wish to reflect on the Cape Cod Canal as not being of any use to us. It may be very beneficial to us, but we also have just as much use for that channel. Take the schooner that can not afford to pay the towage through there, plus the tonnage charge that it would have to pay, he has still got to use this channel. Our tugs in going in here now go to this point [indicating on map] and then across there [indicating on map] and have to run cross current with a long tow, which we necessarily have to have, because you necessarily have to have long lengths of hawsers to keep the tow from breaking away, making that tow half a mile long, sweeping across the channel and taking up a good part of the channel, and vessels going in the opposite direction are apt to collide in coming through this channel. If we had a straightaway channel down the beach, one would be coming down and the other would be on the opposite side of the channel, and there would not be these cross currents. The tows would stay in their proper course, and you would eliminate this danger of accidents which we have in going through here [indicating]. Mr. MURRAY. Will you tell us how many lives were lost through accidents in going through there in the last 10 years? Mr. CHERRY. No; I can not. Mr. MURRAY. Were there no figures kept? Mr. GREENE. I will furnish that to you later. Mr. MURRAY. Just whether you know about it. Has there been any considerable loss of life and property or both in going through there during the last 10 years? Mr. CHERRY. I can speak for our own company. It cost us $10,000 for one accident in there. I have kept no record, nor have I provided myself with the records of the accidents. I know they are numerous. The CHAIRMAN. I suppose there is some record of that loss of life and property? Mr. MURRAY. Yes; I suppose there is a record of the loss from these disasters along that coast there. Mr. CHERRY. Oh, yes; there is. Mr. MURRAY. Have you any estimate of the number of ships that use that course? Mr. CHERRY. I suppose the number of vessels is 14,000 per year, going through the Pollock Rip Channel at the present time. Mr. TREADWAY. What percentage of that commerce do you think will be cared for by the Cape Cod Canal? Mr. CHERRY. That is very problematical. I do not know how many are going to use the Cape Cod Canal or how many can not. Mr. TREADWAY. This report shows that 40,238 vessels used that course. Mr. MURRAY. That is only in the daytime. Mr. SCULLY. The report shows there was 19,232 in 12 months. Mr. TREADWAY. How recently was that accident that cost your company $10,000? Mr. CHERRY. About five or six years ago. We sunk a schooner in it. The CHAIRMAN. You were speaking awhile ago about the class of vessels or commerce that will use the Cape Cod Canal. My attention was called to something else at the time you made that statement and I failed to catch it. Mr. CHERRY. The class of vessels that could not use it? The CHAIRMAN. Yes; the class of commerce that may not use the Cape Cod Canal. Mr. CHERRY. It is almost certain a schooner can not use it, because when they get to the Cape Cod Canal they have got to hire tug power to take them through, plus the tonnage, whatever it may be, going through, and as they carry freight at a very low rate they can not afford to do it; they must continue to use Cape Cod; and the schooner is the vessel which loses the most lives off Cape Cod. The CHAIRMAN. Would there not be a sufficient difference in the insurance rate to offset that? Mr. CHERRY. I think not, sir. Mr. GREENE. Would not the vessels going through the Cape Cod Canal have to employ towboats to take them through on account of the difference in the tides? Any Mr. CHERRY. Unless they had a towboat of their own, they would. Mr. GREENE. Yes; unless they had a towboat of their own. boats going through there would be obliged to be towed through, would they not? Mr. CHERRY. Oh, yes. Mr. GREENE. That would make an extra expense, besides the tonnage charge. Mr. CHERRY. That was the statement I made. They would all pay that, plus the tonnage charge, whatever that might be, and that they can not afford to do. They must, therefore, use Cape Cod. The CHAIRMAN. May I ask you what the saving in time would be between going around and going through the canal? Mr. CHERRY. With our tows we have estimated it would be about a 12-hour saving of time, provided we had good weather and we went right straight along. Mr. MURRAY. Do most of these 19,000 ships a year which go through there carry coal? Is coal the chief commodity that is carried? Mr. CHERRY. It is one of the chief commodities. Mr. MURRAY. What are the others, please? Mr. CHERRY. Well, we carry large amounts of stone from Maine to New York, and to all the ports along the coast, for return cargoes. It is bituminous coal, and it is anthracite coal. That is one of the largest factors of freight going east. Mr. MURRAY. Where do those boats carry the coal, or load up? Mr. CHERRY. They begin loading up at Edgewater, N. J., for the Hillside Coal & Iron Co., and then at Bayonne for the Central Railroad. Mr. MURRAY. Those are the tidewater points for the coal? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir; South Amboy and Perth Amboy, and down. to Philadelphia and Norfolk and those points along the coast. Mr. MURRAY. Are you familiar with the rates for carrying coal from these different tidewater points to points in New England, Boston, and Portland? Mr. CHERRY. Only from New York; that is all, sir. Mr. MURRAY. Only from New York? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir. Mr. MURRAY. Well, none of these lighters load at New York, do they? Mr. CHERRY. When I speak of New York I speak of the whole territory about there South Amboy, Perth Amboy, and Bayonne. Mr. MURRAY. I wonder if you could prepare a statement. I do not want to ask you to remember it, but could you insert in your remarks some statement about those rates and the probable effect of this improvement on those rates? Mr. CHERRY. No; I could not state what the probable effect of the improvement would be. I doubt whether it would be anything, because they are carrying pretty nearly all of that freight at almost cost, and would only save a few hours by reason of this channel here, and you would eliminate, of course, the danger. Mr. MURRAY. That would be something. Mr. CHERRY. Yes, that would be something, but I do not think it would affect your freight rates. Mr. MURRAY. It would only affect the profits of the company, is that all? Mr. CHERRY. It would not affect the profits of the company. It would save the mariners' lives that are going through there, the mariner that has to sail these waters, and it would save the property of the company, and in that way it does save a loss to the company. Bue we have lost but one vessel in nine years. But schooners are lost there constantly. On the 12th of January we came around and got caught in a heavy blow, blowing 71 miles an hour, with the thermometer 5 degrees below zero. A barge broke from the hawser and the tug picked her up, and they did not lose a man. The schooner Redhead (?) sunk. The men were taken off of it. The tug was towing her when she sunk. The cargo and all went down to the bottom of the sea. A line was thrown to them and they held onto the line. The cook was dead in the bottom of the boat, but the captain and the rest of the crew caught the line. After they had pulled below the lightship they made the boat fast and dropped out around the lee of the lightship and she went down with the man that was dead in the bottom of the boat. Mr. KETTNER. What do you mean by "schooner"-the old-fashioned sailing schooner? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir; two-masted, four-masted, three-masted, five-masted, as the case may be. Mr. KETTNER. What percentage of these schooners are used? It was testified here the other day that they are almost done away with. Mr. CHERRY. They are not done away with, but they are not rebuilding replacements of the vessels that are lost, because they are not profitable. The barge and tug has taken the place of the schooner, because the schooner is too slow for the present-day transportation. Mr. KETTNER. When that is done and that method is adopted, doing away with the schooner and having the barge system, just what effect will that have on the relationship between the Cape Cod Canal and the use of this channel? Mr. CHERRY. There is a large part of that tonnage that is carried very close to cost, and the profit is very small on it, and they can not afford to use the Cape Cod Canal and pay the tonnage charge which must necessarily be taxed, and therefore they will take this channel during all the summer months, and as many of the winter months as they can. Mr. KETTNER. Then that would apply whether it is a schooner or what the form of vessel was? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir; it would be immaterial as to the vessel. The nature of the cargo and the amount of it would determine whether you are justified in using Cape Cod Canal or whether you have got to use this channel. Mr. KETTNER. Is Cape Cod Canal in operation now? Mr. CHERRY. No, sir; and it will not be before the 10th of July. They expect to open the canal then for light-draft vessels. Mr. KETTNER. You stated that on about July 7 one of your vessels suffered damage to the extent of $10,000? Mr. CHERRY. No, sir; not this year. I said about five years ago the schooner Lehigh was lost. Mr. MURRAY. Did you have a barge in distress there some time ago? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir; she broke away from the tug Livingston. She was a little further westwardly from this lightship. She was out about 24 hours dragging her anchors, and finally brought up on the east end of Nantucket. Mr. HUMPHREY. Do you know that the revenue cutters went to the assistance of some 12 other vessels ? Mr. CHERRY. I know that the Acushnet was right ahead of us, and it was our schooner that sunk, and the crew was taken off. After this vessel sank she went back to our tug-the revenue cutter went back to the assistance of the tug. They were trying to get this barge further down on the point there, and when they succeeded in getting her she Mr. BURGESS (interposing). Did you say that this proposed improvement you speak of is desirable for schooners only, or is it desirable for your barges and tugs? Mr. CHERRY. It is desirable for all classes of vessels. I made the statement that the schooners could not utilize the Cape Cod Canal because their freight was very low class freight, and they could not afford to pay the tonnage charge which is necessarily assessed in the Cape Cod Canal, plus the towing charge. Mr. TAYLOR. I wanted to know whether that would apply to anything else except the schooner. Mr. CHERRY. That is about all it applies to, because the barge is in tow all the time; when she got to the entrance of the canal she would have her own power going through it. Mr. SMALL. To what extent has transportation by barge been adopted in handling the traffic through Pollock Rip Channel? Mr. CHERRY. There is the Reading claiming to have about 6,000,000 tons by barge across there, and the other roads taking about 2,000,000 tons by barge across Cape Cod Channel. Mr. SMALL. Making a total of how many million tons by barge? Mr. CHERRY. Six million by the railroad companies, plus the local towing companies. There are several of those, quite a number of them that are taking coal across there, the same as the railroad companies are, by barge. Mr. SMALL. You refer to transportation by barge through the outside channel by the railroad. Explain that the manner in which the railroad companies are engaging in this instead of carrying it by their own cars? Mr. CHERRY. Instead of carrying it by cars? Mr. SMALL. I understood you to say the railroad companies were transporting coal by barge? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir. Mr. SMALL. In this outside passage? Mr. CHERRY. Yes, sir; the Reading Railroad has 66 barges and some 12 tugs operating out of Philadelphia, carrying coal to different points east, Bridgeport, Boston, Salem, Portsmouth, and Portland, and towns east of that, clear down to Bangor. Mr. MURRAY. Let me incorporate in the record right there, from page 6 of the report, the following: The total amount of cargo passing through the shoals can only be approximated. In 1907 it was estimated by Parsons that it amounted to 12,000,000 tons of coal and 6,000,000 tons of other commodities. During the same year the total receipts of coal at all New England ports north of Cape Cod, which were under improvement by the Government and which included all ports of importance, amounted to 9,812,911 tons (of 2,000 pounds), all of which, it is believed, passed through these shoals. Definite figures as to other commodities do not exist, but it is believed that 6,000,000 tons is a fair estimate. That is from the report of the engineers on this project. Mr. SMALL. Are those barges of steel construction or of wood? |