(Read before Social Science Club, Honolulu)
Pearl Harbor, as it is now known, is mentioned in the accounts of early Pacific voyages as "Wai Momi"—literally, the "Water of the Pearl," or "Pearl Water." We find it also mentioned in early accounts as "Pearl River," and "Pearl Lochs."
The earliest discoverers, explorers, and traders, who wrote accounts of their visits to the Sandwich Islands, seem to have given most of their attention to the islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai. The first published description of Pearl Harbor appears to be the one mentioned in Captain Nathaniel Portlock's journal, printed in 1789, of his experiences on a voyage of discovery in command of the British vessels King George and Queen Charlotte. He records the fact that his mate, Mr. Haywood, on June 3, 1786, "landed in the West part of George's Bay [which is understood to mean the water within the crescent-shaped shore line extending from Barber's Point to Diamond Head, which Captain Portlock called "Point Dick" and "Point Rose"] and walked up to a rising ground from which he could perceive the land around the West point of King George's Bay to f all in and form a fine, deep bay running well to the northward and the westernmost land stretching out to the southward."
From 1786 until the publication in 1845 of the record of Commodore Wilkes' visit with the United States Exploring Expedition, there is only casual mention of Pearl Harbor by those who left accounts of their visits to the islands. Captain George Vancouver, reporting on the visit which he made on H.M.S. Discovery between 1792 and 1794, records the fact that he started to make a survey of "Oporoah," as he called Pearl Harbor, but, on finding that the entrance was navigable only for small craft, the survey was discontinued.
Captain John Kendrick, in command of the Lady Washington, an armed merchantman operating before the founding of the American Navy, is reported to have assisted the King of Oahu in a victorious battle in the Pearl Harbor region late in 1794, operating with his crew both ashore and from small boats in the lagoon. This might properly be called America's first military activity in Pearl Harbor.
Captain Archibald Campbell, in his A Voyage Around the World from 1806 to 1812, gives quite an accurate description of a reconnaissance of the shore line and waters of Pearl Harbor, which he called "Wymumme," with the description of Ford Island which was then known as Rabbit Island.
In the London Literary Gazette of 1821 there appeared a series of articles by Peter Corney, one of the earliest white settlers of Oahu, who reports a visit to "Wy Momi" in 1818. This report is more specific than any of the previous ones in regard to the depth of water, which he said was "not more than fifteen feet of water on the bar or reef at high water and inside from six to eighteen fathoms mud and sand." Corney also stated that there were "many divers employed here diving for pearl oysters which are found in great plenty. We saved them much trouble and labor by presenting the king with an oyster dredge we had on board and with which Tameameah was highly delighted." So far as can be ascertained, this is the first use of a dredge in these islands.
Gilbert Farquhar Mathison, in his Narrative of a Visit to Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Sandwich Islands During the Years 1821 and 1822, which was published in London in 1825, reports having made a trip to Pearl Harbor by land on July 19, 1822, but adds nothing of importance to the previous descriptions of that harbor.
In 1824, Great Britain, in sympathetic courtesy, sent the bodies of Kamehameha II and his Queen, who had died in London of the measles, back to Hawaii on the man-of-war Blonde under the command of Lord Byron. The British government took advantage of this opportunity to acquire more detailed information concerning the islands; and, to that end, included in the personnel of the ship a party of scientists. Among these was a young lieutenant of the Royal Navy, Charles R. Malden, who appears in the record as a surveyor. The Blonde arrived in Honolulu in 1825 and, during its stay, Lieutenant Malden made a comprehensive and extensive survey of several harbors and roadsteads. One of these surveys was a fairly complete charting of the whole of Pearl Harbor, with soundings taken throughout the entrance channel and the three main lochs. The chart resulting from this survey was printed in 1841 by the British Hydrographic Office and a copy of it is to be found in the Territorial Survey Office as registered map No. 437 under the title, "South Coast of Oahoo (Sandwich Islands), Surveyed by Lieut. C. R. Malden, R.N., 1825." This coast-line map shows the whole of Pearl Harbor and tributary country and indicates the existence of extensive fields of cultivation in its vicinity. What is known as the Shark Pen at the narrows in the inner entrance to the harbor is marked, "Fish Wear Point."
In connection with this same expedition, Andrew Bloxam, the naturalist among the scientists aboard the Blonde, reports that a party including himself, on May 17, 1825, went "in the launch on an expedition to the Pearl river or lochs," and, after describing the hazards of navigating the narrow entrance through the coral reefs, states that but for the treacherous approach "it would form a most excellent harbor as inside there is plenty of water to float the largest ship and room enough for the whole navy of England."
In 1840, fifteen years after the British survey had been made, but a year prior to the publications of the Malden chart, Commodore Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition, under orders to chart the islands of the Pacific for the United States government, called at Oahu. During his visit, Kamehameha III requested him to make a survey of Pearl Harbor. The chart resulting from his work is on file in the Territorial Survey Office as registered map No. 421 under the title, "South side of the Island of Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, Showing the Harbours of Honolulu and Ewa or Pearl River." This chart represents the first technical work by the United States Navy in Pearl Harbor. It is interesting to note that this survey was limited to sounding across the bar and through the channel only as far as Bishop Point or just within the landlocked area. Some of the landmarks noted on this chart still stand, but the Hawaiian Dredging Company's camp at Watertown occupies the location marked as a "Poi Village."
In Volume IV of his narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, which was published in Philadelphia in 1845, Commodore Wilkes, in referring to Pearl Harbor, states that "the inlet has somewhat the appearance of a lagoon that has been partly filled up by alluvial deposits," and expresses the opinion that "if the water upon the bar should be deepened, which I doubt not can be effected, it would afford the best and most capacious harbor in the Pacific." It is interesting to note that Commodore Wilkes reports having visited a sugar mill in the district of Ewa which was producing "about 200 pounds of sugar a day during the season."
As a result of the gesture by Lord George Paulet to annex the islands to Great Britain in 1843, Dr. G. P. Judd, the Hawaiian minister of foreign affairs, took advantage of the presence of the U. S. frigate Constitution in Hawaiian waters in 1845 and requested Lieutenant I. W. Curtis, a young American marine officer, to survey the situation and make some recommendation as to the best practicable method of fortifying Honolulu against further foreign aggression. This investigation was made secretly and Lieutenant Curtis communicated his conclusions to Dr. Judd after the departure of the Constitution, in the form of a letter written from Mazatlan, Mexico, on February 21, 1846. After outlining his suggestions for the defense of Honolulu Harbor, Lieutenant Curtis goes on to say:
If you will allow me, or if you will propose to our government to send on regular engineer officers from that corps, all the work might be going on at once, together with that of clearing out the reef both at Honolulu and Pearl Harbor…And I may call your attention to the vast importance of the harbor of Pearl Harbor. The perfect security of the harbor, the excellence of its water, the perfect ease with which it can be made one of the finest places in the islands, all combine to make it a great consideration.
For more than twenty-five years after this pertinent suggestion by this young American officer of the importance of Pearl Harbor as a factor in connection with the military defense of the islands, there is practically nothing with reference to the harbor to be found in the published records of the large number of American ships whose visits overlapped. This may possibly be accounted for by the fact that religious, social, and other internal troubles were occupying the minds not only of the residents, but of the visitors and explorers during that period. In 1873, the U. S. steamship California brought to the islands a military commission consisting of Major General J. M. Schofield and Brevet Brigadier General B. S. Alexander, a lieutenant colonel of engineers. This commission proceeded, under secret instructions from the Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, to examine the different ports of the Hawaiian Islands with reference to their defensive capabilities and their commercial facilities. In its report to the Secretary of War, written to show the defensive possibilities of the different ports of the Sandwich Islands, the commission said:
With one exception, there is no harbor on the islands that can be made to satisfy all the conditions necessary for a harbor of refuge in time of war. This is the harbor of Ewa or Pearl River situated on the Island of Oahu about seven miles west of Honolulu. Pearl River is a fine sheet of deep water extending inland about six miles from its mouth where it could be completely defended by shore batteries. The depth of water, after passing the bar, is ample for any vessel.
After a brief description of what we now call Ford Island, the report continues:
From our examination, we are of the opinion that this island, Rabbit Island, and the adjacent shore to the North and West of it afford the most advantageous location for a naval depot of supplies and equipment in all these waters. But there is not sufficient water at present for heavy vessels to enter this Pearl River Harbor. At the entrance of the harbor is a coral reef some two hundred and fifty to three hundred yards in width with a depth of water of only two to three fathoms on the reef at low water…
This coral, found at the entrance to Pearl River, is "dead." That is, it is not growing and the reef is therefore not increasing in size. This ridge of coral forms a barrier or bar across the entrance of this harbor…If this coral barrier were removed, Pearl River Harbor would seem to have all or nearly all the necessary properties to enable it to be converted into a good harbor of refuge. It could be completely defended by inexpensive batteries, on either or both shores, firing across a narrow channel of entrance. Its waters are deep enough for the largest vessels of war and its lochs, particularly around Rabbit Island, are spacious enough for a large number of vessels to ride at anchor in perfect security against all storms. Its shores are suitable for building proper establishments for sheltering the necessary supplies for a naval establishment such as magazines for ammunition, provisions, coal, spars, rigging, etc., while the island of Oahu, upon which it is situated, could furnish fresh provisions, meats, fruits, and vegetables in large quantities.
In answer to the hypothetical questions: "Can the coral reef at its entrance be removed? If so, at what cost?" the report goes on to say that the American admiral commanding the U.S.S. Pennock, which was then at Honolulu, had been requested to have a survey of the bar made; but that, pending receipt of this, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander had made soundings and a cursory examination and, "It is his opinion that an entrance could easily be cut through this coral reef by surface blasting and that the fine debris would be washed seaward under the influence of the currents while the larger masses could be removed by dredging or by divers…"
The report states the opinion of the commission "that the amount of coral to be removed to open a channel 200 yards in width with a depth of 26 feet of water at low tide would be about 250,000 cubic yards and that it could be removed for one dollar per cubic yard," adding that a channel opened through the reef would not fill up, as the channel to Honolulu Harbor, where conditions are similar, had remained open.
In summing up its report, the commission says, "It is to be observed that if the United States are ever to have a harbor of refuge and naval station in the Hawaiian Islands in the event of war, the harbor must be prepared in advance by the removal of the Pearl River bar. When war has begun, it will be too late to make this harbor available and there is no other suitable harbor on these islands." Following this examination, General Schofield arranged to have a survey party from the U.S.S. Pennock, then visiting in Hawaiian waters, make a complete survey of Pearl Harbor, in collaboration with the surveyor general of the kingdom, W. D. Alexander. This combined hydrographic and topographic survey was completed and printed in 1873 and a copy of it is now on file in the Territorial Survey Office as registered map No. 448.
E. J. Carpenter, in his America in Hawaii, A History of United States Influence tit the Hawaiian Islands, published in 1899, says:
The report of this commission, which included the information that the mind of the king was favorably inclined toward a cession of Pearl Harbor in return for the advantages to be gained by the islands by a treaty of reciprocity, produced a profound impression upon the government at Washington. This was intensified by the subsequent appearance of General Schofield before a committee of the House of Representatives .to urge the importance, chiefly from a military point of view, of the adoption of some measure through which the control of the islands might pass to the United States.
From articles and editorials appearing in the Hawaiian Gazette of 1873, it would seem that sentiment favorable to annexation to the United States was then more pronounced and more general than at any previous time and that the suggestion of the cession of Pearl Harbor to the United States was generally considered a preliminary move in that direction. King Lunalilo was petitioned by the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce in February, 1873, to negotiate a reciprocity treaty with the United States and in this resolution the suggestion was made that the Pearl River lagoon be offered to the United States as an inducement. After due consideration, the King conveyed to the United States minister at Honolulu, through his minister of foreign affairs, the original treaty proposal in which was included the cession of the Pearl River lagoon; and, on July 7, 1873, the American minister notified his government at Washington that the King had offered to negotiate a treaty on that basis. Four months later the Hawaiian Gazette of November 14, 1873, prints a "By Authority" notice to the effect that the King was satisfied that a treaty carrying with it the cession of Pearl Harbor would not receive the legislative approval required by the constitution of the kingdom and hence had withdrawn that feature of his offer. The editorial comment appearing in the Hawaiian Gazette of that date endeavors to explain that the original Pearl Harbor proposal had been for a lease and not a cession of territory. Much capital was made of the proposal to excite the Hawaiians to opposition.
After the death of Lunalilo and the election of Kalakaua as King, he proceeded to Washington and there, it is conceded by some writers of the time, it was the King's personality which was largely responsible for the final consummation of the original reciprocity treaty in 1875.
The financial benefits of this treaty to the agricultural interests of the islands were so great that the best interests in Hawaii were keenly alive to the importance of securing an extension of the treaty beyond its definite term of seven years. Due to opposition on the mainland, expressed in Congress and elsewhere, this extension was not secured for a number of years; but finally, on January 20, 1887, the United States Senate in secret session ratified the convention providing for the extension of the treaty, after adding an amendment as Clause II, providing that "His Majesty, the King of the Hawaiian Islands, grants to the Government of the United States the exclusive right to enter the harbor of Pearl River, in the Island of Oahu, and to establish and maintain there a coaling and repair station for the use of vessels of the United States, and to that end the United States may improve the entrance of said harbor and do all things needful to the purpose aforesaid." This treaty was ratified by the Hawaiian Senate and signed by the King on October 29, 1887.
It may be interesting to note that the Princess Liliuokalani, afterwards Queen, in her diary of September 26, 1887, noted that the King had on that date signed the final convention including a "lease of Pearl Harbor," as she called it; adding her opinion that "this was a mistake." It is also of interest to note that the treaty had scarcely been proclaimed when a note was handed to the Secretary of State in Washington by the British ambassador, in which the attention of the United States government was called to the Franco-English compact of 1843 by which those two nations agreed never to take possession of the Hawaiian Islands "either directly or under the title of a protectorate"; and suggesting a triple compact in which the United States should join, guaranteeing the neutrality and equal accessibility of the islands and their harbors to the ships of all nations without preference. The British commissioner at Honolulu simultaneously delivered a note of for mal protest against a grant to the United States of the exclusive use of Pearl Harbor as a coaling and repair station.
After conferences and exchange of letters, the British ambassador wrote the Secretary of State:
Under instructions from Her Majesty's Government, I have already pointed out to the government of His Hawaiian Majesty that the acquisition by a foreign power of a harbor or preferential concession in the Hawaiian Islands would infallibly lead to the loss of the independence of the Islands."
While this treaty continued in force until August, 1898, no advantage was taken by the United States government of the opportunity to fortify or use Pearl Harbor as a naval base. The shallow entrance constituted a formidable barrier against the use of the deep protected waters of the inner harbor as definitely in the nineties as in the thirties. In 1894, a survey party from the U.S.S. Philadelphia conducted a survey, including borings in the outer channel, to secure further information as to the character of the material which would have to be removed, and in 1898 a similar survey was made by a party from the gunboat Bennington. The first appropriation of $50,000, sought in 1897, failed of passage by Congress and it was not until 1900 that an appropriation of $100,000 was made to dredge the channel.
Plans and specifications were prepared and bids called for by the United States district engineer at San Francisco for the excavation of a channel 200 feet wide and 3,085 feet long to a depth of 30 feet. In the call for bids, it was stated that only sand was to be removed. The firm of Clarke & Henry of Stockton, California, was awarded the contract at 44 1/2 cents per cubic yard. An inadequate clamshell dredge and scows were built and equipped in Honolulu. After a year of unsuccessful effort, Clarke and Henry subcontracted the work to the Hawaiian Dredging Company which, in turn, subcontracted it to Cotton Brothers of Oakland, California, in September, 1902. Under the arrangement made, the Hawaiian Dredging Company was to render assistance by furnishing plant and men, if needed, to augment the equipment of Cotton Brothers, who planned to use a 16-inch suction dredge under charter from the Territorial government. The time spent in making ready this chartered dredge was so much longer than anticipated that the Hawaiian Dredging Company was called upon to put its plant in operation on the Pearl Harbor bar in order to comply with the conditions of the contract. The dredge was towed to Pearl Harbor and started operations on the bar. After it had been at work for a very limited time, the other chartered dredge was also towed down. On the night of its arrival, a Kona storm broke and, before it was possible to tow the shallow draft machines into shelter, the government dredge was torn loose from its moorings and sank almost in the middle of the channel. The Hawaiian Dredging Company's machine was broken adrift and carried onto the reef toward Queen Emma Point. The beaching of this machine saved her; and, after necessary repairs, she alone completed the work under the contract. The government dredge was purchased from the insurance company and the machinery salvaged by divers.
This channel, which represented a narrow cut through the sand bar between the shoulders of the coral reef, was only a preliminary. The coral points jutting out under water on the sides of the deeper channel between them made the inner channel so sharp that the navigation of anything but small craft was hazardous.
In December, 1901, the Navy, having adopted the report of the Barker Board, started condemnation proceedings for the site of the proposed naval station, involving some 676 acres of land on the east shore of the harbor, including all water, riparian, fishing, and other rights connected with it.
In 1908, a call was issued by the Navy for bids to dredge a channel which, when completed, would permit the use of the harbor by the largest ships of the Navy. The plans contemplated an entrance channel through the reef 600 feet in width with a minimum depth of 35 feet and included the cutting off of ten coral promontories which jutted into the channel as well as the removal of a long, narrow, submerged reef extending from Magazine Island out into the turning-basin area opposite the naval station. An estimate of the amount of material to be removed in this channel of more than five miles in length was made and the yardage fixed at approximately five million cubic yards. The contract, when awarded, was for the completed channel, irrespective of the actual yardage removed and irrespective of the amount of material which might have to be removed from the side slopes of the cuts and in over-depth dredging.
This contract required that roughly one and one-half million yards be removed from the section exposed to the surf and swells of the reef. The drilling and blasting of rock under these conditions contained a most uncertain element of cost—particularly uncertain as there was no drilling equipment in existence which guaranteed the operation of a rotary drill in a seaway. The contract permitted the depositing of dredged materials within the harbor in the deep pockets found in the lochs, some of which were as deep as 125 feet. The time completion was fixed at three years.
Many engineering corporations sent representatives to the islands to study local conditions and prepare estimates of the cost of the work. Bids were opened in December, 1908, in Washington, and prices varied from three and one-half to five million dollars. The contract was awarded to the Hawaiian Dredging Company. Seven dredges were employed on the work, representing five different types of excavating machinery. Up to that date this contract represented the largest dredging project in the history of the Navy and, because of certain channel features, the most difficult one.
From the first, the problem of the undertaking was recognized to be the blasting and removal of the hard rock anticipated in the outer or sea sections of the work. While a sand-sucking rig and a clamshell dredge were exposing the solid formations there, every effort was made to develop a machine that would drill and blast the rock encountered. Over 200,000 cubic yards of sandstone were finally developed. During the time of the early operations, a very unique rig was invented. This contrivance was built at a nominal cost but proved the savior of the situation and, so far as is known, no better rig has since been devised. When it was found that the drill would work and that the hard section could be shot, it became necessary to have a tool which would rake in the broken rock resulting from the blasting operations. Investigation of various drag-line scraper rigs resulted in adapting a Chicago Drainage Canal land machine to a floating plant and a novel dredge was built which successfully and expeditiously removed the broken sandstone.
All machines were operated twenty-four hours a day, weather permitting, and the work was completed, surveyed, and accepted by the government and final payment made thirty days before the date set for completion of the contract.
Shortly after the start of this dredging contract, another contract was let for the construction of a dry dock 620 feet long. After the award of this contract to the San Francisco Bridge Company, the length of the proposed dock was increased to 831 feet and then to 1,039 feet; and, shortly after the formal execution of the contract, a subcontract was negotiated which turned over the undertaking to the Hawaiian Dredging Company. While grave doubts had been felt about the success of the dredging contract, it was anticipated that the construction of the dry dock would present no serious difficulties. Engineers experienced in dry-dock construction were employed and the work was laid out with every thought for the speedy erection and completion of the structure. The plan in the main was for a graving dock to cost approximately $3,200,000.
When the basin had been excavated, the concrete foundation of one of the five sections poured and the cofferdam erected for three of the sections, one section was pumped dry. Before the work of stopping leaks in the side of this section had progressed very far, and when fifty men were down in the cofferdam at work, the engineers detected what they at first thought to be a land subsidence but what immediately proved to be a rising of the unwatered section. The men were ordered to the surface and were off the structure in time to see this section, 150 by 200 feet and 50 feet deep, pushed 15 feet into the air by the upward pressure. At this point, the water crushed in the lower members of the cofferdam and rushed into the vortex under great pressure. In five minutes, several million feet of timber were broken into kindling wood, pumps, hoisting engines, concrete mixers, derricks, and locomotives were precipitated into the tangled mass of ruins and two years' work had been destroyed in less time than it takes to relate the catastrophe.
Immediately the question was raised as to the responsibility for and the cause of the accident. A difference of opinion arose among the government's engineers and it was finally decided by the then Secretary of the Navy to send America's most competent subaqueous authority, Mr. Alfred Noble, to investigate and determine the cause of the failure. His report was to the effect that the foundation conditions were not as assumed and were not suitable for the structure as designed. Since the responsibility for the design was on the government, it remained for an agreement to be reached between the government and the contractor for settling the costs incurred and negotiating for the construction of a dock under a new design. It was twenty-two months after the disaster and under an increased appropriation of one and one-half million dollars that work upon the new dock was started. The figures accepted were based on the aggregate of items of cost prepared by the government and the contractor in agreement, and called for the construction of a dock 1,029 feet in length at a contract price of nearly $4,500,000.
The original dock had no reinforcing steel and was virtually nothing but a concrete lining of the excavation. The weight of the structure was inadequate and the foundations of coral and mud were porous, plastic, and unequal in bearing power. The revised plan for the dock was unique in its conception, with a foundation to be built in sixteen sections. Each of these was a reenforced-concrete block weighing 7,500 tons, built on a floating dock and lowered under the water by means of a floating and ballast tank. These blocks were to be placed upon a prepared crushed-rock bed and, after settlement, must rest on a plane not more than one and one-fourth inches from the established grade.
As each section was placed on the foundation fifty-two feet under water, the sides of that section were built in the steel cofferdams which formed the end of the ballast tank and concrete was carried down these cofferdams to complete, under the center of the tank, the floor of the individual sections.
As each section was completed, the ballast tank was pumped out and floated clear of the structure built within it. When the sixteen sections had been completed, voussoir blocks weighing 150 tons each were placed in a semicircle on the foundation at the end of the dock to form the curved inner end of the basin. The sill and slots were made of granite imbedded in the outer section foundation to form the support along the bottom and sides of the floating steel gate which closes the sea end of the structure. The sections between the sixteen blocks were poured with concrete so as to make the whale structure a monolith before unwatering. The pump well for the pumps used in emptying the dry dock was a separate structure built alongside the outer end of the dock.
In this remodeled structure approximately ten million pounds of Pennsylvania steel was used. The keel blocks of ohia came from Hawaii, the granite and 140,000 barrels of cement from California. Two local quarries, opened and operated to supply crushed rock for the concrete, were exhausted.
Work on the new plan was started in January, 1915, and in April, 1917, our country went to war. The Shipping Board, the War Trade Board, the Price Fixing Board, and other government agencies successfully demoralized all the conditions under which the estimates of cost had been made and freight rates, wages, and material costs were increased greatly in excess of contract prices. The work, however, was completed and the dock turned over to the government in July, 1919, practically ten years after the award of the first contract. As the contract price was a fixed lump sum, it was extremely difficult to reopen the question of costs, even though government agencies had been wholly responsible for destroying the basis upon which those costs were figured and agreed upon. After ten years of work, the contractor was fortunate under all the conditions to have completed the undertaking, even though with the extra allowance finally made by the government, there was absolutely no profit.
During and since the construction of the dry dock, there have been created, tributary to it, several thousand feet of wharfage, a marine railway, oil and coal storage and fueling stations, ammunition depots, stores, machine shops, a hospital and an administration building, officers' quarters, barracks, wireless towers, and many other adjuncts to form one of America's largest naval stations. On Ford Island there has been created a flying base for land and sea machines, and many other projects to augment the Navy's equipment are being arranged for.
The development in size of naval ships has made necessary the further widening and deepening of the channel; and, in December, 1926, two contracts were awarded for the removal of a total of approximately nine million cubic yards of material from the channel and the anchorage basin within the lochs. In this second large dredging project—nearly twice the size of the first big contract of eighteen years ago— the calls for bids provided for dividing the work into sections representing the sea or outer channel and the coral points within the harbor in one group, and the shell, sand, silt, and broken coral from the floor of the inner basin, in the other. The United Dredging Company of Oakland, California, secured the latter sections of the work and the Hawaiian Dredging Company the bar and hard coral sections. The two contracts represent an expenditure of about $4,200,000, or $1,700,000 less than the amount provided by Congress for the work. Five dredges, representing four different types of excavating machinery, are now at work. Three of the machines that were employed seventeen years ago on the first large dredging contract are being operated on the present one. A new machine of the latest shovel type has been added to the equipment and much dependence is being placed upon the work of this machine to enable the contract to be completed within the specified time.
When this wider and deeper channel is completed, navigable water will be available for any battleship of the United States Navy to enter, maneuver, and anchor within the protection of Pearl Harbor. The extension of the anchorage basin within the harbor to permit the accommodation of a large part if not the whole of the Pacific fleet will probably follow and this can be accomplished at comparatively small cost.
For obvious reasons, a more detailed description of the equipment of the naval station is not available; but it is permitted to state that a total of approximately fifty million dollars has been expended on this naval base, which for many years was believed to be a vision with small chance of realization.