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Show AMBROSE, CHANNEL LIGHTSHIP SACK of planning to do things and doing them life seems to consist of planning to go somewhere some-where and going. Most men are seeking happiness, and anticipation an-ticipation is said to be the climax of happiness in most cases. However that may be, going somewhere and getting ready for the journey is the means of happiness for most persons. To have no place to go is a tragedy. Lightships do not go anywhere. They stay in one spot, day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out, save when the tide or the wind forces them to swing around their shackles and instead of pointing east their stubbed prows point north or south, or southwest-by-west, as the case may be. They bob up and down in the seaway, and if it is choppy they may be bucking broncos, as the lighthouse light-house men describe them. The Scotland Scot-land lightship makes a double pitch in seven Beconds. To be forced to watch the steamships sailing past, within hailing distance, on their way to all parts of the world, or gliding in from the sea with their burdens of Americans, Ameri-cans, homeward bound and joyful in the realization of the fact that they will soon see their friends, and immigrants-seeking and expecting to find that which should make the circumstances circum-stances ef life more satisfactory, is like placing a Barmecide feast before a mariner who has been floating in an open boat without food for a week. That is what the crew of a lightship outside of New York harbor has to face. A General Provider. At Tompkinsville, Staten Island, Uncle Sam has maintained for these many years a depot of the lighthouse service. It is the chief one In the United Uni-ted States. Not only has it a great deal to -do with the supplies for the entire service, but from its wharves. crowded with buoys of a hundred shapes, ocean-going vessels, called tenders, ten-ders, put forth with all kinds of sup-piles sup-piles for the maintenance of the precious pre-cious lights along the coast and in the harbors between Narragansett Bay and Cape May. The tenders take compressed com-pressed gas to the gas buoys, coal, oil and food supplies to the lighthouses, and coal, water, oil, vegetables, eggs, ice and other supplies of the kind that would be required on a vessel that makes por' perhaps, only once or twice a year. There are four or five of the tenders, all bearing names of flowers, such as the Tulip, the Larkspur, Lark-spur, the Gardenia and the Pansy. Sometimes they are gone for a week, sometimes for a day only, but there is always one designated to go out on a Saturday to the lightships at the mouth of the harbor. There are two of these lightships the Ambrose Channel, No. 87, and the Scotland, No. 11. The former lies outside the entrance en-trance to the Gedney channel, or main gateway, while the latter swings in the seaway at the mouth of the South channel, the passage used by coastwise vessels and barges on their way into the harbor. It behooves those who have secured the privilege of making the trip from the office of the lighthouse service, in Washington, to be on hand bright and early In the morning, for the tenders get away almost with the sun. On this morning, however, the sun is invisible; It is foggy. The cook pro vides a cup of coffee as an appetizer and in a little while a grocery wagor rattles down to the gangway. Severa; barrels of green stuff, fresh meat, and a case of eggs are carried aboard. Th breakfast bell rings and as the tende works her way through the narrow passage out of the basin, the youthful waiter serves the meal. Slowly the tender picks her waj down the Narrows through the fog which seems to become denser rathei than thinner. The breeze drives the mist across the deck in a way that, bodes no good for the future of the day. The whistle is sounded at regu lar intervals. The notes of other whistles whis-tles and bells come through the fog blanket from different vessels. The former indicate moving vessels; the latter vessels at anchor. There Is the dull clang of a bell buoy sagging bach and forth in the gentle swell. The engine en-gine room telegraph Indicates that the engines are going at "slow." On one side of the pilot house the captain is peering through the murky cloud with mouth partly open and ears oblivious to all except the sounds which come tc him from every point of the compass This is Saturday morning, and arriv ing and departing steamships are likely to be far more numerous than on any other day of the week. On the other side is the mate, as alert and watchful as the master. They com pare notes from time to time. "Well, I've got plenty of time," the captain remarks at last, "and It ie safer at anchor than trying to move through this fog." Business la Business. The lead is heaved and finally the anchor iB ordered dropped. The whistle whis-tle is replaced by the bell. There is no breeze now. Over at the right a bell that reminds one of a cowbell Is sounding. That must be a freighter. A sldewheeler bound for the fiBhing grounds, and carrying a party of fishermen, fish-ermen, goes dashing past with foam-ir.g foam-ir.g paddles. The fog, does not delay the load of human freight. It is "going" somewhere. Another, carrying commuters com-muters from the shore of New Jersey, splashes north at a similar speed. Business Is business! A steamship with deep-i-hroated voice slowly makes her way up from the Ambrose channel, and drops anchor somewhere In the Impenetrable cloud only a few hundred hun-dred feet away. Soon the blast of a bugle communicates the information that a steamship company must, regardless re-gardless of any reluctance it may feel, provide its passengers with another meal, and that it is about to be served. Curiously, owing to the thinness thin-ness of the blanket of mist, It is possible pos-sible to see the sun overhead, but nothing beyond 200 feet on any side. A lookout on a mast a hundred feet above the deck would be above the cloud, and able to guide the move ments of a vessel. Gradually the sun burns up the fog, there being no wind to blow it away. As it thins, the an chor is raised again, and, leaving the group of anchored steamships which gradually have been unveiled, the ten der makes for the Ambrose channel on its way out to the Ambrose channel lightship, three or four miles at sea She Is "going" again, much to the satisfaction sat-isfaction of everyone. |