The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-09-05
OCEAN LAMPPOSTs.
They Furnish the Light for swim street,
the Greatest Sea Thoroughfare I'm she
World.
(London Maii.)

Mariners about our English coasts have
the sea marked out for them into roads
and streets as definite and obvious as
Piccadilly or the Strand. 1t Is only by
sxtreme negligence or by an absolutely
Unforeseen combination Of adverse cir
culnstances that q ship can lose Its way
nowadays when 1t is within twenty or
thirty miles of the English coast
The greatest sea road In the whole world
Is the Swim Deep, at the mouth OF the
Tbames. 1t Is not too much to say tina
every foot Of 1t Is surveyed and marked
down on the chart. 1t Is lighted more
completely than many city thoroughfares,
ana TO the sailor 1t Is more homelike and
familiar than the Commercial road or the
White chapel High street.
Down this great high road of the sea
much OF the trade of the world is carried
ships from the farthest parts of the world
patrol 1t day and night in an endless
procession, bringing goods to London or
taking English produce to distant lands.
AS the traveller steams down the Thames
between the low mud reaches beyond
Gravesend, his first glimpse Of the won
deIful system of lights which guides the
ships is obtained at Southead.
A rel light shines out over the water,
and 1t Is warning that the river journey
is nearly finished, and that Swim street is
near at hand.
Tom Hood immortalized the More in
poem called the Little Buoy at the
More" but he had nothing to say about
one OF the most famous Of our English
lightships. The more Light as the
sailors call 1t. is at the very entrance to
the great highway. 1t shows white
light, which revoives every half minute
Every lighthouse and lightship has its
own particular and distinguishing sys-
tenn of signaling its name. For example,
the next light in Swim street is seven
miles from the More, and Is called the
''Mouse" light.
In order that there may be no confusion
between the two tships, the Mouse ship
shows green light, which revolyes every
twenty seconds. and which lie visible for
exactly ten miles. 1t Is also provided
with foghorn. which is blown by COM
pressed air, and Ia said to have the most
unpleasant voice in the whole channel.
These lightships provide the principal
illuminations of Swim street. In daytime
each one carries q cone of iron bars of
different shapes In the place where the
lamp is hoisted at night, and, moreover,
the name Of the ship Is painted upon its
sides in colossal white letters.
One of the most powerful and curio us
lights in Swim street is known as the
Maplin Light. 1t stands at the edge OF
the danger Gus fiat known as the Maplin
and Foulness sands. These sands dry at
low water, and extend Tor seventeen miles
along the coast. It was found impossible
to build solid masonry upon the shifting
surface. and SO the famous Maplin Light
has been built upon an enormous erection
Of piles.
It is one of the most conspicuous sights
In Swim street. for 1t appears to be rising
straight up out of the middle of the sea.
The. light is what Is known as red
'ocoulting" light. Every hale minute 1t
Ia hidden by a revolution of the lantern
behind a steel shutter.
kThere are many of those "occulting"
lights In Swim street, and 1t is often a
welcome sight to see one of them flash out
of the dark, explaining with absolute
certainty the exact position of the ship in
the channel The smallest lights of all
the many colored Examinations are those
at the head Of the buoys which mark out
the various safe passages for ships These
burn night and day. and the light is pro-
duced| from ordinary gas. The great
buoys-many of them from fifteen to
twenty feet high-are hollow and filled
with gas, which burns continually in
lamp at the top.
Often the traveller In Swim street may
see curious, slowly moving vessel with
a great tank on the deck, moving from
buoy to buoy. This is the gas boat which
supplies the.liRhts with fresh gas atTstated
intervals. 1t may be called the lamp
lighter OF the sea road