The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-17
IN THE PILOT HOUSE.
HOW STEAMERS ARE NAVIGATED
IN LONG ISLAND SOUND.


Or's Instinct
From the New York Evening Post.
OF the many thousand people who trav-
el back and forth over Long Island sound
every year, probably very few have any
distinct idea of how their course is run
from one end of the journey to the other,
and probably fewer still ever even thicnk
of the matter until il is brought to their
attention by some disaster or fortunate
escape in the season when fogs increase
the difficulties of navigation.
The principles of deep-sea navigation,
with the daily reckoning from the suns
altitude, and the record of the log plot
ted upon the chart, do not apply 10 the
sound. Here, indeed. there are landmarks.
in the shape of bays and lighthouses, but
much depends upon the almost instructive
knowledge of position which enables one,
for instance. to steer a tolerably safe
course within the well-known limits of his
chamber. Sound navigation is indeed
much on the same line as ones progress
through a familiar room in the dark
Straight from the door until you touch
the sideboard; then turn squarely, and
take four steps until you touch the near
corner of the mantel; then follow the man
tel edge, and three steps from that will
bring you TO the cigar case" This is very
much the method of the sound pilot Just
what this pilot does, in his six hours Wig
H. not many passengers have seen from
the interior of the pilot-house
Starting from the New York pier at 5 or
D O'Clock, the passage round the Battery
thE
a matter of lodging craft than of any
thing else, though even here the large
boat must be careful to follow the d, ep
channel. Once at the entrance of TIE
sound. with the first lighthouse squarely
abeam, the pilot lays his first course. He
gives the course TO the quartz master At
the wheel who repeates it with an GAY,
ay, SIR
On the front wall of the plot house
hangs a slate ruled with white lines, and
having printed in a vertical column at the
left the names of the lighthouses which
determine the successive courses. The
pilot notes on the slate the time of Ie1v-
ing the pier; the direction of the wind; its
force, commonly denoted by a seri5s of
numbers in which 10 stands for the most
violent gale; and the state of the de.
When the first station or lighthouse comes
squarely abeam, he sets down the time; the
elapsed time since the START the number
wheels-this called up to him from the en-
CINE room; and the new course which he
runs to the next station. When the next
lighthouse is abeam, he sets down similar
data again; gives the quartermaster at the
wheel the new course, and so on from point
to point to the end of the voyage
The process is outwardly simple, and il
| there were neither tide, winds nor fogs,
| the actual management would be extreme
| ~ simple. But such is not the case. When
| the boat starts out against the tide the
| pilot must make allowances for the re-
tardng force. If the wind and the tide
| are directly opposite along the steamer s
course, the pilot must strike a balance, for
| he knows that he must hold to his first
| course a certain number of minutes for
| the speed of his boat to bring him in the
| proper position abeam of his second sta
| ton. And if the wind is strong, he must
make the proper allowance for leeway,
or he will find himself off his course. 1t is
not sufficient for the pilot merely TO know
| his course and stations, he must have an
! Intimate knowledge of the currents ell
| along his course. When the tide sets east
| he must know just what allowance to
make for local variations in its pull, and
| this allowance must take into account the
leeway due to the wind from this or that
direction.
In case of fog the safety of the boat
| and passengers seems to depend largely
| upon the pilots intuition, but when the
| white impene trable curtain is down he
| calls to his aid a knowledge that has
! been acquired gradually during years of
! careful observation. All his faculties are
! alert as he strains his eyes for the faint
| outlines of lighthouse or passing boat,
| listens for the bell or whistle which will
| tell him his location, and even shifts the
breeze, the varying scents of which often
! help him to determine his whereabouts
] 90 h.. E.1 Il n III
reduced and that involves an entirely
! new set of allowances for wind and tide,
| for a slow boat necessarily has more lee
| way than a fast one. Then il a vessel APP
! pears ahead-perhaps a schooner at an
! chor-the course must be abruptly alter
ed, and the pilot has the task of making
a turn, and then coming back to the orig
| inal line of his course,
1T is a curious sort of navigation" said
| the superintendent of one of the chief
| sound lines, land all our captains are all
most OF necessity men who have grown
up in the business. Uusually, they come
| 10 us from sailing vessels, chiefly fishing
| boats. They have to pass a rigorous ex-
| animation in which the questions cover
! the course which should be taken at any
speed in any part of the sound. and under
all sorts of conditions of wind, tide and
| fog These examinations are conducted by
the federal government, which issues the
they require is usually not to be had with
less than fifteen or twenty years expe-
rience with sound navigation. Now and
then. but rarely, we get hold of men I'M
! der the prescribed age of q, who can sat
isfy all requirements of knowledge. They
are allowed 10 serve as quartermasters. in
charge of the wheel, where their youth
does not bar them. But these cases are
not common; ii takes a precocious young
ster to know the sound from end to end
! by the time he is old enough to vote. Most
| of our captains are upward of 40.
"Of course, a pilot has some latitude
when he is in the open sound. For con-
| siderable part of the way there is nc
| channel to bother about But in a fog
the open sound demands great caution
| while the course up Narragansett bay is
especially difficult: here the channel is
oftentimes very narrow and very tortu.
rous and I often wonder how a pilot car
run his course up to Providence or Fail
River in a fog. and escape from the in