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THE degree of "A. B." is not confined to college graduates. Aboard ship it means "ablebodied" seaman.

Every nautical A. B. knows how to "box the compass" and how to steer by it; but you will be surprised to learn that no good helmsman will steer by a compass unless all other things fail him. Among those "other things Among those "other things" are the horizon, the wind, the wake of the ship, the stars, the soundings, and the line of the surf when running along the coast.

And

so

helm to him with this caution: "Keep your head out of the binnacle!"

I am speaking of sailing-vessels. Steamers, especially those that travel on regular routes, steer by compass. They "run their courses from point to point - from lighthouse to lighthouse, light-ship, day-mark, buoy, bell, or fogwhistle. In thick weather they know, taking wind and tide into consideration, how long they should stand on each course, and try never to pass the "signal" at the end of it. When

the able-bodied seaman, when a greenhorn they have seen or heard that signal, they start on the next "run" or course. This is called

takes his trick at the wheel, hands over the

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running the time and distance." I have gone into Halifax on a steamer that met with thick fog from Cape Cod down. One morning the captain said to me:

"We ought to pick up Sambro in half an hour."

Surely enough, about half an hour later we heard, through the fog, a cannon-shot, the distinguishing fog-signal of the Sambro light-sta

tion on the Nova Scotian coast.

Real sailors—the Jack tars that man sailingvessels - actually prefer, as I have said, to steer by signs rather than by compass; and there are times when the steamer-pilots have to.

You 've heard of a "landlubber"; but have you ever heard of a "lubber's point"? Every compass has one; and it is n't a point either, but a line-a fixed line in the compass that runs exactly in the same direction as the vessel's keel. Sailors poke a great lot of fun at a landlubber; but they have great respect for the lubber's point. Without it they could n't tell, when steering by compass, whether the vessel was keeping on her course or not; for instance, if the vessel is to be kept on a northeasterly course, the "N. E." mark on the compass must lie directly over the lubber's point, which thus is a kind of lubber that amounts to something in the world. In heavy or rolling seas the compass is often so badly shaken up that the point on which the helmsman has been directed to keep the vessel won't remain over the lubber's point, and he has to steer by other signs. Often, too, in very calm, smooth water the compass becomes, as the sailors say, "sluggish" and "dead,” and has to be shaken to set it moving. Now, it's just as much trouble to stop and shake a compass that 's misbehaving itself as it is to stop and shake a bad boy, provided you can catch him; and the sailor, if other signs are handy, prefers to keep on his course by them, without paying any attention to the compass's doldrums. In electric storms the needle is apt to behave pretty badly. It will "go crazy," and fly all around so that no one can tell on what point the ship is steering. Castaways, as the fishermen on the Banks who while out in their dories find themselves separated from their ship in a heavy fog, and who often have no compass with them, could

never lay a general course for land unless they had certain signs to steer by.

Of these various signs the horizon is the readiest to hand. It is right out there over the ocean. Every sailing-vessel has a tendency to " come up into the wind". -to swing

toward the direction from which the wind is blowing. For instance, if the wind is from the east, the vessel's bow, instead of pointing steadily in the direction in which the helmsman steers, has a tendency to sweep over toward the east. By keeping his eye on the horizon, the man at the helm can detect the sweep of the bow along the horizon line, and check or correct it keep the ship "off"-by a turn of the wheel; or he may detect this "to" or "off" motion by watching a sluggish cloud, if one happens to be dead-ahead.

The "fly" at the masthead is often used as a sign to steer by. It revolves on a pivot, and hence, like a weather-vane, shows the direction

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from which the wind is blowing; whereas a flag attached to a halyard streams directly astern, or at an angle more or less affected by the speed and course of the vessel. A glance at the fly having shown the wind's direction, a glance at the binnacle shows from what point of the compass it comes. Then, by watching the fly, and thus keeping the ship always at the same angle to the wind, you are able to keep her on her course.

The ships of different nations have distinctive flies. The American and the English fly is a little triangular pennon. German ships often have a small tapering bag at the masthead, and French vessels a "dog-vane” — a line of corks with colored feathers on a wire. The steamers of the French Line from New York to Havre have a dog-vane at each

masthead it is one of their distinguishing lose it, and then haul in again to a central line marks. and maintain it. An old sea-dog once told me that one thick night, coming up along the coast with a head wind so that they had to tack in and off shore, they sailed their tacks, or ran their "legs," by candles-running offshore long enough to burn out two candles, but burning only one for the inshore leg, so as to avoid standing in too close.

Steering by the fly is one way of steering by the wind, but there are other tricks for finding the wind-point. A sailor can find the point of a stiff breeze by simply letting it blow against his face. In a light air, almost a calm, he lifts his cap and turns his head until he feels the cool breath on his moist brow, which is far more sensitive than his sun-tanned face; or he moistens the edge of his hand, and turning it toward the wind, waves it gently back and forth and to and fro until the coolness of the air is felt on one side of that narrow surface and not on the other. In heavier airs he will moisten the palm of the hand and hold it flat to the wind. The wind-point being found, the ship is sailed as close to the wind as possible, the helmsman keeping his eye on the sail-leech. The least quiver, and a turn of the wheel keeps her off enough to fill her sails; but with an experienced hand on the wheel there will be no quiver along the leech. For an "A. B." can tell by the "feel" of the helm when the ship is about to come up into the wind; as a vessel "comes up" the strain on the rudder is lessened, and by quickly checking her he keeps the sails "rap full and asleep "— keeps them from quivering and holds her on her course without so much as a glance at the compass.

Sailors also steer by the wake of the ship. When a vessel is running free—that is, with the wind dead-astern—she must leave a straight wake or she is not running a straight course. When she is "on the wind," her canvas full, not shivering, when she is

As near as she will lie

By keeping full and bye,

her wake will be at an angle greater or less according to the force of the wind and the speed of the vessel. This angle measures what we call the ship's "leeway"— that which she loses from a true course. With a vessel hove to in a gale, the leeway becomes very large, and is called the "drift."

Coasting-craft steer by the line of white surf on the shore, or in thick weather by its roar as it breaks on the beach or rocks. They haul in to catch the sound, then keep off until they

The Alaska steamers on the inside route between the main coast and numerous outlying islands steer, even in running through the narrowest channels, by the varying echoes of the paddles from the shores.

A given course can also be run by soundings, or, rather, by a line of soundings. In entering New York harbor, keep in say fifteen, twenty, forty fathoms, no less, until you get ten fathoms. If then the lead shows fine white sand, look out for Sandy Hook lightship. Coarse yellow sand will land you on

Fire Island.

That sailors prefer not to steer by compass must have struck you as one curious fact. Here is another. A steersman can keep his ship better on her course at night, if it be clear, than during the day. "Look ahead, get

a star, and steady her head by it." So says the A. B. of the ocean to the sailor who has not yet won his degree. For to the helmsman the stars are like the pillar of fire in Scripture. They are the hands on the dial of the night. They twinkle "good-evening" to poor Jack as he sits up aloft or stands at the helm, and wink "good-morning" and "good-by" to him with daylight. It is obvious that the "to" or "off" movement of a vessel can be more quickly detected by a small, bright object like a star deadahead than by the monotonous sweep of the horizon, or by peering into the compass-box. The same ancient mariner who told me about measuring the length of the off and in shore legs by the life of candles, told me that once, when the oil in the binnacle-lamps gave out and he was steering by a star, he occasionally struck a match and looked at the compass “to see if the star had moved any." He was a genuine "sea-cook," this ancient mariner, being steward of the vessel on which I was sailing; and he would bob up out of the cook's galley

amidships like a seal bobbing up through a hole in the ice, and proceed to spin yarns.

When the lookout sings out, "Land ho!" and has replied to the officer's" Where away?" a star over the rock or other danger may be noted and brought down in line with the point on the compass, and its proper bearing obtained.

"The stars," said a sea-captain to me, “move apparently from east to west, so that when we find our first star will no longer do, we select another. This is the case with all but the north or pole star, which is in line with two certain stars in the Great Bear or Dipper, and the orbit is so small that it is a good guide for all night; and we can even detect errors of the compass by it."

The north star is of course as true as, or even truer than, the most accurate compass. To the "other things" that sailors steer by, the compass is, however, what steam is to electricity.

To produce an electric light you require a dynamo; to run the dynamo you need steam. You may feel the wind on your moist brow or hand; but the direction from which it blows you can-except in case of the regular trade winds, or unless you are up in sea-lore — tell only from the compass. Then by sailing close to the wind you can keep on that course without looking at the compass. But sailors naturally have a large accumulation of weatherlore; and in addition to the "trades" there are, except in case of violent storms, certain regularities in the winds in certain parts of the ocean, and certain other recurring signs, which the helmsman can utilize, and which often enable him to dispense with the compass altogether. For instance, if in standing south to round the Horn, you see the " Magellanic Clouds" (bright patches in the Milky Way) directly above the ship, change your course for the Straits of Magellan.

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SCENE: A hollow tree in the woods. TIME: December, evening. PERSONS: Mr. Owl, Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Bear.

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