SCHOONER ASKS ITS WAY ACROSS THE OCEAN.

North Otago Times, 3 December 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

SCHOONER ASKS ITS WAY ACROSS THE OCEAN.

It is easy enough for a person to find his way across a continent by asking the way of the occasional passer-by, but it would hardly be considered safe or even possible for a vessel to make a long voyage by the same system. But so travelled are the ocean lanes that this has been accomplished in some instances, Recently the French liner, "La Savoie," two days out of Havre, was called upon by a. sailing ship, bound east,- to give her longitude. In other words the schooner wanted to know just how near to the coast or Europe she had arrived,, and what time of day it was. It was learned that the skipper had died, and no other member of the crew was able to make observations with the, sextant. The officers of the liner gave the sailing ship the desired information, the international code of signals being employed to ask for and to furnish it. Except in cases of dire distress, like that of the lost schooner in this-case, to bother a liner in such fashion would be as impertinent as it would be on shore for a person to stop an express train to ask how far it was to the next town.