Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-30

mons. Sucn ndTuoI "ouiu ohiS SoS'
about 100000, or less than half the
value of the magnificent battleship
which was cast away upon the Shut
ter Rock. Fatal Lundy, the island
has been called; and lying as it does
so near the track of the vast tonnage
which uses Bristol and other Severn
ports, 1t has more than earned Its
name. Lundy Is about three and a
half miles long by a mile wide, and
possesses some Of the most imposing
cliffs in the British Isles. Dark gran
ite precipices tower in places to
height of 600 feet above the waves,
and the whole island has only one
possible landing place, little pebbly
beach at the southeast corner. Allan
tic gales concentrated like funnel In
the British channel cause the most
terrific seas upon Lundys western
side; and as the worst winds usually
blow first from the southwest and then
shift to northwest, it often happens
that vessels which have taken shelter
behind Lundy suddenly find them
selves upon a lee shore. For sailing
vessels such a position is almost in
variably fatal.
Lundy's powers Of destruction are
simply appalling, as was proved dur
ing the latter part Of that year OF
gales, 1886. Between the 1st of Sep
tember and the 31st Of December Of
that year more than forty vessels and
nearly 800 lives were lost on or near
Lundy.
Next to Lundy the most perilous
point upon our western coast Is prob
ably the South Stack. This is a gi-
gantic, egg-shaped rock which stands
detached from the mainland near
Holyhead. It's seaward side overhangs
so greatly as to give the impression
that the whole vast mass Is topping
over. A lighthouse Is perched upon
the lofty summit of the South Stack,
yet in fog its beam Is quite frequently
invisible from below. The old Baltic,
predecessor Of the present White Star
giant, is perhaps the only vessel that
ever went ashore on the South Stack
and got off unharmed.
Upon the Irish coast Fastnet is
without doubt the most dangerous
part. Lying as 1t does just at the
southwest corner Of Ireland, and in
the very path Of all the transatlantic
traffic, this enormous horn-shaped
rock rising straight out Of deep-water
has been responsible for disasters al
most innumerable. AS Is the case
with the South Stack, a vessel ashore
at Fastnet is as good as lost. There
are only two records of escapes. Some
fifteen years ago the City Of Rome ran
upon Fastnet in a fog and got on,
though sorely damaged; and a year or
two earlier the big Cunarder Aurania
had a similar experience. Luckily
for her, she was creeping along with
barely steerageway, so she managed
to back off in safety.
Ask a sailor what is the worst dan
ger spot in the worlds oceans and he
will unhesitatingly reply, Sable Island.
This strange crescent Of sand lies 80
miles southeast Of Cape Canso, off the
coast of Nova Scotia. 1t is about %
miles long and at no point much over
a mile wide. 1t Is composed entirely
Of sand, and all around sandy bars
stretch far out to sea, and shift and
change with every tide and storm,
making accurate charting impossible.
Where one day the water Is deep
enough for an ocean liner, a month
later are shadows insufficient to float
a fishing smack. The four-thousand-
ton steamer Moravia, one Of the we'll
nigh countless victims of Sable Island,
was lost upon a new reef fully twelve
miles north Of the island, and, as may
well be imagined, the modern skip
per does his best to keep completely
out of sight Of this ocean graveyard.
Within the past fifty years more than
200 fine vessels are known to have
been lost upon Sable Island, and prob
ably half as many again which have
never been reported. Everything
combines to make Sable Island a
death-trap Of the worst possible kind.
1t lies so low, and, having no trees up
on it, is so nearly the color Of the
waves that 1t Is invisible at a compar-
atively slight distance, and, though
vessels crossing the Atlantic easily
avoid it, yet the heavy coastwise traf-
fic must be between 1t and the main
land. The region is one Of the fog
giest in the world, and often, when a
captain has carefully estimated his
position and given the island what he
considers to be a wide berth, he finds
too late that he Is entangled among
the hydra-like tentacles Of the far
stretching sandbars.
1t was John Cabot who discovered
Sable Islands in the year 1897, and one
of the first wrecks upon it's shoals was
Sir Humphrey Gilbert's ship Delight.
Her officers and over 100 men were
lost. The wreck of the Delight is de-
scribed in Hakluyt's Voyages (15S3).
Plainly, from that quaint old chroni-
Gle, Sable, Cor Saba, as the island was
then called), at that date possessed as
many perils as it does today. Thurs
day, the 2Sth," says the writer, "the
wind arose and blew vehemently from
the south and east bringing withal
rain and thick mist, that we could not
see a cable length before us. And be-
times we were run and fouled amongst
flats and sands, amongst which we
found flats and deeps every three or
four ships lengths
Very many French vessels were lost
on Sable during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and in 1899 the
British transport Francis, on her way
to Halifax, went aground on these
deadly sands and was lost with all on
board. This wreck was notable be-
cause the Francis was conveying to
America the whole equipage Of the
Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's faith
er. Horses, plate, furniture-every-
thing was lost. His Royal Highness' s
surgeon several officers of his house