Year: 1874

Ocean.


The practicability of steam lanes on the
ocean has recently been magnifcently demon
strated by the maritime authorities OF the
Netherlands. While the question has been
agitated whether definite ship tracks can be
laid down on the narrow Atlantic the Dutch
navigators have successfully marked them out
on the wide wastes of ocean stretching from
the English Channel to Java. From innu-
merable log books and marine registers Of
vessels sailing the Indian and Atlantic oceans
these tracks around the Cape of Good Hope
have been studied league by league and the
results tabulated for every month in the year,
SO that the mariner, going or returning, has,
in charted form, the best lines of sailing.
The newly published Dutch charts indicate
the deduced lanes most advantageous for each
month-an advantage which will be felt by
every seaman who, through stress of weather,
has been driven off the main sea road, and
who will thus find it relatively easy to fetch
up the right track again with the least posi-
BILE delay.


These highways have been laid down re-
gardless Of all theoretical considerations, and
have been rigidly computed as the exclusive
result of extensive and actual observations.
No hypothetical considerations have been
allowed any influence in the deductions The
parallel of st. Helena has been selected as the
midway point between Java and the Channel
as nearly halfway point for the track. After
having ranged all the voyages, considered ac-
cording to the date of crossing the st. Helena
along the route have been chosen, and the
points and times at which these intersecting
parallels and meridians were crossed by each
ship were noted. These have been the only
data employed in the investigation. From
minute analysis ard comparison of the courses
steered by each vessel and the time required to
run from point to point in each separate
month the mean track of those making the
quickest runs has been deduced


One of the most striking results exhibited
is the fact that the best sailers are not those
which make the best and shortest runs, and
that the latter depend more upon the selec-
ton of courses than upon the sailing qualities
Of the ship. It has been thus statistically
demonstrated (what common sense suggests,
but which seamen have been slow to believe)
that time is not lost by sticking closely, where
circumstances permit, to the main paths laid
down by photographic research. The obvious
advantages of SO doing are, not only in giving
greater confidence to the mariner, econo-
MIXING time money, risk and life, but also in
keeping him on an oceanic thoroughfare,
where, if accident befall him, he is almost
certain of speedy succor. As an interesting
and telling item in the above mentioned in
vestigation we note that after leaving ten
degrees north the vessel bound from Java to
England saves four days by cutting the par
allel of thirty degrees north to the eastward of
thirty-seven degrees west longitude. BY going
west of that meridian her voyage is prolonged
from si1ty-three days so as to cover sixty
seven days.


1t is true these routes are computed for
sailers, but they are equally good, with some
modification, for steamers. But their estab-
lishment shows the feasibility of the steam
lanes on the Atlantic, and the large benefit, as
to safety and perhaps even speed, derivable
from these defined routes.