Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1905-10-19
SAFE OCEAN TRAVEL.
MODERN STEAMSHIPS ARE SAT
ER THAN RAILROADS.
Latest Inventions for the Security Of
water Transportation Re-
move Many Of Its
Dangers.

In the presence OF the fearful loss OF
life In accidents on our railroads Il is
with relief that ve contemplate the ever
Increasing safety Of travel by sea. Year
aftsr year passes BY without any OF the
Important passenger steamers that
crosa the Atlantic ocean, or other oceans
on which passenger travel 10 heavy,
meeting with an accident that causes
riak q life or limb to the passengers.
This fact. says the Scientific American,
10 ths more remarkable when we remem-
bsr that ocean travel has increased by
leaps and bounds during the past dec
ads: that not only are there more steam.
ers following the lanes Of travel, but
that they are running at much higher
speed. The mail steamers come and 30
with . regularity approaching that Of
the best railroad schedule. and It takes
the very iercest Of Atlantic midwinter
galss to interfere seriously with this
punetuality. In seeking for the causes
Of this remarkable immunity from &C.
cidents we have to look not Mt the
natural, but at the human elements of
the situation.
Seas are as broad and tempestuous
40 ever; fogs as impenetrable as those
that bafiied the early navisators still
brood over the. surface Of the deep;
the sunken roofs. the shifting sand
bar, the variable current and many
another natural cause Of marine dis.
esters still beset the path of the navi-
gator. Therefore. It is to the triumphs
Of invention and the perfecting Of hu.
man control and management that we
must look for an explanation OF the
all but absolute security Of steamship
travel to-day. The secret Of this %
curity is to be found both in the struc.
ture Of the ship itself and In the mar.
velously ingenious devices which SCI
ence and invention have placed at the
service Of the navigator to guide him
in the more perilous phase Of his |
duty. Without enumerating those ele- |
msnts Of water-tight subdivision. vast |
size and better control in the ship
itself, or the wonderfully sensitive and
refined apparatus at the command Of |
the modern navigator, we need but re-
fer to two Of the very latest safe
guards, in the form of wireless teleg. |
raphy and submarine signaling, to
show that the present immunity from |
accidents Is traceable to clearly recog.
nizsd human causes. -
The last-named invention is . close
rival to the wireless telegraph in the
great increase that II has made In the
safety OF travel on the sea- Testimony
to IT. efficiency was recently given by
an ofacer of the Kaissr wilhelm der
Crosse. upon which tho new eQuipmnt
Is carried. We have 90 frequently do
scribed the device In tho celumas Of
the Scientific American that Il 20 suf.
ncient to say that at the lighthouse or
lightship there is bell upon which
signals are sounded and that upon the
ship Is carried receiving device In the
form Of an iron tank attached to the in
side Of the plating below the water line,
from which wires are 20 be led to tele-
phones in the chsrtroom or ON the
bridge. One receiver 10 placed on each
side Of the ship, with separate wires
from each, and by the use Of the tele-
phones the officer is able to hear q bell
that Is being struck at a point many
miles distant from the ship and deter
mine Its direction.
The ofiicer on the Kaiser Wilhelm der
Crosse states that on the last trip over,
when the ship was four miles distant
from the mouth Of the River Weser, he
plainly made out the signals conveyed
from the light ship there Furthermore,
as the vessel neared Nantucket and
when she was about four miles distant !
rom the lightship he heard through the I
telephone the signal &c." This consists I
of six strokes Of the bell. which is the
Nantucket lightship code signal. At
about the same distance from the Fire
sland light and from the Sandy Hook
ightship the respective signals were dis
inctly audible. The value Of this de-
rice In preventing collisions between ap- I
ships is evident. for It has {
his advantage over the foghorn, that :
he direction Of the approaching vessel,
whether from port or starboard, is de- :
ermined at once by the fact that the
ounds are audible to the port or star
'oard telephone.