Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-10-27
"THE SEA IS HIS"
Mans Wonderful but Puny Attempts
to Control the Oceans Power.

The Volturna disaster again reminds
us that with all mans vaunted conquests
the sea is still untamed and occasionally
strikes us with the same terror that ap-
palled the ancients. The earliest litera-
ture of which we have record deals much
with the sea and its moods, angry and
benign. Homer alone of the ancients
seemed to feel it's fascination, yet he
left the most powerful descriptions of
ocean storms found in Greek The early
Roman writer's almost without exception
dwelt on the dangers of the sea and ad-
vised, in the language of Lucretius,
against putting faith in the deceitfsl
smile of the placid ocean" The Hebrews
were not lovers of the sea. They seemed
to chiefly regard it as means for mani
festation of the omnipotence of Jehovah.
"He maketh the deep to boil as a pot is
one Bible description. John in Revela-
tion repeatedly talked of the sea CIV
ing up its dead and in his vision of the
new heaven and the new earth --e as
sures us there was no more sea-" We
must consult modern writers to find APP
preciative descriptions of the sea in its
milder aspects. But even modern writ
ers prefer to dwell on it's resistless and
remorseless power This characterzes
the most quoted passage in Byron, his
apostrophe to the ocean in "Childe
Harold"
We know not how long ago the first
man dared to defy the sea in his prim-
tive dugout. We must agree with Hor-
ace that his heart was surrounded with
oak and threefold brass" But he in
spired emulation and as early as 5000
B. c. Egyptian vessels large enough to
be called ships buffeted the waves. The
Phoenicians waxed rich through COM
merce carried on with such primitive
crafts. The Carthaginian sailors with
out chart or compass, following the
north star. visited the British Isles. The
bold Norseman. with methods all his
own. rode the ocean waves and gloried
in his increasing hardness. But navi-
cation as We understand it was born
with the use of mariners compass in the
18th century. Thereafter seafaring men
were no longer the mere sport of chance.
1t took 500 years longer TO develop pre-
cisely planned sails and rigging. In an
other century steam was applied to
navigation This was the greatest boon
yet. The placid sea under "a hot and
copper sky" that was the despair of
Coleridge's ancient Mariner in his
painted ship upon painted ocean,"
had no terror for the steamship. ane ex-
treme length of n sailing vessel before
the Introduction of steam was 200 feet.
The ocean greyhound of today is some
times over four times that length and
proportionately large in other dimen-
sions. Man has charted the ocean cur
rents and aseertained and avoided the
usual course of the typhoons. He has
stretched cables along the ocean floors.
He has walled out the tides at Calves
ton and driven the sea back from Hol-
land. And lately he has learned to send,
without aid of wire. messages in every
direction over the watery main. night
or day. He has built ships to Withstand
every accident and equipped with devices
for every emergency They are floating
palaces carrying all the eonveniences
and luxuries available on land.
But the unsuitable Titanic. costing
more than the United States paid for
Alaska, collided with an iceberg and
was crushed like an eggshel. 1t sank
like drop OF RAIN into the Atlantic
carrying with it 1903 souls Now comes
the Volturna, beset by flames and tossed
By. storm, with 1856 passengers perishing
in the presence of 10 other ships that
rushed to the rescue in response to the
call of the wireless Lloyds Register
tells us that 1000 vessels of various sizes
are wrecked every year! He that tames
the sea may loose the bands of Orion't
st. Louis Globe-Democrat