The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-05-09

and abundant exercise. Any employment
that Will take the boys into the green fields,
even if it is to throw.a hard ball around for an
afternoon is a blessing in its way which needs
encouragement.
The Ethiopia-Ocean storms and
Steamships.
The missing steamship Ethiopia, it is be-
lieved, is now safe. In latitude So 81,
longitude "a SO, on the Goth of April, she
was met by the Pennsylvania, of the State
line. Her main shaft was broken and she
was proceeding eastward under sail Her
passengers, seventy-eight steerage and twenty
cabin, were transferred to the Pennsylvania.
Yesterday they all arrived safe in this port.
The Ethiopia, it is expected, will reach
Queenstown on Monday or Tuesday. This
failure of the Ethiopia must be regarded as
misfortune to the Anchor line, and indicates
imperfect construction or bad management.
The steamship companies are public servants,
and the public has right to claim faithful
service. Ships must be well built. well man
aged and never overladen. Where human life
is at stake the public cannot be too exacting.
The proposition to establish international
steam lanes, SO long agitated, is one of the
measures for the prevention and mitigation
of ocean disasters which will doubtless be.
come law of the sea. But there is another
expedient of equal or greater efficacy, which
we would suggest and which the sea-goiDg
public, not by legislation, but by the force of
popular opinion, are in position silently to
secure.
1t is well known to every trained seaman
that the terrific gales which cripple and over
whelm the stanckest steamer announce their
approach by the barometric and other instru-
mental oscillations, as well as by the clouds,
which are natural storm signals. The dangers
encountered by vessel in cyclone are
three-the sudden veering of the wind, the
excessive and torsive violence at the centre
and the rapid alienation of squalls and Gains,
as well as the confused, pyramidal sea at or
near the centre, 1t is this cross sea at the
storm centre which generally brings the noblest
ship to grief, and is even more dreaded by
the seaman than the hurricane winds. In the
great Rodriguez hurricane Of April 1843,
numerous accounts agree in stating that near
the centre, ''while one sea was curling over
ships bows another was meeting it from
astern, while third was expanding itself on
the beam" These are just the force conditions
to whelm or break in two any ship, and
especially heightened steamship and we
may safely say that no mechanical fabric of
man can ever be constructed to be entirely
proof against such odds. The only safety,
after all, for the mammoth steamer, is to run
out of or elude these terrific seas, which travel
with the storm vortex across the Atlantic To
do this is always feasible to the commander
who is awake to the monitory changes Of his
glass. and who is sufficiently acquainted with
the meteorology of his route to know whether
he shall take the starboard or port tack when
eluding the vortex. The ignorance Of the law
of storms or negligence to put it in practice
has probably cost navigation as much loss as
all defects in naval architecture or errors
from careless seamanship. 1t may be COM
puted that steamer crossing from New York
to Liverpool will seldom experience more
than one heavy gale in the voyage.
As the Atlantic gales cross its surface
from west to east in the stormiest
seasons, on her return trip she may count on
two gales. But in meeting these, whatever be
the steamers course, she can lose but little
by making q detour to avoid the dangerous
centre of the cyclone. A few hours laying to
or an oblique movement to give the meteor
free passage has saved many ships from in
evitable destruction, and no vessel, however
confident of her ability to outride the worst
seas, ought to risk life on the venture. It may
not be possible to SO legislate as to secure at
tention and enforce obedience to the law of
storms. But the underwriters and travelling
public can do more than legislation by dis
tinguishing in favor of lines which habitually
avoid the severe storms of the equinoctial
months. That such an avoidance is practi-
reputation by denying. 1t is highly ques-
tionable whether the nautical tactics neces-
sary to realize this suggestion would entail
loss of time, for the logs of steamers which
rashly brave the cyclone centres show that,
while in kansitu, their speed will often decline
miles day. A detour of two hundred miles
often puts the vessel on smoother sea, where
her engines give her good Roadway, and the
comfort of the voyage is vastly enhanced
Which of our ocean steamer lines will be
Arst to adopt prudential course of naviga-
ton as well as the safer steam lanes, and thus
commend itself to the confidence and patron
age of the large portion of the sea-going COM
munity2
The Sixth Army Corps.
The Society of the Survivors of the Sixth