1896
Hermits who make their homes in the caves and forests of California are plentiful, but a hermit who makes his home on the water is not so common.
The first one that has ever been seen in the bay of San Francisco is now living in a small scow, or ark, in the cove near Black Point. There he spends his days, and with the exception of an occasional drifting cruise along the front in a small skiff he never leaves the home he has made of the old, battered craft, which is named "Southern Pacific."
Every morning, rain or shine, he is up before sunrise. Climbing a ladder raised against an impromptu mast he reaches a small platform. On this he kneels and begins his morning orisons. First he sings a hymn. Sometimes his voice can be heard, chanting the melody at Black Point, and at other times he can barely be heard by the fishermen who are waiting the turn on tide in Black Point Cove. Then he will read a chapter from the Bible and after that he prays that the kingdom of the Messiah may come and that heaven be established on earth.
If it is a fine morning the sun by this time is well up in the heavens and the sun rise gun has been fired half an hour previously. The hermit descends from his lofty perch and pumps out his frail craft, in order to keep her afloat for another twenty-four hours. — San Francisco Call.
Showing posts with label boating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boating. Show all posts
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Church Aboard a Boat
1900
A novelty in church services has been supplied by the German Lutheran Zion Congregation of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. One of their number, who owns a steamboat, gave its use to the pastor, the Rev. Paul F. Jubelt. He organized an excursion on it sixty miles up the Hudson, which would combine the regular church service on board with the ordinary routine of a day's outing on the water. The church choir was aboard and led in the singing.
What One Grain of Wheat Did
Did you ever stop to think of the possibilities of a grain of wheat? We are so used to seeing the field sown with wheat and the crop come up and ripen that we quite forget how each little grain does a great work through the summer days in multiplying and adding to the farmer's harvest. A farmer near Phoenix, Arizona, planted one grain of white Australian wheat, and at harvest time from it had sprung 1,360 grains of large, fat wheat. He planted ten acres of this wheat and harvested 177 sacks, each weighing 138 pounds. The single grain spoken of produces 36 stalks, so you see even a grain of wheat helps wonderfully.
A novelty in church services has been supplied by the German Lutheran Zion Congregation of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. One of their number, who owns a steamboat, gave its use to the pastor, the Rev. Paul F. Jubelt. He organized an excursion on it sixty miles up the Hudson, which would combine the regular church service on board with the ordinary routine of a day's outing on the water. The church choir was aboard and led in the singing.
What One Grain of Wheat Did
Did you ever stop to think of the possibilities of a grain of wheat? We are so used to seeing the field sown with wheat and the crop come up and ripen that we quite forget how each little grain does a great work through the summer days in multiplying and adding to the farmer's harvest. A farmer near Phoenix, Arizona, planted one grain of white Australian wheat, and at harvest time from it had sprung 1,360 grains of large, fat wheat. He planted ten acres of this wheat and harvested 177 sacks, each weighing 138 pounds. The single grain spoken of produces 36 stalks, so you see even a grain of wheat helps wonderfully.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Noah's Ark as Model for Boat
1920
Lake Erie Fisherman Had Faith Enough in Idea to Build One
Saudusky, Ohio — Ed Lampe, a fisherman at Vermilion, a Lake Erie port town twenty-two miles east of this city, was reading a story about Noah's ark to his children one night several months ago, when it occurred to him that were the craft of Noah's time resurrected and modernized a little it might have a tendency to lessen the toll that storms take annually in the Great Lakes section.
Lampe is a gillnetter of many years' experience, and in the picture of Noah's ark that embellished the story he was reading, he recognized wonderful possibilities. The storms of the Great Lakes section rage furiously in spring, following the opening of the navigation season, and again in fall, just before the season closes. Many men lose their lives and much valuable property is destroyed.
The gillnetters, as those fishermen who fish with gill nets are known, are oftener the victims than are the members of any other body of men engaged in fishing; their work is more hazardous. When disaster comes it is usually the gillnetters' boat, or "tug," that is destroyed.
A Real Success
Lampe designed a boat on the plan of Noah's ark. With the aid of several fishermen friends he brought his design to materialization. He tried the craft out and it met every expectation. It ploughed the most vicious billows, going out and returning when other boats had to be kept in port.
Lampe's craft attracted the attention, of the commercial fishing interests of the Lake Erie section and investigators were sent to Vermilion. If it were true that a Vermilion fisherman had invented a boat patterned after Noah's ark that would lessen the risk of spring and fall season fishing they wanted to give the fishermen the benefit of the discovery, they said.
The Vermilion gillnetter would not listen to a proposition to sell his idea, nor would he talk of royalty.
"If you can save some poor devil's life by using my style of boat, go ahead and use it," he said.
The United Fisheries company of this city, one of the largest organizations of its kind operating on Lake Erie, recently completed the first of six gillnet tugs of the type designed by Lampe, at a shipbuilding plant in this city. The other five are to be ready to be commissioned at the beginning of the spring fishing season of 1920.
Lampe christened his boat Victory, for the reason that she is believed to have triumphed over the storm. With a bow like that of a battleship, and a body otherwise that resembles the conventional pictures of Noah's ark, she has been successfully combating the roughest seas that the Lake Erie nor'easter has been able thus far to kick up.
Victory is fifty-five feet long, with a fifteen foot beam. She is equipped with two power plants, so that if one should happen to "go bad," the other will be available. Her upper works are so constructed that they can be made almost water tight and her hull bears the weight required to right her immediately if she should happen to turnover.
"I would as lief be sitting in the cabin of Victory as in my office or my home, no matter how severe the storm," said Charles F. Mischler, president of the United Fisheries company, discussing the new gillnetting craft.
Fishermen say that boats of this kind will, in the near future, replace the old-time gillnetting tugs now in use, and that a big saving in life and property will result.
Lake Erie Fisherman Had Faith Enough in Idea to Build One
Saudusky, Ohio — Ed Lampe, a fisherman at Vermilion, a Lake Erie port town twenty-two miles east of this city, was reading a story about Noah's ark to his children one night several months ago, when it occurred to him that were the craft of Noah's time resurrected and modernized a little it might have a tendency to lessen the toll that storms take annually in the Great Lakes section.
Lampe is a gillnetter of many years' experience, and in the picture of Noah's ark that embellished the story he was reading, he recognized wonderful possibilities. The storms of the Great Lakes section rage furiously in spring, following the opening of the navigation season, and again in fall, just before the season closes. Many men lose their lives and much valuable property is destroyed.
The gillnetters, as those fishermen who fish with gill nets are known, are oftener the victims than are the members of any other body of men engaged in fishing; their work is more hazardous. When disaster comes it is usually the gillnetters' boat, or "tug," that is destroyed.
A Real Success
Lampe designed a boat on the plan of Noah's ark. With the aid of several fishermen friends he brought his design to materialization. He tried the craft out and it met every expectation. It ploughed the most vicious billows, going out and returning when other boats had to be kept in port.
Lampe's craft attracted the attention, of the commercial fishing interests of the Lake Erie section and investigators were sent to Vermilion. If it were true that a Vermilion fisherman had invented a boat patterned after Noah's ark that would lessen the risk of spring and fall season fishing they wanted to give the fishermen the benefit of the discovery, they said.
The Vermilion gillnetter would not listen to a proposition to sell his idea, nor would he talk of royalty.
"If you can save some poor devil's life by using my style of boat, go ahead and use it," he said.
The United Fisheries company of this city, one of the largest organizations of its kind operating on Lake Erie, recently completed the first of six gillnet tugs of the type designed by Lampe, at a shipbuilding plant in this city. The other five are to be ready to be commissioned at the beginning of the spring fishing season of 1920.
Lampe christened his boat Victory, for the reason that she is believed to have triumphed over the storm. With a bow like that of a battleship, and a body otherwise that resembles the conventional pictures of Noah's ark, she has been successfully combating the roughest seas that the Lake Erie nor'easter has been able thus far to kick up.
Victory is fifty-five feet long, with a fifteen foot beam. She is equipped with two power plants, so that if one should happen to "go bad," the other will be available. Her upper works are so constructed that they can be made almost water tight and her hull bears the weight required to right her immediately if she should happen to turnover.
"I would as lief be sitting in the cabin of Victory as in my office or my home, no matter how severe the storm," said Charles F. Mischler, president of the United Fisheries company, discussing the new gillnetting craft.
Fishermen say that boats of this kind will, in the near future, replace the old-time gillnetting tugs now in use, and that a big saving in life and property will result.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Women Before the Pope
1909
Most people know that it is etiquette at the papal court for women, whatever their rank, to appear in black, but few know that an exception to this rule is made for the pope's sisters and niece, all of whom are privileged to wear white at the audiences and church ceremonies, but the old ladies do not avail themselves of the relaxation of an ordinary rigid regulation, though the niece makes a point of wearing white when attending papal functions, her mantilla as well as her dress being as white as snow.
Another little known point of papal etiquette is that women who come to the public or private audiences must keep the right hand uncovered; indeed. it is even more correct for both hands to be ungloved. — Lady's Pictorial.
Motor Boats on Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a government monopoly, and at present is leased out to a small native company. They have a wooden boat built for a sailing vessel, but about six months ago had a motor put in it. If this company succeeds they might try a couple more motor boats.
The Dead Sea is one third solid matter, the greater part of which is salt, and the question to answer is: Can the hulls stand the action of this salt water? People in this country are not wealthy enough to afford a motor boat for pleasure only, and as no one would be allowed to use one on the Dead Sea, Jaffa is the only possible market for boats in the district.
The Jordan valley, the river and the Dead Sea are the personal property of the sultan. A permit must be first obtained from the sultan before boats of any kind can be launched thereon. Such permits have heretofore been very difficult to procure for motor boats.
Most people know that it is etiquette at the papal court for women, whatever their rank, to appear in black, but few know that an exception to this rule is made for the pope's sisters and niece, all of whom are privileged to wear white at the audiences and church ceremonies, but the old ladies do not avail themselves of the relaxation of an ordinary rigid regulation, though the niece makes a point of wearing white when attending papal functions, her mantilla as well as her dress being as white as snow.
Another little known point of papal etiquette is that women who come to the public or private audiences must keep the right hand uncovered; indeed. it is even more correct for both hands to be ungloved. — Lady's Pictorial.
Motor Boats on Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a government monopoly, and at present is leased out to a small native company. They have a wooden boat built for a sailing vessel, but about six months ago had a motor put in it. If this company succeeds they might try a couple more motor boats.
The Dead Sea is one third solid matter, the greater part of which is salt, and the question to answer is: Can the hulls stand the action of this salt water? People in this country are not wealthy enough to afford a motor boat for pleasure only, and as no one would be allowed to use one on the Dead Sea, Jaffa is the only possible market for boats in the district.
The Jordan valley, the river and the Dead Sea are the personal property of the sultan. A permit must be first obtained from the sultan before boats of any kind can be launched thereon. Such permits have heretofore been very difficult to procure for motor boats.
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