I have no further information as to the details of the scheme than may be
found in the extract inclosed.
[Inclosure in No. 54.—Extract from the
Shanghai Courier of Friday, January 6, 1882.]
away with it.
At the end of last month we were able to give our readers the
intelligence that at length the Woosung Bar is to be eradicated. A
contract was signed on 27th December by the Taotai Liu on behalf of the
Chinese Government on the one side, and Mr. W. Watson, of Messrs.
Maclean & Co., on the other, for the importation of a dredging
machine to be used specially for the removal of the “heaven sent
barrier.” Thus, after ten years’ continuous exertion on the part of the
weightiest and wealthiest circle of the community, backed by the Chamber
of Commerce, and aided by the influence of China merchants in England,
that which these combined agencies have failed to achieve has been
accomplished by an individual firm. It is a significant fact that the
China of to-day is a country which at last has awakened from its long
repose in Sleepy Hollow, and is fully aroused to the necessity of
keeping pace with the giant strides of the West. In olden days the
Woosung bar was regarded by Prince Kung and the official celestials
generally as an omnipotent barrier to the Western barbarian. By them it
was looked upon as a fragment of the great wall of China sunk in the
mouth of the Whangpo. As the great wall was thought to be a most perfect
means of excluding the outer barbarians from entering on the domains of
the Son of Heaven, so this bar was looked upon as a most effective
protection against foreign war-ships attempting to come up to Shanghai.
It was this feeling that caused the Chinese officials to offer that
impalpable but persistent opposition to any preliminary measures
proposed to abolish this obstacle that has, until lately, characterized
the celestial nation in dealing with the foreigner. As we have stated,
the determined outcry of the foreigners, and their customary energy in
endeavoring to remove this bar, dates from some ten years back. In olden
days when the vessels visiting this port were nearly all sailing ships,
those of deep draught were content to wait for days at the bar for
water. Those were the “good old times” when there was only a monthly
mail delivered by the P. and O. in steamers no bigger than the present
Tientsin packets, when Shanghai made pleasure a business and business a
pleasure, when there was none of the hurry-scurry worry, and fight for
existence which characterises the settlement of to-day. But now,
immediately ships arrive at Woosung, it is imperative that they should
force a way over the bar, and come into port with all possible speed. To
assist them in doing this a swarm of cargo-boats have cropped up on the
river, and they are always in readiness to hurry to the bar, and lighter
ships of deep draught sufficiently to enable them more easily to force
their keels through the mud of the bar.
In consequence of this, the leading merchants, and notably the Chamber of
Commerce, brought their weight and energy to bear on the Chinese with a
view to the removal of the obstruction. Thus at great expense, and with
considerable perseverance in this direction, Messrs. Escher and De Ryke
were instructed to survey the river and report upon the cheapest and
most efficient method by which a clear channel could be maintained. The
exhaustive and elaborate reports of these gentlemen will be sufficiently
fresh in the recollection of our readers to dispense with
recapitulation. But able and practical as were the suggestions of these
experts, and backed as they were by the influence of the Chamber of
Commerce, they were never practically recognized by the Chinese
authorities. Nor did Major Bridgford’s report achieve any greater
success, although the method which he advocated for clearing the river
was estimated to cost no more than Tls.150,000. We may here remark that,
at the period when the name of the Heaven-sent barrier was given to this
bar, if the foreign merchants had agreed to remove the obstruction at
their own expense, it is more than questionable if the Chinese
authorities would have permitted such an action, judging from the spirit
in which they regarded this impediment to the navigation of
[Page 122]
the Whangpoo. Comparing the
opinions held by the Chinese on this matter some ten years since with
those which have been just recently expressed by them in their latest
action, we are struck with the advance the “black-headed people” have
made in regard to emerging from a strict and bigoted conservatism into a
liberal and progressive mode of thinking and acting.
The contract just signed is a significant fact of China’s
progressiveness, and forms a conclusive answer to those who are ringing
eternal changes on the antiquated opinions formed of the conservatism of
the nation. In respect to the method to be employed in removing the bar
under the contract recently signed, we know but little, except that a
dredger vessel is being built by Messrs. William Simon’s & Co., of
London Works, Renfrew, Scotland. It will be schooner-rigged, with twin
screws, and of 80-horse power, nominal. It will be what is designated
the “patent hopper dredger,” and will carry 600 tons of mud at an
average speed of seven miles per hour, lifted from the bottom to a
maximum of 30 feet, at the rate of 300 tons per hour.
As to whether this dredger is to be employed directly upon the bar, or
what is known as the false channel of the Whangpoo, we are not in a
position to say. But from the several reports upon the best methods of
clearing the river which we have seen, most of the experts concur in
advocating the “development” of the north or junk channel. The advantage
of this method of procedure has been ably explained and advocated in
Major Bridgford’s report. In this he states: “When man attempts to
meddle with nature he can only succeed in permanently modifying its
aspects by studying the constant laws of its phenomena and by making his
works conformable to these.” And in following out this axiom Major
Bridgford points out that if by any reasonable means the whole volume of
the river could be diverted into one channel instead of as at present
being divided by Gough’s Island into two, the false bars would cease to
exist. Thus the junk channel would be made the true and deep course of
the river, and the ship channel would silt up entirely. To accomplish
this the major points out that the first object to be attained is the
enlargement of the sectional area of the most shoal portion of the junk
channel, as by having an enlarged area a much greater volume of
flood-tide water will be projected past Gough’s Island, and sp stored
for supplying the ebb with increased volume. As this enlargement
progresses the strength of the ebb will at first increase in the ship’s
channel owing to the increased volume of water received through the junk
channel; and will also from the same cause (plus the enlargement of the
channel) increase the ebb in the junk channel.
By this method it is shown that gradually the volume discharged by the
junk channel would exceed that discharged by the ship channel to such an
extent that the false bar or lip at its lower end would commence to silt
up, thus increasing the choke to the ebb in that channel. The principal
advantages claimed by Major Bridgford for this method of attack are
summarized as follows: First, that the navigation will not be impeded
during the progress of the works; second, it will give more rise of tide
up the river; third, the restoring of that section of the river to one
channel, navigable at all times of tide, instead of at present having
two channels that are only navigable at certain times of tide.
As we have already stated, we are in ignorance as to whether the dredger
which is to arrive in Shanghai within nine months from the present time
will work upon the system advocated by the above report. But experts in
this matter are of opinion that instead of using steam hoppers and
carrying mud out to sea, it might be cheaper to discharge it on the
banks where it could be utilized. This could easily be accomplished by
what is known as an “overhead traveller,” or if it were discovered that
sand had accumulated in the bed of the channel, it could speedily be
conveyed ashore by a “flume,” similar to those used with such signal
success in the Suez Canal. But by whatever means the new dredger is to
work, we have all to be thankful that at length the barrier is to be
abolished, and that at the end of the present year we can exclaim, “Away
with it.”