Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-06-10
OIL UPON THE WAVES.
DR.. Franklin a Pioneer in Greasing
Troubled Waters.

Two ships in one gale of wind were
saved from wreck in February last by
little oil poured upon the tumultuous
waters. The first case reported was
that OF the British steamer Acton,
bound from Baltimore to Liverpool.
An enormous wave, at ten O'Clock in
the evening, broke upon the vessels
deck, sweeping into the sea two of the
crew, carrying away the wheel-house,
and destroying the steering apparatus.
During many of the hours of the night
the steamer was a helpless mass at the
mercy of the waves, since the violence
of the storm frustrated all attempts to
get tiller inserted in the rudder, and
came near killing the captain and mate.
When things were at their worst the
captain resorted to the expedient of
pouring oil upon the waters, which
produced an Immediate and astonish-
ing effect in quoting them, and the
crew were soon enabled to get control
of the rudder and steer the vessel out
of the vortex of the storm. The other
instance was nearer home. A bark,
bound from Brazil to New York, was
overtaken by the same gale OFF Cape
Hatteras, and for many hours had to
drive before the wind with her deck
under water. A sea broke over her
and rushed into the cabins. Her cap
tain, who had heard of the efficiency
of oil in smoothing a rough sea. though
he had never tried the experiment..
now resortcd to it as last hope. He
had one barrel of linseed oil on board,
and this he caused to drop
slowly into the sea by means of large
pieces of Oakum saturated with the oil.
Small as the quantity was the captain
described the effect as perfectly marvel
Gus. The waves were so far quoted
that the crew were enabled to clear the
ship of the water and put her upon her
course. The captain attributes the
preservation of the vessel chiefly to the
effect of the oil When his barrel of
oil was exhausted he tried varnish, but
this did not answer the purpose.
The true wonder is, not that these
two vessels should have been saved by
the use of oil, but that the simple eXpe-
dent has not saved from wreck thou
sands of other vessels that now lie at
the bottom of the ocean. A hundred
and twenty-five years have passed since
Benjamin Franklin discovered and
explained the process. He explained
it with such clearness and supported it
by such facts and experiments as ought
to have been convincing to all who had
business on the sea. In 1857 Dr. Frank
lin sailed for Europe from the port of
New York, in company with the great
fleet of ninety-siX vessels bound against
Louisburg, in Cape Breton. One day
he noticed that the wakes of two of the
ships were remarkably smooth. while
all the others were ruffled by the fresh
breeze that was blowing. He pointed
this out to the captain, and asked him
why it was. That officer replied, with
an air of contempt for the ignorance of
q landlubber:
1.-The cooks have, suppose. been just emp.
pers. which has creased the sides of those
ships little"
This solution seemed to the land
lubber insufficient, but he could not, at
the moment, think of better eN-
PLANTATION. Upon further reflection he
recalled to mind a remark of the elder
Pliny, that every thing is soothed by
OIL and that this is the reason why
divers send out small quantities of il
from their mouths, because it smoOths
any part which is rough. and trans
mits the light to them" This passage
inclined him to think it possible that
the cooks grease may have had some
thing to do with smoothing the wakes
of the two ships. The subject passed
from his mind, however, until 1862.
when, being again at sea, he observed
the remarkable quietneSS of oil on
surface of agitated water in the swing
ing glass lamp of the ships cabin. He
was continually looking at this smooth
surface of oil. and was again unable TO
think of an explanation that satisfied
his mind. He mentioned the difficulty
20 yan old sea captain, a fellow-pas-
senger, who saw nothing mysterious in
it. He said that it was an effect Of
the same kind as that which the fisher
men of Bermuda produce when they
are about to strike fish with spear,
and pour little oil upon the waves to
smooth them and enable them TO see
the fish. The same captain told him
that the Portuguese fishermen some
times emptied a bottle or two of oil
upon the sea at the mouth of river to
smooth the breakers upon the bar.