The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-03-01
FALMOUTH, ENGLAND,
A BUSY PLACE NOW
Shipping of All Kinds Has Congregated
There Because Accustomed Ports
Are Closed By Submarine
Menace,

| Are NioSeu by SuDlnaIiHe
Menace.
Falmouth, England, March l.-Thes
are stirring DAYS in this remote shipping
outpost. The harbor is crowded will
American, Dutch, and Scandinavian Graf
of all kind, great liners OF some of The
trans Atlantic companies, freighters
tankers and tramps in all rigs and flags
1t is the busiest shipping time Fal'
mouth has seen since the old packet days
almost hundred years ago, when things
| flourished and then died down until the
port was considered pretty dead from a
shipping standpoint. Just now the dec
laration of the German war zones has
sent more ships scurrying into the harbor
! for the memorandum to the German note
even specified Falmouth by name as Of
fering some possible exemption from the
scourge.
Falmouth more than any other port is
changing trade routes and trade ports,
particularly along the channel where the
submarine menace has practically closed
the old ports for trans Atlantic travel,
notably at Cherbourg, Havre and Bou-
logne on the French side, and Southamp-
ton and Dover on the English. And even
Bordeaux has fallen in the danger zone
under the new menace. So that Fall
mouth, while having no actual exemp-
tion, has none the less reaped the advan-
tage of its geographical position in abb
sorbing the shipping closed out from
many other ports.
The port is at the very tip of south
west England, just abreast of the rocky
headland of Landsend, and about the
first land sighted in coming 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. II 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 Penzanee,
the house of Drake.
Thus located at the very jumping of
point of England and the western-most
harbor of the channel, Falmouth has
minimum of submarine danger and at
the same time is something like Mon
tauk Point, Long Island, in reaching far
out to sea and thus permitting quick
rail connections with the
lying further inland These
various advantages have combined to
bring back Falmouth to its old time
shipping glory and to crowd the barbor
with the ships of all nations save those
Of the enemy.
One of these newcomers, an American |
tanker, has just gone ashore in the outer |
harbor and is slowly going to pieces be-
fore the heavy surf. There has been no
loss of life, but Falmouth is deeply /
reused, for scum of American oil has |
spread over the surface of the waters.
Its one Of the worst things ever
happened to us" said an old authority of
he port. "The oil has got into our oy-
iter beds, among the best in England, |
md probably killed them for good. it
has also killed off all the fish, and even
he fish that are living can't be eaten
hey taste so of oil We've had big
,oom from the war, but this oil on the
water has set it all back. It's serious
LANCER, too. for at some points it has
aught on fire and spread a sheet OF
lanes far over the water"
This, however, is only one of the pass
NJ Incidents, Of the strenuous sea life
n times Of war. But the lasting thing
or Falmouth is the great impetus to
hipping and the crowd of ships from all
yer the world now heading it in and out
t the port. The rush has been so great
hat the port authorities have put on
cry rigid rules against crowds of
trangers invading the town at night.
'nly masters of the merchant craft come
shore at any time; all the crews are
larooned abroad day and night. No '
mall boat from the visiting ships can
e afloat after o'clock in the afternoon.
my master or other person from the
hips in town after that is subject to {
rrest. a
About the strangest ships in this t
-owded harbor are two which loom up '
Ugh on either side of liner as it comes
from the trip over the Atlantic. These I
go enormous hulks look like water
'rtresses, with double and triple fight G
g decks and triple lines OF portfolios
" heavy guns. The British ensign is /
tapping from the peak of both these v
aft, and yet, clearly, they cannot pos t
bly, be warcraft of the present genera t
on, as inquiry proves, for they are two v
the most historic ships of Nelson's Z
~, one his favorite flagship, the Foud- b
yant, and the other the only surviving
pc of the French ships which fought n
Trafalgar. In that battle this French 3
lip was the Dougsy Trouin, but when o
e was captured by the English she was a
ven the name of the Implacable. These t
70 old warriors, one British and the 6
her French, are in strange contrast to Il
e busy shipping, and they stand as o
nblems of what naval power meant at n
e very outset of British supremacy on :
G seas. q
Under the escort of the officer in
arge the Associated Press correspond
{ went over both of these old warriors.
was a hard climb up the slippery
discovered sides of the old Implacable,
rmerly the Dougay Trouin which