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SOMt: IMPORTANT STEAMSHIP LINES DOCKING AT THE PORT OF BOSTON



No. 1 — Hoosac Docki



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K.-.I Slar l.inr 1.. Ai.lorfl.

No. 5 - Long Wharf

Unite! Fruil I.iii




Wilumjiid F
Cttprntuii^tn V

No. 6 — Commeroial Wharf

Pluil Line lo Hilifu, N. S.
Fi>hlng Flm



No. 2 — Myalic Docka

Allu Line I.> lib.|:..»

Himbutv- Amf ritMn Line from Hainbun; ( Frrighl Servic



Ia^iuu Line lo Ha\'aiu
Linrri»n-lndtan Line from CalrutU
jne lo Moll China-Japan Line from Yokohama

Amcrit-a I,inc In Kolierilam Clax Line (rom Fowey, England

No. 7 — Central, India and Foster's Wharves



No. 3 — Boston & Albany Docks

Cunard Line lo Liverjiool I,e^Und Line In I.ondnn

l.ey]and Line to Liverpool Leyland Line In Manchetter

luiian Line from Gemtt Nonh-trtnnan IJnyd Line in Bremen

Ruftian- American Line from Libau

No. 8 — Fisk A Harris Wharves



Eutem S. S. C
Hniton ii Vannouth S. S. Co'
moulK, N. S.



Si. John, N. B. F^ailem S S. Co. to New York EutesS. S. Co. to Poitland, Me.

EaalemS. S. Co. lo Bangor, Me. Boitia & Glouccfter I Ma»». I Line
Eutcra S. S. Co. 10 Bath, Mc. ,



Mcrrhanli & Minen' Line to Philadelphia



No. 4 — National Docks '

Houiioo Line Irom South America
Buher Line Ifnm Ihe River Plane.
South America

No. 9 — Constitution Wharf

Merchant, k Miner.' Line to Ballim



Commonwealth Pier 5

HamSnri: Amerinr, Line lo Hamborg



No. 10 - Bailcrr Wharf '

.Meichanl. 4 .Miner.' IJne In Norfolk



The Port Book

of

Boston



Prepared under the Supervision of the
Publicity Committee



Thirty-Ninth Annual Convention

of the

American Bankers Association



Boston, October Six to Ten
Nineteen Hundred Thirteen






Copyright, 1913

H. B. Humphrey Company

Boston







The

Port

Book

of

Boston



The New Custom House




i! ^.



The Port Book
of Boston



Boston Harbor and Bay



AT the present point of departure of the steamers
for the beaches and shore resorts stood the
old Sconce, or Southern Battery, in the eigh-
teenth century ; and at the present location of Bat-
tery Wharf, now occupied by the Merchants &
Miners' line, was the North Battery. Between these
two defences lay the Great Cove, which at that time
constituted the inner haven, stretching well inland,
as the land now lies.

The print by Paul Revere, of which a reproduction
is shown facing our title page, was made in 1768,
when the Revolution was already fermenting, and
only seven years before Revere made his midnight
ride to Lexington and beyond. The North Battery
is shown in the engraving, but the Sconce is not
included. The church almost touching the left-hand
margin of the picture is the First Church in Boston ;
the tower next as you travel to the right is that of the



THE PORT BOOK




The First Steamer Plying Boston Harbor



Town House (now the Old State House) ; next
seems to be the old Brattle Street Church ; and then
comes Faneuil Hall. The Town Dock ran up con-
siderably closer to the ' ' Cradle of Liberty ' ' than
Revere 's picture would indicate.

The great pier or dock, running^ far out into the
harbor, upon which the boat-loads of British soldiers
from the fleet are landing, is Long- Wharf. Just
behind the row of houses lining the wharf you see a
little offshoot, a sort of appendix to the main pier.
This was Minott's T, the predecessor of the present
T wharf. This T, in the picture, shows the point
where the Atlantic Avenue water-front of to-day
marks the limit of the harbor. The cove behind the
T was long since filled and built upon with ware-
houses and shops. The greater portion of the Long

10



OF BOSTON




Mammoth Cabin Steamer Camden



Wharf of the engraving is now State Street. A
very different idea of the water-front and harbor is
to be g-ained from the " View of Boston in 1848," on
page 8. Doubtless it is more accurate, but it is less
interesting. Bunker Hill Monument, at the extreme
right, and the dome of the State House are of
unmistakable identity. Notable in this picture are
the great gable-ended warehouses along the docks,
presumably stuffed with the assets of East India
merchants, who flourished in that day. Yet from a
comparison of the two prints, one's notion of the
development of the port during a period of eighty
years gains emphasis. The transition from the age
of sails to that of steam is also apparent, and one
feels that the draftsman did his best to picture things
correctly.

The Norseman, Thorwald, is said to have discovered

11



THE PORT BOOK



Castle Island and Fort Independence,
Marine Park, South Boston



Boston Harbor, in the year 1003. Eig-ht hundred
and seven years after that episode a steamboat line
was placed in operation between Boston and Plymouth.
The Eagle, of which we can, fortunately, show an
illustration, was the first steamer to ply Boston
Harbor, in 1810 ; the big: coastwise passenger liner
on the opposite page is shown by way of contrast,
and to give an idea of what a century has done in the
development of the " all-cabin " type of steamer.

Boston Harbor was favorably known to mariners
for many years before the settlement of New Eng-
land. The Pilgrims, touching at the tip-end of
Cape Cod, v/here now is Provincetown, cut across
Massachusetts Bay and bore to the left. Had they
headed a little more to starboard, Boston might have
turned out to be Plymouth. The Pilgrim settle-
ments straggled along the South vShore by the way
of Duxbury, Hingham, and the Weymouths to
Merrymount, now Quincy, and thus reached Quincy
Bay, a branch of Boston Harbor, by the shore route.
Point Allerton, now a part of Hull, where Thorwald,
the Norseman, landed in 1003, was Pilgrim territory
named for one Allerton, who married a daughter of

12



OF BOSTON



Elder William Brewster. The group of islands
called " The Brewsters " was named for the elder's
children. Boston Lig^ht, from which transatlantic
steamers time their runs, is on Little Brewster.
The first light at this point was set up in 1716.

From the earliest days of the Boston colony the
development of the port and encouragement of mari-
time commerce was an important concern of the
settlers. Governor Winthrop himself built a ship
in 1631, at a shipyard established at Medford, a
few miles up the Mystic River. Ship-building be-
came a leading industry, and Boston merchants
waxed prosperous in foreign trade. An attempt
to make Cambridge the metropolis of the Massachu-
setts Bay Colony failed, for the importance of the
port and harbor was too weighty a consideration to
ignore. Boston is geog"raphically adapted for im-
mense sea traffic, and in the earlier half of the nine-
teenth century the clipper ships of Boston were the
finest and swiftest in the world.

Another product of the Boston shipyards was
the frigate Constitution, "Old Ironsides," launched
in 1797. This staunch old Yankee ship, pictured on

Deer Island and House of Correction



13



THE PORT BOOK



George's Island, Fort Warren

pag'e 26, with her protective deck-housing, hes at
the United States Navy Yard, at Charlestown. The
Navy Yard includes about ninety acres and has the
largest dry dock in the country. Here is made the
cordag-e for the American Navy. There are usually
several of Uncle Sam's ships here.

Reference to the bird's-eye view, supplemented
by various pictures, will assist the reader to locate
points of interest encountered in a trip about Boston
Harbor. Besides the docks, of which note is made
in Section H, and on the charts, pag'es 18 and 19,
the tourist will be somewhat curious in regrard to the
islands and landmarks of the harbor.

Of these, the most notable are :

Fort Independence, on Castle Island, South Bos-
ton. First called the Castle. Earliest defensive
structure built 1633 ; present stone fort built 1850.

Deer Island, with the city House of Correction.
Separated from the mainland by wShirley Gut, a
tide-race which an occasional prisoner attempts to
swim.

Fort Warren, on George's Island. Used as a
Federal prison during the Civil War. Mason and

14



OF BOSTON



Slidell, Confederate envoys to Engfland, were confined
here.

Long Island Head has a light of 860 candle-power.
The island is yi mile wide and 1/^ miles long-. Light-
house built in 1819.

Nix's Mate. Hardly more than a reef, where
formerly stood a beautiful green island. Here pirates
were hung in chains. Nix's mate, said to have mur-
derecf his captain, being executed here, prophesied
that the island would wash away to prove his
innocence.

Bug Light marks the end of a long " spit " stretch-
ing out from Great Brewster Island, a dangerous
shoal with a heavy tideway.

Boston Light, on Little Brewster, marks the en-
trance to the harbor and the eastern end of the
transatlantic path. The light stands about 100 feet
above the water and is rated at 35,000 candle-power.

Spectacle Island was so named on account of its
shape ; the light is of 800 candle-power brilliancy.

The Graves. This is the most powerful light on
the Atlantic coast, excepting only Sandy Hook. Its
1,000,000 candle-power light has recently been re-
Long Island Head and Fort Strong




15



THE PORT BOOK







Nix's Mate

placed with a new equipment, rated at 2,600,000
candle-power. The light-tower stands 90 feet above
the water.

Range Lights, on Lovell's Island, mark the inner
end of Broad Sound. Fort Standish is under con-
struction on this island.

Minof s Ledge. A very dangerous reef, exposed
to the full sweep of wind and wave. Two light-
towers were destroyed here previous to the building
of the present structure. The light is of 220,000
candle-power.

Of several points of interest, we show no illustra-
tion. Governor's Island, with Fort Winthrop, was
the site of the first Fort Warren, named for the
Revolutionary hero who fell at Bunker Hill. The
name was later transferred to a new fort on George's
Island. Quarantine for incoming ships is maintained
at Gallup's Island. Rainsford Island, bought from
the Indians by Elder Edward Raynesford in Colonial
times, is now city property and the site of a munici-
pal almshouse. On Thompson's Island there is an
agricultural school for boys, and on Bumkin Island
the Burrage Hospital for crippled children.

Boston Harbor is rich in historic association, and
although much has been written of it, to do it justice

16



OF BOSTON



would require a far more ambitious volume than this
booklet. In summer the nearby resorts are crowded
with pleasure-seekers, and the cooling breezes are as
available for the poor as for the well-to-do. Nan-
tasket Beach, upon whose sands the ocean rollers
break unceasingfly, migfht be called the Coney Island
of New England — if it were an island, and if it were
not practically duplicated by Revere Beach, which,
though not quite within the harbor limit, is just around
the corner from it. On hot Sundays in summer the
visitors to these beaches run into the hundreds of
thousands.

Contrasting with these popular resoits, we find the
exclusive summer colonies of Cohasset and Scituate,
south of the city, while along the North Shore are
the cliffs of Swampscott, Marblehead, Beverly, and
Magnolia, crowned with the summer palaces of the
exclusive rich.

Ask who has the best time — the millionaire with
his castle-on-the-rocks, or the summer squatter in a
breeze-shaken bungalow of canvas and boards. Let
the location be near Boston Bay, and the answer is
"Both! "




17



THE PORT BOOK




BO sir ON K \^^'^







The Commercial Water-front



18



I



OF BOSTON




The Entire Harbor, or Boston Bay



Explanation



These charts show, the one on page 18, the harbor
proper ; that on this page, 19, the outlying waters
and the approaches from the Atlantic.

The numbers on the water-front chart, page 18,
indicate : 1 — The new 1200 foot, $3,000,000 dry dock;
2 — Commonwealth dock development, with Pier 5
and the great fish pier ; 3 — Recently purchased
Commonwealth property in East Boston ; 4 — The
B. & A. Terminal (Grand Junction), the best
equipped ocean-railway terminal in the world ; 5 —
Hoosac Terminal of the Boston & Maine R. R. ; 6 —

19



THE PORT BOOK



Mystic Terminal of the Boston & Maine R. R. ; 7 —
New Haven Terminal.

It should be noted that freight transfers from ship to
car or car to ship are accomplished without lighterage.




Bug Light



Reference to these charts and to the bird's-eye view
on inside front cover will assist readers to a clear
appreciation of the facts set forth in this book. The
solid black shows the Commonwealth's property.

20



1



OF BOSTON



II



The Commercial Water-front



Boston with

Fifteen Million Net Tons (thirty billion pounds)
of shipping annually is the second commercial port of
the western hemisphere, and the sixth in the world.

There are 141 Miles of available water-front in
Boston Harbor, of which 41 miles are represented by
the lineal measurements of the docking space in the
upper harbor. There are 6 miles of docking space
with 30 feet of water or more at mean low tide, and
40 feet at high tide. Docking accommodations are
available for ships of the deepest draft.

The Principal Boston Docks are not only steam-
ship piers, but fully equipped railway terminals, with
many miles of trackage alongside the berths of
the ships. This means the entire elimination of
lighterage and a minimum of demand for car floats.

21



THE PORT BOOK



IP






|"f Vjy-iJS^^ <Jf|R:'CT



Head House, Commonwealth Pier 5




The Boston & Maine Railroad maintains two
terminals, with grain elevators of J, 500,000 bushels
capacity ; the Boston & Albany Terminal elevator
is of 1,000,000 bushels capacity. A ship may load
with gfrain at the rate of 10,000 bushels an hour. The
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad has
extensive terminal facilities on the south side of the
harbor.

Boston is therefore a favorable inlet and outlet for
foreign trade for the entire country.

Included in the volume of freight handled at the
port of Boston annually are : 125,000,000 lbs. of
foreign wool, besides 15,000,000 bushels of grain,
and 7,000,000 tons of coal. The value of foreign
trade at the port for the year 1912 was $216,330,169 ;
the imports being $150,637,523 and the exports
$65,692,646. In the last ten years the value of the
foreign trade at Boston has increased 31 per
cent.

22



OF BOSTON






.,,... f j „;.


r-.f









Commonweaitn Pier 5 under Construction
Arrival of the Hamburg-American Steamship Cincinnati



Boston is Nearer Europe by 24 hours than New
York.

On June 7 last the sister ships C/cve/a?id and 0?ia'n-
nodhoi the Hambu rg - American line, sailed from
Bosfon - and Ngw YrvrTr jrespectiveh', at 12 o'clock,



noon, for Hamburg. Both are 17,000-ton boats, of
similar design and like speed. The 0';/r/« ;/«-// reached
Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe River, below
Hamburg, 24 hours ahead of the Cleveland.

Six million dollars are being spent for dock im-
provements in London to save 3 hours in docking.
Query : How much is Boston's 24 hours' advantage
over New York worth, at $2,000,000 per hour ?

The Port of Expedition. So^ne Amazing Figures.

Boston is 194 miles nearer Liverpool than New
York ; 858 miles nearer the Panama Canal than Los
Angeles, and 1,225 miles nearer than San Francisco,
30 miles nearer Rio de Janeiro than New York, 80
miles nearer than Philadelphia, 480 miles nearer than
New Orleans, and 596 miles nearer than Galveston.

23



THE PORT BOOK




Hoosac Terminal, Boston & Maine R. R.

The Port of Good and Improving Service. In

the year 1912 there were 105 sailings to Liverpool.
(Over two a week — a better Liverpool service than
that of New York- )

In the same year there were 87 to other British
and Scotch ports.

Other Sailings, direct
26 to Antwerp,
26 to Rotterdam,
28 to Hamburg",
22 to Copenhagen,
15 to the Mediterranean,
58 to Central America,
70 to West Indies,
10 to Havana.

Also (indirect)

South America 32,
Calcutta, China, and Japan 80,
and many domestic and Canadian coastwise sailing's.
The number of sailing-s is increasing annually, and

24



OF BOSTON




Grand Junction Terminal, Boston & Albany R. R.

the service improvingf in reg-ularity, number of ports,
character of ships, and docking: facilities.

For European Passenger Service Boston offers
not only the advantag'e of 24 hours g^ained en voyage,
but

Quick Docking. Boston Lig-ht is only 1 hour from
the piers. .

Fine Ships of the leading transatlantic lines.

Expeditious Transfer and the Best Train Service in
every direction.

Boston is the doorway to America's Greatest Play-
ground and Vacation Territory. Boston, itself a
magnificent city, with scores of historic, artistic, and
literary shrines, the largest park area in the world,
ample hotel accommodations, and its ready access to
the lovely old New England country of which it is
the metropolis, is well worth a visit ; and to tourists
en route it holds out a delightful hospitality. Boston
is a city of peculiar individual charm, which, when
once felt, prompts a real fondness for it on the part
of visitors as well as residents.



25



THE PORT BOOK




" Old Ironsides," Boston Navy Yard



** Sail from Boston," therefore, is a slogan of real
practical significance to travelers.

The Development of the Port. With a great
natural basin protected from the force of ocean dis-
turbances, wide and safe anchorages for deep craft
and many estuaries and navigable feeders which
render a large number of towns directly accessible
by water, Boston Harbor is capable of vast develop-
ment.

Impressed with the enormous economic importance
of methodical development and determined, efficient
exploitation, far-sighted citizens, with the best inter-
ests of commercial New England and Boston at heart,
have worked for years toward the desired end. The
Boston Chamber of Commerce, which is the largest
civic organization of its kind in America, has ren-
dered valuable service to the community in the shape

26



OF BOSTON



of serious, carefully considered work with adequate
harbor development in view. In this work it has
been upheld by the newspapers and business inter-
ests of the city. Mayor John F. Fitzgerald has been
a persistent and consistent advocate. The following:
statistics emphasize the importance of civic effort.

The population of Boston, compared with that of
other American centers :



New York, inside 50-mile radius
Boston ,, ,, ,,

Philadelphia ,, ,, ,,

Chicago
St. Louis



7,321,485
3,470,587

2,943,848
2,843,057
1,228,184

Persons not familiar with Boston, or appreciative
of her real place among world cities, judge her only
by the census figures of the so-called ' ' municipal
city," which credit her with 686,092 inhabitants.
Municipal Boston has a restricted area, and to omit
the suburban communities adjacent to Boston, analo-
gous to those included in the municipal areas of other
American cities, gives an inadequate idea of the real
Boston.



Boston Light, on Little Brewster




27



THE PORT BOOK




Spectacle Island

Including- these suburban communities, within
the metropolitan park, water-supply and sewerage
districts — called, collectively, Metropolitan Boston —
the population figures are 1,423,429.

Metropolitan Boston Stands First among
American cities in the following particulars :

Acreage of parks.

Number of high schools.

Value of boot and shoe products.

Value of rubber products.

Value of textile products.

Value of wool imports.

Value of fresh fish products .

Per capita assessed valuation.

High school attendance, proportion to population.

Number of post-office stations.

Per capita wealth.

Miles of boulevard.

Miles of railroad trackage (within 50-mile radius).

Neiv England consumes annually one and a half
billion dollars' worth of raw materials, turning the
same into two and one half billion dollars' worth of
manufactured goods.

Boston turns three hundred million of raw mate-
rials into half a billion of manufactured goods. ,

28



OF BOSTON



Figures like these almost lose graphic force because
of their very immensity .

Custoins Collections for the Port of Boston turned
into the Federal Treasury amount to about $25,000,000
annually.

Port Development is receiving- the close atten-
tion and scientific study which it deserves.

The Directors of the Port constitute a commission
establislied by legislative enactment in 1911, and
consisting of five members, all appointed by the
Governor of the Commonwealth.

The Port Directors are required to prepare all
necessary plans for the comprehensive development
of the harbor, to administer all terminal facilities
which are under their control, and to keep them-
selves informed as to the present and future require-
ments of steamships and shipping, and as to the best
means which can be provided at the port of Boston
for the accommodation of steamships, railroads,
warehouse and industrial establishments. To carry

The Graves




THE PORT BOOK




Range Lights, Lo veil's Island

on their work, an initial appropriation of $9,000,000
was placed at their disposal, to be expended in their
discretion.

Commonwealth Pier 5, the Largest Pier in the

world, is being- built by the Directors of the Port at
a cost of $3,000,000. It is

1,200 feet long
400 , , wide
It has 50 , , of water at hig-h tide
40 ,, ,, ,, ,, low

Could dock the Imperator with 300 feet to spare.

Has three 2-story sheds of steel and concrete, 20
acres of floor space ; six railroad tracks, with space for
150 freight cars : is as large as the four famous Chel-
sea piers at New York, which cost $23,000,000.

The head house (see page 22) at the shoreward
end will be connected with Summer Street by an
immense viaduct for foot, carriagfe and motor traffic
spanning the railroad and trucking approaches.

The Port Directors, with these superior accommo-
dations, have been able to reach an agrreement with
the Hamburg- American line, and a regular service
of magnificent express steamers has been established

30



OF BOSTON



Minot's



between Boston and Hamburg. The Cincinnati and
Clei'eland zxQ. now maintaining: two sailings a month.
With the addition of other boats, the service is to be
increased in 1914 to three sailings monthly and in
1915 to four.

The Nexv Fish Pier. Also on Commonwealth prop-
erty, down stream from Pier 5, and under charge of
the Por^ Directors, is arising the new Commonwealth
Pier 6, the second largest fish pier in the world. This
will cost the wState $1,000,000, and a private corpora-
tion will spend another million
for buildings. It will relieve
the congestion of fishing vessels
at T Wharf and free that dock
for other uses.

The Largest Dry Dock on this
side of the Atlantic is being-
built by the Port Directors at
a cost of $3,000,000. At pres-
ent there is no dry dock on an
Atlantic seaboard big enough
for the largest ships. The Com-
monwealth dry dock will accom-
modate two 500-foot ships with
200 feet to spare, or a craft like
the Imperator and still have 300
feet leeway. Hitherto, all the
big liners have had to dry-dock
on the European side. The
allied lines are to pay the State
$50,000 a year towards the cost
of maintenance.



31



THE PORT BOOK



A lYc'ii' $1,000,000 Pier is planned for the location
adjoining' the Boston & Albany Terminal docks at
East Boston, shown on the map on page 18 in black,



This dock will have spe-
grain from the Boston &



with the index number 3.
cial facilities for loading
Albany elevator.

Reclaiming the Shallo^vs. Another work of the Port
Directors now in view is the reclamation of the
State flats. One hundred and seventy acres of these,
just below the Boston & Albany Terminal, as shown
on page 18, will be made available by using the
dredgings from the new ship channel. This will pro-
vide deep water alongside and filled land in one opera-
tion. This reclamation will add two miles to the
available wharf space of the port, with deep water for
ships of heavy draft.

Other reclamation work will accompany the build-
ing of the new dry dock. A ciuay wall aroimd the

"On Moonlight Bay "




OF BOSTON



site of the dry dock will be built, with a deep channel,
thus adding another two miles of wharf space.

The Channels. The main ship channel is now
1,200 feet wide and 35 feet deep at mean low water.