Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-17

With the installation OF wireless teley-
raphy on the Nantucket Shoals lightship
the old landfall of Nantucket began to be-
come the most famous in the world.
Before that thousands of vessels ran
toward II to get their proper bearings when
approaching the American coast: but since
then every ship that possibly do SO
aims TO pass the lightship, both in and
outbound, TO get herself reported and re-
ceive or transmit important information.
Nantucket is not the real landfal any
more. The great ships would never ven
ture into the network of shadows and deeps
that extends for more than hundred
square miles around that island and its
neighbor. Martha's Vineyard.
They pass far southwark of old San
katy. Head which was one Of the first
landfalls ever made in the north Atlantic
From the decks of the liners there is no
land to be seen when the ships pass the
hghtship, for it is anchored fifty miles
south of Nantucket Island; and though the
brave old light vessel is mocred well out
side of all the shoals. in more than $50
feet of water the steamships do not go
too close even TO 1t. for the waters here
are recognized as being the most dangerous
parts of the United States coast.
In late years, since practically all ocean
steamships are full-powered, so that they
can choose their own way. and need not
FEAR being driven out OF thelr courses ny
gales currents, the dangers of Nan
fuckets shoals ere diminished for large
vessels for the only way that they could
get involved in the maze would be by gross
laundering. But in the days of sailing
ships. the sunl,en sands and the wicked
tides that swirl and make chops and rips
everywhere were menaces that fulfilled
their threats only too often.
Menaces of the Sea.
So serious were they that once even
an American frigate came near TO leaving
her bones there. The natives have forgot
ten the name of the ship. but they have not
forgotten the story. The people of Mus
keget and Tuckernuck Islands still tell
with pride how one morning sudden lift
I'm a gray fog disclosed the fire ship stand
ing into danger between the two islands.
how men from both raced to get the honor
of plotting her out, and how the Muskeget
boat touched her port side Just as ne
with the result that both islanders shared
the glory of saving The frigate.
But If the transatlantic ships no longer
have to fear the shoals once they did.
they still remain deadly for the great coast
wise traffic of the north Atlantic. Almost
two hundred vessels stranded In various
parts of the sand-beset sea there during
the last ten years. When fogS cover the
yexing waters. navigation Is almost inn
possible. owing To the perpeXing twis,s
that the narrow channels make, and II is
then that lOOncfS ana SlGdHeIS stHNipt
wherever they can find holding ground,
with the result that others still under way
drive into them. and they send each other
10 the bottom in the ghostly dark.
Most famous. though by no means most
tragic of the scores Of collisions that
have occurred there In the past few years
was the sinking of the beautiful steam
yacht Alva. when her owner william Is
Vanderbilt. and his guests nearly lost
their lives The AlVa caught in the
treacherous waters by fog. had to come
TO anchor in the fairway. While she lay
there a coasting steamship went into her
headlong and she sank almost at once.
Had both crew and passengers on the
Alva not remained cool and clear headed
the shoals would have added them to the
long list of human victims tnat makes al
most every rip and drowned sand the
background for a gloomy tale.
The reports of the life-saving stations
on the islands and points that thrust
themselves into this dismal sea are full of
routine reports of the finding of wreck
age and the recovery of the bodies of
drowned sailors, who are picked up only
TO be buried as unknown victims, with
mo way of telling with what ship or in
what tragedies they met their deaths.
The number of shipwrecks on this part
of the American coast as recorded even
in these years when all the shoals are
charted buoyed. lit and guarded unceasing
" makes admirable commentary on the
wonderful nautical skill possessed by the
old sea captains who penetrated into these
waters when they We're strange and all
unknown.
How did old Bartholomew Gosnold In
his little unhandy ship. that wore ard
steered little better than a scow, ever
pierce the hundred dangers of the foggy,
stormy waters until he reached Nan
tuclet Island itself and landed on what is
now Sankaty Head? That was in 1902 so
Nantucket has been landfall for little
more than 300 years.
Whales filled those seas then. and "all
manner of incredible and strange crea-
whence he HarI ,r.sd
much profit" SO. pressing close on the
old sailor-adventurer's course, came men
from England to kill whale and catch cod
and herring
When the old Pilgrims got their grant
Nantucket was included In IL. 1t became
part Of the state Of New York in 1854, and
1898
Nobody knows why or how the island
came TO be called Nantucket; but as Nam
tuCket II soon became famous all over
the world, because the greatest whalers
and sailors that ever swept the sea for IN
honest and toilsome living went forth
from its wind-whipped, sandy shores.
Famous Long Ago.
Long before the revolution Nantucket
ships some not as. big as the ferry boats
OF today, went up into the Arctic ocean
and brought back whale and seal and
walrus. When the revolution began $50
whaling ships. sailed by more than 1000
NHntuCkpt
over the world. They continued to take
whale under the very futtering of the
British war ilags I'm the Atlantic and the
Pacific but the island sustained great
losses steadily Undaunted. however the
brave sailors continued to go forth and
after the war ceased the first shin 10 fv
the new American flag in an English port
was the Nantucket whaler Bedford
The great shoals that surround the island
are the Southwest shoal lying southwest Of
Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and the
Nantucket shoals. which is a very general
title for a complex spread of water twenty
three miles eastward and thirty-nine miles
southeastward from Nantucket Island
Throughout this big area there are shallow
spots alternating with deep ones. and as the
shadows are composed OF sands that shift
constantly. the navigation of the locality Is
the most battling that can be imagined
The depths vary IN the most startling
way, some OF The spots. though far out OF
sight OF land and apparently In the deep
open sea. being Bot more than three or four
feet deep, while others near them may show
twenty-five or thirty feet over them.
Between these sands narrow twisting
channels called 'slues' through which the
tides race In confusion, making wicked
cross-rips soon a the wind blows
Ard = h. ind