Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1909-02-12
FUGITIVE SPAR BUOYS
Rescuing These Stray sticks
Is PeriIous Work.
sIGNBoaRDS OF CHANNELS.
How These Mariners Guides Are An
chored and How They Sometimes
Break Away and Are Hunted Down
by the Lighthouse Service Tenders


by the Lighthouse Service Tenders.
When the winter gales begin to blow,
the tenders of the lighthouse service
turn their stems toward northern seas
to hunt stray spar buoys. OF all the
work OF the coast patrol this, perhaps,
is the most exposed to danger. Pulling
+ these ''signboards" out OF the sea or
I putting them over side is like ''yank-
ing splles with ton derrick on
! heaving platform.
I Although passengers in the boats
that ply the waters Of New York har-
Der. Long Island sound and other wa
terways along the coast see many
spar buoys. they give them little
thought. With the man at the wheel
II is different. Color. shape and size
give him volumes Of Information, and
he looks upon the spar buoy as an in
valuable guide.
In the government inventories they
are listed as sticks" although they
are sometimes sixty feet long. They
are anchored in the bed of a river or
harbOr channel, their up ends" paint
ed In such a way as to indicate to the
observer the formation Of the bottom
On the margin of government charts
explanatory notes tell one that vessels
approaching a harbor from the sea
should leave red buoys with even
numbers on the right and black. with
odd numbers ON the left side of chan /
nels Black and white striped buoys, 4
the stripes running perpendicularly. /
mean an obstruction in the channel. I
with room to get By on either side. /
If balls or cages ornament the up /
ends" it means turning point, the /
color and number Indicating the course.
These sticks are put down with heavy
iron anchors and sometimes great
stone weights. One would suppose that
so fixed they never could get away, but
they do, and it is a job to find them.
Ice foes break their cables and some
times crush the sticks; storms pull
them loose. and ships in the fog or
darkness foul them and tear them from
their hold on the bottom. Not infre
quently ships use them as mornings,
this is forbidden.
There are instances where the an
,hors of a spar buoy have been secure
enough to hold against ice pressure and
n narrow channel cause a dangerous
lam But such cases are few, for
when this happens the weight of the
ce usually becomes so great as to force
he buoy under, and the pack slides on
If the ice pack gets under the buoy
o as to lift it there is only one result
he parting of the cable. Then off
tarts the spar upon a journey maybe
f thousands of miles. perhaps of only
ne or two. 1t may fetch up on the .
earest shore and it may drift to the
cast of Europe or into the southern ,
cas-. On the Irish coast today is one
rhieh Travelled there in six weeks from
lew York harbor 1t was presented
, the British government by the Unit
i States and now floats off the coast .
n which it stopped after its long At
mite journey.
If it is a long chase to find the stray
uoys it is even a more difficult task to
,eover the anchors left behind by the
lcitive sparS. Tenders that sail out
: the harbor have n derrick and tackle
eyed in front of the pilot house. with
donkey engine to lift and pull The
cation of every buoy is marked on
ie charts TO q degree. so it is not diff
III TO find the desired position The
rious business IS dragging for the
lchor and after graphing with it to
list it aboard ship. Here the donkey
lgine comes into play. Another haz-
d is to pun a spar buoy aboard If
a happens TO be running the captain
the tender has TO use extreme care.
iould a big roller get under him and
ddenly tighten the lifting chains
Their they would give way or the
eight would come up too fast. the
ew In either case being placed in =
Dpardy OF their lives. Is
But the risk these men run Is all in
g days work. To them a job In a
away on a lee shore is regarded as
more monotonous task than repaint-
: row of buoys on land.-New York T.
st.