The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1909-01-20
FUGITIVE SPAR blO1'5.;
Rescuing These Stray Sticks"
Is PerIIous Work.
s!GNBoARDs OF CHANNELS.

How These Mariners Guides Are An
chored and How They Sometimes
Break Away and Are Hunted Co"n
by the Lighthouse Service Tenders.
When the winter gales begin 70 blow,
the tenders Of the lighthouse service
turn their stems toward northern seas
to hunt stray spar buoys. OF al the
work Of the coast patrol this, PERHAPS.
is the most exposed 10 danger. Pulling
these .:signboardS' out Of the sea c.
putting them over side is like ''ya1k-
ING" spileS with Z ton derrick on a
heayin@ platform.
Although passengers il the boats
that ply the waters Of New York A;ir-
Dor. 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
it 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 IncE
are anchored IN the bed Of :: river or
I harbor channel. their up ends paint
ed in such 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
neis. Black and white striped buoys,
the stripes running perpendiculariy,
mean an obstruction in the channel.
with room to get by on either SIDE.
If balls or cages ornament the up
ends" it means a 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 g. job to IND 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 Oh the bottom. Not lnfre-
quently ships use them as moorings,
although this is forbidden.
There are instances where the an
.chors of a spar buoy have been secure
enough to hold against ice pressure and
in a narrow channel cause 4 dangerous
lam. But such cases are few, TOR
when this happens the weight OF the
ice usually becomes so great as to force
the buoy under, and the pack slides on.
If the ice pack gets under the buoy
so as to lift it there is only one result
the parting Of the cable. Then OF
starts the spar upon a journey maybe
of thousands Of miles. perhaps Of only
one or two. It may fetch up on the
nearest shore, and it may drift 20 the
coast Of Europe or into the southern
seas. On the Irish coast TODAY IS one
which Travelled there in six weeks from
New York harbor. 1t was presented
to the British government by the Unit
eI States and now floats off the coast
OF which it stopped after its long At
lantic Journey.
IF il is a long chase ~ find TIE stray
buoys it IS G. n more difficult task to
recover the anchors left behind by the
fugitive srars. Tenders that sail out
Of the harbor have derrick and tackle
riseed in front OF the pilot house. with
a donkey engine to lift ard pull. The
location of every buoy is marked on
the charts to q degree. so it is not diff
cult to frd the desired position The
serious business IS dragging for the
anchor and after graphing with it to
hoist it aboard ship Here TIE donkey
engine comes into play. Another haZ-
ard is to pull 9 spar buoy aboard. #
sea happens to be running the captain
OF the tender has to use extreme care.
Should big roller get under him and
suddenly tighten the lifting chains
either they would give way or the
weight would come up too fast. the
crew in either case being placed IN
Jeopardy Of their lives.
But the risk these men run is al in
the days work To them q JOB in a
seaway OF q lee shore is regarded as
no more monotonous task than reDo!nt-
ing row Of buoys on land.-New York
Post.