The times., 1901-06-23
BUMPING OVER ROCKS AT SEA.
How Ii Feels and How Men Act in
an Impending Disaster.


When a ship of 2.G0O tons, fully loaded
and going at fun speed, is driven against
a piece of rock firmly bolted to the great
earth, the impact is of the most frightful
nature This is Whit happened to the
Ieyland liner Assyrfan, under the com
mand of Captain D;ngle, Wednesday at
midnight, of Cape Race, in a dense fog.
The Assyrian belongs to the line recent
Iy bought by Mr.. Morgan and his asso-
ciates, and was built in 1893. She is $50
feet in length, has d beam AZ feet, and
draws twenty-three feet of water. After
striking she had eleven feet of water in
her forehold. The mathematical problem
which the good ship had to resolve in
probably not longer than single minute
was therefore this: How to digest twelve
feet of immovabie rock in the twenty
three feet of clear water required IN or
der that she might fioat on an even keel
OF course this problem is not solvable by
either man or ship, otherwise than by
catastrophe.
The ship must yield the space occupied
by the rock, and must yield 1t on the
instant. Captain Dingle's error was not
large one, measured by distance. Five
hundred yards more to the southeast Ii Is
estimated. would have taken the Assyrian
by the point in safety. without anyone's
knowing or dreaming that danger was so
TO that old push of current-a force
which the most accomplished seaman can
do no more than guess at in fog. II
there is no fog the dullest laRdsman can
see the land before the ship is pushed
against it; but in fog the most skillfull
sailor never knows exactly how far the
current with its unending work, has
pushed the ship.
Captain Dingle had planned to round
Cape Race at a distance of thirty miles
from the rocks. But he had been navigat-
Ar.sr IL. tTH II. -lTtF
oning-the only thing that a sailor can go
by when no sky is to be seen, when his
owners wish the ship TO be kept going,
and also, is to be remembered. when his
ship lies in the track of other ships COM
ing after him likewise at full speed. But
all through these three days the norther-
ly current was busily pushing against the
side and ends of the ASSyrian. Most per-
sons believe that in steering a ship ii is
the bow which has TO be considered; but
we have heard old sailors say that the
stern was the vital point in this art 1t is
obvious, at any rate, that II at any point
a strong current could shove the stern
of a ship around fifteen or twenty feet, IL
would make great difference as to
where the ship would come out the next
day or the day after. Two or three push
es of this kind, even If gradually exert
ed, might easily knock Captain Dingle's
calculation Of thirty miles of clear water
all to flinders; and the full horror Of 1t
is that no skill or experience can enable
one to know thing about 1t.
There are two elements of comfort to be
considered on the other side. One of these
Is that a ship going upon rocks or against
the coast almost invariably strikes
slanting blow The bottom of the ship
may be broken at the point of impact, but
the whole structure is not crushed like
an cggshell The other comforting thing
Is that the modern ocean steamship is so
soidly and honestly built that il also al
most invariably is able to undergo ruin
GUS disaster at this or that point of it and
to remain sound and practically uninjured
In every other part. No ship can be built
so as to go upon rocks at full speed with
out being broken at the points of i'm
pact; but IL is a marvel of mans inge-
nuity and honesty that the modern ship
can strike such colossal blow and still
retain the integrity of it's structure.
II is something to go through one of
these experiences with ships and rocks up
to the very point of not having anything
serious happen. A dozen years ago or
less a passenger steamship was making
its way through the English Channel in
dense fog.
1t was like driving through crowded
was a good deal Of life in the neighbor-
hood, but one could see nothing of it, The
whole situation made it clear why the
old sailor finds the lohesomeness and free
water of the open sea so restful. The
ship was going fast enough-perhaps
three-quarters speed-when young Eng
lish lad, whom no one had heard speak
during the voyage, drawled out: BY
Jove, l wonder II we, must wade ashore
here?" The fog had hfted a little, and on
the port side. not more than biscuits
throw from the deck, rose high bluff.
Then one glanced ahead, and directly in
line with the bow rose sheer front of
smooth rock, perhaps 100 feet high, and
going straight down tas was afterward
learned into 100 or more feet of water.
Bells were changing while one looked, the
officers of the ship wSre hurrying about,
and the first officer, under the strain of
the moment let fall the information that
the ship was stopped within half or a