WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1849
73
trust may be of use to the Committee of Commerce upon the proposition to place a light Boat off Galveston Bar. The amount of merchandise entering that Port, cannot be less than three millions of dollars annually, and the imports must be even greater, and being of a bulky kind, such as cotton, sugar, etc., require a large number of vessels for transportation. There is one line of packets between that Port and New York of 500 tons burthen, and large steamboats arrive and depart to New Orleans every five days, besides the numerous other vessels indespensable to cafry away the productions of Texas generally. Independent of the commerce of Galveston, all the navigation passing to and from New Orleans to Vera Cruz and intermediate ports would be specially benefitted, by so necessary an im- provement, and one so intimately connected with the safety of navigation. The bar is far from land, and sometimes varies its position after heavy gales. Dangerous shoals lie at some distance west- ward, and this Light boat would be the only one available to navigators generally along the whole coast. No other point is so favorable to ascertain a vessel's exact position. The land is low along the whole coast, and cannot be seen in the day time, and clear weather more than nine or ten miles. With this Light Boat and the Light House to be erected on Bolivar Point, vessels could enter by night in safety. In view of these facts, and the certainty that the commerce of that section will rapidly increase, we respectfully ask the attention of your committee to this subject.
Sam Houston T. J. Rusk T. Pilsbury
1 Democratic Teleg,·apl,, and Regt"ste1· (Houston), February 22, 1849. This letter in the Telegraph was preceded by the following paragraph: "The importance of establishing suitable beacons at the entrance of Galveston harbor, has long been admitted, and our commerce has suffered serious detriment for want of a light boat at that point. We are glad to see by the following article, that our representatives and senators in Congress have called the attention of the Committee of Commerce to this subject."
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