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DOCUMENTS & MAPS - 1776
Sir Philade. Oct. 16. 76 I should sooner have acknowledged your Favour of Aug.
16 containing the Drawing of your Chevaux de Frise,(1) but that I have been so
extreamly occupy'd as to be oblig'd to postpone writing to many of my
Correspondents.
Please to accept my Thanks for the Communication of your Contrivance, which I am
persuaded will answer the Purpose where ever the Bottom is so hard as to prevent
the Points being press'd into the Ground by the passing Ship before the
Resistance shall become great enough to force the upper Points thro' her Bottom.
The Ground being soft in our Channel, we were oblig'd to fix our pointed Beams
to a Floor, in the Chevaux we plac'd there during the Summer of the preceding
Year. That Floor gives them so firm a Stand, that all the Vessels which thro'
Inadvertance have run upon them, have had such Breaches made in their Bottoms as
immediately sunk them. One was a large Ship.
I am, Sir, with great Esteem, Your most obedt., humble Servant, B Franklin
RC (PPAmP).
1 Erskine's letter and enclosed drawing, which explained his proposal for
building "Marine Chevaux de Frise" consisting of Beams "12 or 15
inches square" and 32 feet long capable of obstructing navigation in river
channels up to seven fathoms deep, are in the Franklin Papers, PPAmP. Erskine
(1735-80), Scottish geographer, hydraulic engineer, and fellow of the Royal
Society, had emigrated to New Jersey in 1771 to represent investors interested
in developing iron mines in Passaic County. Sympathetic with the American cause,
he became a captain in the Bergen County militia in 1775, and in July 1777 was
appointed "geographer and surveyor of the roads" in the Continental
Army. DAB; and JCC, 8:580.
