The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-03-02
(By Associated Press. }

Falmoutn, England, March e.
These are stirring days in this re-
mote shipping outpost The harbor
is crowded with American, Dutch. and
Scandinavian craft of all kind. great
liners Of some of the transatlantic
companies. freighters. tankers and
tramps in all rigs and flags 1t is
the busiest shipping time Falmouth
has seen since the old packet days,
almost hundred years ago. when
things fiourished and then died down
until the port was considered pretty
dead from a shipping standpoint
Just now the declaration of the Ger
man war zones has sent more ships
SQUIRTING into the harbor, for the
memorandum to the German note
even specified Falmouth by name as
Offering some possible exemption
form the scourge.
Falmouth more than any other port
is witnessing how the war is chang
ing trade routes and trade ports, par
ticularly along the Channel where
the submarine menace has practical
ly closed the old ports for trans-At-
lantic travel. notably at Cherbourg.
Harve and Boulogne on the French
side. and Southampton and Dover on
tho Epg;eh And ayan nordaouv hos
fallen in the danger zone under the
new menace. So that Falmouth.
while having no actual exemption, has
none the less reaped the advantage
of its geographical position in absorb
ing the shipping closed out from many
other ports.
The port is at the very tip of
the rocky headland of Landsend, and
about the first land sighted i'm COM
ing across the Atlantic. 1t is Just
east of the Lizard, from which point
the arrival of liners is first reported
the same as from Sandy Hook. 1t is
adjacent, too, to the Poldau wireless
station which from this outpost
sends its wireless across the Atlantic
and to ships at sea. Nearby is Pen
zance, where the PIRATES lived and
further on is the house of Drake.
Thus located Al the very jumping.
eff point of England and the vast
most harbor of the channel. Fall
mouth has a minimum of submarine
danger and at the same time is some
thing like Montauk Point, Long Is
land, in reaching far out to sea and
thus permittin gquick emergency rail
connections with the metropolis ~
ing further inland These various ad-
vantages have combined to bring Fal-
mouth to its old-time shipping glory
and to crowd the harbor with the
ships of all nations save those of the
enemy
One of these newcomers, an Amer
lean tanker, has just gone ashore in
the outer harbor and is slowly going
to pieces before the heavy surf.
There has been no loss of life but
Falmouth is deeply reused, for a scum
of American oil has spread over the
surface of the water.
Its one of the worst things ever
happened to u.s." said an old tuthor-
ity of the port. "The oil has got into
our oyster beds. among the best in
England. and probably killed them
for good II has also killed off all
the fish, and even the fish that are
living can't be eaten, they taste so of
oil We've had a big boom from the
war, but this oil on the water has set
1t all back. Its a serious danger too.
for at some points ii has caught on
fire and spread a sheet of flame far
over the water"
This, however is only one of the
passing incidents of the strenuous sea
life in times of war. But he lasting
petus 10 shipping and the crowd of
ships from all over the world now
heading IL in and out of the port.
The rush has been so great that the
port authorities have put on very
rigid rules against crowds of strang-
ers invading the town at night. Only
the master of the merchant craft
come ashore at any time: all the
crews are marooned aboard, day and
night. No small boat from the visit
ing ships can be afloat after five
o'clock in the afternoon. Any master
or other person from the ships in
town after that is subject to arrest
About the strangest ships in this
crowded harbor are two which loom
up high on either side of a liner as
il comes in from the trip over the
Atlantic. These two enormous hulks