Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-19
THE OCEAN HIGHWAY.
Pathways Over the Sea and the Regulations
Conserving Theua

| = .sA - ONcF tns ceh bnu tne REGULATORS
Coacerning TheuA
LIEUT.. HArDEN's REMARKS on STEAM LASrs
ACROSS THE AfLASTic-LIrUr MAunr's PLAN
AND How IT HAS BEEN MopIF1rp-rHR ROUTES
ADOPTED SINCE TEE MARINE coxrrnxScr WAS
uELD.
A STATED IN THE STAR, LIEUT.. EVER
EFT Hayden read a paper before the CO.
iumbian Engineering Society Tuesday night on
steam Lanes Across the Atlantic"
ihe paper was devoted to a consideration Of
| the routes followed by trbnsatlantio steam
ships, ana it was illustrated by three large
caarts showing the original lines recommended
oy Lieut. Maury in 1855, those recommended
oy the pilot chart Of the north Atlantic ocean
IN 1887, and, finally. those recently adopted by
Tue principal steamship companies and now
actually In force The importance of this plan,
rs regards avoidance Of collisions and the
saie's OF navigation generally. especially in
crossing the Grand Banks, wher. fishing yes-
| sen are at anchor, wa. referred to, and il wss
stated that probably no recent action has done
90 hiucn 10 Increase the safety Of ma ytgatiou rs
| tne adoption of these routes
| great deal is said about the lane routes
;e.o,nmended by Lieut. Maury, and yet there
|
~no are not especially interested in the sub.
Ject as to what his plan actually was. nis
| soheunes assumed that the plan now sdopted
y essen tiaiiy that Of Maury. but nothing could
o 90 ,ar.her from The truth To give simple
anu practical explanation Of the difference the
Ease may be comp Jared TO that Of railway travel
between New York and San Francisco.
THE MAURY PLAN
rough idea of the plan recommended by
oi"ury can be obtained by imagining all west
pound trains to go via the Central Pacific rail-
road and all east-bound trains via the South.
ern racine: The plan now adopted on the
contrary, following the same comparison. would
De Tor all west-bound trains to 90 ON the north
ern track OF the Central Pacific and all east
uouna .rains to go on the southern track with
this additional condition, viz that drring The
winter season the entire traffic would be
shlfted at certain definite date to the
southern X altc tracks The fundamental
uInerence OF these two plans is thus clearly
apparent Maury's system, moreover. WAS
adopted after the early days of steam nayiya-
uon, when the prevailing ocean currents and
winds were Of vastly more importance as fac
tors than they are at present His east-bound
route was far to the south the object being To
take advantage of the favorable easterly chr
rent, although at the expense Of q considerably
greater distance-the shortest possible
distance being tie line close to Cape
,.ace; the southernmost point of
ELECTROMAGNETIC. NOWdlays, however. the IN
creased distance along the southern route very
much more than does away with the advantage
OF the favorable current. This Is shown, also
by the fact that in the early DAYS the prevailing
westerly winds were of SO much influence az a
factor in this question that the fastest records
were always made by east-bound vessels, but
az present. and probably for all future time
the fastest records are those of west bound
steamships. Nowadays head wind, il it be
not too strong, ia regarded rather as an ad-
vantage than a disadvantage, as it gives a bet
Ter draft for the furnaces
AVOIDING THE IcEBERaa
The object Of shifting the RATS to the sou.h.
ware during the winter, or, more strictly
speaking. from the middle Of January to the
MIDDLE OF July, is to avoid the icebergs and
neid Ice that make navigation dangerous of
the coast OF Newfoundland and over the Grand
BANKS during these months. Maury's mistake
III We may SO call it, was in fixing the north.
ernmost (west bound) route so far to the north
Tor the entire year, but his argument was that
the TACT that it was blocked By ice during .
Poruon Oh tne year was no more argument
against Its advantages than is the fact that the
Erie canal in New York is blocked by ice dur
ing the winter any strong argument against
its usefulness
The plan now in force is the legitimate and
immediate result of the plan devised for and
recommended on the pilot chart in 1887 and il
may be said to have been adopted largely as .
result OF the discussion of this impor taut sub
lect before the recent marine conference at
Washington. The drst step was taken by lines
running to Queenstown. and they laid down
certain definite routes between Sandy Hook
and the Fastnet lat the extreme south of Ire.
iand), which their vessels were to follow as
closely as possible.
THE NEUTRAL ZONE.
One important feature of the plan may be
referred to here, and this is one of the great
differences between the present scheme and
that of Maury: The two lines that are laid down
on the chart (the northernmost for west-bound
and the southernmost for east-bound vessels)
serve as the southern and northern limits, re-
spectively, for west bound and east-bound YES
sells, SO that there r belt of neutral zone be-
tween the two within which no steamship shall
go, although they may deviate slightly from
these lines on the side opposite to this neutral
zone. The belt between the two lines is ouly
about fifty or sixty miles broad at its broadcast
point and at each end its breadth diminishes to
Zero In winter, or rather during the ice sea-
son, both routes, and, of course, the belt in
Guided between them, are moved far to the
southern in the region of the Grand Banks the
terminl, OF course, remaining the same as be-
fore.
DEFINITE ROUTES ADOPTED.
In view OF the fact that certain definite
routes have been adopted, the pilot chart has
itself, OF course, adopted the new plan, which,
as described above, does not differ materially
from the one that it has recommended for
several years The present plan may. in fact,
be SAID to be considerably more rigid in its re-
quirements than that recommended by the
pilot chart, inasmuch as the present plan allows
no deviation from certain definite lines over
the western half of each track whereas the
pilot chart plan allows q west-bound vessel to
go anywhere to the north Of the northern line
and an east-bound vessel to 60 anywhere to the
south of the southern line. Again the pilot
chart routes were not shifted far to the south
ward at a certain arbitrary date (January Isl
without regard to the severity of the ice sea-
banks was laid down each month, according to
the amount OF ice reported during the previous
month. In some ways this has an advantage
over tho present plan. During the present
season, for instance, there has been very little
ice, and the northern routes might have been
followed up to the present time. thereby re-
sulting in a very great saving Of coal through
the saving of distance travelled, not to speak Of
the saving in time, which is, in many ways VI
great importance.
The Importance of the traffic along this great
highway OF commerce may be realized by the
calculations made by Mr.. Hayden a few years
ago. which shows that in round numbers il rep
resents a yearly aggregate of !. GOO, 900 passen-
gers and 81, 600, 000, 900. All signs point to Q
very great increase in the immediate future,
| and already it is reported that new steamships,
in comparison with which even the City Of
n l.