The river press., 1912-09-18
JAGGED CAPE RACE
One of the North Atlantic Traps
That Mariners Dread.
ROCKY, F0GGY AND DEADLY.

This Gray, Grim Menace to Vessels
That Come Within Reach Of lts Ice.
bsrss, Gales and Wild Currents 10
One Of the Graveyards Of the Ocean.
In Harper's Magazine George Hard
ing describes Cape Race, that menac-
ing point Of Newfoundland that Is
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 it's 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,
a sheer shore and singularly treacher- |
Gus current create large possibility
Of catastrophe.
Cape Race is bluff, jagged bit of
coast scarcely provided with strand,
and 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 its
flow that it may race southwest at
one time and flow 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 off the coast,
hidden from the sharpest eyes of the
ships lookouts in the dense accumula-
tions of fog.
It is the fog, almost continuously
raised by contact Of the polar current
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 it. It is so
continuously present, indeed. that the
cape foghorn is frequently blown for
hundreds of hours at stretch. -
The route Of the transatlantic lines
from American ports runs past a hun
dred miles to sea, and it is the vessels
that 60 astray In the fogs off the beat
en- track which come to grief and give
the coast it's 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
once 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 reioated.
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 point beyond range Of the
fog whistle, fisherman heard from the
fog not only the orders to reverse the
engines and man the lifeboats, but a
loud command to one Of the officers to
guard the liquor. Vessels often slip
past in the mist, themselves unseen
their presence, peril and escape from
disaster told only by voices coming
muf1led from the obscurity at sea
Sometimes shippers send boats ashore
to inquire the way, but often they &C
by in care free ignorance without the
faintest notion that they have escaped
catastrophe by the miracle of hairs
breadth.
II heard feller go by today" said 6
fisherman of Chance cove. II allowed
he'd fetch up on Fish reef by the sount
Of his course and waited to see, but ht
skipped her. and close skim too"
It 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 moment at loss for {
reckoning in the fog, took no chances
but instantly turned tail and headed
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 fol
captures him in treacherous curren
of that coast. Some of the ruste'
hulls Of his forerunners in predicamen
serve as landmarks for of shore fisher
men. and on the wind swept barren 0
the heads, in graves marked by cross
es raised by kindly hands and snugl
slowed away for good and all in tn
little graveyards Of the settlements, Ii
the bones of hundreds Of men VIII