Sankt Thomas havn i det 19 - Handels- og Søfartsmuseet

Management of the Port of St. Thomas during the 19th and
Early 20th Century
Summary
In the 2000 edition of the yearbook of the Danish
Maritime Museum the author wrote an article
about navigation to the Port of St. Thomas
between 1816 and 1917. In this year's edition the
harbour itself is described, with its people and
facilities in the form of vessels, lighthouses, buoys,
pilots, dredging activities, slipway, floating dock,
coal-filling facilities, wharf installations etc.
through the 19th and early 20th century.
The descriptions are primarily based on unpublished
source material in the Danish National
Archives.
The harbour master was responsible for everybody
and everything in the harbour. He was often
an experienced naval officer, and the income he
received from his position was quite considerable.
He had a number of people to assist him, amongst
others a second-in-command assistant harbour
master, pilots, boat rowers and dockers, and from
1907 also a harbour engineer.
The harbour in St. Thomas had a number of
vessels at its disposal, such as pilot boats, gigs and
from 1864 a steam tug. Furthermore the harbour
master kept a careful eye on bumboats and ferry
boats, which all had to have his official authorisation.
The harbour's first lighthouse was built at the
seaward approach in 1814. It was renovated in
1872 and again in 1912. In 1916 a powerful
approach light was established on Buck Island
south of St. Thomas. Among the other navigational
aids were a number of buoys and beacons at
dangerous cliffs and shallow water. In the harbour
basin itself a number of warping buoys and mooring
buoys were laid out.
It was up to the ship's masters whether or not
they used the pilot service. About one- third of all
the ships calling at the port took a pilot on board,
the rest saved the cost of a pilot and kept the
responsibility themselves.
Apart from a few reefs which were relatively easy
to remove by explosion the depth of the sea
approach was 28 feet, and in the harbour basin
itself up to 36 feet. However, the continually
increasing draught of the ships made it necessary
in the 1860's to commence work on deepening
the harbour. A powerful steam-driven mud
machine with three barges was built in Copenhagen
and sent to St. Thomas in 1864, and the following
year the harbour received a diving bell.
Between 1864 and 1873 the whole harbour was
dredged to a depth of between 24 and 30 feet, and
at the same time a passage was dug through the
tongue of land at Hassel Island to improve the
water circulation in the harbour and thus also the
health conditions. From 1910 to 1912 the harbour
was deepened even more, thus ensuring a
depth of 30 feet along the most important quays.
In 1843 a modern marine repairing slip had
been opened, which was capable of taking even
the largest Royal Mail steamers ashore. No other
harbours in the West Indies could compete with
St. Thomas in this respect.
Soon, however, larger and more efficient repair
facilities were needed, so in 1875 a 250-foot floating
dock was inaugurated. The closest competitor
to this was situated far away, on Bermuda. The
dock company in St. Thomas also had large quays
with well-equipped engineering shops and coalyards.
From the 1840's on coal became an important
product in St. Thomas, which served as a coal-filling
station for many transatlantic liners and
steamers in regional traffic. The coalyards in the
Danish harbour were the largest in the West
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