: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature Science and Art Fifth Series No. 107 Vol. III January 16 1886 by Various - Periodicals

@FreeBooks

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

SIGNALLING AT SEA.

The wonderful improvements which have been effected in modes of communication during the latter part of the present century have resulted in bridging over space, and bringing the dwellers on this planet into closer and more constant intercommunion. Submarine cables, telegraphs, and telephones have each contributed their aid towards the realisation of Puck's idea of putting 'a girdle round the earth;' and, as might have been expected, the inventive faculty has been directed, in some measure at least, towards enabling those 'who go down to the sea in ships' to communicate with each other on the ocean highways with such facility as might be found practicable under the ever-varying conditions which obtain at sea.

At no very remote date, the appliances at the command of a shipmaster who might desire to convey a request to a passing vessel consisted mainly of a pair of strong lungs and a speaking-trumpet. A variation was occasionally attempted by the introduction of a plank and a lump of chalk. The writer remembers having seen an English brig in the South Atlantic, during a strong gale, attempting to convey to a stately frigate an intimation that the brig's chronometer was broken, and that, in consequence, her worthy captain was at sea, in more senses than one. The brig, which had been running before the wind, braced up on the port tack, and ran as close under the frigate's stern as was deemed prudent under the circumstances. The captain, clinging to the weather main rigging with one hand, and using the other as a speaking-trumpet, yelled forth a sentence or two which met the fate of most utterances under similar conditions. 'I'--'of'--and 'the' were faithfully re-echoed from the hollow of the frigate's mainsail, but the vital words of the message were borne away on the wings of the gale. A similar attempt failed; and finally it occurred to the skipper to write with chalk upon a tarpaulin hatch-cover the words, 'Chronometer smashed, bound Table Bay.' The tarpaulin with the foregoing legend was exhibited over the side for a few brief seconds, till a fiercer blast than usual whirled it high in air, and then bore it away to leeward. Fortunately, the purport of the writing had been understood on board the frigate, and no time was lost in displaying a black board with the latitude, longitude, and magnetic course for Table Bay inscribed thereon. Now, if the brig had been provided with the International Code of Signals, the trouble and delay involved in the attempts to communicate by hailing or by written signs, would have been obviated; and whilst holding on her course, the hoisting of a few flags would have completed the entire business in less than five minutes. The Code was certainly in existence at the date referred to, but its use was neither general nor compulsory.

Before putting to sea, a 'fleet number' is assigned to each ship, the admiral's ship being No. 1, the remaining numbers being distributed according to the seniority of the respective captains. If the commander-in-chief wishes his squadron to sail in one line, he makes the signal, 'Single column in line ahead,' by means of three 'numeral' flags. This signal, like every other evolutionary signal, is kept flying at the mast-head until the signal officer reports, 'All answered, sir.' The fact that the admiral's signal is seen and understood is signified, in the case of tactical orders, by each ship repeating the flags. When the proper moment arrives for executing the movement, the flagship's signal is swiftly hauled down, the helms are put 'hard over,' the ships swing round in the admiral's wake, and the evolution is complete.

Communication between the vessels of the fleet is effected at night by means of the flashing light worked on the short and long flash principle, invented by Captain Colomb, R.N. There are few sights more suggestive of the advance in modes of communication and the development of the inventive faculty than that of the admiral 'talking' to his captains by means of the flashing lamp in the darkness of the night and far out on the trackless ocean. It may be necessary during the night to alter the course of the squadron. If the course indicated at sunset be due north, and it be required to alter the direction to west, all lights on board the flagship, except the flashing light, are carefully obscured, and the brilliant rays of a solitary lamp leap through the darkness conveying the order, 'Alter course to west.'

Strenuous efforts have been made by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the Board of Trade, and the Committee of Lloyd's Registry to instruct the officers of the mercantile marine in the use of the International Code. The Admiralty has ordered that all men belonging to the Royal Naval Reserve shall receive instruction in its use; and all candidates for officers' certificates of competency are required by the Board of Trade to pass a satisfactory examination in signalling. Notwithstanding these regulations, there is good reason for believing that many officers in the merchant service are not so well acquainted with the working of the Code as they ought to be. Blunders are frequently committed, either in selecting the wrong signal or confusing the flags, which lead to serious inconvenience, not to say danger. A very superficial acquaintance with the Signal Book led the captain of an English steamer to neglect the 'vocabulary' part of the Code, and have recourse to the singular expedient of using the flags as a medium for spelling his communication. As read on board the New York liner to which the signal was directed, it took the cabalistic form of 'MCHDRGDWNTW.' As no flags denoting the vowels are contained in the Code, the difficulties of spelling were obviously increased; and it was only by the ingenuity of a passenger on board the liner that a translation was effected in the shape of, 'Machinery deranged; want tow.' On another occasion, the master of a timber-laden ship bound from Quebec to Liverpool had been prevented by foggy weather from taking solar observations for the purpose of verifying his position, and having sighted a steamer bound to the westward, he hoisted the prescribed signal, asking the steamer to indicate the latitude and longitude at the time of meeting. Either through carelessness in manipulating the flags or from an imperfect acquaintance with the Code, a position was signalled which located the ship in the immediate vicinity of Mont Blanc!

Upwards of thirty signal stations have been established at various points on the coasts of the British Isles, where messages may be transmitted from passing vessels by means of the International Code; and there are twenty stations in various parts of the world, as widely apart as Aden, Ascension, Malta, St Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and Skagen in Denmark, where communication may be effected by the same means. Many of these stations have direct telegraphic connection with London, so that shipowners may be kept acquainted with the movements of their vessels, and may also transmit instructions for the guidance of their captains. It is matter for wonder and regret, notwithstanding the existence of a carefully elaborated system of signals and a world-wide network of shore stations, that the use of the Signal Code is not in any sense compulsory on the part of shipowners. Considering the innumerable advantages which a speedy means of communication must afford to all concerned, it is with surprise that one learns, from a note prefixed to the official Maritime Directory for the past year, that 'cases have been reported in which officers at the signal stations have hoisted the International Code Signals warning ships of danger, and the ships have been afterwards lost, from the inability of the masters to read the signals.' This is a state of affairs which ought not to be permitted to continue in the interests of the men whose lives are at stake. Another and still more serious defect in a system which is admirable in many respects, is the total absence from the Code of any method of signalling at night. As we have seen, Her Majesty's ships are provided with appliances for this purpose which are skilfully adapted to the end in view; but merchant vessels are absolutely without the power of communicating after darkness sets in. It is true that by private arrangement with the shore stations on several parts of the coast, the steamers belonging to the great Companies may by the use of certain lights indicate their names and the Company to which they belong; but this cannot, save in the most elementary sense, be regarded as a satisfactory method of communication. It is probable that the night signals in use in the Royal Navy are too complicated in character to permit of their being learned and worked efficiently without much more study and practice than can reasonably be expected from the master of a merchant vessel. Still, it ought to be within the power of science to suggest some plan for enabling a vessel to signal to ship or shore during the hours when the perils of the sea are rendered more terrible by darkness.

In these days, when our ocean highways and harbours are crowded with shipping, a collision between two of our large iron or steel vessels, which might happen at any time, would send one of them to the bottom in a few minutes. Two vessels, each going at a speed of twenty miles an hour, and sighting one another at two miles off, with this joint speed of forty miles an hour, would meet in about three minutes. Hence the importance of a ready and efficient method of signalling.

In foggy weather, when the light would be ineffective, two steam whistles can be shunted into action by the reflector handle, one giving off a succession of short shrill notes, the other a succession of deep long notes, according as the helm is to starboard or port. This invention has been awarded a medal at three Exhibitions, including the Inventories; while Admiral Bedford Pim, one of the nautical jurors, has styled it an 'excellent course indicator.'

IN ALL SHADES.

It was a brilliant, cloudless, tropical day at Agualta Estate, Trinidad; and the cocoa-nut palms in front of the pretty, picturesque, low-roofed bungalow were waving gracefully in the light sea-breeze that blew fresh across the open cane-pieces from the distant horizon of the broad Atlantic. Most days, indeed, except during the rainy season, were brilliant enough in all conscience at beautiful Agualta: the sun blazed all day long in a uniform hazy-white sky, not blue, to be sure, as in a northern climate, but bluish and cloudless; and the sea shone below hazy-white, in the dim background, beyond the waving palm-trees, and the broad-leaved bananas, and the long stretch of bright-green cane-pieces that sloped down in endless succession towards the beach and the breakers. Agualta House itself was perched, West India fashion, on the topmost summit of a tall and lonely rocky peak, a projecting spur or shoulder from the main mass of the Trinidad mountains. They chose the very highest and most beautiful situations they could find for their houses, those old matter-of-fact West Indian planters, not so much out of a taste for scenery--for their mental horizon was for the most part bounded by rum and sugar--but because a hilltop was coolest and breeziest, and coolness is the one great practical desideratum in a West Indian residence. Still, the houses that they built on these airy heights incidentally enjoyed the most exquisite prospects; and Agualta itself was no exception to the general rule in this matter. From the front piazza you looked down upon a green ravine, crowded with tree-ferns and other graceful tropical vegetation; on either side, rocky peaks broke the middle distance with their jagged tors and precipitous needles; while far away beyond the cane-grown plain that nestled snugly in the hollow below, the sky-line of the Atlantic bounded the view, with a dozen sun-smit rocky islets basking like great floating whales upon the gray horizon. No lovelier view in the whole of luxuriant beautiful Trinidad than that from the creeper-covered front piazza of the white bungalow of old Agualta.

Through the midst of the ravine, the little river from which the estate took its Spanish name--curiously corrupted upon negro lips into the form of Wagwater--tumbled in white sheets of dashing foam between the green foliage 'in cataract after cataract to the sea.' Here and there, the overarching clumps of feathery bamboo hid its course for a hundred yards or so, as seen from the piazza; but every now and again it gleamed forth, white and conspicuous once more, as it tumbled headlong down its steep course over some rocky barrier. You could trace it throughout like a long line of light among all the tangled, glossy, dark-green foliage of that wild and overgrown tropical gully.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

(0)

Login to post a comment!