OCEAN CURRENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13796, 8 July 1908, Page 10

OCEAN CURRENTS.

AN OBSCURE SEA PERIL. Is the great majority of cases the incidence of ocean currents is as profound a mystery, as great a surprise to the seafarer," as it is to the veriest tyro among landsmen. ■/' Lot ..us. take, for instance, the case of afine, full-powered i steamship bound, let us say, to Britain from the south. She must go at .high; speed in order -to keep contract time. In order to do this she must bo navigated ( with the most meticulous care, but certain headlands with lights must be sight-" ed ■ in ! order to verify positions,/ "or,-; because they are in the direct line of route. Now, to take ; one/ of ; Hie '■ simplest / instances, let us suppose that for a couple of days before that ? ship reaches the latitude of Ushant, a' tremendous westerly ; gale has been blowing. Her master can know nothing ' about this—for he has been at sea far south. But the drag of the gale over the ocean surf has set up a - new and temporary current J which sweeps his ship, no matter what her power may be, bodily land- j ward, and if the weather be thick and dark, a- terrible disaster may ensue * for which he is lin no wise to blame, since the normal current against which he has provided■ was in another direction altogether. I have given that particular coast because of its abominable character, and would like to quote a , particular instance. / A t dear chum of mine,' captain of a* big steamship in too Eastern trade, found himself -, on three 'successive voyages, when'/outward.bound ; from England to the Mediterranean, set far too close to the Burlings to please him. > So on the fourth voyage he determined to give them so wide a berth that he should not sight them at all. % .'.-;He knew the course; he gave had /been well kept, but the night was terribly dark and overcast, r/ I that no; observations were •possible. But ;.e (could not /sleep ; and it was as well, for at four a.m. he found himself between the Burlings' and the mainland, and was saved from running ashore only by the goodnesia 'of his lookout. He was at least twenty: miles eastward of the'position ,- in. which *be should: have' been b . but. for 'that unknown and unpredictable current arising to baffle him, although at other times, steering in to sight those same well-known rocks,' !:?."d has been far to the westward of the position he intended. ' , There is, indeed, no factor more uncertain i or more deadly iin navigation than that of I. current,"; none; which "sets /the shipmaster's i/science and care more completely at naught,: ! owing to the impossibility of forecasting any individual case//'; Given a. clear sky, ; all i is well, for the heavenly, bodies do not err, I and frequent observations of them will ! check the vagaries of both currents and i compasses; but, alas! in the North Atlantic especially, these friendly guides' are" so ,very often obscured that the ship must/be dependent for heir/safety upon .the;/uncertainty I of the currents running in a normal and expected direction and* rate.— T. Bullen.