Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1882-09-07
THE DANGERs OF THE nEEP.

THE DANGERS OF THE DEEP.
Ever since men began to 60 to sea,
lights have been placed ON shore to guide
them to landing-placei but in early
times these were nothing more than
fires on headlands. Three hundred years
before Christ, however, there was built,
on an island at Alexandria, pyramid
over four hundred feet in height, on top
of which 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 Phare, 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 a high wind when a 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.
1twas an easy matter to initiate such
beacons, and bad men would often erect
false lights, steering by which a ship
would come crashing to sure destruction
at the foot of the crags 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 tho 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 horses neck, and let him craze,
we'll hobbled, along the beach, This
would appear like the rocking of a
lantern on a vessel at rest, and,
deceived by the hope of safe an
chorage, the stranger would only
discover how he had been cheated when
his keel struck the sand-bars and the pi-
rates had begun their villainous attack.
Though scaffoldings and towers of
wood, iron and stone were built here
and there at especially dangerous points
by governments long before the begin
ming of the last century, they were
lighted by fires of wood or coal I'D to
1160, when Smeaton introduced wax
candles at Eddystone. The Eddystone
shoals were group of reefs exceedingly
dangerous, because they We're almost
invisible, and lay precisely in the track
OF shlps bound up or down the English
channel, Two hundred years ago a
lighthouse OF wood and iron trestle-Work
was built there by Sir Henry Winstanley
and stood so well that he boosted, 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 a trace of the
structure remained. Another wooden
frame took its place for several years,
but was burned. Then the engineer
Smeaton proposed to build q 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, rivalng its magnificent neighbor
ON the Biscay shore opposite, the light
house OF Carduan, which was built ia
support bonfire of oak, but has re-
manned to be lighted successfully by oil
lamps, by gas-burners and finally by cleo
trlcity. 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
bic as far as the curve of the earth sur
face will permit. Yet in place of TIT
sturdy bonfire of oak, or the huge iro1
cage full of Goals, there is only single
lamp, whose rays are gathered by deer
retectors into q compact bundle of un
wasted rays, and doubled and redoubleC
by rows of magnifying lenses until thel
can dart to the furthest horizon in
strong beam of steady light
The United States eXpends 81, 900, O0
annually in looking after her lighthouses
Eghtships and buoys. Indeed, thes
beaeons are so thickly planted that itha
been found necessary to distinguish be
tween them in order to avoid mistaken,
one for another. Thus some of them ar
simply fixed white lights; some are whit
and revolve-the whole lantern on tn
summit of the tower being turned O
wheels by machinery, and the flame dis
appears for longer or shorter, time
while others are white ''hash'' lights
CHANGING only Tor an instant, and the
lost for few seconds, or giving a lon
wink and then short one with a spac
OF darkness between. Some lighthouse
show steady red light, others altenat
red and white. By these colors and vary
ing periods of appearance and disappear
ance published by the Government in
book called the q Coast Pilot'') navigt
tors know which light they are lookin
at when several are in sight, as is ofte
the case.
On some especially dangerous-b,
cause hidden-reefs or bars, like til
shoals off Nantucket, or the extrem
point of Sandy Hook, it is out of I'll
question or bad policy to erect a Ugh
house. Here its place is taken b
anchoring stout vessel, built to witt
stand the toughest weather, and q
ranged to carry one or two very lare
lanterns at its mast-heads. These a
called ''lightships,n and they Al
manned by large crew of keepers WI
have very monotonous time of it, col
fined in their rolling and pitching hon
with almost nothing to do.
Even the electric beam from a frs
class lantern fails to penetrate q. fog
any great distance; yet when the Goa
is.shrouded in thick mist IS the. mo
dangerous of all times to an approachiI
ship. The only way, in such an eme
geney, in which warning can be give
IS by. sound. In many places bells a
rung; but often the point TO be aVoid'
is so placed that the roar Of the su