User:FloNight/Florida (dredge)

The Florida was a steel hull, stern wheel dredge-snagboat operating on the waterways of Florida in the United States during the early 20th century.

Design and construction
The River & Harbor Act of 1899 appropriated $35,000 in funds to construct a new vessel for "river and harbor improvements on the coast of Florida and the waters tributary thereto". The Florida was designed by General John Warren Sackett of the Florida District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to replace the Suwannee, a scow-modeled stern-wheeler dredge that had been in service since 1888. Sackett utilized some of his own patented designs in the Florida.

The Florida measured 131 feet in length, 28 feet in breadth, and 7 feet of depth, and weighed 175-ton. She had two boilers, ice and electrical plants, a 12-inch centrifugal pump, and four 45-foot tall spuds for anchoring her to the river bottom.

In 1908 she underwent a re-build, and increased to 152 feet in length and 29.9 feet in breadth.

Operation
For thirteen years the Florida maintained channel depths and cleared obstructions on the Oklawaha, St. Johns, and Indian Rivers, on Dunns Creek, Lake Crescent, and numerous inlets in Florida. The vessel's machinery could be adjusted to perform hydraulic dredging, snagging, or clam shell dredging.