Fort Pierce news. (Fort Pierce, Fla.) 190?-1920, 1908-09-25
TRAPS FOR MARINERS
Some Points of Peril That Are
Dreaded by Seamen.
MERCILESS KENTISH KNOCK.
This Real. DaVy Jones' Locker Is .
Vast Cemetery For All Ships That
Are Gripped by It's Relentless Sands.
Sable Islands Fingers Of Death.

Sable Islands Fingers OF Death.
The exact location Of Davy Jones
locker Is not shown on any ocean chart
extant, principally because 1t is a state
and not a place, but If any one ocean
death trap deserves the title 1t is the
Thames estuary. The British naval
department has q chart upon which
1t marks the position Of wrecks with
a black dot. On this chart the Thames
mouth tract is a solid black spot So
numerous have been the wrecks that
the dots run together. The point
where the black dots actually pile one
on top Of another Is the Kentish Knock,
and this is the place among all Of the
oceans danger spots that deserves the
title Of Davy Jones locker.
At the Kentish Knock 1t is not keel
SCATTERING rocks of piercing points of
coral that wreck the ocean travellers.
1t is sand, treacherous, clinging sand,
that grasps the doomed ship with q
grip Of steel and holds 1t firmly while
the angry sea beats It to fragments.
Many a vessel posted at Lloyd's as
missing would be duly accounted for
II the Knock sand would give up its
booty. There is no hope fot ship or
man when Father Neptune asks toll at |
the Kentish Knock, for the nearest |
land is twenty miles away and the
nearest lifeboat at Margate, thirty |
miles away.
The sands of the ocean are far more
dangerous than the rocks. The sand |
banks extend over more space, there
fore offer more points of contact than
the rocks, which usually rise in one
slender pinnacle. The waters flow over
them In smooth waves, and there are
no warning breakers.
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 large vessels
voyage from New York to Calcutta Is
the last few miles Of this calm river.
In this strange river In MINDLESS wealth
err and fat calm water vessels have
been lost, dashed to pieces on the ever
shifting sand banks by the force of
the tides. 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 her beam ends. She careens over
and founders with all on board. One
of the worst shoals in the Hugh bears
the name James and Mary. 1t was
the name Of great Indian merchant
shipwrecked on the sunken sand banks.
Another danger point dreaded by the
master mariner has neither sand nor
rocks, but great submarine waterfall.
In the English channel there is point
just beyond the SHAMELESS banks where
there Is sudden drop In the sea bot
tom. The channel tides sweep over
the banks and down this sudden drop,
creating rapids equal in fury to those
Of Niagara. TheAmercan ship Georgian
foundered in Portland race, the name
by which this danger point is known.
and all hands went down with her.
Ships bound to New York from Eu. |
rope pass quite near deadly hidden |
shoal which runs out from Sable is !
land, lying of Sable. cape, IN Nova
Scotia. The shoal runs out for miles In !
five directions like the fingers Of a
great hand reaching out for what it
can destroy. When the gales blow. !
heavy seas boom upon the shoals with J
sufficient force to shatter the stanchest
vessel afloat, and when the wind ceases
tha hoo OhaC q rn cfroxt-v With ,,-roolyoo.
and the bodies Of those who have per-
ished. The distance from the shore IS
too great and the surf too heavy for
the life savers to reach a struggling
vessel, and few lives are saved at-this
point Ten vessels have been wrecked
In this trap In a single day.
The rocky danger points IN the ocean
have nearly all been tagged, and light
houses have been erected on the most
dangerous-all except one. There is no
lighthouse on the Virgin rock, and
there never win be. Out In the mid-At
lantic a giant pinnacle rears its head
up from the ocean floor and endeavors
vainly to reach the surface of the sea.
1t is too short by about eighteen feet
There 1t stands with its sharp point
hidden by the ocean waves, waiting to
pierce the bottom of some unsuspecting
vessel and send it down to join the pile
of ships ribs and dead mems bones
that litter the floor around its base.
The waves seem to be in league with
the rock, for If vessel Of light draft
tries to pass over its head the waves
shoot 1t down into trough at the bot |
tom of which the point of the rock il
waiting to rip out her keel.
These danger spots, however, are but |
annexes to the real Davy Jones' locker,
the Kentish Knock. that cemetery of
shins and men where dripping ghosts |