The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-06-29
Tewnson's Letter to the Cincinnati Gazette.
A few biographical Facts not Gen.
E.H orally Known.

Now the great mystery of the sea is beheld in
our Vast ignorance of it. Boundless as the vast
ness of its waters, and as day succeeds day, ush-
cred in by no sail, crossed by none, and nome APP
pearing at night to reach its white hand above
the horizon, we fell the mysterious power of our
compass, in whose yeering pulse we trust, and
the nse OF the stars and sun that study our quad
rant, and stoop down to lead us. But of the
oceans boundaries, and islets, and shadows, we
do not know till we see the captains chart of
which there is no copy in our school atlas. Here.
on are places denoted of which we never knew.
Solitary rocks struck once by a lone vessel and
their longitude and latitude carefully marked,
yet in the great void 81 waters swallowed up
again So with much cruising our imperfect
calculations never find them The names of the
Flemish Cap, of Whales Hole, of Beufs Bank,
of Bazariethy's Rock, of Woodalls Rock, of Vir-
gin Rock we do not hear, yet in the North At
lantic they have their places we'll attested; but
captains have sailed this ocean where they lie
hundred voyages and never prove them real So
broad and trackless is the deep, that two steam
ers quitting New York together, sailing the same
course and at the same rate of speed, rarely see
each other after the first night out Their COM
passes differ a hairs point, and they float hun
dred miles apart. Here on the chart is marked
"Perseus Shoal Breakers signifying that in
Mid-Atlantic there is a spot so shallow that the
surf breaks up on it as upon Rockaway bar or
Sandy Hook. Men are gray with sailing on the
Perseus ShoaL who never heard the surges nor
saw them fash lost in the great deep is an awful
sentence The coming of q sail to those who
drift, is like finding the true catch to Dodd's
combination lock, with its billion changes. With
all the vessels of steam or sail that ply between
America and England, it is rare to espy more
than three between the opposite coasts while you
are crossing the sea. Some vaguely understood
matters OF the earth's rotundity, not news save
to our landsmens ignorance, become palpable
when we see upon the chart the oceans skeleton
water and meridians only, like an empty hoop
skirt For example: we see that the straits Of
Gibralter, instead of facing Cuba due westward,
are nearly upon the latitude of Cincinnati that
London does not lie opposite New York but OPP
posite Labrador; that when one is nearly half
way to Europe he il due south of Greenland,
and still west Of the mouths of the Amazon !;
that ii you are shipwrecked in mid-sea, your
nearest land will be the Azore Islands, from
which, indeed you are but 500 miles Oh the route
between New York and Southampton. The route
that carries you to England quickest is not
straight line upon the map, but curved one.
You will sail on the "arch of great circle" and
60 reduce your voyage from 1000 miles to
5000. This is the simple proposition in naviga-
| ton, that Il crooked line between two points is
shorter than straight one. To avoid icebergs,
which drift to as low a latitude as Nantucket,
you sometimes bear due eastward, or even south
eastward, and then bend acutely 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 ocean, spanged with wrecks,
seawead, and icebergs; the second is the broad
geysers of the Atlantic, smoking eternaly-the
veil between the New World and the Old-Na-
lures last intimidation to the sailor seeking the
Western Hemisphere; in tho 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 pearl in your wake comes an ad-
mention OF loneliness Night descends with no
friendly sail in its embrace. The gales cap every
wave with white foam, till the sea to the horizon
looks like shoal of sharks with quivering fins
Morning arises upon the same drcary waste, save
that the clouds are stronger and more imperious;
no bright tints in them us athome but gray and
scudding, like the complexion of the ocean, and
filed with its restless spirit