Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-09-22
TRAPS FOR MARINERS
Some Points of Peril That Are
Dreaded by Seamen.
MERclLEss KENTlsH KNOCK.

Vast Cemetery For All Ships That
Are Gripped by Its Relentless Sands.
Sable Islands Fingers of Death.
The exact location Of Davy Jones
locker is not shown on any ocean chart
extant, principally because it is state
and not place. but If any one ocean
death trap deserves the title it is the
Thames estuary. The British naval
department has chart upon which
It marks the position of wrecks with
q black dot. On this chart the Thames
mouth tract is 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. b~.r%
At the Kentish Knock it Is not keel
shattering rocks Of piercing points of
coral that wreck the ocean travellers
It is sand, treacherous, clinging sand,
that grasps the doomed ship with a
grip Of steel and holds it firmly while
the angry sea beats it to fragments.
Many a vessel posted at I.loyd's as
missing would be duly accounted for
If the Knock sand would give up its
booty. There is no hope for 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 a large vessels
voyage from New York to Calcutta is
the last few miles of this calm river.
er 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
II the name James and Mary. It was
the name of great Indian merchant
shipwrecked on the sunken sand banks
Another danger point dreaded by the
master mariner has neither sand nol
rocks, but great submarine waterfall
In the English channel there Is point
just beyond the shambles 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. The American 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 a deadly hiddei
shoal which runs out from Sable is
land, lying off Sable cape, in Nov.
Scotia. The shoal runs out for miles II
fve directions like the fingers Of
great hand reaching out for what !
can destroy. When the gales blow
heavy seas boom upon the shoals witt
suficient force to shatter the stanches
vessel afoat, and when the wind cease
the beaches are strewn with wreckag
and the bodies of those who have pei
ished. The distance from the shore
too great and the surf too heavy TO
the life savers to reach strugglin
vessel, and few lives are saved at thi
point. Ten vessels have been wrecke
In this trap in single day. x
The rocky danger points in the ocea
have nearly all been tagged, and ligh
houses have been erected on the mos
dangerous-all except one. There is u
lighthouse on the Virgin rock, an
there never will be. Out in the mid-A
Iantic a giant pinnacle rears its hea
up from the ocean floor and endeavol
vainly to reach the surface of the se
1t is too short by about eighteen fee
There it stands with its sharp poil
hidden by the ocean waves, waiting
pierce the bottom Of some unsuspectir
vessel and send it down to join the pi
of ships ribs and dead mems bon'
that litter the floor around its bas
The waves seem to be in league vii
the rock, for if a vessel Of light dra
tries to pass over its head the wav
shoot 1t down into a trough at the be
tom of which the point Of the rock
waiting to rip out her keel.
These danger spots, however, are b
annexes to the real DaVy Jones' locke
the Kentish Knock, that cemetery
ships and men where dripping ghos
of master mariners and their men t
over the ruins OF their vessels. B.
Winslow in Los Angeles Times.
Bridge Builders.
We read OF the heroes Of the bait
Geld, the ocean and various other ca
snos hsIf there js another class Of m