Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-24
TERRORS OF THE Sea.
CYCL0NIC, VOLCANIC AND OTHER
TYPES OF WAVES.
Colossal BiIiows Which Run Mount.
ain High-Whirlwind at Sea
Effects OF the Volcanic Wave.

A wave is a thing of beauty, but it is
only JOY to those who watch it marching
in splendor and foam from some safe refuge
on the shore. 1t is very nauseating con-
dition of voyaging. 1t makes the bones Of
ships creak as if they were full of rheu-
matism. 1t fills the brain with a sense OF
chaos, and one moment swings the moan
ing traveller to the stars and the next
plunges him into an abyss hideous with
gloom and the Kissing as of millions OF
snakes. To measure waves in a severe
tempest is even more difficult than to mark
effects. When the weather rises to such
fury as makes the seas colossal enough to
render the determination of their hight
exceedingly important, there is usually too
much anxiety, and even distraction, for
observation. The weight of the wind is so
violent that it is almost impossible to show
ones face to it. The ship, whether sail
ing vessel or a steamer hove TO, plunges so
abominably that mans main concern is
to hold on and save himself from being
downed should one of the frothing mount
aims tumble on board. There may be
other reasons why the officers of the mer-
camille marine have not very zealously de-
voted their leisure moments to measuring
the hight of waves. But more information
than may be already found collected is
badly wanted, and, unquestionably, cap
tains and mates would be doing substantial
service by neglecting no opportunity to
ascertain, by the best means in their power,
the true altitude of ocean seas.
DOWN BY CAPE HORN.
For the true Andean sea one must GO
down to Cape Horn, perhaps to as far as
90 degrees south. There are sailors who,
standing at the wheel of a ship running
before these seas, will never willingly look
behind them, lest the sight of the oncom-
ing rampant of green water, arching to-
ward the taffrail, should unnerve them
Standing on deck twenty feet above the
water line you yet look up at the crest Of
these seas as at the top of a mountain
The gigantic grace, the huge majesty Of
these liquid Titans cannot be described
1t Is necessary to be hove to to appreciate
their hight, volume and power; to watch
from the low broadside the swelling ap.
proach of the mighty mass, with its
treckled front and foamless head Pickering
IN bottle green to the dull light of the
gray sky; to feel the sweep of the ship ~
the enormous activity, and then while
Tor the space OF breath only, she hangs
poised with upright masts and shrieking
rigging on the headlong brow, to look
down and behold the valley beneath, into
which the vessel an instant after slides
like comet.
1t is difficult to write of the seas which
run in heavy weather off the southern.
| most point of South America without
risk of being charged with exaggeration
| they must be seen, and little spell Of
custom will render admiration easy. 1t i.
impossible to be tossed by them in such
vessels as now make the passage of the
Horn, without wondering by what miracle
of luck or phenomenal merit of seaman
| ship the old navigators were enabled tc
| beat against them in their small half
decked boats, some no bigger than a Dea
lugger, without touch of the weatherly
| qualities of such craft.
| CYCLoNIC AGITATION.
But let it not be supposed that the higl
wave is the dangerous one The regula
running surges may all be as tall as tn,
biggest hotel in London, with a nintl
fellow among them as high as the monu
ment, and yet none prove nearly so dan
gerous as the pyramidal seas of the CIV
clone. OF all forms of vexed water tn
cyclonic agitation is the worst. Here is
whlrlwind of astonishing fury so man,
miles in diameter. For a little while i
runs steady sea, but presently its gyra
| lions brings up surge from another quar-
ter; then comes the lull, followed bv
trlghttul outt1y of storm from direction
opposite to THE point from which tn
wind last blew. The seas, coming int,
collision, fight like wolves. They snal
and howl, leaping high in conifed shape
in the very similitude of sentient passion
The staggering of the ship is Undesirable
There is no rhythmic swing to give her mo
lions something of the vibrations of tn,
pendulum. Her decks are filled Will
water, while her bows dive into chasn
that has opened under her forefoot, val
ley yawns under her stern and hill O
water flashes up on either side 1t ha
not been suggested that the altitude of thu
cyclonic wave should be determined
Probably there is no eye afoat equal t,
such an undertaking.
Another very uncomfortable sea is tn,
volcanic wave. 1t is not very long ag,
that a vessel, steaming through quie
waters on a dark night, was suddenl,
hurled up by an invisible billow that wa
reckoned to be between thirty and forty
feet high. Three such waves passed unde
her, the last being the least in volume
and then all was dead fatness of oceaI
again. The stoutest heart might wei
thump to such an encounter as this
London Telegraph.