The following paragraph, which appeared in The Times of December 11th, 1903, is significant of the very practical value of marine wireless telegraphy. "The American steamer Kroonland, from Antwerp for New York, which, as reported yesterday, disabled her steering gear when west of the Fastnet, and had to put back, arrived yesterday morning at Queenstown. The saloon passengers speak in the highest terms of praise of the utility of the Marconi wireless telegraphy with which the liner is fitted, and of the facility with which, when the accident occurred, the passengers were able to communicate with their friends, in England, Scotland, and the Continent, and even America, and get replies before the Irish coast was sighted. The accident occurred on Tuesday about noon, when the liner was 130 miles west of the Fastnet, and communication was at once made with the Marconi station at Crookhaven. Captain Doxrud was enabled accordingly to send messages to the chief agents of the American line, at Antwerp, stating the nature of the damage to the steering gear of the steamer, and that he would have to abandon the idea of prosecuting the western voyage. Within an hour and a half a message was received by the captain from the agents instructing him what to do, and at once the Kroonland was headed for Queenstown. Three-fourths of the total number of the saloon passengers and a goodly number of the second cabin sent messages to their friends in various parts of the world, and replies were received even from the Continent before the Fastnet was sighted. Seven or eight passengers telegraphed to relatives for money, and replies were received in four instances, authorising the purser to advance the amounts required, and the money was paid over in each case to the passengers."
The possibility of thus communicating between vessel and land, or vessel and vessel, removes much of the anxiety attending a sea voyage. Business men, for whom even a few days' want of touch with the mercantile markets may be a serious matter, can send long messages in code or otherwise instructing their agents what to do; while they can receive information to shape their actions when they reach land. The "uncommercial traveller" also is pleased and grateful on receiving a message from home. The feeling of loneliness is eliminated. The ocean has lost its right to the term bestowed by Horace—dissociabilis, "the separator."
Photo] [Cribb, Southsea.
FIXING A BATTLE-RAM
The ram of a battleship being placed in position with the aid of a huge crane. The size of the ram will be appreciated from the dwarfing effect it has on that of the man perched near the lifting tackle.
Steamship companies vie with one another in their efforts to keep their passengers well posted in the latest news. Bulletins, or small newspapers, are issued daily during the voyage, which give, in very condensed form, accounts of events interesting to those on board. "The amount of fresh news a steamer gathers during a passage is considerable, and is greatly relished by the passengers, who are invariably ravenous for signs of the busy life they left behind, more especially when they have departed on the verge of some important event taking place; and the bulletins are eagerly sought for when it is announced that an inward-bound ship is in communication. The shipowners realise the importance and usefulness of being able to communicate with their commanders before the huge vessels enter narrow waters, and issue instructions concerning their movements.
"The stations, which are placed at carefully-selected points at well-adapted distances around the coast, are connected with either the land telegraph or telephone line, or are close to a telegraph office. They are kept open night and day, as the times of the ships passing are, of course, greatly dependent on the weather encountered during the voyage. For those on shore who are anxious to greet their friends on arrival—with good or bad news, as the case may be—this arrangement enables them to be informed of the exact time of the ship's expected arrival, and they are left free to their own devices, instead of enduring long waits on draughty piers and docks—which, on a wet or windy day, are almost enough to damp the warmest and most enthusiastic welcome.
"Cases have occurred where a telegram, sent from the American side to an outlying English land-station two days after a ship has left, has been transmitted to an outgoing steamer, which in turn has re-transmitted it to the astonished passenger two days prior to his arrival off the English coast; and it has now become quite a common thing for competing teams on vessels many miles apart, and out of sight of each other, to arrange chess matches with each other, some of these interesting events taking two or more days to be played to a finish."[17]
For naval purposes, wireless telegraphy has assumed an importance which can hardly be overestimated, as the whole efficiency of a fine fleet may depend upon a single message flashed through space. All navies are fitting instruments, the British Admiralty being well to the fore. Even in manoeuvres and during the execution of tactical formations the apparatus is constantly at work. The admiral gives the word, and a dozen paper tapes moving jerkily through Morse machines, pass the message round the fleet. The Japanese naval successes have, doubtless, been largely due to their up-to-date employment of this latest development of Western electrical science. No one knows how soon the time may come when the fate of a nation may depend on the proper working of a machine covering a few square feet of a cabin table; for, rapid as has been the growth of wireless telegraphy, it is yet in its infancy.