Navigable waters

“ The 1894 Act made it unlawful to deposit matter into “any harbor or river of the United States” that the Federal Government has appropriated money to improve and prohibited injuring improvements built by the United States in “any of its navigable waters.” §6, 28 Stat. 363.
Congress consolidated and expanded these authorities in the 1899 Act. Section 10 of the Act prohibits “ [t] he creation of any obstruction ... to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States,” requires a permit to build “structures in any ... ”

“ The stream, which, like nearly all Martial rivers, is wide and shallow, had during the last fifty miles of our course grown narrower, with a depth at the same time constantly lessening, so that some care was required on the part of the pilot to avoid running aground. A stream of twenty inches in depth, affording room for two boats to pass abreast, is considered navigable for vessels only carrying passengers; thirty inches are required to afford a course which for heavy freight is preferable to the road. ”

“ The tidal information becomes important and must be considered in navigation or in anchoring in waters where the available depth at low water approximates the draft of the vessel. In the general use of coast charts it is also important to observe the effect of the stage of tide on the appearance of many features. Rocks rising some feet above low water may be entirely submerged at high water. In some areas the aspect may be radically changed between high and low water by the baring of extensive shoals or reefs. ”

“ Hence the rivers are navigable only for short distances, and even then only exceptionally by large vessels. It is only in those comparatively frequent cases where the rivers expand into lakes that they can, strictly speaking, be navigated by ships. ”

“ Such a tide is of considerable advantage to sailors, since it makes the estuaries both fuller and more spacious, frequently swelling them to a breadth of eight1047 stadia, so that the whole land, so to speak, is rendered navigable, thus giving wonderful facility both for the export and import of merchandise. Nevertheless there is some inconvenience. For in the navigation of the rivers, the sailors run considerable danger both in ascending and descending, owing to the violence with which the flood-tide encounters the current of the stream as it flows down. ”

“ It is not easy to describe the labour of such navigation. We must prevent the waves from dashing the boats against the cliffs. Sometimes, where the river is swift, we must put a bight of rope about a rock, to prevent her being snatched from us by a wave; but where the plunge is too great, or the chute too swift, we must let her leap, and catch her below, or the undertow will drag her under the falling water, and she sinks. ”

“ The science of navigation is considered very dignified by them, and they possess rafts and triremes, which go over the waters without rowers or the force of the wind, but by a marvellous contrivance. And other vessels they have which are moved by the winds. They have a correct knowledge of the stars, and of the ebb and flow of the tide. They navigate for the sake of becoming acquainted with nations and different countries and things. ”

“ Water gave us our over-sea commerce, that came in and went out by way of our tidal rivers; and the step proposed toward the fostering of our home industries was a great one when it occurred to somebody to imitate nature, by erecting artificial rivers that should flow whereever we wished them to flow, and should be navigable along their whole course for capacious, flat-bottomed carrying-boats. ”

“ This great ebb and flow of water serves to aid shipbuilding and the launching of vessels as well as to carry the deep water far up into the inlets of the coast and into the mouths of the rivers, making these navigable for crafts of considerable size well into the land or up to the lowest falls of the streams. ”

“ At places the ship seems to really be at sea, then she enters a canal whose lofty walls of syenite, slate, and granite shut out the light of day, and against which her rigging scrapes, and the passenger’s hand may almost touch—a hundred thousand sparkling streams fall in feathery cascades, adown their mural heights, and impetuous streams beat themselves into white foam as they leap either into the eternal depths of the Pacific or its deep arms. ”

“ A physical difficulty at once presents itself, insomuch that the shallow-draught vessels of the lakes are unfit for ocean service, whereas the deep-draught vessels of the Atlantic are unable to enter the shallow waters of the canals and harbors of the lakes. After various consultations and debates, it is determined to correct this inequality of material nature by passing a law doubling the specific gravity of water in the lakes, so that ocean vessels drawing twenty-four feet of water can sail upon the lakes with little more than twelve. ”

“ We see the high, steel cable strung across the river, with the running block and gang ropes connecting it with the side-railed flat barge or ferry. These floats are often propelled across stream by the force of the current. Just as a ship makes headway by the side wind running off her sails obliquely, so does a boat cross a stream by the action of the tide, if care is taken to have the boat’s head turned partly against the current. ”

“ Regulation works for increasing the navigable capabilities of rivers can only be advantageously undertaken in large rivers with a moderate fall and a fair discharge at their lowest stage; for with a large fall the current presents a great impediment to up-stream navigation, and there are generally great variations in water-level, and when the discharge becomes very small in the dry season it is impossible to maintain a sufficient depth of water in the low-water channel. ”

“ Shallow sand-banks and small rocky islands impede the navigation, and it is a common precaution for ships to cast anchor at the least approach of foul weather, an operation which is the more readily set about that the water is nowhere above twenty fathoms, but good holding ground throughout the straits. ”

“ Science might have anticipated, however, that vessels built for fresh-water navigation, and loaded at Lake ports, would have an advantage on the ocean over those loaded on salt water. As is the density of the water of any sea, so is the displacement, or the sinking of the vessel therein. Therefore a vessel can carry a larger cargo in salt water than she can in fresh; and so, a Lake craft, loading at Chicago as deep as she can swim, will find herself, when she reaches the ocean, much more buoyant and lively. ”

“ And, perhaps, we may look forward to a time when, by the command of wind and wave given by the steamboat, and by our increased knowledge of "ocean topography," if we may use the phrase; a ship may make its way across the ocean without ever being out of a current; a result which would be obviously a most important accession, if not to the speed, at least to the security of navigation.
Those ocean traversers evidently belong to a system. Some are permanent, some are periodical, and some are casual. The permanent arise chiefly from the effect of the flow from the poles to the equator. ”

“ The great abundance of running water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the level of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation, furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry and sheltered bed. ”

“ Within the haven the sea is so quiet, and runs so insensibly, that scarcely can we perceive it to have any tide. The ground is mud. The road in all places has five or six fathoms, and seven in some places; and is so large that two hundred ships may ride commodiously at anchor, besides rowing-vessels without number. The water is so clear that you may plainly perceive the bottom; and where that is not seen the depth is at least ten or twelve fathoms. The ships can be laden or unladen all round the city, merely by laying a plank from them into the warehouses of the merchants ”

“ Nothing would then remain, but for safety’s sake to strike their masts and yards, as they always do when they go down the river; they must lie broadside foremost, the strong wind blowing perpendicular on one side of the vessel, and the violent current pushing it in a contrary direction on the other; while a man, with a long oar, balances the advantage the wind has of the stream, by the hold it has of the cabin and upper works. ”

“ Here, however, the facilities for observation of a sea-faring life have been directed towards an object of inquiry, which must prove of immense utility in navigation and commerce. And, perhaps, even landsmen may not find it uninteresting, that even that proverbially fickle element, air, obeys certain fixed laws, a more accurate acquaintance with which must be of the utmost importance to the denizen of terra firma, as well as187 those "that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters." ”

“ The water is generally deep enough everywhere, too deep in most places for anchorage, and, the winds shifting hither and thither or dying away altogether, the ships, getting no direction from their helms, are carried back and forth or are caught in some eddy where two currents meet and whirled round and round to the dismay of the sailors, like a chip in a river whirlpool. ”

“ Water-born Is when a Ship, even and just with the Ground, first begins to float or swim, being born up by the Water. Water Line Is that which goes round the Ship at the Surface of the Water, and shews the true Shape of her Body. Water Shot Is a Sort of riding at Anchor, when a Ship is moared neither a-cross the Tide, nor right up and down, but betwixt both. Water ways Is that Strake of Plank on the Flat of each Deck respectively next the Ship's Side, for turning the Water out of the Seams. ”

“ The great vessels coming, going or lying by the piers, extending far outward from the eastern shore, are of the same class as those traversing the waterways and large bodies of water with which they connect. They are most scientifically and stanchly built, and as on Ento's waters dangerous gales seldom occur, and their motive power is electric, they rarely are exposed to the destructive forces of storms, or of fire. ”

“ The necessities of river navigation require steamboats and barges to pass through narrow and crooked channels, and to vanture on very shallow water, a water which is constantly varying in its depth, and a channel which often changes its course in a few days very materially. The consequence of this is that both steamboats and barges often get aground temporarily and are soon got off and resume their voyage. Often they rub the bottom of the river for many feet on crossing a sand-bar at low water, and pass on without injury or interruption. ”

“ In such cases, however, where the rivers flow into tidal seas, it is important to place the jetties sufficiently apart to avoid any loss of tidal influx, since the tidal flow assists the fresh-water discharge in keeping the outlet open; whereas, with rivers flowing into tideless seas, a moderate restriction of the width between the jetties increases the scour. ”

“ Rivers have always been the great intermediaries between land and sea, for in the ocean all find their common destination. Until the construction of giant steamers in recent years, sea navigation has always passed without break into river navigation. ”

“ Where streams are large enough to be navigable industrial considerations often prevent the utilization of their power, the streams being more serviceable as highways than as sources of power. Other things being equal, it follows that streams are most available for water-power when they are large enough to have a moderately steady flow, and not so large as to be beyond ready control, or to be valuable for purposes of navigation. ”

“ Our sailors can scarcely believe such nut-shells safe even on the smoothest waters, and see with surprise the natives guiding them amid stormy waves, when their very lightness and buoyancy preserve them from sinking. They have another quality of great advantage in the devious pursuits of the owners; being so extremely light, that they can be easily conveyed on the shoulder from one river or branch of a lake to another. ”

“ If the wind and tide are ahead you can easily get off, but if either is astern you are liable to be in a fix. If you strike carrying the tide and wind with you, down all sail instantly, lash the helm amidships, and get out the anchor and long warp. ”

“ We therefore gave up the idea of taking the ship out as we brought her in, and set to work to discover another passage into blue water. But sure such a hopeless range of shoals, banks, reefs, and dangerous points of rock, never bewildered poor mariners; sometimes we thought that we had hit upon a channel, but just as we were upon the point of finding our way clearly into the open ocean, a few specks of white water only seen when the sea fell into a trough at that place, would stretch across the route, and reveal the fact, that a ledge of pointed and pinnacled reef barred the way. ”

“ We can, for instance, impound the rising water in a reservoir, and as the tide falls we can compel the enclosed water to work a water-wheel before it returns to the sea. We have, indeed, here a source of actual power; but it is only in very unusual circumstances that it is found to be economical to use the tides for this purpose. ”

“ In small vessels it is sometimes sufficient to haul them on shore at high tide, so that when the tide is down they may be left high and dry and repaired, and when the tide is at the highest, hauled off again. ”

“ At sea, these waves are only a few inches high, 10 but they may travel great distances at 500 miles an hour. As they approach the shoaling waters of a coast, they are slowed to about 30 miles an hour and build up great surface waves capable of destroying harbor and coastal installations. ”