Evening star., 1899-02-02
Y; $3.50 YEARLY
II NC COMPANY, PHILADELP
By Maurice Thompson

eompany's officers had the nerve to com.
ABOARD and demand that Mcintyre should
!, pay y 900 for moving down their bloominf
| hight house, when it was one of their owr
| pilots that did it,
Wonderful MfraRes
| Those mirages of the desert are won
| derful things continued Mr. Best. re-
| flectively. "Under ordinary conditions from
| the deck of a ship passing through the
canal We can see the desert stretching
away for miles, a glittering waste of sand.
| so glaring white under the tropical sun
that 1t almost blinds ones eyes to look long
at IT, But when a mirage occurs one sees
marvellous thlngs-or thinks he sees
Ihe effect is that of double horizon.
one merging INTO the other. Arabs mounted
on cdheis ana clumps of palm trees will ap-
pear where moment before there was
nothing visible but a barren waste of sand
as Iaf as the eye can reach. Distances and
relative positions are entirely confused
An OBJECT that appears to be five miles
away may be twenty, and one that looks TO
De twenty miles inland may be right under
the shlps fore foot. It's uncanny. positive
ly uncanny.
hen there are sand storms, too. 10 make
navigation of the canal trial to mariners
1heyre worse than mirages. Seamen are
used TO storms that pelt and beat and bIind
them with clean salt SPRAY or hail VIZ
driven and merciless. But il isn't natural
that a snip should be navigated through a
storm OF sand that cuts the hands and face
IKE million needles and leaves a man
nearly blind for fortnight afterward.
Sailing Through sand.
but that's what we got last tr;n ,bro,,.,,
The canal. and L shall never forget the ey
perience. A sand storm looks like a foo
coming on TO the inexperienced eve but II Is
much more terrible than any fog that ever
bieW UP at sea. The sand is driven in cIouds
% thiGh that they turn the tropic daylight
aito a odrhhesS at seconds notice The
nsdns M atoms are sifted through every nook
ana Granny, however small We had ia
stop the engines and put the canvas covers
over tne machinery to keep il from heing-
ruined by the intrusion of the sharp win,I.
th,sa ui.sSh par,lcIes that no matches ever bat
lened can keep out of the engine room
Its a costly and troublesome iob COM
tEs tlifoush the canal, even if one happens
10 escape mirages and sand storms Traffic
Is SUBJECT to a lot of rigid rules and rep1tIa
tons, charges, penalties and what-not thar
make man long for a good old Cane Horn
hurricane by way of n contrast
In the first place, there is the nilotaga
which is compulsory. of course
" hen the ship reaches the bar off Port
Salu the jack Is hoiSted at the fore-peak
or If it be night time three lights are hoist,
ed. Ihen she takes aboard pilot No / He
is harbor pilot and only brings her into
Fort Said bay. After coaling there. a reg
uiar canal pilot comes aboard to take the
vessel @ as Tar as Ismaili. But he doesn't
captain subscribe to a list of rules longer
IMAM the shipping articles and pay over the
gross amount of highway robbery sched-
item
Considerable Inconvenience
The canal official first demands the name
and nationality of the ship, name of her
owners and charter holders. port
or sailing and destination, draught Of water
number of passengers, statement of crew
and schedule of cargo, capacity of the yes |
sci according to official measurement and !
statement of equipment regarding electric |
searchlights, hawsers, boats and anchors
He may take the trouble to verify all those |
statements by personal investigation if he |
Is so inclined. |
Then the captain is ordered to stow all |
MS booms and boats and his howsprit in |
board leaving only one boat with its crew
towing aft, to be used in passing hawsers
ashore, and to have two anchors forward /
and one aft bent onto lines. swinging ready |
10 let go at a moments notice
THE canal is divided off into blocks and |
no shin may pass out of one block till she /
Is signaled from the little station on shore
that the block ahead is clear of other YES
sells. The little signal stations along the
canal bank are oases In the dreary waste /
of desert. Some of them have a back
around them. The signals are conveyed by
cones or balls. heisted to Il jackstaff signal |
yard. At night colored lights are used
when signal comes to stop and tie up |
the boat astern, usually in charge of the |
lhird officer must pass the lines ashore and
make them fast to piles on the banks That |
S heartbreaking job-climbing up those |
sianting banks through Loose sand waist
1eep- and dragging a heavy hawser along /.
IN passing another ship, one must al