The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-09-27
THR pANGRRs on THE pEEp.

THE DANGERS OF THE DEEP.
Ever since men began to go to sea,
lights have been placed on shore to guide
them to a landing place; but in early
times these were nothing more than
fires on headlands. Three hundred years
before Christ, however, there was built.
on an island ut Alexandria, pyramid
over four hundred feet in height, ON top
of which a great fire was kept burning,
which, we are told, was visible to the
corn-ships going to Egypt when forty
one miles away in the Mediterranean.
This pyramid was called the Pharos, and
to-day the French name for lighthouse
Is Dhdrs, and the Spanish faro. The
rocky coasts on both sides of the British
Channel centuries ago showed beacon
fires on very dark nights. These were
generally tar-barrels, which would burn
brightly in 8 high wind when q fire
of sticks would be blown away. And
they were generally lighted for the ben
eft of the fishermen, by their wives, with
out any authority from the Government.
It was an easy matter to initiate such
beacons, and bad men would often erect
false lights, steering by which q ship
would come crashing to sure destruction
at the foot of the orags which thrust their
cruel edges through the surf. When the
ship went to pieces, her goods coming
ashore would be seized and sold by the
wreckers, as these wicked people were
called. Many fearful tradition has
come down of the doings of wreckers,
not only in England and Spain, but in
America and in the East. One of the
tricks of the West Indian pirates, when
they saw ship approaching their island
in the evening, was to hang lantern
upon q horses neck, and let him Craze,
we'll hobbled. along the beach, This
would appear like the rocking of a
lantern on . vessel at rest, and,
deceived by the hope of safe an
chorage, the stranger would only
discover how be had been cheated when
rates had begun their villainous attack.
Though scafioldings and towers of
wood, iron and stone were built here
by governments long before the begin
ming of the last century, they were
lighted by fires of wood or coal up to
l76o, when Smeaton introduced wax
candles at Eddystone. The Eddystone
shoals were group of reefs exceedingly
dangerous, because they were almost
invisible, and lay precisely in the track
of ships bound up or down the English
Channel. Two hundred years ago a
lighthouse of wood and iron trestle- work
was built there by Sir Hcury Winstanley
and stood so we'll that he boasted, like
King Canute, that the sea had not
strength enough to throw it down. Soon
after, he went out with company of
men-to make repairs, when one of the
worst gales in history arose, and the
morning afterward not trace of the
structure remained. Another wooden
frame took its place for several years,
but was burned. Then the engineer
Smeaton proposed to build a tower OF
stone, which should take the shape of a
massive tree-trunk, with swelling base,
like roots, founded upon level floor
cut in the rock of the reef. This stands
to-day, rivaling its magnificent neighbor
on the Biscay shore opposite, the light
house of Carduan, which was built to
support bonfire of oak, but has re-
mained to be lighted successively by oil
lamps, by gas-burners and finally by elec-
tricity. Thus, everywhere, and in all lati-
tudes the beacons and wooden towers and
huge pyramids of long ago have given
| place to slender spires of solid masonry,
holding powerful signals, perhaps hun
dreds of feet above the waves, and visi-
| BILE as far as the curve of the earth's sur
face will permit. Yet in place of the
sturdy bonfire of oak, or the huge iron
cage full of Goals, there is only single
lamp, whose rays are gathered by deep
refiectors into compact bundle of un
wasted rays, and doubled and redoubled
by rows Of magnifying lenses until they
can dart to the furthest horizon in {
strong beam of steady light.
The United States eNpends g, 900, ,00(
annually in looking after her lighthouses
lightships and buoys. Indeed, thest
beacons are so thickly planted that it ha'
been found necessary to distinguish be
tween them in order to avoid mistakins
one for another. Thus some of them arr
simply fixed white lights; some are white
and revolve-the whole lantern on the
summit of the tower being turned OF
wheels by machinery, and the flame dis
appears for a longer or shorter time
while others are white ''hash" lights
glancing only for an instant, and ther
lost for few seconds, or giving lon.
wink and then a short one with a spac'
of darkness between. Some lighthouse
show steady red light, others alternat,
red and white. By these colors and vary
ing periods of appearance and disappear
ance published by the Government in
book called the "Coast Pilot'O naviga
tors know which light they are looking
at when several are in sight, as is oftel
the case.
On some especially dangerous-be
cause hidden-reefs or bars, like tn
shoals off Nantucket, or the extrom
point of Sandy Hook, it is out of tn
question or bad policy to erect light
house. Here its place is taken b
anchoring stout vessel, built to with
stand the roughest weather, and al
ranged to carry one or two very larg
lanterns at its mast-heads. These ar
called "lightships," and they ar
manned by large crew of keepers VIII
have very monotonous time of it, con
fined in their rolling and pitching hom
with almost nothing to do.
Even the electric beam from first
class lantern fails to penetrate a fog {
any great distance; yet when the Goa;
is shrouded in thick mist is the mo;
dangerous of all times to an approachin
ship. The only way, in such an emel
gency, in which a warning can be giver
Is by sound. In many places bells Al
rung; but often the point to be avoide
|, is so placed that the roar of the SUI
would drown bell note. and then fos
horns are blown. These fog-horns al
, of a size so immense, and voices so steI
Al