Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 107, Vol. III, January 16, 1886

No. 107.—Vol. III.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1886.
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.