The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-25
GREAT SEA THoRoucAFARE.
1t Is Illuminated More Com plctely Thar
Many City Streets.

Many City Streets.
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
extreme negligence or by an absolute I'M
foreseen combination OF adverse clrcum-
stances that a ship can lose its way now
adays when it is within 20 or 80 miles of
the English coast.
The greatest sea road in the whole
world is the Swim Deep, at the mouth of
the Thames. 1t is not too much to say
that every foot of it is surveyed and
marked down on the chart. 1t is lighted
more completely than many city thor
oughfares, and to the sailor it is moro
homelike and familiar than the CONNER
cial road or the Whitechapel 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 it day and night in endless pro-
cession, bringing goods to London or TAX
ing English products to distant lands.
AS the Straveler steams down tho
Thames between the low mud reaches be-
yond Gravesend, his first glimpse of the
wonderful system of lights which guides
the ships Is obtained at Southhead.
A red light shines out over the water
and it is q warning that the river jour-
ney Is nearly finished, and that Swim
street Is near at hand.
Tom Hood immortalized the More in a
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 sal
Tors call it, is at the very entrance of the
great highway. 1t shows a white light,
which revolves every half minute.
Every lighthouse and lghtship has it's
own particular and dlstinguishable sys-
tenn of signaling it's 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 ships, the Mouse ship
shows a green light, which revolves every
20 seconds, and which is visible for ex-
actiy 10 miles. 1t iaS also provided with
a fog horn, which is blown by compressed
air. and is said to have the most unpleas-
ant voice in the whole channel.
These hghtshiDs provide the principal
Nominations of Swim street. In daytime
each one carries a 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
side in colossal white letters.
One Of the most powerful and curious
lights in Swim street is known as the Map
lin light. 1t is at the edge of the dan
gerous fiat known as the Maplin and
water and extend for II miles along the
coast. 1t 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.
1t is one of the most conspicuous sights
in Swim street, for it appears to be rising
straight up out Of the middle of the sea.
The light is what is known as red Occult
ing light. Every half minute it Is hid
den by revolution of the lantern behind
a steel shutter.
There are many Of these "occulting"
lights in Swim street and it is often a well
come sight to see one Of them flash out
of the dark, explaining with absolute GER
tainty the exact position of the ship in
the channel. The smallest lights of all
the many colored Examinations are those
a 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 Is to 20 feet
high-are hollow and filled with gas,
which burns continually from a. 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 lights with fresh gas at
stated intervals. 1t may be called the
lamplghter of the sea road.