The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-11-26
THE. INTERNATIONAL MARINE CON-
FERENCE.

a new era in ocean navigation be
| gins with the assembling last week
| at Washington of official representa-
tives of all maritime nations. The
Herald was the first to urge the
United States government to take
the initiative in the movement which
has brought about this international
conclave of nautical experts, scien'
fists and seamen, and it is with much
pride and pleasure we hail the final
realization of the scheme. Never, al
least since the renowned Brussels
Conference of 1853, which Maury
well said presented the sublime
spectacle of all nations agreeing to
unite and cooperate in carrying out
one system of philosophical research
with regard to the sea-" and which
covered itself with glory and the
world with the benefits of its wise
counsels, has any scientific congress
had more magnificent opportunities
for world wide usefulness than that
now assembled at the capital.
The first great advance of modern
times in navigation and the conquest
of the sea was due to the sagacity
and genius of a somewhat similar
gathering of scientists and practical
seamen. Prince Henry of Portugal,
in the fifteenth century, collected
around him at Sagres, near Cape st.
Vincent, the most skillful naviga-
tors of the age, forming, so to speak,
a school for mariners. Out of it
came such illustrious pupils as
Cabral, the discoverer of the Azores;
Diego Cam, who first penetrated the
mouth of the broad River Congo,
and, later, Bartholomew Diaz, the
first European to round the "Cape of
Storms" on the southernmost pro-
montory of Africa.
If no other object is to be gained
by the present Maritime Congress
than to amass and sift the nautical
learning of every nation and to dis
seminate the precious lore among
all seamen the worlds gain would be
incalculable. No knowledge, per-
haps, is more scattered and more in
accessible to those whom it most
concerns than that derived from ex-
perimental acquaintance with the
sea and scientific study of the ex-
act conditions of its safe navigation.
Such knowledge may be treasured
up in the nautical records of differ
ent nations. But the average sea-
man has no access to these. The
Washington Conference has, there
fore, a work of vast utility and bene-
ficence in bringing, as it were, into
focus scattered rays of light from
hundreds of sources which diffused
would be of little use to mariners.
But there are other and more in
vitlng vistas of usefulness which
will open before the Conference.
While its decisions will not have the
force of international law, its judi
cious recommendations will COM
mand the respect not only of all the
governments represented in its de-
alterations, but Of all intelligent navi-
gators. It is therefore in the best
position to prescribe improved regu-
lations for preventing disasters at
sea, to secure the adoption of "steam
lanes" by which disabled vessels
far from land may be quickly sue
cored, to facilitate navigation by
better modes of signalling both by
night and by day, to clear the ocean
of formidable derelicts, and to bring
about reforms which will divest the |
deep of many of its terrors to com
MERGE, so as to make true the happy
conception, never yet realized.
The seas but join the nations they divide. |
If even a moiety of the good the |
Conference may do is accomplished |
by its labors, the risks and costs of |
navigation will be immensely les
sened. The profits of ocean COM
merce will be proportionately in
creased, and the resulting inter
change of production in every part
of the globe will be more rapid and
lucrative than ever before.
The work before the Conference
calls for the most patient and pains
taking research and careful sitting.
A year would not be too long for its
deliberations, considering the many
difficult questions on which it has to
pass its opinion. But if it is not
by lobbyists and fanciful
theorists it may in short time, and
with fair degree of unanimity,
reach final and wise conclusions
upon the momentous matters sub |
nitted to its arbitration. Let it
emulate the great Brussels Confer
snce in the spirit of its inquiries and
decisions, and it cannot fail to be
|