The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-12-01
BRIDGING THE OCEAN.
An Americans Novel and Daring Plan
An Ocean Line Of Lighthouses Proposed

An Ocean Line Of Lighthouses Proposed.
Captain John 2. Walker, .. S. A,
(retired), has laid before the interna-
tional marine conference at Washing
ton plan of transoceanic lighthouses
and refuge stations, to which. as u
civil engineer, he has devoted much
study Captain Walker says:
My idea is to secure land on the
south beach of Staten island and start
hotel to be called the Neptune hotel
No. 1; this for base of operations,
and from that point establish line of
deep sea lighthouses and hotels, or
houses Of refuge, across the ocean,
connected by telegraphic cables and
supplied with boats, tugs, launches,
steamers and sailing craft, constitut-
ing, with their crews. q deep sea mes
senger telegraph and life-saving SER
vice, which would constantly patrol
the ocean and afford communication
with all passing vessels and assistance
in case of need; which would pick up
boats from shipwrecked or abandoned
vessels and give all vessels the latest
information, daily or hourly, from sea
and shore, so that the navigator, sailor
and traveller at sea could have his daily
papers. with all their multifarious in
formation and news, almost as per-
feet and complete as if on shore.
The general idea of the stations
was that they would start from
the simple basis of the light bea-
con, or bell Ibuoy, and gradually
pass onward to the ight-ship, the
floating lighthouse, to the grand float
ing ocean hotel, or house of refuge,
and deep sea lighthouse and life-sav-
ing station to the mid or inter-ocean
grand harbor of refuge, with its
wharves, stOrehouses and docks, where
ships, tempest tossed and broken,
could take refuge from the storm and
be repaired and refitted, and where
travellers could stop, if it pleased
them, and take the benefit Of sea air
for any definite period.
OF course in my processes of thought
and research difficulties and obstruc-
tions were discovered. One difficulty
is the cost. There are two ways of
meeting that by the organization
of grand stock company, as / pro-
posed last summer, i'll which all ma
tions might share, and whose basis
would be pecuniary gain. The other
by international legislation and appro-
pr1atIon, for the benefit of humanity
and the general betterment of the
world. The other great factor in the
problem is, of course, the physical or
material difficulties the waves of
ocean, in calm and in storm; the winds
of heaven, which ''blow where they
list" and of floating ice and icebergs,
wrecks, wreckage and derelicts or
abandoned vessels; of collisions in
calm, clear weather or in rain or fog
and in the dark of night or storm.
As to icebergs, the patrol vessels
will look for them and destroy them
by quick acting, destructive agencies
dynamite, powder, etc.-or by tow
ing or pushing them into warm lati-
tudes, where they will melt and dis
appear. The winds and the waves
are TO be met as they are now, by YES
sells strong enough to withstand their
ordinary power.
When a chain of lighthouses shall
be established across the ocean, or in
any direction III which many ships
and vessels sail, ships and vessels 60
ing III opposite directions will keep
on opposite sides of said line or lines,
and thus in a very great measure pre-
vent collisions at sea.
The deep sea lighthouses that will
III, L.
large ships or floating hotels will be
one in which the main body of the
structure will be submerged below
the action of the waves, and only a
comparatively slender shaft with the
lighthouse proper at its summit, out
of reach of the waves) will be exposed
TO their (the waves action, thus Civ
ing greatest stability. The sub
merged section to contain rooms for
living purposes, and to be lighted
probably by electricity, and to be sup
piled with engines for pumps, both air
and water, and to furnish the motive
power for elevators and lifts for boats
and for the fog horn or siren and bells,
etc. OF course the shaft would be
provided with stairway within and
an elevator, perhaps, according to the
size of the house, it being one of the
possibilities of such a system that the
different stations might vary in size
according to location and require
| ments. The superstructure of the
larger ones to be of different size, not
only for lighting purposes and needs,
but for the housing of steam launches
and life boats, fog horns or sirens,
| bells, cannon, rocket towers, etc.
The amchoring of vessels and sta
tions, or houses and hotels, in the
deep sea can, of course, be accom-
pished by the usual methods. The
plans of light vessels, of deep sea
lighthouses and harbors of refuge and
of patrol boats must, of course, be the
field of study, design and experiment
for the skilled navigators and en-
gineers, architects and builders of all
nations of the present and advancing
time
| There is more experience, time, and