The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1867-05-09
TIE OCEAN MILESTONES.
A Few Geographical Facts not GEN.
Gr2llY EnnXl.

[Townsends Letter to the Cincinnati Gazette.]
Now the great mystery Of the sea is
beheld IN our vast lgnorances OF it
| Boundless as the vastness of its waters,
and as day succeeds day, ushered in by
no sail, crossed by none, and none appear
ing at night to recall its white hand above
the horizon, we feel the mysterious pow
er of our compass, ih whose veering
| pulse we trust, and the uses of the stars
and sun that steady our quadrant, and
stoop down to lead US. But Of the ocean S
boundaries, and islets, and shadows, we
do not know till we see the captain
chart, of which there is no copy in our
school atlas. Hereon are places denoted
| of which we never knew. Solitary rocks
struck once by a lone vessel, and their
! longltude and latitude carefully marked,
yet in the great void of waters swallowed
mp again. So that with much cruising
our imperfect calculations never find
them. The names Of the Flemish Cap,
OF Whales Hole, of Beuf Bank, of
Bazarie thy's Rock, of Woodalls S Rock,
of Virgin Rocks we do not hear, yet in
the North Atlantic they have their places
well attested but captains have sailed
this ocean whore th-y lie hundred voy-
ages and never proved them real So
| broad and trackless IS the deep. that two
steamers, quitting New York together,
sailing the same course and at the same
rate of speed, rarely see each other after
fer hairs point, and they float hun
marked ''Perseus Shoal (Breakers,)
signifying that in mid-Atlantic there is
spot so shallow that the surf breaks upon
! ,N.I-. = II l.
! Men are gray with sailing on the ronte of
es nor saw them flash lost in the great
of sail to those who drift, is like finding
lock With its billion changes. With all
the >ssels Of steam or sail that ply be-
tween America and England, it is rare to
| posIte coasts while you are crossing the
sea. Some vaguely understood matters
of the earth rotundity, not news save
to our landsmen's ignorance, become
palpable when we see upon the chart the
ocean skeleton, waters and meridians
only, like an empty hoop-skirt. For ex
ample: we see that the Straits of Glib
raltar, instead of facing Cuba due west
ward, are nearly upon the latitude of
Cincinnati that London does not He.op
poslte New York, but opposite Labrador;
i that when one is nearly half way to Eu-
rope he is due south of Greenland, and
still west OF the mouths Of the Amazon
that, If you are ship-wrecked in mid-sea,
your nearest land will be the Azore
Islands, from which, indeed, you are but
800 miles on the route between New
ork and Southampton. The route that
carries you to England quickest is not
straight line upon the map, but curved
one. You sail on the ''arc of great
circle, and SO reduce your voyage from
1000 miles to 5000. This is the simple
proposition in, navigation, that crooked
line between two points is shorter than
straight one To avoid icebergs, which
drift to as low latitude as Nantucket,
you sometimes bear due eastward, or
even south-eastward, and then bend acute
| ly north by east The Gulf Stream, the
Banks, and the Roaring Forties are the
great belts that you must cross; the one
| is the zodiac of the ocean, spangled with
wrecks, seaweed, and. icebergs the Sec
ond is the broad geysers of the Atlantic,
smoking eternally-the veil between the
! New World and the Old-Nature' S last
intimidation to the sailor seeking the
| Western Hemisphere in the Roaring
| Forties you sail where all the winds do
blow, sheltered by no coasts, subject to
the fierce and mutable humors of the
great waters and their skies. In every
long swell that swims toward you there
are thousand tons of brine. In every
| gull that flashes like a pearl in your wake
comes an admonition Of loneliness Night
descends with no friendly sail in its en-
brace. The gales cap every wave with
| white foam, till the sea to the horiz On
looks like a shoal of sharks with quiver-
ing fins. Morning arises upon the anne
dreary waste, save that the clouds are
stronger and more imperious no bright
tints in them, as at home, but gray and
scudding, like the complexion of the
ocean, and, filed with its restless spirit