New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1912-06-19
JAGGED CAPE ! ! RACE
|ons Of the North Atiantio Trap,
That Mariners Dread.
ROCKY, FoaaY AND DEADLY.
THE Gray, Grim Menace 70 vssssl'
That Gene Within Reach 81 lie lee
bsras, Gales and Wild currsnts Il
one Of the oravsyards Of The Ocean.

That Gene Within Reach OF lts Ice.
bsras, oaiss and Wild Currents 4,
One Of the oravsyards 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 tc
navigation which brings disaster tc
vessels plying .its lanes. In the north
Atlantic, for ships bound east and wes'
over the busy northern route. the par
ticular menace is Cape Race. In this
neighborhood there 10 an extraordinary
conjunction Of perils. Fog. 1cebergs'
submerged rocks, northeastsrly gales
q sheer shore and sineularly Preacher
GUS current create large possibility
Of catastrophe.
Cape Race il blum. 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 SEQ
as the Virgin rocks. which outlle nine.
ty miles. The polar current, (which
runs like river past the gray cape
is so variable in the direction of its
flow that it may race southwest al
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
lions Of fog.
It is the fog, almost continuously
raised by contact Of the polar current
with the warm waters Of the gull
stream, which for centuries has made
a menace Of this cape Of evil name
There Is little relief from It. 1t Is sc
continuously present, indeed, that the
cape foghorn is frequently blown fo'
hundreds Of hours at stretch. -
The route of the Transatlantic lines
from American ports runs past hun.
dred miles to sea, and It Is the vessels
that 60 astray in the fogs OF the beat
en- track which come to grief and give
the coast its grewsome name. In s
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 tc
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 reaoated.
The craft on the rocks is furiOusly
pounded to pieces by the first heavy
sea. 2" 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 tc
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
mufiled from the obscurity at sea.
Sometimes skippers 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.