3.

merce.

4.

Be conveniently located with reference to com

Have an easy entrance.

5. Be commodious.

Our knowledge of Jamaica Bay goes back to 1636 when two of the earliest settlers in the Colony of New Amsterdam purchased a tract of land adjoining Jamaica Bay from the Canarsie Indians. Twenty years later another Dutch emigrant by the name of Jan Martense Schenck von Nydeck built a frame house upon that portion of this tract subsequently known as Mill Island. This house is still standing in a very good state of preservation, and is notable aside from its historic importance chiefly because the grandson of the builder, Capt. John Schenck, to whom the property had passed, built a wharf near the house from which he is reputed to have carried on the greater part of the shipping between the New and Old Netherlands. He thus became the first merchant to utilize the shores of Jamaica Bay as a seaport, and was apparently the only one so to do for many, many years.

When the Colony of New Netherlands passed permanently into the hands of the English in 1674, the business activities were centered in the Island of Manhattan, as they have been since, and it has only been within very recent years, that the growth outward from the hub of Manhattan has extended to the farming country adjoining Jamaica Bay, and, with the congestion of shipping facilities due to the centralization of all business activity in the Island of Manhattan and the portion of Brooklyn adjoining the East River, has made it necessary for the City of New York to find a place for the expansion of that part of its business activity connected with shipping.

It was while looking for a new place in which to take care of the increased ocean-borne commerce that Jamaica Bay was re-discovered as a possible part of the Port of New York. This re-discovery early in the present century led to the appointment of the Jamaica Bay Improvement Commission in 1906, from whose report there resulted in 1909 the present so-called Jamaica Bay Agreement, by and between the Federal Government, the State and City of New York, to which reference is made in other articles in this issue. 2-PAST PROGRESS.

Material progress upon the physical improvement of the bay between 1909, and the present time, has been prevented by the city's failure to adopt, shortly after the making of the agreement, a definite policy as to the method to be pursued in conducting the improvement, and it was not until 1919 that a decision was reached by the city to acquire all the land adjoining the Main Interior Channel, so that the city itself would

be the owner of the water front property to be created by the improvement.

Meanwhile many disputes had arisen between the city and owners of property bordering upon the bay as to the correct location of property and channel lines, and much time was consumed in the settlement of these matters, so that much of the work thus far done, although important, has been of a legal, rather than of a physical nature. Considerable preliminary progress has, however, been made upon the physical development. In 1913 the dredging of the preliminary entrance channel to a width of 500 feet and a depth of eighteen feet was begun by the Federal Government and continued until 1917, when it was completed. In 1915 and 1916 the city, acting on the behalf of the Federal government, completed the dredging of the first section of the main interior channel around the bay, from the entrance channel to the first basin, that known as Mill Basin, and in 1923, the city completed the dredging of the second section of this channel between Mill Basin and Paerdegat Basin.

In addition to this work upon the main project, the Mill Basin, which required the dredging of an 18 foot city has practically completed the development of channel from Jamaica Bay to the head of this basin at Avenue U, the construction of a bulkhead and marginal wharf on the westerly side of the basin along the line of Flatbush Avenue, and the extension of Flatbush Avenue alongside this marginal wharf to the 900 acres of city-owned land lying between Mill Basin and the entrance channel. The project is in such shape, as the result of the completion of this preliminary work, that the beneficial effect of the improvement is already apparent, and will become much more so within the next few years.

3-WORK UNDER WAY.

Five projects are scheduled for immediate prosecution, to wit:

(a) The extension of Flatbush Avenue for a distance of three miles from its present ending, opposite the southwesterly end of Mill Basin, and an opportunity for the provision of a ferry from Barren Island to Rockaway Point, which will cut into half the time required to go from Manhattan to the Rockaways by automobile.

(b) The building of a mammoth pier on the northeasterly end upon the city-owned tract south of Mill Basin at an estimated expense of $1,500,000. This is the first of six similar piers projected by the Dock Department, and its completion will for the first time make possible the utilization of Jamaica Bay as a terminus for sea-going traffic.

(c) The dredging of the permanent entrance channel, 30 feet deep and 1500 feet wide through Rockaway Inlet and of the permanent interior channel 30 feet deep and 1000 feet wide along the westerly shore of Jamaica Bay up to the entrance of Mill Basin. The dredging of the permanent entrance channel has already been begun.

(d) The continuation of the preliminary 18 foot channel from Paerdegat Basin to Fresh Creek Basin. (e) The building of a pier 400 feet wide and 600 feet long at Canarsie.

The completion of these five projects will demonstrate the necessity for proceeding immediately with the completion of the entire balance of the work contemplated under the Jamaica Bay agreement. 4-WORK STILL TO BE DONE.

This involves the continuation of the preliminary

eighteen-foot channel, five hundred feet wide, from Creek Basin around the bay, to be followed by the dredging of the permanent interior channel, thirty feet deep and one thousand feet wide, the development of the seven basins along the shores, and the construction of piers and terminals to serve the business which will immediately seek to utilize the harbor thus created. This work upon the waterfront and in the bay itself must be accompanied by the simultaneous construction of an adequate trunk line railroad connection. It is sometimes argued that shipping facilities should be provided in the congested territories adjacent to existing railroad terminals, instead of creating new facilities at locations logically intended for this purpose, and bringing the railroads to them. In other words, that it is better to bring the ocean to the railroads than to bring the railroads to the ocean, a conclusion almost obviously fallacious.

Railroad and ocean terminals must, however, be contiguous, and all that is needed to bring this about in the case of the Jamaica Bay improvement is to build a spur to the New York Connecting Railroad, which starts at the shores of the East River and ends in the connection via Hellgate Bridge with the New York, New Haven and Hartford and New York Central Railroads, thereby affording direct connection to the two latter railroads, and connection via carfloat to the trunk lines whose termini are in New Jersey.

The plans of the Port Authority, and those of the City of New York, for the development of the railroad facilities in the harbor of New York, while varying in many respects, both provide for an ultimate connection by tunnel between the railroads in New Jersey and the New York Connecting Railroad,so that by the use of carfloats, until the growth of traffic makes their continued use impracticable, and of a tunnel thereafter, the building of the spur already mentioned will provide the shores of Jamaica Bay with all necessary trunk line railroad service.

5-MODIFICATION OF ORIGINAL PROJECT.

The scope of the original plan has been broadened to provide for two mammoth islands in the center of the bay, to be known as East Island and West Island. These islands will be created by consolidating the many hassocks and small islands with which the interior surface of the bay is now dotted, into two large tracts, utilizing for this purpose the material obtained by hydraulic dredging in the creation of the channel around the islands, which will be wider than the present East River.

It is estimated that 60,000,000 cubic yards of material will be required for this purpose and that the 5600 acres of land thus obtained, which will belong to the City of New York, will have a value of $20,000 per acre almost as soon as the work has been completed. The cost of making this improvement will be trifling in comparison with the gain to be derived from it, and this is largely true because of the fact that the material underlying Jamaica Bay is sea-sand, which makes good filling, is cheaply dredged, and therefore is well adapted to improvements of this kind.

This improvement is closely co-ordinated with another, not intended originally for the benefit of Jamaica Bay, except as this is identified with the development. of the Rockaway peninsula. A boulevard was projected to cross Jamaica Bay at about the middle of its width from East to West, closely paralleling the line of the Long Island Railroad and which was to have

been built for the greater portion of its length upon a trestle, but with the revision of the plans for the Jamaica Bay improvement, there was an opportunity to make this the main highway for vehicular access to the East and West islands, and the plans for the boulevard have been modified accordingly. Work upon the boulevard is well under way and should be completed within the coming year.

6-EXAMPLE OF EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENT. It may be of interest to record the effect of the improvements made at Mill Basin-that one of the Marginal Basins, which has thus far been made available for commercial use.

Since the dredging of the Mill Basin channel in 1916-six industries have been located along its shores. The land upon which these industries are located was assessed in 1908 at $160,000, paying approximately $3,000 in taxes yearly. Eleven years later these same six pieces of property were assessed at $1,600,000 and paid almost $40,000 in taxes annually. The capital cost of the dredging of the Mill Basin channel chargeable to the six properties in question is, beyond doubt, returned to the City of New York in increased taxes every year. This indicates to a considerable extent what the improvement of Jamaica Bay will mean to the City of New York, and indicates an ideal solution of the city's present greatest problem, which is to raise sufficient revenue, without increasing the already burdensome tax rate. The development and use of Jamaica Bay will add millions of dollars to the assessed value of real estate in New York City.

The peninsula known as Mill Basin, which is privately owned, contains approximately 350 acres, most of which was marsh land, which was converted into upland in 1907 by hydraulic dredging. Since that time about two-thirds of this property has been improved and made available for use. The portion adjoining the mainland, comprising about fifty acres has been laid out as a housing development and the balance is an industrial development. In the housing section thus far fifty houses have been constructed and formed until two or three years ago the only housing colony in the vicinity. Beginning with 1922, however, when the passing of the tax-exemption law made housing construction possible on a large scale, the building movement began to set in in this locality, largely as the result of the example set in the building of these 50 houses, until at the present time it is safe to say under construction, in the immediate vicinity of this that at least 1,000 houses have been constructed, or are property.

There are four industries located on the industrial section of the property.

1. The Atlantic plant of the National Lead Works. This plant was in existence prior to 1907, and had been operated as the Crooke Lead Works by the family living in the Schenck homestead to which reference has previously been made, who were the direct descendants of the John Schenck from whom the house derived its name. It then occupied a small two-story building. but has grown until it now covers nearly 8 acres of ground and in times of normal business conditions employs 700 people.

2. Immediately adjacent to this plan is that of the Williams Harvey Corporation, which is the only firm engaged in the business of smelting tin from the ore in the United States. This plant has a capacity for turning out approximately $10,000,000 worth of tin per

annum, and, as built, is only the first of three units whose combined output will therefore at present prices be worth approximately $30,000,000 per year.

3. The Gulf Refining Company, which had previously maintained a distributing station on the East River, purchased a site for an additional distributing station at Mill Basin in 1917, and now distributes its products, which are principally gasoline, kerosene and lubricating oil from this plant over more than one-half of the area of Brooklyn. The incoming product arrives in tank steamers from which it is pumped into large storage tanks, and then distributed by motor truck.

4. South of the Gulf Refining Company's distributing station is the Mill Basin Shipyard which covers nearly 18 acres of land, and which during the peak of war activity in 1918 employed as many as 1100 men. It has been used for the building of tugs and lighters for the Army and Navy and the construction of dry dock pontoons for the United States Shipping Board, as well as for private construction and repair work.

From present indications, the entire housing area will be completely filled within the next five years, and the industrial area fully occupied within a relatively few years after the completion of the 30-foot channel and the provision of a trunk line railroad connection. Mill Basin is but one of a thousand similar sites available for improvement along the shores of Jamaica Bay, and its present growth, in spite of the limited amount of work done upon the project itself, is a fair indication of what may be expected to happen at all these locations when the improvement is well under

way.

Man, for all his boasted cleverness, is at best but a poor imitator of Nature. Of himself, he can create nothing. He can only take those things, with which a wise and beneficial Providence has provided him, and either improve or spoil them, as he directs his activities wisely or foolishly, and in the long run he is compelled to fall in with Nature's plans, for at the most he can only impede or delay them for a few years. Therefore the ultimate destiny of Jamaica Bay is assured, as it was designed by Nature to become a magnificent adjunct to the Harbor of New York. The same Creator, who located this harbor in a place, and gave it a shape, which immediately suggests its possibilities, also lined it with a material, sea-sand, most conducive to the economic excavation of channels, and

equally well adapted for the filling in of the adjacent shores, and thereby converting waste marshes into the foundations of a mammoth seaport city.

All this will come. Jamaica Bay will be a magnificent harbor, but whether this will be in five, ten, or fifty years will be determined solely by the energy, with which the city authorities, and owners of the private property adjoining its shores, proceed with the work, an energy which until quite recently has been conspicuous for its absence.

Commissioner Pounds Discusses Port Projects Lewis H. Pounds, Commissioner of the Port of New York Authority, in addressing the Traffic Club of New York

the Waldorf-Astoria recently, said that the first step in effectuating the Comprehensive Plan has already been taken by an agreement with the carriers to co-operate in making physical charges for operation as a single unit of the marginal line between Bayonne and Edgewater (Belt Line No. 13) with a director of opera

tions and an unofficial observer to check up results in behalf of the Port Authority and the public.

Mr. Pounds also pointed out among other legal proceedings instituted by the Port Authority in defense of the port was against the complaint of the Traffic Association of the south Atlantic ports, which asks for an extension of the Baltimore differential on both import and export rates to various Southern ports as against the Port of New York. Major Elihu C. Church, engineer for the Port Authority, also spoke.

Standardizing Ship's Parts

Plans of the standardization committee, made up of representatives of leading shipyards, shipowners, repair plants, and having the official and active backing of the United States Department of Commerce, are expected to result in a decided change in the manufacture of ship parts in this and other countries.

This committee, named more than one year ago, has been quietly but effectively working among the various shipping interests. Not only has it received the indorsement of leading organizations and societies of engineer, shipping men, etc., but it also has assurance of active cooperation on the part of manufacturers of shipbuilding and repair material.

Indicating that the movement started here has attracted attention abroad, and that international standardization is now more than a hope, the following is taken from a recent issue of the Liverpool Journal of Commerce.

"It is now many years since attention was first given to the standardization of ship's fittings, partly with the object of insuring sound work, but also in the expectation that the use of the standard specification wherever possible would tend to reduce construction costs.

"At the present time, when the comparatively high costs of shipbuilding are, to some extent at least, the cause of the depression in the shipyards, it is necessary that every direction in which economies can be obtained should be carefully explored. Standardization of fittings is one method of reducing costs which ought to be adopted wherever possible. It is true that shipowners who prefer to adhere to distinctive types of fittings will not always come into line, but there appears to be no good reason why differences in the details of fittings common to all ships should be retained, and the opposition of conservative shipowners may, it is hoped, be broken down.

"The British Engineering Standards Association, which has just issued four additional specifications for ships' fittings, is at all events continuing its good work. The new specifications, which deal with steel link cables (anchor cables), end (or bending) shackles, hand screw aft steering gear and devil's claws have, as in earlier specifications, been drawn up with very full consideration for the factor of safety. The stud link cables' specification has been got out in co-operation with Lloyd's Register and other classification societies, the Board of Trade and manufacturing interests, and the care taken in this instance is typical of the work of the Standards Association.

"The drawing up of the specification was preceded by tests with specially forged lengths of cable to obtain the necessary data in order to fix the greatest tolerances which could be allowed on the links and yet allow them to pass over the lifters of the windlass without risk of jambing. It should be pointed out that the adoption of standard cables by shipowners will obviate the difficulty often experienced with the cables now in use, that the links of the cable do not bed into the lifters of the windlass."

AND SHIP NEWS