Going To 50 Feet ??

Greetings From New Orleans ,
Even before I became a New Orelans and Baton Rouge Steamship Pilot and when I was cutting my teeth on the steamboats , the guarenteed deep draft channel between Pilot Town and Baton Rouge was forty ( 40 ) feet . Then a few years ago the powers that be pushed for and received an additional guarenteed deep draft of forty-five feet ( 45 ) between Pilot Town and Baton Rouge . The arguement was that the respective ports on the LMR had to compete with other deep draft Gulf Coast ports such as Houston and Mobile . On the surface this sounded reasonable and shipping companies may either make or loose their profits on time issues and deep draft issues . In fact , I've been told that a ship will be either profitable or not by wheather it can load down futher by mere inches . Now it has come to the attention of the three Louisiana state pilot associations that service the LMR between Pilot Town and Baton Rouge , that there is now a move afoot to have the Army Corps Of Engineers to now guarentee a fifty ( 50 ) foot deep water channel between Pilot Town and Baton Rouge . The only little problem with this is a rather inconvenient issue over safety . Imagine that ?? Futhermore if you think that safety is expensive well try having an accident !! The fact of the matter is that the Army Corps of Engineers for decades has attempted to maintain a forty ( 40 ) and even a forty-five ( 45 ) foot deep water channel and with both private and government dredges and with soft and rock dikes and wing dams success has been limited at best . Without fail every low river season deep draft ships continue to go aground and when they do they not only block the channel but also place other commercial vessels in jeapordy as well . This situation will now only be made worst and I am just amazed that the local marine community has not made an issue of this . I can speak with authority on this matter because I have been there and had to deal with these heavy loaded ships in all river conditions and in all weather conditions . Now what agrivates me is that the so called powers that be never once consulted with the men and women that will be expected to pilot these heavy loaded ships in the narrow and restricted channels of the Lower Mississippi River . So once again the Louisiana state pilots will be expected to service these ships with the same degree of safe and reliable service that we have provided for years but with deeper and heavier ships in these same channels .
Smooth Sailing !
Ted Davisson