HANDLING A STEAMER IN A FOG.
Half an hour later a steamer came out of Essex, on the west shore of
the lake. Captain Gildrock was promptly notified by the boys that a
red light was to be seen.
“I suppose you have all seen port wine, and know it is red; though it
is not as red in Portugal as it is here,” added the captain. “This
will help you to remember that the red light is on the port, or
left-hand, side. When I see the red, I know at once that the port side
of the vessel is towards me, and therefore, if I am to the northward
of her, that she is going in an easterly direction. If I were south of
her, she would be going the other way.”
“But now we can see the green light too,” said Dave Windsor.
“That shows that she is coming towards us, and we must look out that
she don’t run into us.”
“How can you help it, if she keeps on, and you keep on?” asked Ned
Bellows.
“We will wait and see what Dory will do,” replied Captain Gildrock.
After going a mile farther, the boys heard a single sharp whistle over
their heads. It was immediately followed by the same signal from the
approaching steamer.
“That will make it all right. Dory has blown one whistle, which means
that he will pass the other steamer to starboard. The other steamer,
as she indicates by her one whistle, will pass at the starboard of
us,” continued the captain. “If Dory had blown two whistles, he would
have gone to port of the approaching vessel. You see that we are going
by her all right.”
“Suppose there had been a fog when we came out of Burlington, Captain
Gildrock: what should we have done?” asked Ben Ludlow. “Could Dory
have run the boat down to Beech Hill?”
“He could do it, but I should rather he would not. It is not safe to
run in a fog; and it is best not to do it, unless your business is
very urgent,” replied Captain Gildrock.
“But suppose you could not even see Juniper-Island light: what would
you do if you had to run to Beech Hill?” persisted the inquirer.
“Juniper light is west-south-west from the wharf, as I have ruled it
off from the chart. The distance is three and a quarter miles. The
speed of the Sylph is twelve miles an hour, and it will take her
sixteen minutes and a quarter to reach the light. But we don’t start
at full speed, and we must allow for that.
“At the end of sixteen minutes, by the clock in the pilot-house, we
begin to look out for the light. If we don’t find it, we don’t go
ahead, if we stay there all day and all night. We whistle, and that
lets the people at the light know that a steamer is trying to find her
way up the lake; and they will blow a horn. When we hear it, we know
by the direction where the light is. They will keep blowing the horn
for a while.
“Split-Rock light is south-south-west from Juniper, and we steer this
course by compass for one hour and two minutes. At the end of that
time, if we are all right, we hear the horn at Split Rock. When we
have got the bearing of the light, we head her south by west, and run
two and three-quarters miles to the mouth of Beaver River; which we do
in thirteen and three-quarters minutes.
“Then Dory will strike the bell for the deckhand to heave the lead,
or, in other words, see how deep the water is. If we get ten feet at
this stage of the water, we are in the channel. We steer
east-south-east, and keep sounding all the time. If the leadsman
should report a less depth, we stop the steamer, and find where the
channel is. We may have to get out a boat to ascertain. When we get
fairly into the river, we can see the shores through the fog. If we
can’t, we have to feel our way up.”
The evening was quite chilly on the lake; and Captain Gildrock had
taken the boys into the forward cabin, as they were not provided with
overcoats. He had hardly finished his explanation before a long
whistle above them excited their interest.
“Perhaps you will have a chance to see how we work the steamer in a
fog,” said Captain Gildrock, looking at his watch. “It is about time
we were up with Split Rock, and very likely Dory cannot find the
light.”
The captain left the cabin, followed by all the boys. As soon as they
reached the forecastle, Dory rang the bell to stop her. The fog had
blown up from the southward; and the Sylph was completely enveloped
in it, so that nothing could be seen from her deck.
“Here we are,” said Captain Gildrock, as he led the way to the
hurricane-deck. “You can’t see half a ship’s-length ahead. I was
afraid this southerly wind might blow up a fog.”
The deck-hand was standing on the rail at the forward flag-pole,
trying to penetrate the thick mist that shrouded the shore. Dory gave
another long whistle. By this time the steamer had come to a
standstill, and nothing more was to be done until the pilot found out
where he was. The boys gathered on the hurricane-deck around Captain
Gildrock, who did not say any thing to the young pilot, or even go
near him.
“Can you see any thing, Bates?” called Dory to the deck-hand.
“Not a thing, sir,” replied Bates.
“There! I hear the horn!” exclaimed Dave Windsor.
“Horn on the starboard bow, sir!” shouted Bates.
“I hear it,” added Dory. The gong-bell in the engine-room rang, and
the Sylph began to move again.
“Horn again, sir. We are not ten fathoms from the point, sir,” called
Bates. “I see the light now, sir.”
“All right: so do I. Keep a sharp lookout ahead, Bates,” replied Dory,
as the sound of a jingling bell was heard from the engine-room; and
the steamer increased her speed very rapidly.
“Bates seems to be a very polite man,” said Ned Bellows, laughing. “He
puts in a ‘sir’ every time he says any thing to Dory.”
“It is second nature for a seaman to say ‘sir’ to an officer,” added
the captain.
“But to a boy not more than fourteen or fifteen years old!”
“No matter how young or how old he is, if he is an officer. Discipline
is very strict at sea, as it will be on board of the Sylph after we
have organized the ship’s company. You must all say ‘sir’ to your
officers, even if they are boys.”
“The last bell that rung was different from the other,” suggested Ben
Ludlow.
“The jingling bell is the speed-bell,” replied the captain.
“It means ‘Go faster,’ don’t it?”
“Not at all. If Dory should ring it now, it would mean ‘Go slower.’”
“It can’t mean both slower and faster,” reasoned Ben.
“Why not? If the boat is going full speed it means ‘Slow down:’ if she
is going at half speed it means ‘Full speed.’ The gong-bell, one
stroke, means ‘Start her’ if she is not turning her screw, or ‘Stop
her’ if she is going ahead. Two strokes of the gong means ‘Back her.’”
At equal intervals the whistle of the Sylph sounded, and this fact
soon excited the attention of the curious pupils. They wanted to know
what it was for. The captain explained that it was to warn any vessel
of the presence of the steamer, so that neither craft should run into
the other. Steamers used their whistles, and sailing-vessels a horn.
But no horn or whistle was heard during the rest of the trip.
The next sound that attracted the attention of the pupils was the
speed-bell, which was quickly followed by the gong; and the screw
ceased to turn. At a single stroke of the large ship’s bell, Bates,
standing upon the rail, at the forward gangway, heaved the lead.
“No bottom!” shouted the leadsman. Dory rang the gong, and the steamer
went ahead at half speed.
“Does he mean to say there is no bottom to the lake in this place,
Captain Gildrock?” asked Dave Windsor.
“Not at all: we don’t usually sound below fifty feet; and any greater
depth than that is called ‘no bottom,’” replied the captain.
“By the deep, eight!” said Bates.
“By the deep, eight,” repeated Dave Windsor. “That means eight feet
deep, I suppose.”
“No, it don’t: it means about forty-eight feet. The depth is measured
in fathoms of six feet each. The lead-line is marked with two strips
of leather at two fathoms, with three strips at three, with a white
rag at five fathoms, and with a red rag at seven; at ten fathoms is a
leather with a hole in it, and so on. There are no marks at four, six,
eight, and nine fathoms. When the leadsman said ‘By the deep, eight,’
the line was under water about six feet below the red rag, or seven
fathoms.”
“By the mark, five!” called Bates.
“Just thirty feet,” the captain explained.
“And a half two!”
“Two fathoms and a half. We are shoaling rapidly.”
“Mark under water, two!”
“A little over two fathoms.”
“Ten feet!” shouted Bates with more energy than before.
The gong rang at this report, and two strokes followed instantly. The
screw began to turn backwards; and, when her headway was checked, a
single stroke stopped her.
“Dory is doing it all right,” said Captain Gildrock. “When he backed
her he put the helm to port, so as to get her head pointed
east-south-east. If he had not stopped the boat when he did, she would
have been aground in a couple of minutes; for there is a shoal south
of the mouth of the river on which the water is only from one to six
feet deep.”
“What harm would it have done if we had got aground?” asked Bob
Swanton.
“It would have done no harm, as we were going slowly; though we might
have had to stay here all night. If there had been a rock there, it
would probably have stove a hole in the bottom of the boat.”
“Ten feet!” reported Bates again.
The gong rang to go ahead, but the steamer hardly moved through the
water. The captain said the pilot had told the engineer, through the
speaking-tube, to go very slowly. Bates continued to sound, reporting
the same water as before.
“I see the point, sir,” said Bates a little later.
“All right! I have it,” replied Dory. The boat began to move a little
faster, but she did not get above half speed.
In the river the fog was not so dense as on the lake, and the pilot
could make out the objects on the banks of the stream. She went into
the creek leading from the river to the lake, and in a few minutes
more she was at the temporary wharf which had been built for her.
“Well, boys, you have had both the theory and the practice of handling
a steamer in a fog. It is an easy matter on this lake compared with
the bays and harbors on the seacoast, for there the pilot has to make
allowances for the tide.”
The boys landed, and were directed to go to the study-room in a
building adjoining the dormitory. The captain called Mr. Brookbine,
and they went together to the ice-house.