New-York tribune., 1915-03-14
By WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON

TRULY, the first is last and the last is first
That is to say the waters which were the
scene of the first naval expedition in hu-
man history have become the scene of the latest
notable achievement with ships Of war. It's a
long way from Argo Navis to the superdread-
nought Queen Elizabeth; but that vast space IS
spanned by the story Of the Dardanelles. We
should not err indeed if we regarded that crooked
channel, scarcely as long as our own Panama
Canal as the most famous waterway in the world,
and as that one which has on the whole been of
most importance in the history Of mankind
I have spoken of Jasons ship Argo as the
worlds first naval expedition at the beginning OF
the annals Of the Dardaneles 1t was more than
thirty-one centuries ago that those daring voya-
gers on an errand Of revenge, sailed through the
strait. and through the dangerous passage
"where the narrowing Symplegades whlten the
cliffs Of Proponts with spray" The legend Is
that Phrvxus had been carried TO Colchs the
back of a ram with fleece of gold; that on his
arrival he sacrificed the ram and gave the fleece
to King .Eetes, who hung 1t upon a sacred oak;
and that Jason and his Argonauts went thither
feloniously to puron the precious pelt. The
probable truth is that Phryxus went to Colchis-
the modern Transcaucasia- in a ship with gded
ram for a hgurehead; that Hetes murdered him
and stole the treasure which he carried; and that
Jason went to avenge the murder and to recover
the loot.
However that may be, we must regard Jason
and the Argonauts comparatively modern by
the side of the very suggestion of the Of the
Straits And again the last is first. Your gazet-
teer will tell you that Dardanelles is the modern
name and Helespont the ancient. That is true,
in sense. Hellespont is the name which was
irnaa in lovely
Hclles. daughter of Athamas, King of Thebes, who
was drowned in that water. But Helles was much
more modern than Jason. Dardanelles is a name
whose origin was hoary with antiquity before Jason
was born. For Dardanus was the of Zeus and
Electra the ancestor of the race which founded
ancient Troy with its "Dardanian walls" and thus,
through the pious Hneas, the more remote ances-
tor of the founders OF Rome. Ii was at the city
of Dardanus, in the Troad, that Sylla and Mithri-
dates made their famous treaty ending the first
Mithridatic war, just one less than two thousand
years ago. There is still Fort Dardanus, one OF
the chief defences Of the strait, which was sue
cessfully bombarded the other cay by the allied
fleets. There is another, the Cape Helles Battery
which suggests the memory OF the unfortunate
princess for whom the strait was named
Descending from myths of Zeus and Electra
and legends Of Jason and the Argonauts, we reach
the age of romance. 1t was in the seventh CEN
fury y. c. that the beautiful Hero dwet at Sestos
on the European, and the gallant Leander at
Abvdos. on the Asian shore. There the strait is
a little more than mile wide; say o,5OO ieet
Doubtless there were boats, perhaps there was
regular ferry. But for reasons OF ms own de
amoribus non disputandum est-Leander choSe 10
srn, across on his visits 10 his lady love; guided
ON dark nights by the light of her lamp. But one
,omnostpous night wind and waves overcame nm
and he perished in mid passage; whereon the as
trauqbt Hero flung herself into the same waters
and she too perished. Nearly twenty-five cen
turies later Byron intent upon demonstrating 'he
truth. or at least the possible truth OF the STORY
swan across the strait at that very point accom-
panied by Lieutenant Ekenhead; feat when
many swimmers of to-day would esteem as by no
means difficult.
It nearly two centuries after Hero and