The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-28
AIDS ID PILOTAGE
 IN LOCAL HARBOR New Haven the Second Best Supplied Port in New
 England. MANY NOT APPRECIATIVE Amateur Owners of Motor Boats Should Make Ex-
 ploration Trips.
MANY NOT APPRECIATIvE

The real pleasure of owning a motor boat does not entirely lay in being able to handle the engine and make the craft go, but rather in making it go to the desired place. It is nothing less than the practice of coast pilot age that is the real sport of motor boating
 Strangely enough, few amateurs find the difficulty in getting their informa- ton that the novice at plotting craft encounters. The fact is that Uncle Sam is very careful to see that no craft need get off it's course for want of Knowledge of the coast or sailing direction, but the beginner with a mo- tor boat seldom knows how to avail himself of the governments painstak ing work; or, in case he does get hold of the official publications, they seem rather vague just because he does not understand the technical terms used to describe the aids to navigation, such terms as horizontal striped num-" fixed red sector" spindle etc, seem Greek to him.
 The water surrounding New Haven contains such a variety of these gov ernment aids that a cruise of day will enable any trio who has provided himself with a Coast Pilot, costing 30 cents, chart of New Haven harbor, costing 20 cents, and list of bouys, lights and day marks, to be had for the asking at the custom house, not only to fully understand all the techni- calities but to find his way to any point from Point Judith to New York by following the compass directions in the Coast Pilot.
 Perhaps there is not place on the New England coast that has so many object lessons for the would-be mari- ner as New Haven. Between Long wharf and Branford beacon will be found every kind of structure that the government maintains with three ex- captions, the light ship, the bell or whistling bouy and the pile dolphin.
 Starting at Long wharf, a fixed red reflector light and fog bell struck at ten second intervals are found; pro- ceeding down the channel the three shapes of buoys, cans, spars and nuns are all met and their colors are self explanatory when their positions are considered, that is, the east side of the channel is marked with red bouys to be left on the starboard hand in entering; the can buoy off Party bar is painted black to indicate the west edge of the channel and to be left on the port hand.
 At the breakwater will be found the fixed sector light at Southwest ledge where the dangers are covered with red light and the open water with white. At the other end of East brealSwater a spindle will be seen. Mid dle breakwater Is marked with port lanterns and the Outer breakwater has a flashing light.
 The fog signals are varied enough to enable one to practice the art by which the men who go down to the sea in ships find their way when wis ion fails, for beside the bell at Long wharf, three horns can be heard, each with a three second blast; the one on Southwest ledge with two silent in- tervals of three and eleven seconds OiA lliO oulVl DASdhWdlCL lHe HOTH IS silent seventeen seconds, while Falk. ner Island has twenty-seven seconds intervening between blasts
 Al night there is an unusual dis play of light characteristics, fixed rec and fixed white at Long wharf and the ledge, While outside no less than foul characteristics are seen, forty-flve sec. onds between flashes at Stratford, five seconds at the Sperry light, ten sec. onds at Stratford shoal and fifteen a Falkner Island.
 Nothing less than a treatise on pilot. |. age would fully do justice to the aidl to navigation that lay within a few miles of this city.
 Only a little study of the 7O-cent Ii brary that has been mentioned and some observation when afloat will en able the fortunate owner of a New Haven motor boat to obtain knowl edge off piloting In a space of tim, that would be inadequate in any othei New England harbor with the excep tion of Boston, and there the numerou channels would make a teacher neces sary.