Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1911-06-02
OCEAN SHIP TRAPS
deadly snares Laid For Its Prey
by the GIutton Sea.
KENTISH KNOCK IS PITILESS.

This Treacherous Spot Is the Real Davy
Jones' Locker-No Hope For Vessel
or Man When Neptune Asks Toll at
This Submarine Graveyard.
"Davy Jones' locker" that perilous
snot mention Of which so often comes
from the lips of sailors, is not shown
ON any ocean chart principally be-
cause it is not really settled place,
hut If any ocean death trap deserved
the title 1t is the Thames estuary.
The British naval authorities have a
chart upon which is marked the posi-
ton Of wrecks, shown by black dots.
On this chart the Thames mouth tract
Is a solid black spot. So numerous
have been the wrecks the dots run
together. The point where the black
dots actually pile the one on the top
of another is the Kentish Knock, and
this is the place among all Of the
ocean danger spots that deserves the
title of Davy Jones' locker.
At the Kentish Knock 1t is not keel
shattering rocks nor piercing points of
coral that wreck the ocean travellers.
1t is sand-treacherous, cffrging sand
that grasps the doomed ship with a
grip of steel and holds it firmly while
the angry sea beats it to fragments.
Many q vessel posted at Lloyd's as
missing would be duly accounted for
if the Knock sand would give up its
prey. There is no hope for ship or
man when Neptune asks toll at the
Kentish Knock, for the nearest land
is twenty miles away and the nearest
lifeboat at Margate, thirty miles dis
tant.
The sands Of the ocean are far more
dangerous than rocks. The sand
banks extend over more space and
therefore offer more points of contact
than the rocks, which usually rise in
slender pinnacles. The waters flow
over the sands in smooth waves, and
there are no warning breakers.
Next to the Thames mouth tract In
point of danger Is the Hooghly, 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. In this strange stream,
In MINDLESS weather and fiat calm
water, vessels have been lost-dashed
to pieces on the dreaded 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 Hooghly
bears the name Of James and Mary.
This was the name of great Indian
merchant ship wrecked on the sunken
sand banks.
Another danger point dreaded by the
master mariner has neither sand nor
rocks, but great submarine water
fall. In the English channel there is
a point just beyond the Shambles bank
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 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 near q deadly hidden shoal
which runs out from Sable island, ly-
ing off Cape Sable. in Nova Scotia,
The shoal runs out for miles In five
directions, like the fingers of a great
hand reaching out for what 1t can
destroy.
When the gales blow heavy seas
boom upon the shoals with sufficient
force to shatter the stanchest Vesse
afoat, and when the wind ceases the
beaches are strewn with the bodies Of
those who have perished. The distance
from the shore Is too great and the
surf too heavy for the life savers to
reach q struggling vessel, and few
lives are saved at this point. Ten YES
sells have been wrecked In this trap In
a single week.
The rocky danger points III the ocean
have nearly all been classified, and
lighthouses 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 this giant
pinnacle re&rs its head up from the
ocean floor and vainly seeks to reach
the surface of the sea. 1t Is short
by about eighteen feet. There 1t
stands, with its sharp point hidden by
the ocean waves, waiting to pierce the
bottom of some unsuspecttng vessel
and send il 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 win
the rock. for if n vessel Of light draft
tries to pass over it's head the waves
drop it down into trough at the bot
tom of which the point Of the rock IS
waiting to rip out its keel.-Harpers