The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-07
50 YEARS ON THE SOUND.
A CHAT WITH THE HEAD PILOT OF
BIG STE4MBOAT.

= io"s ThothS hDout No" AohN
Growing More TickIish-Use of Twin
Screws - Nerve-Trying Snowstorms
and Fogs.
He was an old Sound steamboat pilot,
a head pilot, in fact, one of the Oldest
in the business. AS nearly as he can
calculate he has sailed through Long
Island Sound fully 5000 times since he
began steamboating, thirty-five years
ago. After he had helped to take the
vessel through Hell Gate on the way
down Sound the other night-for all the
pilot house staff are on duty from the
time boat of this sort leaves her pier
in New York until she has cleared the
Gate-the head pilot took his watch
below, not to go on deck again until
=. Falkner's Island was reached. Falkner' s
Island Is the halfway point in the
Sound for the steamboat men, and
there the night watches are changed.
This arrangement applies to all the men
who help to handle the boat, except the
captain who comes and goes as he
pleases, and in bad weather never
leaves the pilot house, from dock to
dock.
But the head pilot did not turn in on
this particular night. Instead he chat
ted about his work with a friend he
found on board.
There have been a good many
changes in Sound steamboating even in
my time" he said. II like 1t better as
/ 1t is today than at any other time since
I've been In the business. We've got
clear of the big and sloppy old side
wheelers to great extent, and have got
the twin-screw boats, the electric
search light, and the steam-steering
gear. Besides most of the boats have
passed under the control of single cor
poration. How do / like working for
a big corporation? 1t is all right in
| my business. In the old days when
| each line was controlled by one man or
| a little knot of men, when there came
| a time for promotion, favoritism was
| very generally shown, and it wasn't
always the best men who filled the best
places, by a good deal. But now 1t Is
different. 1t is simply a question today
as to whether or not man can hold
down job when 1t comes his turn to
take It, If he can he is all right, no
matter what anybody says about him.
It's business nowadays
"How do we manage to get around
the Battery so successfully in the
crowded rivers? Well, sometimes L
don't know myself. The New York riv-
ers grow worse and worse in the mat
ter of being crowded with vessels, and
big and unwieldly vessels, too. or
course, we steer just as fine as we can,
signal with our whistle, and If we see
that we are getting into trouble we
slow down to back, If necessary. The
general rule followed in running the
Sound steamboats, about New York city |
Is to make for the first favorable OPEN
ing you see and put the boat through
it. And many times when 1t looks as
though you were getting into bad
mess before you really reach the spot |
the danger has cleared away and it has |
become straight sailing for you once |
more But ] don't know Of any man
who is in love with the job of running |
a big steamboat about the New York
rivers.
There is one thing that is worth
talking about, and that is the difference
there is in handling the sidewheel boots
and the new twin-screw craft. The for
mer you can stop much more quickly |
than the latter The minute you stop
the paddles of a side-wheel boat they
drag in the water and they reduce Ter
speed rapidly. And hence when you
back the wheels you can quickly bring
her to standstill This is not go with
the twin-screw boat. 1t takes much
longer to get such a boat to backing,
and hence collision is not speedily
averted in this way with this kind Of
vessel. But instead of shutting off
steam and backing on both engines 1T
such time, you let one screw Keep on
pushing ahead and you turn the other
backward, swinging your helm over in
the proper direction at the same time.
By this means you will steer the boat
out of harms way in one-quartar the
time it would take you to set her book
ing.
Coming back 70 the sidewheeler
again, she is not half 50 handy boat
to handle in docking and the ike as the
other. The moment a sidewheeler loses
her Roadway her Storage way is gone,
and you cannot do anything with her
until you have run her a good distance
and got way on her again. 1t is for
this reason that I consider the twin
screw boat the safer craft, for she can
work out Of much narrower hole than
the side wheeler. Even when lying per- /
fectly still she can work one screw 6
ahead and reverse the other, and in t
this way turn about quickly and COM
pletely in her own length. Besides the !
twin-screw is the safest proposition in c
The world for a craft that has no na.ls.
If one of the engines break down ycu I
have the other to fall back on. t
"Do think steamboat plotting nerv- r
JUS work? Why, know it 49, And it I
S now coming the very season of the
year that is calculated to make the
average steamboat man grow gray
headed before his time-the season of N
and gales I don't care how
strongly nerved man may be, nor how
rood a judge of running distances in r
certain time-for the day of the old n
ime pilot with sounding lead covered v
With soft tallow to give him a cast CT '
he bottom of the Sound has passed t
lway to a very large extent--iust let h
lin take one of the line steamboats, Of b
he present day and put her into one b
# these storms and he is on his met e
lie at once. There are hundreds Of lives II
depending on him, he can see nothing, t.
nd, worse than all the rest he can p
'ear NOTHING for snowstorm in rale n
wind ic q 1r,DSt partain 70 hut 1~o,, II