Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1915-10-13

Government Discovers Many Deep
Water Dangers 30 ships

Government Discovers Many Deep
Water Dangers 20 ships
Prom t5f Bcesoz Es-nSs-l
For sonnet ming like three centuries the
yeE England seas hare been narigzsed-
their coasts hare beea chArsed- their tides
and currents have been strdiec- their
westb her conditions hare been investigated
and every department Of human e1ceayor
that would make for the safety Of shose
who go down to the sea IN ships" wo0ic
seem to have been thoroughly organized
And ret there exists to-day no accurate
and ccmpsete chart By the use Of which
mariners may navizate their vessels with
the certainty that they are steering clear
OF danger.
Charts there are, thousands Of them.
But charts that will insure the safety OF
small sailing craft arr useless when they
are placed in the hands OF the pilot OF .
great passenger steamboat. and charts
that ~Il take q Casco bag pleasure
steamer into and out OF almost every NOOK
on the coast Of Maine or Massachusetts,
viii be OF little vaine TO the man on the
brige of great battieship sseaming up TO
RnekIand for its trial trips
For example: In 1903 . twenty-three-
foot pinnacle rock Vas found in the main
channel south Of vinaIhsven island,
where the general depth OF water is about
twenty-one fathorns. At the very time
that this rock Was being examined and
located, the great battieship Delaware,
the boat which led the line in the great
British naval review Q few years ago,
eciipsing the most formidable floating
fort ~hich the King bad to ofser = the
Delaware passed within . few feet of the
spot where the divers we're at work.
Two channels, which were supposed to
have ample depths, were deepened BY
United States engineers when II was
found that rocks existed in the pathways
ct 4 less depth than the draft OF ships
regularly using the ehannels- OF course.
disaster voaid have come long ago bad it
not been for the Undergraduates plan
upon which ships usually sail. With weary
slighs variation they follow the same
course when regularly using the channel,
and therefore thsy may pass vsry close to
danger again and again without sustain
ing damage
Again, for example: Right In the eouESs
Of the sssamsrs plying between Bangor
and Boston there hos been found . four
teen foot shoaL That made it necessary
to change . channel buoy, which indi-
catsd that vessels should pass clos TO IL,
to . danger buoy, indicating that they
should stser vide Of IT,
And again: On Iale eu Haut there 10 Q
lighthouse which wns built in 1908; IL then
bad white sector covering the entire sp-
proaeh to the harbcr, indicating . saie
approach from any point where the Light
was visible. Not long ago this sector was
divided in two, for Just half that approach
was found to be DISTRACTED BY shoals
With Z depth from sixteen to eighteen
feet
Moreover, while escapes have been
numerous, accidents have occurred from
time to time which we'll point the mornl
Of this tale, . tale that ought to Be sccu-
rste because it is complied from the publ
cations Of the United States coast and
eeodesic survey.
Il il well known that the largest battle
ships. including those which are built in
this country for foreign nations, uss the
and after acceptance by the purchaser.
This course 10 used because it has the ad-
vantage Of very deep water close in shore.
Now the government engineers have
been working over that region. and in
the approach to the naval trial course
they discover four shoals on any one Of
which . battleship might have been
seriously damaged. These now are
buoyed, but after their discovery aud
before they were marked by the bureau
OF lighthouses, the battieship Arkansas,
while on the way to her acceptance trials
and in charge Of local pilot, struck one
Of them. This occurrence ~ . critical
time might have been very serious.
Now pinnacle rocks are common on the
Maine coast. A. . general thing thu
action of ice and other agents has worn
them smooth. For many years 1t was b.
Heved that . chartered depth Of twenty
fathoms Was ample for all vessels, that 10,
that when the general depth was twenty
fnthoms or over no rock could poke it,
way far enough upward to b danger to
navigation. But again and again thess
pinnacle rocls hass bean found in dan
rerous places thsss last few ysars-
The United States survey says hatiy that
~ fast moving liner, striking pinnacle
rock in just the right way, would suf1sz
ths late Of the Titanic. NO mattsr what
precautions were tsken.n
Thus IL il seen that what 10 meant above
in the references to the lack OF charts after
three centuries ID this, that charts which