The Detroit times., 1912-04-17
GRAVEYARD OF ATLANTIC,
IS SPOT WHERE TITANIC
SANK WITH HUMAN CARGO
George Harding Writes Thrill
ing Story of Navigation
Off Cape Race
ICEBERGS MENACE SHIPS
Graves by Wayside and Other
Grim Tokens Tell Stories
of Disasters
ICEBERGs MENACE SHIPS

aster In history, when the monster
liner Titanic went to the bottom. has
for scores OF years been a menace TO
navigation. Here ship after ship has
gone down, sometimes without. but
more often with heavy loos OF life.
Sundays catastrophe was the great
est harvest of human lives that has
ever been reaped in this ocean grave
yard.
George Harding, In a recent num-
Der OF Harpers Magazine. writes at
length on The Menace OF Cape
Race" He says:
Every great trade route OF the world
BIAS, In season. some peculiar danger
70 navigation which brings disaster
to vessels plying its lanes In the
North Atlantic, for ships bound east
and west over the busy northern
route, the particular menace Is Cape
Race. In this neighborhood there is
an extraordinary conjunction OF
perils. Fog, icebergs, submerged
rocks, northeasterly gales. sheer
shore, and a singularly treacherous
current create large possibility of
catastrophe, Cape Race Is blum jag
ged bit of coast. scarcely provided
with strand; and multitude of sub
merged rocks are scattered from the
breaking water at the foot of the
cliffs as far to sea as the Virgin
Rocks, which outlie 80 miles. The
Polar current, which runs like a
river" past the gray cape. is so vari-
able in the direction OF its flow that
. II may race southwest at one time
and flow northeast at another. In the
spring and early summer-and often
as late as the fall OF the year-ice-
bergs come down with the current,
and lie sluggishly of the coast, hid
den from the sharpest eyes OF ships
lookouts in the dense accumulations
OF fog.
II Is the fog-almost continuously
raised by the contact OF the Polar
current with the warm waters of the
Gulf streanf-which for centuries has
made a menace OF this cape OF evil
name. There is little relief from IL;
II Is so continuously present, indeed,
that the cape fog.horn Is frequently
blown for hundreds OF hours at a
stretch.
IT'S nothing but fog here" said
the keeper OF the light. Sure, sir,
the dogs bark when the sun comes
QUIT"
And he meant IL.
Graves by the wayside-weathered
.crosses on the heads above the sea
tell their own tales OF disaster: and
the cottages which huddle i'm the
sheltered coves, and the singular fur
nishings within, betray the dangerous
character or the coast Most OF the
cottage doors once saw service at sea
They do very well ashore, albeit a
trifie low for tall men. skylight
may de-weA- h-feE-a-wiRdew;;
and ships ventilators and the stou:
planks OF ships decks are not TO be
despised by the builders OF dwellings
ashore Almost every habitation OF
the cape is comfortably provided with
a ships settee; and most OF the hos
mtable tables are set with ships
china, some OF this dating back to
the wreck of one or another unlucky
vessel OF the European and Ameri-
can Steam Packet Co.. which must
have gone ashore in the ffties. at the
latest Ships pewter is servlceable;
ships decanters and glasses Are as
good as any other; ships sideboards
DO very well for the display OF 1t all.
Ships medicine chests contain valu-
able remedies, IL one but have both
use them. Coal from the bunkers
of a stranded steamer burns brightly
in a stove: OF dark night, when the
wind is high and cold, the light fall
ing from cabin lamps gives snug
comfort TO a fisherman's cottage; ana
a wee nip from a captains bottle
however long it may have lain undeF
water. completes the JOY OF the &C.
CASTOR. BY means OF ships cap
sian boats may be hauled from the
surf quite as smoothly as anchors
NAV be lifted from the bottom or the
saa. and n ships bell--used aloretlme
ia CALI the watch on some forgotteh
old wind-Jammer-may quite pc
A,4laered fishermen from thlckenlhe
fog 10 the security of his own famlilar
harbor
The route OF the transatlantic lines
from American ports runs past
hundred miles to sea; but the STOW.
going tramp, 10 save one
steaming. follows the shorter route
and seeks to pass within hag-slgnal-
ING distance of the cape. Added TO the
Great feet OF tramps which mus.
yenture near are the Canadian lln-
era which are the Cape Race route
during the ice season In the Strait OF
Belle Isle, and many coastwise craft
schooners and fullrigged fish-car'
rIers. Altogether, thousands OF yes
se!s must pass within sight OF the
cane every year: and 1t is vessels
such as these, astray in the fog, on
the beaten track. which come to grief
and give the coast Its gruesomc
name In single month an Allan
tic liner, crowded with passengers,
and four tramp steamers were totali
IL wrecked within 20 miles Of one an
other. And once ashore craft has
small chance; the stupendous cliffs,
with deep water TO their jagged
edges. and exposed to the swells of
the open ocean, have allowed but one
vessel of the 20 that have been
wrecked there in the last 20 years 10
be refioated The craft on the rocks
il furiously pounded TO pieces by the
FIRST heavy sea- the Delta. a tramp
steamship, entirely disappeared from
sght three hours after going ashore;
and the Regulus, tramp OF near 2.
600 tons, utterly vanished with the
whole ships company between dark
and dawn. leaving her propeller fixed
i'm the cliffs 20 feet. above sea-level,
where II remains to this day.
"A wreck on this coast disappears