Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1912-12-11

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consist of planning to go some
- where and going. Most men
are seeking happiness, and an
ticipation is said to be the climax OF
happiness in most cases. However
that may be, going somewhere and
! getting ready for the journey is the
means of happiness for most persons.
To have no place to go is tragedy.
! Lightships do not go anywhere.
They stay in one spot, day in and day
out, month in and month out, year in
and year out, save when the tide or
! the wind forces them to swing around
| their shackles and instead of pointing
east their stubbed prows point north
or south, or southwest-by-west, as the
case may be. They bob up and down
in the seaway, and if it is choppy they
may be bucking broncos, as the light
house men describe them. The Scot
land lightship makes a double pitch in
seven seconds. To be forced to watch
the steamships sailing past, within
hailing distance, on their way to all
parts of the world, or gliding in from
the sea with their burdens of Ameri-
cans, homeward bound and joyful in
the realization of the fact that they
will soon see their friends, and immi-
grants seeking and expecting to find
that which should make the circum-
stances of life more satisfactory, is
like placing a Barmecide feast before
mariner who has been floating in an
open boat without food for a week.
That is what the crew of a Iightship
outside of New York harbor has to
face.
A General Provider.
At Tompkinsville, Staten Island,
Uncle Sam has maintained for these
many years depot of the lighthouse
service. 1t is the chief one in the Uni
ted States. Not only has it great
deal to do with the supplies for the
entire service, but from it's wharves,
crowded with buoys of a hundred
shapes, ocean-going vessels, called ten
ders, put forth with all kinds of sup
plies for the maintenance of the pre-
cious lights along the coast and in
the harbors between Narragansett Bay
and Cape May. The tenders take com
pressed gas to the gas buoys, coal. oil
and food supplies to the lighthouses,
and coal, water, oil, vegetables, eggs,
Ice and other supplies of the kind that
would be required on a vessel that
makes port, perhaps, only once or
twice a year. There are four or five
of the tenders, all bearing names of
flowers, such as the Tulip, the Lark
spur, the Gardenia and the Pansy.
Sometimes they are gone for a week,
sometimes for day only, but there is
always one designated to go out on
Saturday to the lightships at the
mouth of the harbor There are two
of these lightships-the Ambrose
Channel No. 81, and the Scotland, No.
H. The former lies outside the en-.
trance to the Gedney channel or
main gateway, while the latter swings
in the seaway at the mouth of the
South channel, the passage used by
coastwise vessels and barges on their
way into the harboT.
1t behooves those who have secured
the privilege of making the trip from
the Office of the lighthouse service. in
Washington, to be on hand bright and
early in the morning, for the tenders
get away almost with the sun.
On this morning, however, the sur
is invisible; it is foggy. The cook pro.
vides cup of coffee as an appetizer,
and in little while a grocery wagon
rattles down to the gangway. Several
barrels of green stuff, fresh meat, and
case of eggs are carried aboard. The
breakfast bell rings and as the tender
works her way through the narrow
passage out of the basin, the youthful
waiter serves the meal
Slowly the tender picks her way
down the Narrows through the fog,
which seems TO become denser rather
than thinner. The breeze drives the