broken bottom and abrupt changes of depth, vessels of greater draft than 15 feet (4.5 m.) should pass outside of them.

Townsend Inlet usually has a depth of 4 feet (1.2 m.) across the bar. It is used by small fishing and pleasure boats and an occasional cruising yacht up to 5-foot (1.5 m.) draft, which enter only at high water and with a smooth sea. The channel and shore line are subject to considerable change and are moving southward at present. A railroad with a drawbridge on the south side crosses the inlet just inside the mouth. The channel is marked by perpendicularly striped buoys, but strangers generally take a pilot.

Townsend Inlet is a small resort just northward of the inlet. There are no prominent marks. There is a wharf, with a depth of 12 feet (3.6 m.), alongside.

Avalon is a resort on the south side of Townsend Inlet. A black water tank is the most prominent mark.

Peermont is a small resort on the beach 12 miles southwestward of Townsend Inlet.

Stone Harbor is a summer resort on the beach about 3 miles northeastward of Hereford Inlet. It is marked by a slender standpipe with a white top.

Hereford Inlet, 6 miles northeastward of Cape May Harbor, is subject to rapid change, and the buoys can not always be depended upon to lead in the best water. It has depths of 6 feet (1.8 m.) in two channels south of the middle ground. In the entrance there are large areas bare at low water and usually having a sand ridge showing at high water. They are covered with marsh grass in summer. Breakers form across the inlet in heavy weather and on the shoals at all times, and the appearance of the water is the best guide in entering. A new inlet formed north of the middle ground in 1929, having a least depth at mean low water of 212 feet (0.7 m.).

The different inlets are used by many fishing boats and some yachts. Pilots can usually be obtained from fishing boats outside. Stone Harbor Coast Guard station is the only mark on the north side of the inlet. There are buildings on the south side all the way from Hereford Inlet to 2 miles north of Cape May Harbor, and several prominent marks. Hereford Inlet Lighthouse (group flashing white), visible 13 miles, is a tower on a dwelling and is not prominent by day. There is a slender black standpipe 14 mile westward of it.

Anglesea is a summer resort on the south side of Hereford Inlet and is frequented by a large number of fishing boats. There are several wharves along the water front northwestward of the Coast Guard station.

North Wildwood, Wildwood, Holly Beach, and Wildwood Crest are summer resorts on Five Mile Beach. There are a water tank and a slender standpipe close together at Wildwood.

Cape May Harbor has been improved by private enterprise under a project to create a basin of about 500 acres with depths of from 30 to 40 feet (9.1 to 12.2 m.). It is used by fish steamers, pilot boats, and many yachts and large pleasure boats. Some of these anchor in the west end of the harbor, the others go to the docks, or up

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Cape Island Creek to landings near the drawbridge. Many fishing steamers go to the fish wharf up the first channel opening to the eastward from the east end of Cape May Harbor. Gasoline, fuel oils, and coal in small quantities can be obtained at the docks. There are two marine railways, one of which can handle vessels up to 10foot (3 m.) draft, 125-foot length, and 100 tons. A large hangar and water tank on Sewell Point are prominent.

The entrance, 41⁄2 miles eastward of Cape May Lighthouse, has been improved by building parallel stone jetties 850 feet apart and dredging a channel 400 feet wide with a present depth of about 17 feet (5.1 m.) midway between them to the inner harbor. In 1929 a sunken schooner lay on the north side of the channel at the entrance, narrowing the passage somewhat.

The controlling depth to the docks at Cape May is 11 feet (3.3 m.) at mean lower water. The channel in the harbor is marked by buoys. There are flashing lights on the outer ends of the jetties, the southwestern one being green and the other white. A fog bell has been established on the southwest breakwater just inshore from the light. There are railway connections at Cape May with Camden, N. J.

About 2 miles westward of the entrance to Cape May Harbor is Cape May, a summer resort having several large and prominent hotels; and 2 miles westward of Cape May is the summer resort of Cape May Point, marked by Cape May Lighthouse.

Cape May Lighthouse (flashing white every 30 seconds) is 165 feet (50 m.) above the water and visible 19 miles.

Five Fathom Bank is an area of broken ground about 13 miles eastward of Cape May. It is about 9 miles long in a northerly and southerly direction inside the 5-fathom (9.1 m.) curve and about 2 miles wide, and there are detached shoal spots eastward and northward of it. The least depth found is 15 feet (4.5 m.), lying 10 miles 133° true (SE. 2 S. mag.) from Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, and is marked on the northeast side by a horizontally striped nun buoy. There is a red nun buoy marking a 21-foot (6.4 m.) spot about 312 miles southward of the horizontally striped buoy. It is near the south end of the shoals and should be given a berth of 1⁄2 mile or more when passing eastward and southward of it.

There is very broken ground, with 5 fathoms (9.1 m.) or less, and abrupt changes in depth, between Five Fathom Bank and Cape May, and there is broken ground extending to a distance of about 6 miles southward of Cape May Harbor and Cape May.

Two wrecks are charted between Northeast End and Five Fathom Bank lightships.

The passage inside of Five Fathom Bank, passing either eastward or westward of McCrie Shoal, is generally used by coasting vessels entering Delaware Bay from northward. In a heavy sea, vessels of a greater draft than 18 feet (5.5 m.) should pass outside of Five Fathom Bank, and this is also the safer course at all times for strangers in vessels of a greater draft than 18 feet (5.5 m.).

Northeast End Lightship, about 62 miles eastward of the north end of Five Fathom Bank, has a red hull with "Northeast" on the sides, two masts with lantern galleries; deck houses and masts white, galleries and stack black. Light shown from foremast is occulting white every 2 seconds, visible 14 miles. If occulting light

is out of order, a fixed white light will be shown from the mainmast. The fog signal is given on an air siren (blast 2 seconds, silent 2 seconds, blast 24 seconds). If siren is disabled, a bell is sounded by hand. Submarine bell strikes "45" every 36 seconds.

Five Fathom Bank Lightship, about 4 miles southeastward of the south end of Five Fathom Bank, has a straw-colored hull with "Five Fathom " on the sides and two masts with round daymarks at the head of each. Light shown from foremast 65 feet above the water is occulting white every 6 seconds. If out of action, a similar light is shown from the mainmast. Fog signal is a whistle (blast

4 seconds, silent 56 seconds). A bell will be struck by hand if whistle is disabled. The submarine bell strikes "42" every 28 seconds. A radio beacon transmits signals. See page 16.

McCrie Shoal, having a least depth of 17 feet (5.2 m.), lies 7 miles 136° true (SE. 34 S. mag.) from Cape May Lighthouse. It is marked on the southeast side by a gas and whistling buoy. The shoals and channels southwestward of Cape May are described under "Delaware Bay, Eastern Side."

Tides.-The mean range of tide on the outside coast is about 4.6

feet.

Storm warnings of the United States Weather Bureau are displayed along the coast at several stations. See page 9.

DELAWARE BAY AND RIVER

[Charts 1218, 294, 295, 296, and 280]

form the boundary between the State of New Jersey on the east and the States of Delaware and Pennsylvania on the west. They are the approach to the cities of Wilmington, Chester, Philadelphia, Camden, and Trenton, and to many smaller cities and towns, and they have a large trade carried both in foreign and domestic vessels. Philadelphia, one of the important ports of the United States, and Trenton, the head of navigation, are 88 and 116 miles, respectively, above the entrance. The main entrance near Cape Henlopen is available for vessels of any draft. (See "Channels," following.) Vessels of 7 feet (2.1 m.) draft can pass from New York Bay to Delaware Bay through the Delaware & Raritan Canal, and vessels of 12 feet (3.6 m.) draft can pass from Chesapeake Bay to Delaware River through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The route from New York Bay through Delaware River to Chesapeake Bay is described under the heading "Inside route, New York to Norfolk," on page 244.

Delaware Bay is, properly speaking, only an expansion of the lower part of the Delaware River. The dividing line is 44 miles above the entrance and extends from a monument lying 300 yards northwestward of Liston Point to a monument lying eastward of the south point at the entrance of Hope Creek.

Except at the entrance, Delaware Bay is bordered on both sides by wide areas of marsh, and there are no towns of any size on its shores. Detailed descriptions of the shores and tributaries are given under the headings "Delaware Bay, eastern side," and "Delaware Bay, western side."

Channels.-The main entrance to the bay, which is used by deepdraft vessels and strangers, has a clear width of over 212 miles between Cape Henlopen and the shoals, which extend 7 miles southsouthwestward from Cape May Point.

The bay is shoal along its eastern and western sides, and there are extensive shoal areas close to the main channel through the center of the bay, but a channel with a depth of 33 feet (10 m.) or more leads from the entrance to the lower end of the dredged channel near the head of the bay. The least width (about 1/4 mile between the 30-foot (9.1 m.) curves) is abreast Elbow of Cross Ledge Lighthouse. The channel is well marked by lighthouses and buoys, but strangers in deep-draft vessels should not attempt to enter by night.

Improvements are in progress to secure a channel 35 feet (10.6 m.) deep from that depth in Delaware Bay to Allegheny Avenue (upper end of Port Richmond), Philadelphia, 800 feet wide in the straight reaches, 1,200 feet wide at Bulkhead Bar, 1,000 feet wide in the other bends, and 1,000 feet wide from abreast Gloucester to Allegheny Avenue. The latest examinations show a depth of 32.5 feet (9.8 m.) or more on the center line throughout the entire length of the channel.

The minimum depth on the ranges of 32.5 feet (9.8 m.) (reported in January, 1930), was on a small gravel shoal near the upper end of East Horseshoe Range.

The condition of this channel is given at frequent intervals in the Notice to Mariners.

Anchorage.-Delaware Breakwater Harbor and Harbor of Refuge are among the important harbors of refuge on the Atlantic coast and are extensively used by all classes of vessels. (For description, see p. 54.)

Deep-draft vessels sometimes anchor in the vicinity of the main channel above Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse. Bombay Hook Roads is the widened part of the channel of the bay between Ship John Shoal Lighthouse and the entrance to the dredged channel, which was formerly used as an anchorage by sailing vessels while waiting for a favorable tide to cross Duck Creek Flats. Deep-draft vessels can anchor here, south of the Liston range, in 5 to 7 fathoms (9.1 to 12.8 m.), soft bottom; the shoals rise abruptly in places on the sides of the channel, as shown on the chart.

In Delaware River there is good anchorage anywhere where the depth and bottom are suitable; in every case care must be taken not to anchor on or close to the ranges, nor in the dredged channels. The anchorages off Philadelphia are on the eastern side of the river from abreast Gloucester to Kaighn Point and on the east side of the channel abreast Petty Island. (See Greenwich Point and Port Richmond anchorages.) Anchorage limits are prescribed by regulation, as follows:

Marcus Hook Anchorage is on the southeast side of Marcus Hook range, between Marcus Hook and the lower end of Raccoon Island.

Fort Mifflin Anchorage extends from the lower end of Fort Mifflin to a point south of the prolongation of the Horseshoe lower range and lies westward of the Schuylkill River range and Fort Mifflin Bar range.

League Island Anchorage is east of the mouth of Schuylkill River and north of the channel marked by the Horseshoe west group lower range and extends to a point opposite Broad Street (middle of League Island).

Greenwich Point Anchorage is east of the main ship channel between two anchorage buoys (being white with a black anchor painted thereon), located opposite (1) the lower coal pier at Greenwich Point, to mark the lower limit of anchorage, (2) Dickinson Street to mark the upper limit of anchorage; the latter buoy is off Kaighn Point.

Cooper Point Anchorage is in the channel between Cooper Point and Petty Island, so as not to interfere with vessels going to or from Cooper River.

Port Richmond Anchorage is east of the main ship channel, between the prolongation of lines drawn from the lower and upper ends of Petty Island, and is marked by two anchorage buoys (being white with a black anchor painted thereon). Buoy No. 1 is placed off the lower end of Petty Island. Buoy No. 2 is placed off Petty Island opposite Pier G, Port Richmond, about midway of the anchorage. The anchorage ground extends from the head of Petty Island to a point 900 yards below buoy No. 1 and northward of Cooper Point.