Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-04
WORKING A WRESTLING BUOY.
A Task of Danger Demanding Skill.

A Task of Danger Demanding Skill.
Sea travellers up and down our coast
lines often hear a strange, weird
sound to port or starboard. sort OF
compound of moan and shrek. at once
soft and insistent, subdued and pene-
trating. 1t is the call of the whistling
buoy to the man at the helm, warning
him of shoal or dangerous place. CIV
ing MIN his bearings by which he
may steer his vessel in safe water.
These whistling buoys, which are
enormous masses of iron, often weigh
ing several tons, are as simple in prin-
ciple as they are certain in opera
ton. The buoy proper consists of a
huge pear-shaped bulb, little end up,
on top of which is powerful whistle,
protected from accidental blow or CO.
lision by a framework of iron bars,
and an air intake. Below and propect-
ing far down into the water is an
open tube of metal The whole thing
is secured in position with an anchor
and a chain, which last is long enough
for the depth of the water in which
the buoy is placed. to permit the free
movement of the mass up and down.
When a wave lifts the buoy up in
the air the water in the tube acting
as a piston sucks in air through the
intake. 1t is confined in the bulb of
the buoy by simple valve which pre-
vents its egress through the intake.
When the waves drop the buoy in the
trough of the waves, the water in the
tube presses up on the confined air and
congresses it. It firds exit through the
whistle, which thus sounds its warn
ing note.
Whistling buoys are only placed in
water where the wave action is fairly
constant, so that Gains and fair wea
Their will not stop the action of the
buoy any more than can be helped. 1t
should be noted, however. that the
buoy is less needed in fair weather
than in foul, and that it takes COM
paratively little disturbance of the
water to make the buoy sound its
warning. The higher the waves, of
course the louder the sound.
There are IS of these buoys at pres
ent in service in this country. and %
whistling buoys which are also light
DuOS SHOWi HS a NiSlplC SI6idt DIT
night. They differ ip size, from the
small ones used in harbors and where
the sound need not be very powerful
IN order to reach as far as may be
necessary, to the huge masses of iron
which are given to the water as 81
plaything at the entrance to harbors
or wherever a shoal needs a warning
signal which cannot, or for other rea-
sons should not, be cared for by a
lighthouse.
1t might be supposed that, having
no mechanism but valve. such buoys
once put in position, could be left there
for an indefinite period of time. But
the sea has strange ways with her
playthings, and, even if the necessity
of constant painting of the buoy to
protect it from the action of sea wa
ter was not existent, it would still be
necessary to keep a watch on these
signals, and to take them up and re-
place them rather often. For the big
tube projecting down into the water is
a great attraction to barnacles and
sea weed, and not infrequent these
marine growths so interfere with the
action of the buoy as to keep it silent
in ordinary weather and to dim its
| voice in bad weather.
| 1t then becomes necessary to work
new whistler in position. which is {
regular part of the duty of a light,
house tender or buoy tender. of which
vessels there are many in the light
house service.
When a buoy is to be worked" th'
tender repairs to yard or station. ant
, by means of her crane, lifts on decl
the freshly painted and thoroughly re
! paired new buoy, which is to replace
that one which is either silent o
which has served it's allotted time ant
IS now due for replacement
There is nothing difficult about this
ii is getting the enormous large an
unwieldy mass of iron overheard an
taking on board the one which is il
the water, which causes the difficulty
The very waves which are necessar
to the successful operation of tn
buoy make it hard to manage at til
end of crane on board a compare
lively small vessel.
When a buoy tender goes to work
whistler she clears her deck of ey
erything else but the buoy. which
secured with chocks and chains again:
the roll of the vessel. The old buo
is approached cautiously. within
| couple of hundred feet. and the ne
: buoy is allowed to slide overboar'
; rather than picked up and placed
the water, the crew guiding it by gu
ropes while the powerful crane lif