The daily Alaskan., 1912-12-07
THE CANDLE BUOY
A Friend of the Mississippi Pilots
 In the Old Days.
QUEER LITTLE LIGHTSHIPS.

They Were Floatsd and Anchored ln the Channel of the River on Dark Nights and Showed the Navigator on Down Trips Where Reefs Were Not. In the old steamboat days on the Mississippi, be,iore the government had undertaken the duty of marking and
 lighting the "crosslngs' where the channel swings over from one bank to
 the other, the river pilots had to devise
 their own means of finding their way . through these difficult and dangerous 1 places.
 Tn the daytime 1t was not hard to do, and ou moonlight nights the landmarks,
 which every pilot knew by heart, could
 be seen plainly enough to make the crossing possible. But there were
 many nights so dark or foggy that the shore marks were not visible; then the reefs had to be ''candled."
 Candliug was resorted to only on the
 down trip. Going up the river the pilot might feel" of the reef with his boat,
 and if he did not dnd the best water ! the first time he could back or and try | again a little to one side or the other wherever the soundings showed the ! deepest water to be-
 In going down the river, however, | that was impossible The pilot had to | fnd the channel the first time, for if ! the boat struck the current would drive | her hard on the reef or else swing her ! broadSide on the bar and In ten min
 utes lmbed her in the very midst of it
 with tons of drifting sand
 To guard against such a disaster when nearing Pigs Eye, Beef Slough ! or Trempeeau bars-or any one of a ! dozen bars of equal diniculty-on a
 dark or hazy night the pilot stopped ! the boat at the head of the reef With ! two men to row, a mate or watchman l to steer, cub" pilot to manipulate ! the "candle buoys" and an older pilot | to take soundlngs, the yawl was low
 cred and permitted to drop down the ! channel below the steamboat
 After the pilot had determined the ! best course by taking soundings the ! cub" under hls direction, anchored | two. three or even four of the candle
 buoys, one after the other, in the cen | ter of the channel, and then the men | let the yawl drop down below the reef,
 where it lay a little outside the chan
 mel Then one oi the men swung lantern-a signal at which the pilot on watch came ahead, steering for the | tiny lighthouses and running over
 them, one by one, until the reef was | passed
 The candle buoy was made ot piece l of two inch light pine plank, beveled
 for four Inches at the Dow" In order
 to prevent It's diving" as the current
 pressed against it A tin "sconce"
 with three legs, three or four Inches | long, was lacked down to the plank. Half ot a common candle was placed In each sconce. and after being lighted
 an oiled paper chimney, with a base corresponding to that of the candle stick. was placed over the light to pro tect it from the wind. The outer ends
 Of the tin legs" of the sconce were
 turned back over the base of the paper
 chimney to hold it in place, and the buoy was ready for launching. A hole was bored about six inches from the end of the plank. Through the hole a small cord some ten or
 twelve feet in length was rove and
 knotted, and to thls cord lump of coal weighing perhaps ten pounds
 was tied. This served as an anchor
 to hold the buoy in its place in the cen
 ter of the channel
 Such was the procedure fifty years
 ago or more. Since the government
 boats began patroIIing the river and
 establishing permanent lights at all bad crossings 1t Is seldom necessary
 for the pilots to go out in a sounding boat, although 1t is not an unheard or proceeding even now.
 But the candle buoy IS a thing of the
 past Probably there are scores of present day pilots who never even
 heard of the makeshlft little lightshlpS
 that their puzzled predecessors were
 wont tn 'runrh amid the darkness and
 doubt nf frrmrr years Youths Com
 naninu
 only One "sRoMo eUlNINE"