o-date
devices there are wrecks; and think of the ships that must have gone
down before charts were available, lighthouses and bell buoys in vogue,
wireless signals invented and the coast patrol in operation. I shudder
to picture it. Sailing the seas was a perilous undertaking then, I
assure you. Even the first devices for safety were primitive. The
Argand lamp of 1812 was not at all powerful and the lenses used were far
from perfect. Foghorns were operated by hand or by horse power and were
not strong enough to be heard at any great distance. Bell buoys were
unknown although there were such things as bell-boats which were
anchored in dangerous spots and rung by the wash of the waves. There
were lightships, too, but more often than not their feeble light was
obscured or unnoticed and they were run down by the ships they sought to
protect. Altogether there was room for improvement at every point and
slowly but surely it came. After the Daboll trumpet, whistle and siren
had been tried finer horns operated by steam or power engines supplanted
them until now all along our coasts and inland streams signals of
specified strength have been installed, a commission deciding just what
size signals shall be used and where they shall be placed. There are
lighthouses of prescribed candle power; automatic flashlights and
whistling buoys; coastguard stations with carefully drilled crews; all
regulated by law and matters of compulsion. If men and ships are lost
now it is because it is beyond human power to help it."

"There are facts about the water that are impossible to modify,"
interrupted Mr. Tolman, "and I suppose we shall never be able wholly to
eliminate the dangers growing out of them. There are for example silence
zones where, because of the nature of air currents or atmospheric
conditions, no sounds can be heard. Often a foghorn comparatively near
at hand will belch forth its warning and its voice be swallowed up in
this strange stillness. Many a calamity has occurred that could only be
accounted for in this way. Man is ingenious, it is true, but he is not
omniscient and in the face of some of the caprices of nature he is
powerless."

Mr. Ackerman rose and stood with his back to the fire.

"And now," went on Mr. Tolman, addressing Stephen and Dick, "I should
say you two had had quite a lecture on steamboating and should move that
you both go to bed."

Quickly Mr. Ackerman interrupted him.

"I should amend the motion by