Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-05-23
WITH THE PILOTS.
Outward Bound in the Direction o
Incoming vessels.
ssy, C.'s" LETTER.

Outward Bound in the Direction of
Incoming Vessels.
s.v. C.'s' LETTER.
Hearing the remark frequently made
bv western people, 81 would K to
see the ocean, it occurs to me that a
sketch of a voyage out OF New York
with the Sandy Hook pilots might not
be uninteresting. This is an old as
ISOLATION OF pilots governed by laws
and charter, owning in co-partnershlp
a large number of schooner-bullt poats.
They sail east and south i'll the direc-
ton of incoming vessels, in active COM
potion with each other, under a gener-
al law that every vessel must take the
first pilot who boards her. The con-
test for vessels, due to active competl-
tiop. leads them out 800 and 0 miles
from part. 1 have gone with them on
VOYAGES of a week and more. On one
of these we went aboard where the
boat Law al anchor in the upper bay
four pilots, a crew of six, and myself.
The pilots were arrayed in the latest
stvle from hat to shoes. But when the
order was given to make sail these
handles went below, r~eappearing short
" after in the toughest clothes, OF
heavy, coarse goods, and a perfect
mus.eum of hats. After l had made a
like change of apparel, we all sat on
deck smoking and chatting as we sailed
past the forts al the Narrows and down
the lower bav, over the bar and past
Sandy Hook and the highlands OF
reversing, until dusk closed down over
the sea.
The next morning we turn out at
dawn, and while decks are being sWaDD-
ed, dress and shave. Shaving yourself,
with the boat going up and down hill,
and with an occasional three quarters
lurch is ticklish business, as you may
imagine. The schooner is built after a
model peculiar to its kind, 1t is very
strong and compact, though with good
lines for sailing quality, low at the
waste, with deck free as possible from
obstructions-so that the sea can make
a clean sweep and do little damage
heavy spars and canvas, and a very
deep keel. When reefed down, the
boats will endure a storm which would
cripple the best of ships. There is no
capsize or sink to them. The danger
to pilots is collision, and in going
aboard of vessels in bad weather.
When a vessel signals for a pilot by
setting her flag in the main shrouds,
the one whose turn it is goes below,
and appears on deck again dressed in
good clothes and with his grip in his
hand. The yawl, which has been lash
ed Oh deck, bottom up, is balanced at
the middle of her keel on the rail, and
then, with a vigorous shove, is sent
overheard. Both, crew and pilot
tumble in, a feat requiring skill II
steadiness when the sea is running
high, and start for the vessel, when the
next difficulty arises-tO get the pilot
aboard without being capsized or stove
alongside. When Once on deck he is
in absolute command.
Signaling, or, as they say, "signaiiz-
ing" at night is a striking spectacle.
Directly in the darkness two white
lights are see, one above the other. A
pot of naphtha, with a lid through
which u a stick, the Immersed emo
wrapped with wooden cloths, is brought
on deck. Taking the stick in hand it
lifts off the lid, and the naphtha end is
lighted, making a flaming torch. This
is swung in large circles, three times,
Illuminating the vessel from stem to
stern and from the surrounding waves
to the masthead. 1t is then plunged
into the pot, eXtinguishing the flame
and leaving all around in impenetrable
darkness. This is twice repeated, and,
as the torch flares around, sails, cord
age, men, and broken wave are illum-
mated with a sickly glare. We near
the signal lights cautiously and put the
pilot aboard. And SO we sailed on
eastwardly until we put our last pilot
on board the City of Chester, when
from the bridge he signaled me to go
below and indulge in wine, cigars and
sleep, and take my ease back to port.
We have been out of sight of land
now five days since we lett Sandy
Hook. We are some 600 miles east,
o far from the banks, and in the
region of cold fogs. This life is at best
none too comfortable, and in winter is
exceedingly wearing and dangerous.
The exposure tells upon the pilots, and
as a rule they break down earlier in
life than landsmen. Their faculties re-
main wonderfully acute while in health.
What to us would be the merest film
on the horizon they see clearly as a
vessel, discerning her rig, size and ma
tionality. Their knowledge Of the
cruising-ground from New York to
Newfoundland is very complete. Aside
from the use of ~reckonings, they know
from soundings, and the character of
the sea bottom, which they sample by
e of a piece of wax on the lead,
about where they are. Most of us are
familiar with the purpose of compass,
quadrant, chronometer and charts, but
this use of soundings and other signs
is worthy of further mention.
The bottom of the Atlantic, in this
region, has been carefully sounded and
mapped, and its varying characteristics
found to be so distinctly marked that a
locality can be determined very much
as it is on terra firma.. People are not
apt to think of land as in any way as
ISOLATED with the ocean. But the land
beneath its depths is almost as varied
in contour and p%eculiarities as that
adapted to the habitation of man. 1t
has its climates, its vegetable growths
peculiar to them, its mountains, valleys,
plains, table, lands, deserts; its very
tracts of ooze, sand, gravel and scoria
due to various causes, current and
temperatures.
The rivers emptying into New York
bay carry down vast quantities of sedI-
ment, much of which is deposited at its
entrance, forming bars and shoals,
leaving channels of deeper water be-
tween. Through here, in toggy wealth
49,, H. 1 FL. - -
the lead, relying on the topography of
the bottom, as one would find his way
in a city by streets and crossings.
WOODEN RUSSIA.
From the Baltimore American
In the central agricultural districts of
Russia, the whole number of inhabited