Commercial Geography / A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges

by Jacques W. Redway

At the beginning of the twentieth century, about ninety thousand sailing-craft and thirty-five thousand steam-vessels were required to carry the world's commerce. Of this number, Great Britain and her colonies register nearly thirty-five thousand, and the United States over twenty thousand.

Harbor Safeguards.—Excepting the open anchorages formed by angles in coast-lines, the greater number of harbors consist of small coves and river-mouths. In these, although there may be a considerable area of water, there is not apt to be much sailing room; it is therefore necessary to mark off the navigable channels. For this purpose buoys of different shapes and colors are used by day; by night fixed and flashing lights are employed.

The buoys of permanent channels are usually hollow metal cylinders or cones about two feet in diameter, anchored so that the end of the cylinder projects about three feet above the water. On entering a channel from the seaward, red buoys are on the starboard, or right hand; white buoys are kept on the port, or left side. Buoys at the end of a channel are usually surmounted each by some device or other fastened at the upper end of a perch. Thus, at the outer entrance of Gedney Channel in New York Harbor, a ball surmounts the perch; at the inner entrance the buoy carries a double square. Sharp angles in a channel are similarly marked. In many instances the buoy carries, as a warning signal, a bell that rings as the buoy is rocked by the waves; in others, a whistle that sounds by the air which the rocking motion compresses within the cylinder; still others carry electric or gas lights.

The color of a buoy is an index of its character. Thus, one with black and red stripes indicates danger; one with black and white vertical stripes is a channel-marker. Temporary channels are frequently marked by pieces of spar floating upright. In some cases it is customary to set untrimmed tree-tops on the port, and trimmed sticks on the starboard.

Light-houses are built at all exposed points of navigated coast-waters, and beacons are set at all necessary points within a harbor for use at night. All lights are kept burning from sunset until sunrise. The color, the duration, and the intervals of flashing indicate the position of the beacon. In revolving lights the beams, concentrated by powerful lenses, sweep the horizon as the lantern about the light revolves. Flashing lights are produced when the light is obscured at given intervals. Fixed lights burn with a steady flame. In some instances a sector of colored glass is set so as to cover a given part of a channel. Range lights, set so that one shows directly above the other, are used as channel-markers.

The use of lights may be seen as a vessel enters New York Lower Bay. A steamship drawing not more than eighteen feet of water may enter through Swash Channel (follow the course on the chart). In this case the pilot makes for Scotland lightship, and merely keeps New Dorp and Elmtree beacons in range, giving Dry Romer a wide berth to starboard, until Chapel Hill and Conover beacons come into range on his port side. The vessel is then held on a course between Coney Island and Fort Tompkins lights until Robbins Reef light shows ahead.

For the liners that draw more than eighteen feet the task is more difficult, inasmuch as the channel is tortuous. At Sandy Hook lightship a course lying nearly west takes the vessel to the outer entrance of Gedney Channel, marked by two buoy-lights. In passing between the lights the vessel enters the channel, which is also covered by the red sector of Hook beacon. The pilot continues between the buoy-lights until Waacaack and Point Comfort beacons are in range, and steers to this range until South Beacon and Sandy Hook light are in range astern. The helm is then turned, keeping these lights in range astern until Chapel Hill and Conover beacons are in range on the port bow. Turning northward nearly eight points, the pilot holds the bow of the vessel between Fort Tompkins and Coney Island lights, keeping sharply to his range astern, until Robbins Reef light comes into view through the narrows. From this point on, the shore lights are the pilot's chief guide.

So difficult are harbor entrances, that in most cases the underwriters will not insure a vessel unless the latter is taken from the outer harbor to the dock by a licensed pilot, and the latter must spend nearly half a lifetime as an apprentice before he receives a license. The charges for pilotage are usually regulated by the number of feet the vessel draws. The charges differ in various ports, but the devices for marking and lighting the channels are much the same in every part of the world. In the United States all navigable channels are under the control of the general Government.