Arizona republican., 1902-08-01
GREAT LAKE CAPTAINS.
They May Have to Qualify as Ocean
 Pilots.

An analysis of the conditions that govern ocean and lake navigation re- speotively does not justify the ire quently assumed superiority of the ocean navigator over his brother of the Great Lakes. The captain of the big ocean liner is a man that inspires con fidence and commands respect. The rules of his company frequently con- pei him to be exclusive and sometimes autocratic in the face of impending disaster he proves himself to be a clear headed man with plenty Of iron in his blood. He is skilled iH the mathemat- ics of navigation, and acquainted with peril yet there are difficult problems of navigation and ship handling with which he never has to deal. His realm is the open water. When his ship leaves port. in, tow of a tug, he is sec ond in command; a pilot stands upon the bridge. steers her through the channels of the bay and walks her down to open water There is unlin- ited sea room in which to struggle with tiie dangerous storm the coast is hum dreds of miles away. and there are no shoals nor reefs nor hidden jagged rocks awaiting a chance to batter or stab the 1ioundering craft to death. As the ocean liner hears her destination, another pilot meets her in the open sea. takes her into port. and With the help C.. tugs, fore and aft slowly and laboriously lays her beside her dock.
 Except in rare instances the lake vessel puts to sea under her own steam. with her captain cn the bridge in the dual capacity of captain and pilot. When the storm breaks almost without warning, as lake storms do, i the vessel is never far from shore: sea room is scant and lake harbors have narrow mouths, guarded by meuacing reefs and shoals. Under her OWn steam lake captains take vessels into port With a rudder surface from two to four times larger than that of her ocean prototype, she responds to the turn of the wheel as suddenly and as surely as the trained COW pony obeys 1 the slightest pressure Of the rein l against his neck. With a deftness that would not crush an eggshell she is i laid alongside her dock.
 The mathematics of navigation is l the least of lake captains knCWl- 1 edge. To master lake navigation he must know the conformation of five thousand miles cf coast, every bay, strait, inlet. channel, river and har- Der. and every ship path among the 1 innumerable islands of the Great Lakes.
 The Photographic office at Chicago maintains d school of navigation for lake captains where they may qualify also as masters Of ocean going craft.
 There are many people in the lake regions who believe that there will be q time when il will be necessary for the lake captains to have . technical knowledge of salt water navigation. The lake region and tributary country with thirty-fve millions Of people is the undisputed commercial and indus trial center of the nation. and ambi- tious to dominate it's social. intellec- tual and artistic life, yet the vast com merce between Europe and the interior of this country is all subjected to transhiQment. Between Buffalo and the Atlantic seaboard it is forced to pay heavy tribute to railways and to the middlen2en who rehandle the car goes.
 Last year an attempt was made to establish 9 direct line oi steamships { between Chicago and Europe. 1t was partly a failure. not wholly because of the impediments to navigation in eastern rivers and narrow Canadian canals. but chiefly because Of the op- position of transcOntinental railroads of niddlemen who profit by the break 1 ing of bulk. and of European steam