The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-03-22
How to Bun a Boat in a Fog.

0Q0 OF q large anu luky uldCk ClEaT. LIZ
was studying the redhot Goals and
musing.
ITS dod rated nuisance, those ships
out there in the stream" he exclaimed,
and jerked his cigar in the direction OF
the river. This thought gave him food
for silent meditation, so he lit his cigar
and glared into the CRATE.
"Why SOP" asked the reporter, VIII o
was down there waiting for the Gardiner
to come in.
"Well, you look and see for yourself.
Don't they lie right there in the path Of
the steamboats,, and don't they lie
east, west. north and south, with booms
and yards a-sticking out into the air and
threatening the river craft with destruc-
ton? Why, I tell you if boat comes
afoul of one of those high pointing bow
SPIRITS she'll have her whole cabin scraped
right off into the river"
There was another pause, and then the
pilot wound himself up by giving seven
vigorous puffs Mt his cigar, and resumed:
"You see, if the ships would anchor fore
md aft, or anchor somewhere else than
just there where we have to come across,
between the ways and the st. Louis
street wharf, it would be all right; but
they lie swinging at one anchor, and If
there is little current or the current is
turned backward by wind and tide, they
take up the whole channel, some lying
north and south, and some east and
west, and some any way your can think
of.
"And when you come down you have
to thread your way in and out like did
the other night, and it's big risk, l as
sure you. But it is specially risky when
there is fog or in q very dark night.
At such time you can't tell how a ship
lies, for she carries but one light, and
there are no indications to be learned
from it. You cannot tell where the ship
is, and you are just as likely to run into
her as miss her.
sit is difficult enough plotting river
steamer, any way, without having arti-
fetal distractions put in the way. can
tell you, sir, it's pretty dark on dark
night on the river. Sometimes, it gets
so dark you cannot see the jack-staff. p"
"What do you dor"
"Well, we keep our eyes open. We
have all the lights put out on board and
the furnace fires shaded. There is not o
spark of light then to be seen about the
boat to cast a reflection on the waters or
anywhere. 1t helps the pilot amazingly,
You see it takes mighty little to give o
trained river pilot his bearings, and he
reads the trees on shore as plainly as
you could read book"
"But fog catches you sometimes,
and what then?"
"Then we go by guess-plain guess.
We move slow and have one hand on
the engineers bell all the time. We
nose up into the bushes once in q while,
and back out and turn around. Oh, it's
amusing what capers boat will cut in q
fog. Why, / recall once, was on the
Alice Vivian going up at the foot of the
island. when the fog came on so dense
YOU had to brush it aside to see your
hand. We chasseyed around there for a
long time, now into this bank, now into
that. and having $50 worth of the dern
dest fun you ever saw, when all at once
found we were in pocket with bank
on both sides of us, and a bank little
way ahead. Yes, sir, we were 200 yards
up in Three mile creek, having come
down the river to accomplish this feat.
about two years ago l was following
Captain Peoples, OF the Johnson, in q
fog, listening to her escape pipes and
steering well lHto tue poiut. tuouShe
everything was going all right, when the
johnson came steaming back and l
learned that Captain Peoples had been
ND the Tensas river and was going right
through to the Atlantic Ocean, where he
heard dog bark. Knowing there was
no dog put down on his chart he turned
back and came down where l was.
"Well. we run by dog barking, by
rooster growing, by pig squeals. These
are reliable signs to run by. Sometimes
we run by the stopping bell, and then
by the rudder. You see, we ring the
hell and accordingly as it sounds with
faint or quick echo, we Judge how far
We are from the shore. We sometimes
stop the boat ever so often just to hear
the bell echo, and then it is almost the
same thing with the whistle and with the
wheel When the wheel is grinding
away close in shore she makes an awful
roar, but when we are we'll out in the
middle of the stream you can scarcely
hear it. The other way Of Judging the
run of the boat and her direction is by
the feel of her rudder. When the pilots
wheel turns hard we know which way
she is heading, even when we cannot see
the jackstaff. OF course it is science
to some degree. but for the most part
plotting in fog is pure guesswork. -
TNohila RaUistar