Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-05-24
JAGGED CAPE RACE
One of the North Atlantic TRAPS
That Mariners Dread.

Ing describes Cape Race, that menac-
ing point Of Newfoundland that is q
terror to the mariners of the north
Atlantic coast:
Every great trade route OF the world
has In season some peculiar danger to
navigation which brings disaster to
vessels plying its lanes. In the north
Atlantic, for ships bound east and west
over the busy northern route. the par
ticular menace is Cape Race. In this
neighborhood there Is an extraordinary
conjunction of perils. Fog. icebergs.
submerged rocks, northeasterly gales
e sheer shore and singularly treacher-
ons current create a large possibility
Of catastrophe.
Cape Race is a bluff. jagged bit of
coast scarcely provided with strand.
and a multitude of submerged rocks
are scattered from the breaking water
at the foot of the cliffs as far to sea
as the Virgin rocks. which outlie nine
ty miles. The polar current, which
runs like a river" past the gray cape,
is so variable in the direction of it's
Cow that 1t may race southwest at
one time and dow northeast at anoth-
er. In the spring and early summer
and often as late as the fall Of the
year-icebergs come down with the
current and lie sluggishly of the coast,
hidden from the sharpest eyes Of the
ships lookouts IN the dense accumula-
tons of fog.
II is the fog. almost continuously
Eofc Nv NP fhn
with the warm waters of the gulf
stream. which for centuries has made
a menace of this cape of evil name
There is little relief from 1t. 1t is so
continuously present, indeed. that the
cape foghorn is frequently blown for
! hundreds of hours at a stretch. -
The route of the transatlantic lines
from American ports runs past a hun
dred miles to sea, and It is the vessels
that go astray in the fogs of the beat
en- track which come to grief and give
| the coast its grewsome name. In a
single month an Atlantic liner, crowd
ed with passengers, and four tramp
steamers were totally wrecked with
IN twenty miles of one another. And
ouce ashore a craft has small chance.
The stupendous cliffs. with deep water
to their Jagged edges and exposed to
the swells Of the open ocean. have al
lowed but one vessel of the seventy
that have been wrecked there in the
past twenty years to be relocated.
The craft on the rocks is furiously
pounded to pieces by the first heavy
sea. -" The Regulus. tramp steam
er Of near 1000 tons. utterly vanished
with the whole ships company be-
tween dark and dawn. leaving her pro-
PEELED fixed in the cliffs twenty feet
above sea level, where it remains to
this day.
Steamers have gone so close to the
cliffs in the fog that the fishermen on
the heads, unable to even discern an
outline OF the blind craft, have clearly
heard that panic on the bridge when
the captain reversed the engine room
signals and in the same breath ordered
the lifeboats manned After that they
have listened to the churning of the
screw. TO the orders from the bridge
and to the gradual departure of the
vessel from her dangerous position.
Once at a point beyond range of the
fog whistle. fisherman heard from the
fog not only the orders to reverse the
engines and man the lifeboats bur q
loud command to one OF the officers t
guard the liquor. Vessels often shI
past in the mist. themselves unseen
their presence. peril and escape from
disaster told only by voices coming
muffled from the obscurity at sea
Sometimes shippers send boats ashore
10 inquire the way, but often they e
by in care free ignorance without tn.
faintest notion that they have escaped
catastrophe by the miracle of a hair!
breadth.
al heard a Teller go by today" said 1
fisherman of Chance cove. Il allowed
he'd fetch up on Fish reef by the soun'
of his course and waited to see. but b.
skipped her. and close skim tooT'
1t is a coast to beware of. The bet
ter it is known the more it is feared
The skipper OF New York-St John
liner. for q moment at loss for
reckoning In the fog. took no chances
but instantly turned tail and heade
for the open sea. where he lay for 81
days waiting for the fog to lift.
1t is no wonder the deep sea skippe
shakes in his sea boots when the 70
captures him in a tAcacherOus curren
OF that coast. Some of the rustic
bulls of his forerunners IN predicamen
serve as landmarks for of shore fisher
men. and on the wind swept barren G
the heads. in graves marked by eros!
es raised by kindly hands and snugl
slowed away for good and all in tn
- little gravevards of the settlements II