Evening Star Newspaper, August 17, 1930, Page 79

- Potomac /s This Sumher, the Busiest in the River’s History, a Speed Law Has Been Passed and Now, 1n Addition to Their Other Douties, the Harbor Police Have Become Speed-Cops of the Potomac. of her, selected her machinery and supervised her construction in Baltimore. And she is a ship of- which any fieet may well be proud. Powered with a 100-horsepower direct re- versible Diesel of the latest type, slie is strong enough to tow anything on.the river and sea- worthy enough for coast duty. She's built to break ice and can clear a channgl through the heaviest floes. She's hot-water heated through- out and electrically lighted, mounting a pow- erful searchlight on her pilot house. And as an idea of his own, Humphries hooked up a ment the Evans throws 750 galions of water at 120 pounds pressure per minute, and forms a- powerful auxiliary to the harbor firefighting force. Humphries also designed the Sullivan, built speed and stanchness into her every line and chose her engine. That is why Humphries knows these boats so well and knows what they can do. 3 It is doubtful if there is a faster boat than the Sullivan or a more skillful pilot than Po- liceman Humphries on the Potomac. Under his handling the craft is as fleet and fiexible as a motor cycle, although she’ll hold 10 men with eaSe. It's amazing to see the way he maneuvers her. Your reporter took a ride with him and learned a few things about a speed- boat, . At 45 miles an hour Humphries “turned her on a dime,” reversed his course in the time it takes to tell about it. At full speed he dodged objects on the water by inches. He skipped over the river so fast that it seemed the boat must take wings and rise into the air. Then he made a landing beside a wharf by heading into it under full power, throwing the engine into reverse at the right moment and drawing alongside as easily as you'd pull up to the curb in an automobiie, These are not fancy tricks, please understand, for it is never known when & quick maneuver stands between life and death. And pity the lawbreaker who'd try to get away from Humphries in anything but a seaplane. HEN an emergency cali comes in Hum- phries answers. He may be in his shop at the time, bending over a moior, working at the lathe, attending his files where he ‘keeps a full indexed record of every piece of machinery used by the harbor force, but wherever he is you will see him making a dash for the Sulli- van in short order. One or two officers on de- tail throw off the lines and jump in beside him. His foot touches the starter, instantly the mo- tor responds, the siren wails, the boat almost leaps out into the stream. ‘The system works like a fire engine getting out oi its station in respomse to an alarm. But there is even greater need of speed on the wa- ter. Drownings are quick. Minutes must be cut to seconds, § The alertness of the harbor police has saved many lives. And many who may not have been saved if help had not reached them quick- ly owe their lvies to Pvt. Humphries. Here’s an instance of the speed with which he works: At the President’s Cup races on the river last year a speed craft in the “151” class capsized while making a fast turn. Humphries was pa- trolling the course ir the Sullivan. Some dis- -tance away he saw the accident and in a flash had swung his boat into the course and sped alongside of the overturned craft. Before the racing hull had time- to settle itself upside down in the water he had caught the pilot by the collar and hauled him to safety. His rec- ord is filled with countless other instances of fast work and good judgment. Airplanes have crashed in the Potomac and the harbor police have rescued pilots and pas- sengers. On one occasion a plane went down into the water with seven persons aboard. Humphries got the flash. Because he reached the scene quickly he managed to bring all seven ashore safely. [TPon.the bulletin board at the harbor pre- “ ecinet, where the orders are posted, you will find the name of Pvt, C, M. Birkight, always assigned to the “upper river.” For nearly 40 years that has been his beat. Oldest member THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, AUGUST 17, '1930. 7 ask of Vigilant Harbor Police In Summer the harbor police must keep watch over the hundreds of pleasiire craft on the Potomac, ranging from capsizable canoes and diminutive “outboards” to yachts gnd excurion steamers. of service on September 1. E Through Birkightd remarkable record runs the thread of virtually the whole story of the harbor police, for he joined the force just three years after the service was created. Born on the river front near the foot of the Key Bridge at almost the exact spot where he now.makes his headquarters in a weather- beaten little house on the water's edge, the Po- tomac and its banks were his playground. He has known every foot of the region he now pa- trols since his boyhoed. « Analostan was his “Treasure Island” when as a youngster he and his barefoot gang went to dig for pirate gold. To the shady banks of the placid river he hied when playing hookey in the fshing season and he knew every good swimming hole from Key Bridge up ‘to the Lit- tle Falis. Will Reynolds was his chum in those days, and today Reynolds, who owns a boat house at the foot of the bridge, is still his pal. Through all these years the two men have been-inseparable. Reynolds is often in the boat with him when he patrols his beat, and when- ever he gets a call the veteran riverman ac- companies him. They are familiar figures on the river. Together they have saved scores of persons from drowning and have recovered hun- dreds of bodies from the depths of the stream. Birkight has always loved the water. When hardly more than a boy he joined the Navy and sailed over three-quarters of the globe in full-rigged ships. He tells of bucking storms aboard the “Monangahely” off Cape Horn and in the South Pacific and of being shipwrecked in 1899 on the Trenton in a hurricane off the © Samoan Islands. With the relish of an old sait he spins yarns of cruising off the coast of Africa and along Peruvian shores and tells of “putting in” at Valparaiso, Rio, Panama and other ports of call. But hé remained true to his first love, the river, and after his years at sea returned to settle down along its banks. When Pvt. Birkight signed up with the har- bor police in September, 1890, his commander was “Commodore” Robert Sutton, at that time a civilian. It was not until 1905 that Sutton was appointed fieutenant and made the first of- ficial harbor master by act of Congress.. The police fleet in those early days consisted of a few rowboats and the headquarters was a smallt dilapidated shack. Few pleasure craft were on . the river, and those few were sailing sloops. The day of the motor boat had not yet dawned. At the wharves were moored fishing craft, and cargo boats whose masts and riggings rose like naked trees against the sky. Freight and prod- uce were easy prey for water front thieves, who were plentiful and whose trail Birkight was set to follow as one of his first duties. Hl has seen service undér fiveé harbor masters. Lieut. Russel Dean in 1909, after Sutton; then Harry Lohman, William Hesse and Lieut. Harney. He has seen the force grow from & handful of men to the®present com- mand of 21. He has seen the precinct ex- pand into new and larger quarters, and has watched the fleet grow to its present pro- portions. Well he remembers when the harbor police got its first steam tug, the old Joe Blackburne, Headquarters of the harbor police on the river front near the foot of Seventh street, and later the Vigilant. He recalls the first motor boats of the harbor patrol and recalls how they were always hard to start and some- times hard to keep going. “There was always plenty -warning when the harbor police was - coming,” he says. “These boats made so much noise you could hear them a mile away and river thieves knew when to shove off and get going.” - . Birkight has-witnessed the gradual evolution of pleasure boating on the Potomac for more than a half century. Before his eyes has passed a changing panorama of river life. “Never have there been so many craft on the river as at the present time,” he says, “and it keeps the force busy just to keep a check on them. Pleasure boating became a popular Summer pastime before the automobile came into faney, then it died down for a few years and then gradually picked up again, the num- ber of craft increasing each year, until now it seems that everybody in town who can afford to own a boat is buying one. Last year was & big year on the river, but this Summer has been the biggest of all. If it keeps up, the harbor police is going to need a bigger force before long.” - ‘The outboard motor fad has added a lot of work te Birkight’s duties. “Some of these fellows are too reckless,” he says, “and if you don’t keep watching them all the time they make it tough on the canoeists. I hope be- fore long to see their course limited to Key Bridge, leaving the upper river to the canoes. There’s room enough down below for the speed- boats, and that’s where they belong.” Birkight's watch is from 11 o'clock in the morning until 7 at night, but he’s actually on call 24 hours a day. Frequently he's called out of bed late at night to recover the body of some person who has drowned. This is a difficult job in the upper river, he will tell you. The bottom there is rocky, filled with crevices and caves and in some places there are hollows 80 feet deep. When a body sinks down under rock ledges it is sometimes almost impossible to recover it. Dragging is " slow in this part of the river, for the grappling hooks or “brails” get caught time and again on the rocks. During the construction of the new Key Bridge and the dismantling of the oid iron structure, much material fell and was thrown into the river and when dragging this section the lines frequently get hung up. Boat house keepers try to be carefu! not to rent canoe$ to inexperienced persons. But often parties who think they can handie the craft are surprised to find out how easily they can turn over, says Pvt. Birkight. “If they keep their heads when. this happens, it's all right. - All they have to do is to hold on to the overturned boat until help comes. But theyl try to. swim with their clothes on and that's how 50 many of them go under.” Boys in swimming are another source of worry to Birkight. “I'm always on the look- out when I see a bunch of kids in sw mming,” he says. “If the crowd is too big t* s often bound to be trouble. This is espec: irue on the canal, they seem to think the) safe in there. I warn them, but sometimes that's not enough.” BIRKIGH’I‘ has interesting views on prohi- bition. “Things are a lot easier now,” he says. “Even the lone fisherman with his jug was a problem in the old days. He'd take a swig, and then. in a little while another, and another until he'd forget all about fishing, and before you knew it he’'d be overboard. I've seem Continued on Nineteenth Page