A Port for Southern Direct Trade [pp. 164-168]

A PORT FOR SOUTHERN DIRECT TRADE.
Coast Survey have reported that they have found twenty feet
of water at low tide upon one of the bars to this harbor, which
is 1,200 metres in width. The Secretary of the Navy to test
the capacity of this harbor recently ordered the United States
sloop-of-war Brooklyn, a steam-propeller, under the command
of Captain David Farragut, to test the capacity of the bar and
harbor. The Brooklyn measured over 2,000 tons, and drew
from 16 to 17 feet water. She entered the bar at low tide, and
found over nineteen feet; there was abundance of deep water
when once over the bar. The harbor contains an average
depth of five fathoms at low water for twenty miles; seven,
eight, nine, and ten fathoms are found in various portions of
this bay. The Brooklyn in going out crossed the bar at high
tide, and both the commander and the pilot have asserted that
the ship carried out 28 feet water, which is sufficient for any
vessel that now floats, perhaps, with the exception of the
Leviathan-and even she in propitious times may enter and
get a full freight of cotton. Now, how will Port Royal compare with New York and Norfolk? We have no desire to disparage either of these ports; we only mean to claim justice
for our own port, that port which God and nature proclaim
should be and must be the great port of the cotton-producing
region.
The Gedney channel, the deepest that leads into New York
bay, is marked at twenty-three feet at low water, with a rise
of six feet at spring tide, making twenty-nine feet; Norfolk
has twenty-one feet at low tide with a rise of three to four
feet, maikinag twenty-four or twenty-five feet at high tide.
These facts go to show, that Port Royal is, within one foot as
deep as New York, and two feet deeper than Norfolk. Now,
with these facts before the people of the South, the old argument of the want of capacity in a port, must be laid aside,
and the real and legitimate reason be assigned for our singular position-that, while possessing the great elements of foreign commerce in the products of our own soil and labor, we
are unable to conduct our own trade. Hereafter the want of
capacity or the want of enterprise in ourselves must be acknowledged as the only reason. Every day shows more clearly,
and every day brings us more nearly to the completion of
some such enterprise as the one over which the Patrie rejoices. The Charleston and Savannah Railroad, now in progress, will pass within twenty miles of several eligible sites
for cities upon the deep waters of Port Royal. By midsummer the cars will be thundering around the head of this same
167