The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-11-03
IS GULF STREAM
CHANGING COURSE
Mariners Revive Old Cues
tiCn, Owing to Numerous
Wrecks Recently
NATURE PLAYED A
MALICIOUS TRICK
Set the Island of Newfoundland So That
1t Blocks the Entrance to ST. Law
renee Gulf and Is in Line Between
u. S. and Great Britain.

ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland, Nov. 3.
lis the Gulf stream changing its
course! The question is a familiar one
10 goegraphcrs; it is being asked to-
day 10y not y few navigators' who
have more than an academic interest
in the answer. They are those-and
they are many-who have occasion to
steer a rerilous course through fog
covered waters that lie off Cape Race,
the forbidding mass of rock that marks
he southeastern point of Newfound-
land.
For i'll these waters the arctic cur
rent and the Gulf stream meet and in
the confluence create the pail of fog
that hangs perpetually over the great
banks. And fog and current between
them lure many a fine ship to its death
upon the Newfoundland coast, a coast
absolutely without pity. 1t is the mum
Der that have met just such fate
during the last summer that has re
vIved the Gulf stream question.
Nature played a malicious trick when
She set the Island of Newfoundland
where she did. II not only blocks the
mouth of the St. Lawrence Gulf. so
that ships from Montreal and Quebec
must 90 north or south of IL but il
lies almost directly in the line between
the northern ports of the United States
and great Britain, though a projection
map does not show this clearly. An
airship following the shortest route
from Ireland to New York would pass
very nearly over st. John s. Liners
and tramps have also a fondness for
shortest routes, whence it comes that
hundreds of them hug this dangerous
shore more closely than prudence would
dictate, and escape destruction by
margin far narrower than their skip
FerS ever imagine.
For the coast itself and the waters
near il are troacherous to degree. A
fast current sets in at this point sharply
toward the land and must be rcckoned
with when, as often happens, observa-
tion cannot be made. Local mariners
know it well and make allowance gen
erously ship setting course from
Halifax or Boston to a few miles south
! or cape Bac" and following dead reck-
oning might as well he posted at
Lloyd S at once--it would never reach
! the Cape. OF the many that have left
/ their bones on the rocks west Of IT,.
1T Trepassey and St. Mary 5. compare
lively few have been driven in by
stress of storm-the majority have
/ drifted there in the fog or darkness.
Ior been carried in by the unsupported
! eurrent when steaming at half speed,
imagining themselves far from danger
until they are suddenly among the
3 breakers.
The Graveyard Of the Atlantic -
these few miles of foam fcclcd cliff
are called, and the sinister title has
been confirmed times over. Their rec
ord for the last summer alone would
Justify if.
I'm American schooner, deep laden
with oil, has been the last victim. She
drove ashore few days after the
Norge. steamer bound for Harbour
Grace with equipment for q shirbuild-
ing plant, was lost at the same place
with all her cargo. A big Norwegian
steamer has just gone on dry dock in
st, John S, replacing a compatriot which
had been under treatment for the same
trouble smashed and denied bow and