The Republican journal., 1904-04-28
WINTER COASTING.

It hardly need be mentioned that all
winters on the American coast are not
of one kind. The one just passed we
might we'll hope may not be again
equalled in temperature for some time
to come: but So-called mild winters
sometimes offer more bad storms and
more hardships to the coaster than the
late winter has produced. Our coast
lines are so laid that the cold north to
west winds blow off Shore rather than
Oh. and therefore in a winter when
these winds predominant there is rather
less general danger to the coaster than
in warmer winters when there are
more sudden changes and more stormy
or foggy gales from the south and from
the east. The off-shOre gale is plainly
not so troublesome to the larger vessel,
in good order and we'll able to stand a
siege in blue water; while to the small
er, weaker craft, deeply loaded, not
strongly geared up nor able to hold to
WindWard III rough water, a drift Off
shore becomes as Strainng and danger
Gus as it is uncomfortable. IN extreme
ly cold winters there may well be more
frozen fingers and more singing spells
of four hours on deck, but there are
not so many fellows lett in the surf to
reach the shore OF drown as the case
may be.
Tie two wrecks causing the greatest
loss of life of any that | have known
of during the past winter We're the
Augustus Hunt and the Ben amin
Cromwell. Each of these vessels lost
their way in two different warm, foggy
storms and were therefore wrecked
+ Of
ness of the season.
1t is possible that all coasting may be
unpleasant at times, but the American
coast is not the worst field to be found.
1t is colder than some others, but our
sharpest storms that blow squarely ON
shore from southeast are nearly al
ways very short-rarely more than
twelve hours, and generally the real
fierce part does not continue for half
that time. Quite different are the
sometimes winter-conditions on the
warmer coasts of England, Ireland
and France, where continual stormy
gales may blow on shore for weeks
rather than hours, and where the
sOundingS are liut 50 even or the
chances of safely landine from un-
fortunate shipwreck so promisiN@.
On our coast, south of Cape Cod, the
soundings are great guide and the
careful use of them in thick weather
may often turn danger into salvation.
A commander should always have all
the confidence in his reckoning that
the case permits, but use every check
and bring every help to that reckoning
that he can possibly command. The
lead lineS-there should be three kinds
and sizes of these homely instruments
should be as carefully cared for and
as much respected DIS the chronometer
or the seXtant. 1t is not, however, in
human nature to be always and eternal
ly vigilant, and no one can know how
soon some lapse of care on his part
may prove to be fatal fault.
If all due care can be always main
tanned, and his vessel equal to the best,
it seems to me that the seaman's chance
for old age is about even with that of
his friend on shore. If he does not
practice visiting the most deadly tropi-
cal ports, his chance of good health is
far and away ahead of the landsman.
had friend who was ever diStruSt-
full of the weather and the sea. He gave
it up and with work on shore got into a
perspiration and then rode home in a
winter day. They buried him in week.
Men on shore are killed by horses, by
the cars, by falling bricks, and in many
ways that cannot well happen either
when far at sea or by winter-coasting
Capt. E. ID. Richardson, in the Deel
Isle Messenger.