Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Hartley, Charles Augustus
HARTLEY, Sir CHARLES AUGUSTUS (1825–1915), civil engineer, born at Hedworth, Durham, 3 February 1825, was the son of W. A. Hartley, of Darlington, by his wife, Lillias, daughter of Andrew Todd, of Borrowstounness, Linlithgowshire. He acquired his early practical experience in railway and mining work in Scotland and in harbour work at Plymouth. During 1855 and 1856 he served in the Crimean War in the Anglo-Turkish contingent with the rank of captain, and constructed some defence works at Kertch.
Hartley's connexion with the Near East did not terminate with the war. At the conclusion of peace in 1856 the attention of the Powers was turned to the improvement of the navigation of the lower Danube, which was impaired by the enormous quantity of mud and sand encumbering the estuary and deposited along the sea coast. By article xvi of the Treaty of Paris the European Commission of the Danube was established in order ‘to designate and cause to be executed the works necessary’ to clear the mouths of the Danube below Isaktcha. The Commission was empowered by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 to exercise its powers in complete independence of the territorial authorities, and its jurisdiction was extended to Galatz. By the Treaty of London in 1883 its jurisdiction was further extended to Braila. To this commission Hartley was appointed chief engineer in 1856. Some doubt existed at first as to which of the three principal estuaries of the Danube—the Kilia, the Sulina, and the St. George—was best adapted for improvement. After some hesitation Hartley advised that in the first place provisional works should be undertaken to improve the harbour at the Sulina mouth by utilizing the natural scour of the river. These works consisted of two piers forming a seaward prolongation of the fluvial channel. They were begun in April 1858 and completed in July 1861, and were so successful that in 1866 it was determined to replace the provisional piers by permanent solid structures. The task was completed in 1871 and the piers considerably lengthened. When the works were begun the depth of the channel at the bar was only from seven to twelve feet, but by 1861 it had increased to sixteen feet or more, and Sulina, formerly known as ‘the grave of sailors’, had become one of the best harbours on the Black Sea. In 1876 the depth was increased to over twenty feet, and from 1879 to 1893 it remained constant without recourse to dredging. In 1894 and 1895, owing to the increasing size of vessels using the channel, the depth was increased to twenty-four feet.
Equal success was achieved in dealing with the course of the Danube above the Sulina mouth. In 1880 was commenced the construction of a new entrance from the Toulcha channel in accordance with plans designed by Hartley in 1857. This work was completed by 1882, and by 1886 the St. George's branch also was made navigable. In consequence the Danube as far as Braila is now usable by steamers of four thousand tons net register, as compared with vessels of four hundred tons before the improvements were begun.
Hartley was knighted for his services in 1862 on the petition of merchants interested in Danube navigation and of sea-captains frequenting the river. In Roumania he was affectionately styled ‘the father of the Danube’. He continued to reside in that country until 1872, when he was succeeded as resident engineer by Charles Kühl, but he retained his appointment as chief engineer until 1907. To him and to Kühl the development of the navigation of the lower Danube is principally due.
Both before and after 1872 Hartley was engaged in much important work elsewhere, chiefly of an advisory character. He was consulted by the Indian government with regard to the improvement of the river Hugli below Calcutta, and of Madras harbour. He reported for the Foreign Office in 1867 on the navigation of the Scheldt, and in the same year his plans for the improvement of the port of Odessa won a prize offered by the Tsar Alexander II. His advice was also sought by the British and other governments on the improvement of the Don and the Dnieper, on the enlargement of the port of Trieste, and on the harbours of Constanza, Varna, and Burgas on the Black Sea. In 1875 Hartley was a member of the board appointed by the president of the United States to report on the best means of opening to navigation the south pass of the Mississippi. In 1884 he was nominated by the British government a member of the International Technical Commission of the Suez Canal, on which he served for twenty-two years.
Hartley's published works were confined to papers contributed to the Institution of Civil Engineers. Two important papers on his work in the Danube delta appeared in the minutes of Proceedings (xxi, 277–308, 1862; xxxvi, 201–53, 1873). In 1874 he contributed Notes on Public Works in the United States and in Canada (ibid., xl, 163–230) and in 1900 A Short History of the Engineering Works of the Suez Canal (ibid., cxli, 157–212). An exceedingly interesting survey of Inland Navigations in Europe by Hartley was published by the Institution in 1885 in a volume of lectures on The Theory and Practice of Hydro-Mechanics delivered by members of the Institution.
Hartley was created K.C.M.G. in 1884, and he received, among other decorations, the grand cross of the crown of Roumania, the second order of the star of Roumania, and the fourth order of the Medjidie. He became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1856 and a member in 1862. He died, unmarried, in London 20 February 1915, and was buried in Highgate cemetery.
[The Times, 22 February 1915; Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, volumes cited above, and vol. cc (part ii), 1–3, 1914–1915; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, s.v. Danube.]