Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-09-11
SOME OCEAN DEATHTRAPS.
, DANGER POINTS WHICH ARE DREAD
ED BY MARINERS.

/ The exact location of Davy Jones
locker is not shown on any ocean chart
extant, principally because it is state
and not a place, but if any one ocean
deathtrap deserves the title, it is the
Thames Estuary The British naval
department has chart upon which
they mark the position of wrecks with
a black dot. On this chart the Thames
mouth tract is solid black spot, sc
numerous have been the wrecks that
the dots run together. The point where
the black dots actually pile one on toE
of another is the Kentish Knock, and
this is the place among all of the oceans s
danger spots that deserves the title OF
Davy Jones' locker.
At the Kentish Knock it is not keel
shattering rocks or piercing points OF
coral that wreck the ocean travellers.
1t is sand; treacherous, clinging sand,
that grasps the doomed ship with d
grip of steel and holds it firmly while
the angry sea beats it TO fragments.
| There is no hope for ship nor man when
Father Neptune asks toll at the Kent
ish Knock, for the nearest land is x
miles away, and the nearest lifeboat al
Margate, 30 miles away.
Next to the Thames mouth tract in
point of danger is the Hugh, the salt
| water river on which Calcutta stands
The most trying part of a large vessels
voyage from New York to Calcutta is
the last few miles of this calm river
The sands grasp the keel of the marked
vessel and she stops. But the tide
moves on with relentless force and the
helpless ship is carried over on heI
beam ends. She careens over and
founders with all on board.
In the English Channel there is g
point just beyond the Shambles bank
known as Portland race, where there
is a sudden drop in the sea bottom
The channel tides sweep over the banks
and down this sudden drop, creating
rapids equal in fury to those of Mia
CARA.
There is a deadly hidden shoal which
runs out from Sable Island, lying of
Sable cave, in Nova Scotia. The shoal
runs out for miles in five directions like
the fingers of great hand reaching Out
for what it can destroy. When the
glaes blow, heavy seas boom upon the
shoals with sufficient force to shattel
the staunchest boat afioat, and when
the wind ceases the beaches are strewn
with wreckage and the bodies of those
who have perished. The distance from
the shore is too great and the surf toe
heavy for the life-savers to reach q
struggling vessel, and few lives are
saved at this point. Ten vessels have
been wrecked in this trap in single
day.
The rocky danger points in the ocean
have nearly all been tagged and light
houses have been erected on the most
dangerous except one. There is
no lighthouse on the Virgin Rock, and
there never will be- Out in the mid
Atlantic giant pinnacle rears its head
up from the ocean floor and endeavols
vainly to reach the surface of the gsea.
1t is too short by about IS feet. There
is stands with its snarp point hidden
by the ocean waves, waiting to pierce
the bottom OF some unsuspecting ves-
with the rock; for, if vessel of light
draft tries to pass over its head, the
waves shoot it down into the trough at
the bottom of which the point of the
rock IS waiting to rip out her keel.