The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-03-01
HERALp1NG SHIPS.
How the Maritime News Is Collected and
Distributed Daily.

How the Maritime News Is Collected and !
Distributed Daily.
All the news lovers of this great
city. says the New York Graphic, do |
not read the two or three columns
that make up the marine intelligence
in most of the great dailies. The
coming and going of ships over the
great seas have not much of special
interest for the ordinary citizen, and
yet there are thousands who watch
that corner of the paper with an at
tention that they pay to no other por-
tion of the news.
It is easy enough to ascertain the
time of the arrivals and departures OF
vessels from their docks along the
piers, but how is the history OF the IN
coming ships voyage spread out be-
fore the people in the journals long be-
fore the vessel has anchored safely
i'll the bay?
Overhanging the water down in Bat
terry park, just away from the surge
aud hustle around Castle garden, Is
little square e-built. brown-stone build
fng with big sign on the entrance
tlat tells the passer-by that there Is
the ship news office.
Brown-faced men with shnburned
| noses, " eather-beaten faces, and
general air of looseness and hltchlng
! lbout their attire. lounge in and out
occasionally. and the stairs amt rooms
| of the little place have a salty, ship
ike look about them. There are two or
| three reporters and superlntenoent'
who look u good deal like amateur sea-
/ i 81, q a
| eral sprinkling of tobacco Juice and
emphatic expletives in tine air that
| gives one some idea of ships fore
castle.
The happenings of the seas is
gathered together, told in columns or
condensed into paragraph in this
waterside building. Tnis is how it is
done,
Down at Sandy Hook. on the best
ipoint of observation along that part of
1.-The coast, tuere is Watch-toWtF tnaI
lis never left untenanted.
Day- and night a lone sentinel turns
his ewes toward the blue waters and
Inotes the coming and the going OF
ss,jps. The daintiest little pleasure
yacht catches his eye and so also does
the great transatlantic steamer. and
|
lwings of lightning the news of the in
coming craft to the ship news office
long before the vessels spars have
shadowed the hook,
As the ship passes up toward Quar-
lantine the Associated Press tug swings
out to meet her, and from the deck of
the boat the captain of the craft is
hailed and questioned. Where does
hot hna q
boardp To whom consigned? Has he
any promiuspt people on board, and
what kind of weather did he have?
Did he meet any other vessels, and
what did they tell him2 These and
a dozen more questions are thrown
upon the deck OF tie vsssel and nj its
master IN voice in WHICH only ting
ship reporter can shrek them forth.
And they are answered promptly,
cheerfully. .and gladly, for every mas
: ter of vessel knows the owners, con-
: signees, and his own friends are
watching the column Of ship news
carefully to note his safe arrival and
to learn the story of his voyage,
Sometimes, especially from the great
{ ocean steamers, a package is hove tc
{ the news boat and no questions arc
necessary, A passenger list, copy
t of the ships log, memoranda OF every
: thing remarkable or of u ReWsy nature
| on the voyage, letters to editors from
a passengers who want some especial
+ notoriety, and whose friends have no
: sailed down with tug and n brass
II band to meet them. everything wortt
, telling to the public is one way OF
t another gathered up by that little
boat dancing along the ehoppy aQC
often stormy waters in daylight ol
darkness by the side of the hone-com
ing ship.
The news once gathered, the pres
: boat swings away to the Staten islapt
shore. and if time is pressing the whol'
. budget sings over the wires to the lit
I tie brown house in Battery park
where it is edited, ,manifolded, and laiC
upon editorial desks in the newspa
} per offices, put into type, and printed
for millions of readers before the shiI
comes within sight of the big city.
1t is cheerless life tor the boy:
in the tall observatory on the coast q
J Sandy Hook for there is no more des
olate outlook on the Atlantic ceas
than that same spot. Yet the corps o
, newsgathers there and st Quarantin,
I which is an almost equally cherries
, spot, seldom changes.
Nest of them are men in middl,
age, without families, and have grow
to like the rough, careless. and seados
life they live on the coast or in the cabin
of their little tug, or lounging on TIL
seashore watching the far-way horizon
and its vision of coming ships.
|