Bisbee daily review., 1907-07-18
|STEERED SHIP
 BY AN ODER

The crowd around the sail loft stove
 down on the East river front had been
 discussing the efficiency of the off
 cers of the United States navy when
 called upon to extricate their vessels
 from tight places. Some of the an. cient mariners were disposed to scoff at the pretensions of the men who
 wear the naval uniforms of Uncle
 Sam, but Cap'n Zekiel came gallantly to the defense of the navy and it's off .cers.
 Publication is a great thing" he de clared, 'and the officers of the navy has it. Where eddication alone will do a thing and do 1t right you can count on 'em every time. Publication is great when you've got to attack the fleet of the enemy or run ag'in a fort
 on shore. That war we had with Spain showed that the officers of the navy was alright when it come to handling a fighting ship. It gave 'em a chance to show what eddication will do and when you hear of an officer gettin' into trouble the chances are that it ain't because he ain't smart. He's all right and so is the eddica- ton he's got. When things go wrong with him it's generally because he ain't got sea horse sense. What I call sea hoss sense is that feelin' that comes to a man who has been afol- lerin' the sea since he was a boy.
 How it is that the pilots on these steamers tell where they be in some of them fogs we have ?Tain't eddics- tion; it's just that same sea hoss sense that they have got by spending all their lives floating around on the water. If the men that runs the war ships would jest own up sometimes that the hoss sense of some of us old fellers is better'n all the eddication they give 'em down to Annaperlis they would git into trouble schooner than they do. 1 fell in with one'em once and he was a man that recognized a man of hoss sense when he see one. an that is how come to help him out of a scrape.
 'I don't knowas you folks remem- ber, but 1t used to be the rule that naval vessel couldn't have no pilot in maxim an American port, an some times the officers found their job hard one when twas thick an there didn't happen to be no one among 'em that was special familiar with the har Dor they were bound into.
 You remember, Sol, that fog we had in August, 1870, or wOs it TT? However, it don't matter which year it was. I was in the Polly Ann them days, an on this day in partic'lar l was own Old Orchard. That was probably one of the meanest fogs that we ever had. A whistle that bore due east would sound as if twas over to coast, man an boy, for about sixty years an I never see the like of that fog.
 "Of course. knew pretty well where was, because, like most cOastin' skip pers, I could sense it; but when l got of Old Orchard, I was bothered some by that whistle on Portland beach. It sounded as if it was plumb up on the beach. If so be l had been only eddicated an hadn't had the sense of where ye be that comes of fOllerin the coast in all sorts of weather, s'pose that I should have steered fer where that whistle sounded as if twas comin' from and run the Polly Ann clear inter the breakers, but sea hoss sense told me that l was off'n Old OGcRaTu, an so ] SdES LO lily SSii IA'I I would let the whistle blow an jest sail the Polly Ann regardless.
 Well, I'd just come to that con- when there loomed up almost onto us an jest two p'ints off'n the port bow one of them old wooden frigates, an she was bound fer that spot on Old Orchard beach where the iron pier is today. When I see that hailed 'em an asked if they knew where the whistles was. He said he warn't allowed by the regulations to take a pilot. I said that he could fol- Ter me an I'd see that he got there all right, but he said that he was afraid that that would be takin' pilot with in the meain' of the rule.
 Then I sung out to him that in that case I should advise that he jest foller his nose. The officer that was a-doin' the talBin' seemed mad at that. but l hailed 'em agin an said that I warn't 1oways jokin'. If you folks follers your nose I says. you'll git into Port