The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-25
THE. PRIVACY OF THE SEA.
Lahdsmen Have an Inadequate Idea
of Its Vastness.


F. T. Bullen in the London Spectator.
Whether expressed or implied, there is
certainly a deep-rooted idea in the minds
of shore jewellers that The vast fenceless
fields of ocean are in these latter days
well, not to say thickly, populated by
ships; that, sail or steam whittier you will,
YOU cannot get away from the white
CLINT of sailing ship or the black smear
along the clear sky of steamship S
smoke. There is every excuse for such
an attitude of mind on the part of land
ward folk. Having no standard of com
parison against which to range the vast
lonely breadths of water which make up
the universal highway, and being nightly
impressed by the statistics of shipping,
owned by maritime nations, they can
hardly be blamed for supposing that the
privacy of the sea is thing of the past.
one voyage in a sailing ship to the Aus
tralasian colonies or to India, if the OPP
portunities afforded were rightly used
would do far more to convince them of
the utterly wrong notion poss IS ng them,
than any quantity of writing upon the
subject would do. But unhappily, few
people to-day have the leisure or the in
clination to spend voluntarily three
months upon a sea passage that can be
performed in little more than one. Even
/ those
their health's sake Go take such passages
almost invariably show signs of utter
wcariness, and boredom. AS day after
day passes, and the beautiful fabric in
which they live glides gently and leisure
~ forward their impotence grows until
in some it almost amounts to a disease.
This C. nditiCn of mind is net favorable
to say the least. to "A calm study of the
characteristic features of ocean itself
Few, indeed are the passengers and
fewer still are the sailors who Will for
the delight of the thing spend hour after
hour perched upon some commanding
point in wide-eyed sight strengthening
gaze out upon the face of the sea.
Upon those who do there grows eadily
sense of the most complete privacy, a
solemn aloofness belonging to the seas
| The infreduent W ssel, gentle though her
! progress may be through the calm waters
! of the tropics, still st likes them as an in
! truder upon this realm of silence and
! loneliness. The voices Of the crew CRATE
| harshly upon the ear as with a sense OF
desecrat ton such as one feels upon hear
| ing loud conversation in the sacred peace
, of some huge cathedral. And when a YES
| sci heaves in sight. a tiny mark against
! the skyline, she but punctuates the lone
/ illness, as it were-affords a point from
which the eye can family calculate the
! immensely OF her surroundings.
| This sense OF solitude induced by con-
| temptation Of the ocean Is exceedingly
marked even on the best frequented route.
| aud the most crowded ca waters TIC
! enter into it fully. however, it is neces-
sary to sail either in "a catle ship, whal-
err, or an old slowgoing merchant sailor
! that gets drifting out Of the track cf yes
| sells. Even in the English channel one
| cannot hut feel how much room there is
In spite of out knowledge of the number
| of ships that pass and repass without
| ceasing along what may truthfully be
| termed the most frequented highway IN
the watery world, there is an undoubtedly
reasonable sense induced by its contem-
| patton that however much the dry land
may become overcrowGed the sea will al
| ways be equal to whatever demands may
| be made upon 1t for space. There are
many harbors in the world, at any rate
| handbook bays that may rightly be call
| ed harbors wherein the fleets of all the
nations might line in comfort. And their
| disappearance from the open sea would
| leave no sense OF less. So wide is old
oceans bosom. Perhaps this is even now
more strongly marked q an IL was fifty
years ago. The wonderful exactitude with