PORT OF BALTIMORE- GENERAL INFORMATION

Anchorage.-Vessels anchoring in Baltimore Harbor are subject to the rules and regulations of the harbor board and the orders of the harbor master.

The quarantine anchorage is on the southwest side of the main channel, opposite the quarantine station at Leading Point. It is 3,500 feet long and 600 feet wide inside of channel limits.

Fort McHenry anchorage is located south of Fort McHenry near the upper end of the main channel and southward thereof. It is 3,500 feet long and 400 feet wide outside of channel limits.

Anchorage No. 1 lies to the northwestward of the American Sugar Refining Co.'s wharf. It is a rectangular area approximately 1,300 feet long and 425 feet wide, covering about 1212 acres, with an available depth of 13 feet (3.9 m.).

Anchorage No. 2 is situated to the southeastward of Hendersons Wharf, Fells Point. It is an irregularly shaped basin, with a maximum length and width of 1,800 feet and 900 feet, respectively, covering an area of approximately 20 acres. A dredged depth of 16 feet (4.8 m.) is maintained over the entire area.

Anchorage No. 3 is located in Canton Hollow, southeast of anchorage No. 2, in front of the piers along Boston and Clinton Streets. It is a triangular basin approximately 2,000 feet along the base, with an extreme width of 2,100 feet, covering about 50 acres. A part of the anchorage extends over the 35-foot (10.7 m.) dredged channel in front of the Clinton Street piers, while a depth of 18 feet (5.5 m.) is maintained over the remaining portion.

These three anchorages lie in sheltered sections of the inner harbor. There is additional good but less-protected anchorage in from 18 to 24 feet (5.5 to 7.3 m.) of water along both sides of the Fort McHenry Channel above Fort Carroll. Vessels using this must keep at least 300 feet from the dredged channel.

General regulations.-The port is open at all hours for the transaction of business. Vessels are usually received between sunrise and sunset, but under extraordinary circumstances they are permitted to enter at other times. The official visits to the vessel are made in the channel opposite quarantine. Following inspection by Public Health Service officials, the vessel is boarded by an officer of customs and an officer of the Immigration Service.

The usual hours for the clearance of vessels are between 9 a. m. and 4.30 p. m., but under extraordinary conditions a vessel will be cleared outside of these hours and on Sundays and holidays. The formal clearance is effected by the collector of customs within office hours, but the vessel is permitted to sail at any time during the day or night.

Quarantine. The quarantine station is situated at Leading Point, on the west shore of the Patapsco River at the mouth of Curtis Bay, about 7 miles below the center of the city. The station is thoroughly modern and is equipped with hospital facilities for the detention of contagious and infectious disease cases removed from vessels. Service is maintained from sunrise to sunset and is extended to midnight when necessary.

Hospitals. In addition to the quarantine station, the Public Health Service operates a marine hospital and a dispensary. The former is United States Marine Hospital No. 1 and is located at Remington Avenue and Thirty-first Street, in the northern section of the city about 3 miles from the water front. The dispensary is located in the basement of the customhouse, within a few hundred feet of the Pratt Street piers.

The city of Baltimore is amply provided with public and private hospitals and dispensaries.

Custom Service.-The customhouse is located at the corner of Gay and Lombard Streets, less than 500 feet from the north shore of the basin, where, however, there is but little foreign shipping. The majority of foreign commerce is carried on at Locust Point, Port Covington, Canton, Lower Canton, Curtis Bay, and Sparrows Point, where the principal overseas terminals are situated. The customhouse may be reached from any of these sections by street-railway service.

The customhouse is open from 9 a. m. to 4.30 p. m. on all days but Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it is open from 9 a. m. until the business of the day is completed, which is usually about 1 p. m. If business demands an extension of these hours for the benefit of the shippers and merchants, it is granted. The working hours established for customs inspectors are from 8 a. m. to 5 p. m. These hours are extended upon request to any time during the night and Sundays and holidays, but extra compensation is charged by the inspector rendering the service.

Dry docks and marine railways.-There are 4 floating dry docks, 2 graving docks, and 12 marine railways at Baltimore, including 2 privately owned railways which are not available for general public use. Both graving docks are owned by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. The largest floating dry dock in the harbor is located at Sparrows Point Works of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. It is 600 feet long over all and has a lifting capacity of 20,000 tons. There is another floating dry dock at this yard moored alongside of outfitting Pier No. 4, adjacent to the large dry dock.

The 12 marine railways at the port have lifting capacities ranging from 300 tons to 1,800 tons and are equipped to undertake general woodwork, bottom painting, scraping, caulking, and ceiling.

Wrecking and salvaging.-Wrecking and salvaging facilities are limited. Several companies have equipment for this work, but as a general rule it is assigned to other work and is available for duty in wrecking and salvaging only in emergencies.

Railroads.-The Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio, and the Western Maryland Railroad each have several piers. These railroads are interconnected by a municipal belt-line railroad.

Commerce.-A large quantity of ore, petroleum products, and molasses form the bulk of the imports. Exports consist of grain, flour, coal, coke, iron, steel, copper, lumber, tobacco, and petroleum products. Domestic coastwise commerce is large in fertilizers, lumber, sugar, dry goods, petroleum, coal, iron, steel, and canned goods. Internal commerce with Chesapeake Bay ports consists of heavy shipments of general merchandise, and a large trade in vegetable

food products and animal food products, principally oyster and oyster shells.

Pilots. Pilotage for the port of Baltimore is compulsory for foreign vessels, vessels from a foreign port, and all vessels sailing under register, except American vessels laden either in whole or in part with coal or coke mined in the United States. Pilotage fees are given on page 102.

Supplies. All kinds of supplies are obtainable in Baltimore Harbor. Coal in unlimited quantities can be obtained from wharves equipped for rapid coaling or from lighters, and water can be obtained from the wharves or from water boats.

Storm warnings of the United States Weather Bureau are displayed from the American Building and from the Anchorage Building, corner of Broadway and Thames Street.

A United States Branch Hydrographic Office is established at the customhouse. Bulletins are posted here giving information of value to seamen, who are also enabled to avail themselves of publications pertaining to navigation and to correct their charts from standards. No charge is made for this service.

The Superintendent of Lighthouses for the fifth district has offices in the customhouse. Mariners are requested to report direct to him by radio or other prompt means defects or deficiencies in aids to navigation affecting the waters of Chesapeake Bay and tributaries and the outer coast between Cape Henlopen and Cape Henry, described in this volume. Recommendations as to aids to navigation or their improvement may be submitted to him or to the Commissioner of Lighthouses at Washington, D. C. Light List and Buoy Lists of the United States Lighthouse Service may be purchased

here.

Ice.-Baltimore Harbor and Patapsco River are frozen over during severe winters, but steamers and ice boats keep the dredged channels open so that vessels assisted by steam can always enter the harbor. The smaller tributaries of Patapsco River are often closed by ice for extended periods. Ice in the main channel is most often met with in the vicinity of Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse. where ice packs are of frequent occurrence.

Tides. The mean range of tides is 1.1 feet.

Regulations for passing dredges.-Steamers passing dredges engaged in improving the channels shall not have a speed greater than 6 statute miles an hour, and their propelling machinery shall be stopped when abreast of the dredges.

Vessels drawing less than 12 feet of water must keep outside of the buoys marking the ends of mooring lines of dredges.

Vessels must not anchor on the ranges of stakes or other marks placed for the guidance of dredges, nor in such a manner as to obstruct the channel for other vessels.

Dredges and operating plant in the prosecution of the work must not obstruct any part of the channel unnecessarily.

Vessels must not run over or disturb stakes or other marks placed for the guidance of dredges.

The position of breast and stern anchors of the dredges shall be marked by buoys plainly visible to passing vessels.

While vessels are passing the dredges in the channel all lines running across the channel from the dredges on the passing side must be entirely slacked.

Speed regulations.-No vessel shall move in the harbor at a greater rate of speed than 7 nautical miles an hour westward of a line from Hendersons Wharf (Fells Point) to the foot of Hull Street (Locust Point), and 9 nautical miles an hour eastward of said line, and no vessel shall move in the Patapsco River or tributaries within a distance of 300 feet from any pier or bulkhead at a greater rate of speed than 8 nautical miles an hour.

EASTERN SHORE, CAPE CHARLES TO CHESCONESSEX CREEK

[Charts 1222 and 1223]

The eastern side of Chesapeake Bay from the entrance northward to the south end of Pocomoke Sound is indented by numerous small creeks, most of them obstructed by bars at the entrances. The creeks are frequented by many small craft engaged in oystering and fishing and the transportation of produce, and a few of them by passenger steamers engaged in the bay trade. Strangers seldom enter except in small boats. The shore is low and without prominent natural landmarks except Butlers Bluff, about midway between Fisherman Island and Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse, which shows bare, bluff faces when viewed from the bay. Cape Charles, Harborton, and Onancock are the principal towns, and there are numerous other post villages and landings. Fish weirs are numerous in season but are prohibited in water more than 18 feet (5.5 m.) in depth.

Fish-trap limits are shown on Charts 1222 and 1223.

The whole of the northern point of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay is generally known as Cape Charles. It includes Smith Island, Fisherman Island, The Isaacs, and the south point of the mainland. Smith Island and Cape Charles Lighthouse are described under "Coast from Cape Henlopen to Cape Charles," on pages 86 and 87. Fisherman Island is low. Several low buildings and a flagstaff are on the northwest side. A flashing white light is exhibited from the end of the wharf.

The Isaacs is a bare, marshy island.

The south point of the mainland is low and bare on the extreme south end but high and wooded back of the point.

Fisherman Inlet is described under "Inside waters, Cape Henlopen to Cape Charles," on page 100.

Old Plantation Creek, 212 miles southward of the town of Cape Charles and 111⁄2 miles eastward of Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse (fixed white), has a depth of 12 feet (0.5 m.) across the bar at the entrance and for a distance of 2 miles above, and is frequented by local boats of 312 feet (1 m.) draft at high water. The channel is narrow, and there are many bars and middle grounds, which usually show discolored. It is usually marked by bush stakes, but is difficult without local knowledge. The best water across the flats is about 3 mile southward of the mouth. The opening in the thick woods at the mouth and a shanty on an island inside the mouth are the only marks visible from outside.

Cherrystone Inlet, on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay 9 miles northward of Fisherman Island, is the approach to the town of Cape Charles and to several small creeks farther north. It is marked by Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse (white house on piles) and by several other lights and buoys. The mean range of tides is 2.3 feet.

A channel 16 feet (4.8 m.) deep and 200 feet wide, marked by a lighted range, has been dredged across the bar a little northward of Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse, and northward along Cherrystone Inlet to the entrance of Cape Charles Harbor. The channel is exposed to westerly winds but is partially protected by the flats westward and is seldom too rough for entrance by motor boats. Owing to the limited space in the channel and harbor small boats are sometimes exposed to injury by the steamers and tows. The tidal currents set across the entrance to the channel south of the entrance to Cape Charles Harbor, but follow the general direction of the channel above. Ice does not interfere with navigation.

Cape Charles is the terminus of the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railroad and is connected with Old Point Comfort and Norfolk by passenger steamers. It has a large trade carried in steamers, car floats, and barges, mostly between Cape Charles and Norfolk, and is also an important shipping point for sea food and produce brought here in motor boats and small vessels. Gasoline and provisions are obtainable, and there is water on the wharf.

Cape Charles Harbor is an artificially dredged basin, 300 yards long and 200 yards wide, on the south side of the town. A jetty extends 1,600 feet westward from the north side of the entrance. The harbor is owned by the railroad company, but is open to general navigation. In 1929 the harbor was redredged, and had a depth of 17 feet (5.1 m.) in the entrance and 18 feet (5.5 m.) in the harbor, except in the immediate approaches to the car-ferry slips.

Steamers and small boats load and discharge at the wharf on the north side, and motor boats make fast to the bulkhead on the south side and at the eastern end. Small craft seeking shelter in the harbor should anchor so as not to interfere with the steamers, tugs, and barges of the railroad company.

Cherrystone Inlet has a depth of 8 feet (2.4 m.) for 3 miles above the entrance of Cape Charles Harbor, above which the depths are 2 to 4 feet (0.6 to 1.2 m.). It is used by fish steamers up to 10 feet (3 m.) draft as far as the fish factory on Cherrystone Island and by local oyster and produce boats above, their draft seldom exceeding 6 feet (1.8 m.). The channel is marked by beacons to Cherrystone Island, and is sometimes marked by bush stakes above, but the channel is narrow and difficult without local knowledge. Boats of 3 feet (0.9 m.) draft can cross the bar at low water into Cherrystone Inlet anywhere between the outer end of the north jetty at Cape Charles Harbor and Cherrystone Island, but the bar between Cherrystone Island and Wescott Point is often bare at low water.

Kings Creek, east-southeastward of Cherrystone Island, has a depth of 312 feet (1 m.) across the bar at the mouth and for 1 mile above, and is frequented by boats of 2 to 5 feet (0.6 to 1.5 m.) draft. There is a long wharf with a house on the end on the south point at the entrance, and an incompleted bridge just inside, with a single clear opening 22 feet wide. There is a shoal, bare at low water and