The record-union., 1896-05-03
A SHIPS LIGHTS.
How They Appear TO Sailors as They
Pass.
The Bell-Buoy Sometimes Rings a
Kneu as Well as a
Warning.

Most landsmen know something about
the lights a ship carries at night, ;. if
only to have an indistinct IDEA, per-
haps, that there is a red and green one,
and that, of course sailing vessels nave
big headlight situated somewhere UP
top. Well, they haven't.
The system of lights now adopted by
all maritime nations has been in use
comparatively few years, but it is so
perfected that by them on the darkest
nights one ship can tell exactly the
course and character of another. A
sailing vessel carries but two, red
one below on the port side and green
upon the starboard. A steamer carries
three, the red and green, beside large
white masthead light; and when she
ks towing other vessels two white lights,
one above the other on the foremast,
showing that it is dangerous to cut too
close across her stern. Each barge or
craft being towed shows on her mast
round white light, if 1 remember cor
rectly.
1 used to get confused as to which
were the sides for the red and green,
and once spoke of 1t to an old fisherman.
why, SIR" he said, "the port light
Is red-the color of wine.'
I lived for quite a time among the
fishermen on the west coast of England
and spent many day and night with
them at sea. Sometimes when we would
be lying-to in st. Georges Channel, or
riding to our travis in a fishing lug
ger, big lantern at our side, and moth
ing doing, there was a very subtle
charm in the lights of ship or steamer
as she came into view. crept up, and
swept grandly past insignificant and
fishy u.s.
Way down in the south ard would ap-
pear little red or green dot, showing
and losing itself in the heavy ocean
swells, until it grew more steady as it
neared us. Sometimes two lights would
appear at first, and make one feel ner-
vous, for you knew your boat to be
directly in the path of an approaching
ship You would glance at your own
riding light and sometimes, though not
often, fire a flare, made of rags and
oakum wrapped around a stick and
soaked in oil. But soon one or the other
of the dangerous two lights would be
lost; she is avoiding you, and you could
enjoy the charm 1 mentioned. When
both lights show dead ahead even an
old fishermanw will be anxious. Fast ocean
steamers as we'll as heavily freighted
"tramps," hard of steering and as hard
where conscience pricks, make light ac-
count of small craft; to say that they
are sometimes careless puts a kind in
depreciation on their actions
The lights grow larger, more steady,
and higher in the air, you hear the
rushing of great body dividing the
water, and the dark sides of a mighty
ship show, now bearing down upon you,
rising like a castle, to pass within
dangerously short distance. Ghost
like sails tower above, losing them
selves in the dark vault heavenward,
the water bursts from her bows on
either side in spray, your lantern throws
a CLEAN of light along her side-she is
painted greenland she has passed and
is gone Or passenger steamer will
come laundering on, throbbing, churn-
ing, and all that kind of thing of which
Clark Russell writes, her bright mast
head light shining clear like star. AS
she passes, showing a long line of brill
liant portfolios, you catch sight of a
fat, white-capped cook preparing sup
pers for the smoking-room- Strains of
music may come over the water and a
few dark figures, some in couples, peer
down at you over the rail, lit up for a
second by the dull light of your lantern
As she too disappears into the night
you have a feeling as though a planet
full of life had crossed the path of a lit
tie satellite in space, she seemed so
complete a world in herself You also
feel very lonely then.
When the silent sailing vessel swept
so majestically by, showing no signs of
life, she seemed the spirit of loneliness
itself. Soon you would be safe on land
again, with people all round you, snooz-
ing comfortably in a big steady four
poster. But the white-capped cook
of the steamer suggests a civilized ap-
petite for a rarebit, or anchovy toast
with bottle of Bass before turning in.
Fishermen are splendid fellows and ex-
celent companions. but you are sure
You would find a transatlantic friend
or more on board and you really long
for the welcome words they'd give you.
You have not seen a saucy tourists
hat with a demure pair of eyes beneath
1t, and all fastened to a trim American
figure of the gentler kind, for a long
time You imagine that half of one of
those couples must have been a very
beautiful girl, and think you could en-
joy fiirtation-or, better, talk to a
sweet wife, quite as well as the other
fellow beside her there.
You fall to, haul on the travis with
q vengeance, and "confounding it all
any way" 1t never seemed at such
times that these same lights could tell
the story of disaster in darkest night,
and that one could read their meaning
as clearly as the operator at Penberth
cable station could read the flashes of
his mirror. I so read them one night;
after them was left nothing but the
night, and / knew-well-
had come a from hard days tramp
along the coastwith Captain Jack keep
ing sharp lookout for any vessel in
distress or valuable wreckage that
might have been driven ashore A great
gale was blowing and we could count
only five rollers between the Runnel
Stone and the cliffs. Every few minutes
came burst of hale and sleet, as in a
cloud, which again passed away, leav-
ing the atmosphere clear. Having hung
up my oil clothes and eaten my supper.
I was in slippers and easy chair before
the fire. prepared for comfort and an old
volume of "Fraser's Magazine" My
window just back and to one side of me
looked out over the Cove: the curtain
was raised and nothing appeared to
soften the depth of blackness. except
every now and then when the hail would
beat against 1t or a few raindrops
wear out their short lives in reaching
the bottom of the pane. The wind