Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-04-01

sailed ships as | have for 10 years has
III mat time felt the dread of being
unable to prevent disaster l re-
member one very striking example of
this IN my own experience.
= had been made first officer of a
FeAlnsular and Oriental freighter run
hIn& between shipping psrts in the
orient. We were Steaming through
the China Sea one day in Il dense fog,
and had the bridge The mist was so
thick that You couldn't see beyond the
hoWSpflt, and | had slowed the ship
Down to halt speed. If You have ever
9eeh Ill Il fog at sea You know how
dlf1icult II Is to determine the direction
from which sound comes. ON this
particular daY ] heard the faint hnot
Of the steamships whistle. but to save
NY life | couldn't tel where it came
from.
First il sounded on one port and
taen on tie other, growing stronger
with each blast. There is nothing
Wflch so 9nnoys steamship Captain
as to have the man in charge con-
stantly check the ship in Il fog He
invariably considers that it shows lack
OF confidence on the part of the man
on duty and fails 10 take into account
any other consideration than that he
IS losing time on the voyage \ Young
officer is, therefore, DESTROYS of forg-
ing ahead at all costs. / did, there
fore. what nine young officers in ten
would do, and that was to keep going.
hoping that with each blast of the
other ships whistle should be able to
locate the direction from which she
VAS proceeding
To my horror / suddenly saw loom
up out of the fog before me the outline
of another ship. Now if this story
was being told by the average writer
OF sea romances, he would say my first
order was to reverse the engine. This
Is just what no seaman under present
conditions would think of doing. NV
only hope lay in jumping to the wheel.
grabbing it out of the hands of the
Quartermaster ana throwing it hard
over. AS a matter of fact, we fortu-
natcly veered off enough to clear the
Other ship. and by the lucky gamble
which has saved many lives at sea
the helmsman on the other ship threw
his tiler in the opposite direction.
Only too often in such crises the men
at the wheel each turn toward each
other.
IF we had some method at hand
by which the ship could have been
braked great part of the danger
would have been removed, because
with our way checked, even though
the steamships had bumped. there is
little likelihood that any harm would
have been done beyond a few dentsd
plates. 1t is the unchecked momer-
tum of ship which causes disasters
at sea-
In view to Mr.. Westinghouse's con-
tributions to American progress. it is
interesting to consider something of
now he first came to interest himself
i'll mechanical development. Soon af-
ter his graduation from Union College
he saw two freight trains come togeth-
er because the engine of neither one
could hold back its string of cars af-
ter the danger of collision became APP
parent. In that case as in the case of
the steamship devices. he realized that
il would be extremely useful to have
a brake that could be operated by the
engineers.
AiS 'iStN Sdlicu SoiiS hHONltuSt u
mechanics through his fathers agri-
cultural works, where he became ia
miliar with the operation of machin-
cry. At Is. he had constructed the
model of a rotary engine which has
been his LIES goal. George Wrestling
house had in that day no skilled en-
gineers to whom he could take al
rough drawing and say make that"
He had no financial allies who might
be willing to underwrite million or
ten millions of securities, but he took
his idea for an airbrake to the heads
of various railroads asking for a |
chance to develop it. The railroad |
men We're skeptical. From one to an
other young Westinghouse took his |
device and was rebuffed. On his be-
half q New York friend approached |
Commodore Vanderbilt to gain q hear |
ing.
"Does he think he can stOp:a train
with the windY' the Commodore asked, |
The man who spoke for George West
inghcuse said that was part OF. his I
plan.
"Then tell him haven't any time totl
waste ON FOOLS" the builder OF the