The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-15

Morgan Robertson in Halle's Monthly
Some enc has said that when sailors
cease to swear it is time for passengers
TO pray in general, this may be so; yet
there are happenings at sea, dangerous
to the mind of the passenger, that do not
In the least trouble the sailor A ship
wreck, ride through surf in All open
boat, a capsizal, wetting ard scramlbing
half dead to a rocky beach is a terrible
experience to landsman, but Jack and
his masters would make light of it, A
famous novelist (and Iandsman) recently
met with such an adventure, and wrote
IL up with all the power of his pen back
ed by the deep impression it had made on
j his sensitive mind. In the book, "On
Many Seas" the sailor-author treats Of
the same experience, and his humorous
handling of the subject, compared with
I the strained intensity Of the other, is
more than laughable. and is appreciated
best by first reading the powerful word
painting of the landsman.
Jack had periIs of his own. A boy was
once warned against the calling of an
aged sailorman, who, on being asked to
define the greatest danger of the sea.
solemnly closed a wrinkled eyeIid and
said, The mates brass knuckles" He
was a crippled. disfgured and broken
down ''packet-rat," and spoke from the
fullness of his rough experience in tho
packet-ships that foreran steam craft
IN the Atlantic passenger trade. The boy
was the writer. Later in life, inbued with
the ethics of the foreeastle, he understood
The viewpoint of the old packet sailor,
understood how small and trivial the
risking of his life may appear to the
forehand when compared with the sting
Ing rebuke and sarcasm of his shtpmates,
B .4.-I..-
( inflicted by the officers In case he shfrks
q dangerous duty; for it requires more
courage for a sailor to refuse taking his
, life In hands at the behest Of a mate
: often needless-than would carry him
through the danger, and so, in time, he
ceases to regard this danger as vital to
: his value or place in the world, consoling
himself with the aphorism, "a man can
I die but once" and often suppIementing
/ st with a personal clause, 1.-The sooner,
the better"
1t is to the educated officer and pas
senger that danger presents itself in
defined and avoidable shape. and there
| Is the only standpoint from which the
subject may be approached.
[ The perils Of the sea can be classed,
broadly, under two headings: those aris-
ing from the storm in its many aspects,
and those due to obstructed vision-fog,
darkness and snow. Fire. collisions with
other craft, ice and dereIiets, and strand
fngs, consequent on carelessness, might
be considered as a third class, and dam
gers against which no vigilance or eff
ficiency may prevail, such as tidal waves.
WaterspOuts, spontaneous combustion,
leakage of a rotten ship, and striking of
uncharted sunken reefs could also be
classed by themselves, but these, in their
developed results are so closely allied to
the others that they may be treated to-
gether.
FIGHTING FIRE ON HIGH SEAS.
( Though not a common one, fire at sea
is the most terrible of the happenings
! that can mar a Yoyage.A smell of smoke
is noticed and a search. for the cause
begun. il not in the cabin or the for
warehouse, matches are opened. Visible
smoke then arises, thicker as the air
descends and fans the hidden and
smouldering flame. Men. holding their
breath. spring down and hunt the fire.
Bpeculating Wildly-untn driven back.
| Hose Is rugged and water poured ten
tatively over the cargo to locate, if pos
slble, by the thlckening of the smoke, its
situation But the smoke is too black
and too hot. Matches are hastily closed
and batteued alright. Holes-aS many
as there are separate dock pumps-are
cut in the deck over the presumed posi-
ton of the fire, hose is inserted, well
wrapped, and the wrapping damned into
the holes to exclude the air, and the cargo
is deluged, for no commander will hesl-
tate to ruin a cargo to save his ship and
her human freight. If the fire is con-
ouered, and the vessel, with a charred
and ill-smelling mess in her hold, reaches
port, that ship is lucky. But the chances,
with an inhammable cargo in wooden
null, are against It, s---
Exploding lanterns in the hold or
tween decks, bursting of boilers In steam
craft, and scattering of the furnace Goals,
the carrying away of the galley stove
flashing in the gale and the spontaneous
combustion of damp cotton or oil-soaked,
non-cOnducting, organic material IN Tie
cargo. are the usual causes-fortunately
rare-Of fire at sea.
A very common peril Of sea is collision:
Errors in judgment or the absence Oh
lights and signals on either side may
bring your craft into smashing contact
with another. If your ship is the ag-
gressor. grapple your victim, and IL a
steam craft, keep your engines going
ahead at full speed, keep your bow In the
gaming wound you have made until the
last man has climbed over your rail, and
If your own ship is the wounded one.
climb yourself. Aside from the case OF
compartment steamers, there IS little
nope Tor the vessel lhdt ID 11'AiitiAO -"
another at full speed, though the DOW
Of the assailant will often escape serious
damage.
Or Instead Of another craft, an iceberg
may loom out of the fog to leeWard, and
Won brace sharp on the wind only 70
find that the berg, fnlpelled by a sub
marine current, IS driving to W1ndwaro
faster than you can tack. Frant1caliy
Won clap on sail and Trace sharper. me
Iy>s,1, there
a turmoil of choppy sea over your lee
rail a swapping OF yard-arms and gear
above. a descent upon your deck Of rfven
wood and tons of Ice, smashing ana
scraping as your ship is pounded along.
then a hurried clearing away and man
ming of boats and an almost hopeless
struggle to MISUNDERSTANDING? Escape
from the cold enemy and ultimate rescue
or death by starvation?
JJnchaT ted rocks in mid-ocean occasion
ally come to light, and fortunate is the
ship that finds them by sight instead OF
feeling Capt. L. Lody, of the English
ship Compton, reports seeing early IN
May, 1886, a rock sixty feet long, eight
or ten feet wide, awash at the ends and
about eight feet high in the middle. I'M
known and unmarked on any chart ever
in latitude forty-seven degrees north and
issued He says that he found this
menace in latitude At degrees north and
longitude thirty-seven degrees, twenty
minutes west, position squarely on the
southern Lane route OF transatlantic
travel, with the nearest land one of the
Azores group, fully five hundred miles
to the southeast. If this report is true
and submarine navigation is to be per-
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