The Indianapolis journal., 1899-01-18

Edison Brace in ST Louis Republic.
1t seems madness for the little naphtha
launch Paul Jones to have breasted the
choppy waters of the north gulf. The yes
sci proceeded from New Orleans down the
Mississippi, 101 miles to Cubit's Gap, which
is the first of number of mouths of the
Mississippi, nine miles above the light at the
head of the government jetties. There is a
depth through the pass of eight feet at low
tide, but the silt and mud deposits which
are continually shifting with the variations
of wind and tide, make it's passage always
a problem of skill and hazard. This pass
opens due east, and a straight departure
east must be held four miles before a YES
sci is shut off Of these uncertain conditions.
Then the course, as laid out for the Paul
Jones, would be about 10 degrees east of
north for thirty-fve miles, when Enrol ISL
and would rise to the right. Then the
course would haul slightly eastward, and
thirty more miles would raise the Chande-
leur light Then the course would lie due
north to make the Ship Island light, some
forty miles from the northern point of the
Chandelier crescent.
Prudence would have dictated to a navi-
gator with such little vessel as the Paul
Jones that after making the Ship Island
light the inner course should be taken to
Mobile. There is, along the coast, off the
States of Mississippi, Alabama and part of
Florida, an almost continuous line of outer
reefs, built up in the course of the ages by
the beating of the seas and the accretions
due to their dynamic force. These are of
sand and Shells and possess great frTneSS.
There is an average of ten miles between
this line of sand dunes and the mainland.
The intervening lagoons afford, as a rule,
what might be called duck-pond navigation.
This is the course that naturally would
have been taken by the launch.
But a gale from any quarter south of east
and west changes this condition of safety.
The water is driven before the wind and
banked up as the snow in a northern bliz-
zard. 1t rises, even in a moderate southern
gale, six, seven and even ten feet. The
lowlands are submerged and everything that
cannot live under water or fly must perforce
perish.
From the 4th to the 7th of January stormy
conditions prevailed on these coasts The
official accounts do not, as usual, show the
precise local movement, because, of course,
the officials do not care to be too definite;
but 1t is well known of all naVigatOrS in
is a concomitant of any sort Of blow at
all from the southerlies. This is what de-
stroyed a second time and caused the aban-
donment eight years ago Of the beautiful
coast town of Indianola, Tex.
While sailing in my little sloop, Silver
Moon, in Morgan's Harbor, thence to Bay
Bodreau, not far off the course Of the Paul
Jones, l saw and photographed the lugger
on a fiat prairie five feet above the sea.
She had been carried ashore by the hurri-
cane of Oct l, 1894, and set there in the
midst of a green environment of grass and
brush, a picture of beautiful isolation.
These things typify the forces of the wind
and sea. There is but little chance of the
Paul Jones having made haven in the
storm that prevailed the second day after
are no havens on these fiat coasts Every
thing is under water till the storm is past.