Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-06-03
JAGGED. t 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 it, leo.
bsrss, Gales and Wild Currents 10
One Of the Gravsyards Of the Ocean.
In Harpers Magazine George Hard
ing describes Cape Race. that menac-
ing point Of Newfoundland that is a
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. northeasterIy gales.
a sheer shore and singvlarly treacher-
GUS current create a large possibility
Of catastrophe.
Cape Race is blur, 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 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 of the coast.
hidden from the sharpest eyes Of the
ships lookouts in the dense accumula-
tons Of fog.
1t 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
menace Of this cape of evil name.
There is little relief from it. 1t is so
continuously present. indeed. that the
cape foghorn is frequently blown for
hundreds Of hours ut stretch. " -"
The route Of the transatlantic lines
from American ports runs past hun
dred miles to sea. and 1t 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 q
single month IN 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 ref]oated.
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 1t 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. 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
muft1ed from the obscurity at sea.
Sometimes shippers send boats ashore
to inquire the way. but often they 60
by in care free ignorance without the
faintest notion that they have escaped
catastrophe by the miracle Of hairs
breadth.
~ heard Teller go by today" said
fisherman of Chance cove. II allowed
he'd fetch up on Fish reef by the sound
Of his course and waited to see, but he
skipped her. and close skim too"'
1t is coast to beware of. The bet.
ter 1t is known the more it is feared.
The skipper Of New York-St. Johns
liner, for a moment at loss for a
reckoning in the fog. took no chances,
but instantly turned tail and headed
for the open sea. where he lay for six
days waiting for the fog to lift.
It Is no wonder the deep sea skipper
shakes in his sea boots when the fog
captures him in q treacherous current
of that coast. Some of the rusted
hulls Of his forerunners in predicament
serve as landmarks for of shore fisher
men. and on the wind swept barren Of
the heads, in graves marked by cross
es raised by kindly hands and snugly
slowed away for good and all in the
little graveyards Of the settlements, lie
thu horoo ~ h,,pdro6S ~ mon xuho