Whistling Buoys

1900

Valuable Aids to Navigation and Repairers Keep Them In Tune

One of the most interesting aids to navigation is the whistling buoys. There are several of them off the cape, and their dull, hoarse groaning may often be heard for miles.

They are clumsy affairs of steel, ranging in length from 30 to 35 feet, with an air tank shaped like a pear about 10 feet high and 9 feet in diameter from which an 18 inch pipe 20 feet long protrudes.

These buoys may be seen at the lighthouse department storehouses on Diamond island, where buoys of all kinds and shape are kept ready to be placed over some rock dangerous to navigation or to replace any which may be damaged or adrift.

This long pipe which runs down into the water is what furnishes the power for the whistle.

When the buoy is in the water, the rolling of the waves up through pipe and the pressure on the air in the tank forces it out through the whistle, and the well-known dismal sound is the result.

Whistle buoys in different ports of the coast are given a different pitch in order that the mariner may, on a thick night be able to know his locality by the difference in the sound.

It is the duty of the officers to adjust the pitch of these whistles when they get out of tune, And they have become so expert at it that they can detect and remedy the slightest variation from the correct pitch.

The adjustment of these whistles must be made while they are in place, and sometimes the great necessity of the marks on dangerous rocks obliges the men on the buoy boats to make these repairs in very rough weather.

The repairing crew usually includes the mate and one man, who are rowed up to the buoy until they are able to grasp the rings on the side and clamber up over the side to the cage which protects the whistle.

Perhaps the most dangerous duty which falls to the lot of the buoy tenders is that of replacing the heavy buoys during a storm or while a heavy sea is running.

With the steamer rolling her rails under the greatest care must be taken to avoid accident, and many are the stories of narrow escapes related by strong, rugged men who perform this dangerous work. — Augusta (Maine) Journal.

Fastnet Lighthouse — First Glimpse of Great Britain

1896

A Welcome Gleam to the East-Bound Atlantic Voyager

The first glimpse of Great Britain that the American tourist gets on his European tour is that of the Fastnet lighthouse.

It stands on a rugged and solitary rock, situated nine miles south of Crookhaven, at the extreme southwest corner of Ireland, and is, perhaps, more storm-beaten than any other around our coast. The rock is eighty feet in height, and the lighthouse towers another seventy feet above, yet, in winter gales, the Atlantic billows literally bombard the massive structure and have even smashed in a portion, of the lantern at the summit of the erection, the seas frequently sweeping over the rock with tremendous force.

Some two or three years ago the stormy weather then prevailing prevented all communication with the rock for many weeks, so that the store of food was consumed, with the exception of some flour. At last a schooner managed to approach sufficiently near to enable a small quantity of food to be dragged through the sea by the hungry men, and, fortunately, the next day the sea moderated, and the stores were once more fully replenished.

Except in very calm weather, the Fastnet is surrounded by a fringe of foam, and the only means of landing is by the aid of a "jib" fifty-eight feet in length, so placed on the rock that, in moderate weather, its end reaches outside the surf. When a visitor wishes to land (an unusual occurrence) he is rowed in a small boat as near as the waves permit, and the light-keepers throw out a small buoy, attached to a rope, which is secured by the man in the boat. The jib is then swung out, and the visitor, placing one foot in the loop and catching tight hold of the rope, is hoisted about forty feet vertically, and then the jib, being pivoted at its foot, swings him horizontally about 100 feet on to a safe landing. — London Sketch.

Farming in Mexico

1908

Primitive Methods Still in Vogue in Many Sections

Mexico City. — The most primitive methods of agriculture are still in vogue in many parts of Mexico.

Even upon the farms adjacent to the City of Mexico and other large cities of that country, where it might be expected that modern machinery would have replaced the antiquated implements which have been in use since the time of the Aztecs, the ground is broken by wooden plows drawn by oxen.

These plows are cumbersome in construction and method of operation. The beam is about eight feet long and to it is frequently spliced another beam in order to afford working room for two yoke of oxen. The handle of the plow is an upright curved piece of timber. The plow point is also made of wood and is lashed to the brake-beam by means of thongs of rawhide.

The plowing with this heavy and unwieldy piece of mechanism is frequently done by Indian women. The men pick the easier kind of labor. The plow does little more than scrape the surface of the soil and but for the natural richness of the land and the splendid climate little could be grown where the work is performed by the ancient implement.


Famous Woman Life-Saver

America's bravest woman, in the opinion of the Society of the American Cross of Honor, is Ida Lewis Wilson, keeper of the Lime Rock lighthouse, off Newport, R.I. "Mistress Wilson," as the sailors call her, is declared by the society to have "rendered greater service tending toward the saving of life than any other woman of the country." The society has therefore awarded her a cross of honor. Mrs. Wilson is better known as Ida Lewis, who years ago gained a world-wide celebrity through her many heroic rescues of drowning persons. — Leslie's Weekly.

A "Loafer's Paradise" – In Honolulu They Do Next to Nothing

1878

The Ohio State Journal publishes a letter from Gen. Comly, in which Honolulu is sketched with a free-and-easy hand, as a loafer's paradise.

The natives, he writes, are the most careless, improvident, laughter-loving people in the world. They have no winter to lay by for — even the proverbial rainy day needs nothing there; so they dance and sing, and deck themselves with garlands all the day long. Men go here with great garlands of the loveliest flowers and green leaves hanging in festoons, around the neck and shoulders, down the body, around the hat — everywhere.

These men are not the fops and loafers of the race, but the hard-working fellows — the herdsmen, the hackmen, even the draymen go about adorned in the most exquisite taste, with flowers and leaves wreathed into forms of beauty which come to an American like a revelation in art. They have no wealth — nothing that would satisfy an American — but they are always laughing, singing, playing jews-harps or making floral wreaths. The Hawaiian knows that there will never be a winter's day to provide for, and that it will always be the same — yesterday, to-day and forever.


American Lighthouses

The history of the illuminating of lighthouses is an interesting one, says the New York Evening Post, and the improvements that have been made from year to year in the manner of lighting these beacons on our coast have been in keeping with the growth of an ever-extending shipping interest.

Before 1789 the expense of keeping up the few lighthouses then standing was borne by the States in which the lights were placed. In 1791 the first lighthouse erected by the Federal government was lighted. At that time, including the new one, there were but nine lights on the whole American coast. During the following nine years the number was increased to sixteen. In 1822 there were seventy lights in all, and in 1838 two hundred and thirty-eight, including lightboats. In 1875 there were nine hundred and twenty-five lighthouses and twenty-three lightships; four hundred and eighteen of the number being on the Atlantic coast.