Daily camera., 1898-01-07
RECKLESS NAVIGATION.5 $
Sailors Brave the ,Perils Of Inland
Seas in Rotten Hulks.
Dangers That Await the Crews OF
Lumber and Grain Vessels In
the Heavy Gales on the
Great Lakes.

|
| the reclllessness that characterizes lake
shippers and sailors. and of the risks
they will take to make all that is pos
sible out of seasons transportation.
They will start from, port with vessels
| that are hardly seaworthy even in fair
weather in the face of the most threat
ening weather, and weather is almost
constantly threatening on Lake Erie
al this time of year. The annual loss
o. life and property, although it is much
less now than formerly, because there
are fewer unseaworthy hulks afioat, is
proportionately larger than it is on the
Atlantic ocean. The reports that fol-
low every severe storm on the lakes
are burdened with disaster.
No ocean sailor that ever lived would
dare to take the risk that the average
lake skipper will. and that not only
without a word of protest, but with
avidity 1t looks sometimes as if lake
sailors rather courted risk and dan
ger. 1t is a fact, too, that there are
more unseaworthy craft Drawing the
| treacherous waters of the lakes during
the most dangerous season of the year
October and November-than at any
other time. There is reason for this,
| though, for grain shipments are livelier
as the season draws to close. Cargoes
are consequently more plentiful and
freights higher. Every vessel that will
float can command a cargo. 1 have
seen schooners that were scarcely fit to
be towed on canal leave port in No
vember, loaded almost to the guards
with freight, and yet the shippers would
have to refuse many applications from
sailors anxious to sail on the shaky
| hulks. There is not more reckless
| class of men on the face of the earth
| than these fresh-water sailors, although
they have the terrible fact constantly
before. them that hundreds of their
fellows are lost annually on the lakes,
nine-tenths of them going down with
the rotten craft they begged the privi-
lege of sailing on. This facts made the
more startling because it is well known
that the dangers Of lake navigation
especially navigation on Lake Erie-are
so great that even the stanchest vessels
are frequently unable to weather them.
[ would rather cross the Atlantic ocean
| a dozen times at this season than make
! one trip from the ST. Lawrence river to
Chicago.
Storms sweep over the lakes without
any warning. The November gales on
Lake Erie are indescribably frightful.
The shippers depend largely on land
marks for guides in naviga tion. The
binding rain or sleet that nearly al
ways accompanies these storms oblit-
crates these marks sometimes for days,
and as the sea room is limited, vessels
caught in these gales are in constant
danger of going to pieces, either on the
rocky shores CIR IN some of the islands
that stud so thickly these inland seas,
or being suddenly swamped as the
Idaho was. Lake Ontario's shores are
especially menacing to lake craft dur
ing storms, but fortunately this lake is
not so liable to be swept by storms
as some of the Others. If a vessel heaves
! to in a storm it is almost certain to be
cast ashore or if it runs down the lake
toward the ST. Lawrence river it is en-
dangered by the many islands that
abound there. Many shippers annually
wreck their craft in the always risky
! effort to make Oswego narbor in Il
storm. The entrance to this harbor
is very narrow, and the vessel that is
steered for it and does not make it is
almost certain to go to pieces on the
rocks under Fort Ontario.
The sailing season is comparatively
short on the lakes, for it is usually late
i'll the spring before the ice embargo
| is removed and early in the winter when
| it is again placed on navigation. The
shippers desire is to take advantage
cf every hour of his time, and he takes
no precaution that will cause him an
extra moments delay in port. OF
course all vessels that sail On the lakes
are subject to the control of govern
| ment inspectors and none can sail with
out permit. But the pay of these Of
fcials is small. They are human, and
lake shippers are the most willing peo-
pie on land or sea. AT any rate, there is
host of unseaworthy hulks engaged in
the commerce of the lakes. There are
not so many of them, though, as dared
the dangers of the trip before govern
ment inspection began.
Reckless shippers would, find their
occupations gone if there were no recl1-
less sailors eager to share their risks,
and reckless lake sailors are the rule
rather than the exception. This is ali
the more singular because, ordinarily,
these sailors are the quietest and most
modest of men. A curious thing about
them is that many of them are farmers,
OF, rather, farm owners. The individual
land holding in the vicinity of the lake
ports of some of these daredevil sailors
is considerable. The moment naviga
ton closes they return to their farms,
remain there until it reopens in the
spring, and then hasten back to the
lakes TO tempt death on any old craft