The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-01-06
GREATEST STA 8 a
swim DeeD, az the Mouth 81 b
Thamea, Is brightly mlume
mated Thoroughfare.

mated ThoroughfaEe.
$780,
Mariners about Il English coasts
have the sea marked out for them into
roads and streets as definite and obvious
as P~iecadilly or the Strand. It is only by
extreme negligence or by an absolutely (
unforeseen combination of adverse cir
eumstances that a ship can lose its way
nowadays when it is within 20 or 30
miles of the English coast.
The greatest sea road in the whole
world is the Swim Deep, at the mouth OF
the Thames. 1t is not too much to say
that every foot Of it is surveyed and
marked down on the chart. It islighted
more completely than many city thor
oughfares, and to the sailor it is more
homelike and familiar than the COM
mercial road or the Whitechapel High
street.
Down this great high road Of the sea
much of the trade of the world is car
ried. Ships from the farthest parts of
the world patrol it day and night in an
endless procession, bringing goods to
London or taking English products to-
distant lands.
As the traveller steams down the
Thames between the low and reaches
Gravesend, his first glimpse Of the won
derful system of lights which guides the
ships is obtained at Southhead.
A red light shines out over the water
and it is a warning that the river jour
ney is nearly finished, and that Swim
street is near at hand.
Tom Hood immortalized the More in a
poem called the "Little Buoy at the
More" but he had nothing to say about
one Of the most famous Of our English
lightships. The more light" as the
sailors call it, is at the very entrance to
the great highway. 1t shows a white
light, which revolves every half minute.
Every lighthouse and lightship has
its, own particular and distinguish
able system of signaling it's name. For
example, the next light in Swim street
is seven miles from the More and is
called the Mouse! light.
In order that there may be no confu-
sion between the two ships, the Mouse
!, ship shows a green light, which ~revolves
: every 20 seconds, and which is visible
for exactly ten miles. It is also pro-
vided with a fog horn, which is blown
l by compressed air, and is said to have
=, the most unpleasant voice in the whole
= channel.
These lightships provide the princi'
pal illumination of Swim street. In day
: time each N carries a cone of iron bars
5 Of. different shapes in the place where
S the lamp is hoisted at night, and, more
c over, the name of the ship is painted
upon its side in colossal white letters.
One of the most powerful and curious
lights in Swim street is known as tn,
+ Maplin light. 1t is at the edge of Iii
r dangerous flat known as the Mapiu and
Foulness sands. These sands dry at Low
water and extend for II miles along tn.
: coast. 1t was found impossible to built
: solid masonry upon the shifting sur
: face, and so the famous Maplin Ugh
a has been puilt upon an enormous cree
ton of piles.
1t is on of the most conspicuou
sights in Swim streets, for it appears t
It be rising straight up out of the middl
" of the sea. The light is what is know
as a red "occuIting" light, Every hall
} minute it is hidden by a revolution c
'e the lantern behind a steel shutter.
There are many of these "occulting
n light. in Swim street, and it is often
d welcome sight to see one of them has
= out of the dark, explaining with abst
u lutte certainty the exact position of til
e. ship in the channel, The smallestlight
i of all the many Colored illumination
are those at the head of the buoys whic
mark out the various safe passages fc
ships. These burn night and day, an
the lights produced from ordinary ga
The great buoys, many of them fro
IS to 20 feet h~igh--are hollow and file
with gas, which burns continually fro
ny a lamp at the top.
n Often the traveller in Swim streetms
see a curious, slowly moving vessel wi
a great tank on the deck moving fro
10 buoy to buoy. This is the gas DO
,le which supplies the lights with FREE
n, gas at stated intervals. 1t may be call
40 the lamp lighter of the sea road.-Lo
don Mail.