The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-10

a fine steel steam vessel where we
are all as comfortable as if we were
living at home off shore. She lies at
anchor in the shelter of the land, and
we have to row only short distance
from her to get aboard the vessels
pilots are all working together now,
and don't engage in the exciting and
mad race for a ship that used to be
typical of our life a few years ago.
But If we have eliminated one dam
ger, the progress in ship building has
created another that seems worse to
us. We don't mind storms and seas,
because that is our business, and our
boats were able to take anything that
came along and remain right side up.
But to board one of the giant ships,
sticking its smooth iron side straight
up for forty and more feet out of the
water, means that we have to go
through the dangers of a circus aero
bat and a fireman.
IF you will consider the joy of
climbing up the side of a house by
going hand over hand up rope or by
working up a small. twisting rope lad
der, you can imagine what 1t may he
like to approach one of these rushing
ships with a small roWboat and board
her on rough sea.
Remember that the big vessels new
er stop entirely for us. They just
slow up bit A ship that can make
eighteen miles an hour is going slow,
as the captain views 1t when she shuts
we have to hang on to a monster that
is tearing through the ocean at the
rate of nine miles an hour.
'Landsmen wouldn't like to jump on
a trolley car that is whizzing along as
fast as that. Well, we have to get out
of tossing small boat and shin up the
side of a house that is not only moving
ahead at that speed, but that is swing
ing I'D and down and sideways. The
rope ladder bangles loose, for the men
in the small boat cannot fasten it any
where. They have all they want to
do TO hold to the side of the ship and
prevent the boat from being swamped
ION account of it's being loose, the
ladder twists and writhes like a snake
The pilot makes a quick jump for 1t
and serambles up the first few feet
like a mailman so as to escape being
caught by a wave that might wash him
away.
1.-The men in the small boat pull way
from the steamer as hard as they can
as soon as the pilot has cleared 1t. They
do this so that, if the pilot loses his
hold or is hurled backward by the sea,
he shall not fall into the boat. Sew
eral pilots have been killed by falling
backwards into their own boats. so
now the small boat always gets out
from under and lies off little dis
lance, alert to pick the pilot up should
he fall into the sea. If he does, they
must be quick, for pilots generally
have to wear heavy clothing, and be-
sides the weight of their garments, the
wash and suction of the ships tremen-
dous screws would suck a man under
it in no time.
Having climbed up short way, we
face another problem. One moment
the ship may heel over so that the lad
der will hang free and we are swinging
in air: Then we know that when she
rights and falls over on the other side
we will be slapped up against her great
hard sides with a smash, and we must
prepare to ease the ladder off with one
| hand while we hold on with the other.
"Once aboard, the pilot jumps for
the bridge and takes command just as
quickly as he can. Then begins the
work for which he has been trained,
generally from boyhood. Little OBJ
jects that look like specks far away
mean as much to him as trees, houses
and roads mean to the man picking his
way on the solid land.
Sometimes we get the peak of a
small hill into exact line with a light
house. Again, we will steer so as to
keep tower or a steeple many miles
inland just over the point of a sand
bar. The government helps US by
putting up range marks. Some of
them are lit at night. Others. are
merely spars or little monuments of
stone or iron, painted with distinctive
colors These unlit ranges are known
as dumb ranges All the way into
big harbor anywhere on any Ameri-
can coast there are from half a dozen
to many hundreds of these and other
guides, according to the Importance of
the harbor or the difficulty of navI-
eating it.
I'm a harbor like New York, in ad-
dition to all the range marks, the chan
nels are marked with buoy; so that
a man can steer by watching them
just as he could go through town by
looking at the names of the streets at
the corners. On one side of the chan
mel are black buoys, on the other side
red buoys. We leave the black buoys
on the right hand side going in and
the red ones on the left hand side.
when we come to buoy with a
queer cage-like contrivance like a bird
cage on top-if it, we know that it sig
mites that the channel turns there.
Sometimes a queerly marked buoy is
anchored right in the middle of the
channel. Then we have to steer so
as to get as close as possible to 1t,
because it means that the very middle
of the channel is the only safe place
for big ship.
At othertimes a buoy marked with
danger colors floats over sunken
wrecks are reefs, and we know from
it's color just what side of it we must
go to pass to be secure.
ITO take a vast ship like the Celtic,
Cedric or Campania, or any of the
other mammoths into New York har-
Dor is a perious task even in the calm
est weather and with the best of
bright days and favorite tides to help
us. When they are fully loaded these
! big craft draw so much water that
their keels often are only two feet
above the bottom, even in the middle
of deep channels. 1t is like trying to
pilot a canoe down a swift mountain
stream with only a few inches OF
water In it,
THE lack OF water under the keel
makes the big ships steer so badly that
we cannot manage some of them at
all with the rudder, but must depend
| on the twin screws to steer-that is,
when we wish to make a turn we
back one screw as hard as she can
work and push forward the other so as
to swing the ship.
I'm addition. those terrihcally big
screws take hold OF tons of water with
every revolution and actually suck 4
! away from under the vessel, so that