816 



SIGNAL SERVICE. 



the Signal Corps, at Cape Henry, when the hark 

 Giuseppe Massonue was wrecked near that sta- 

 tion, February 10, 1878. His presence pre- 

 vented the crew from deserting their ship, 

 which, by the aid of powerful wrecking steam- 

 ers, was subsequently saved. Other instances 

 of boarding vessels could be cited, as those of 

 the Italian bark Francesco Bellagambaand the 

 British steamship Antonio, both boarded by 

 Signal Service men who afterward kept up 

 signal conversation with the shore until the 

 ships were saved. But these cases will suffice 

 to show the immense share the Coast Signal 

 Service has in the results announced by the 

 Life-Saving Service. Without the Signal Ser- 

 vice cooperation, the latter would often, in 

 emergencies that arise, be powerless to com- 

 mand the needed help, as well as to communi- 

 cate with stranded vessels. For the latter ser- 

 vice, only men drilled in signaling can avail. 



So arranged is the Coast Signal Service, that 

 not only are its storm-flags and danger-warn- 

 ings visible by vessels moving off the coast, 

 but even a vessel en voyage (say one which is 

 bound from the equator to New York), as she 



SIGNAL SERVICE SEACOAST TELEGRAPH LINES. 



passes Cape Henlopen, may inquire by signals 

 whether any hurricane is impending; if so, 

 whether she has time to reach Sandy Hook 

 before its arrival, or must take shelter behind 

 the Delaware Breakwater. Or, a vessel bound 

 from Jfew York or any northern port south- 

 ward, on reaching the Capes of the Delaware, 

 can make inquiry as to whether any storm is 

 likely to strike her before she can pass Cape 

 Hatteras, and receive full advice by telegraph 

 from the Chief Signal Office at Washington, in 

 a very brief time. With adequate appropria- 

 tions, this Coast Signal Service could easily be 

 made of far greater value to all the shipping 

 and mercantile interests. As the Chief Signal 

 Officer has said, " The time is not far distant 

 when the possession of a coast not covered by 

 seacoast storm-signal and Signal Service sta- 

 tions, watching as sentinels each its own beat 

 of sea and shore, and ready to summon aid by 

 electric wires, will be held as much an evi- 

 dence of semi-barbarism, as is now among civ- 

 ilized nations the holding of any national coast 

 without a system of lighthouse lights." In the 

 event of war, with a completed chain of coast 

 signal stations, no part of our exposed 

 sea-front could be threatened without 

 immediate intelligence of the fact being 

 flashed to the \Vashington office and all 

 along the coast, and the defensive power 

 of the Government concentrated at the 

 point endangered. The chain of tele- 

 graphic seacoast stations at present is 

 610 miles long, stretching from Sandy 

 Hook to the mouth of Cape Fear Kiver. 

 The Signal Service Telegraph System. 

 constructed, owned, and operated by the 

 Signal Service, covers, however, a much 

 larger area than the seacoast mentioned. 

 In pursuance of acts of Congress, this 

 service has now completed in the in- 

 terior and upon the frontier an exten- 

 sive network of telegraphic lines for 

 connecting military posts, with a view 

 to the protection of the population from 

 Indian depredations, arid the rendition 

 of meteorological, military, and other 

 reports to the Government. A total 

 length of 4,000 miles of frontier line is 

 now operated and maintained by the 

 Signal Corps. This connected system 

 of telegraph-lines is one of the most ef- 

 fective safeguards against Indian raids 

 and warlike movements, since it en- 

 ables the scattered military forces of 

 the United States to obtain timely no- 

 tice of such movements, and to concen- 

 trate quickly at any threatened point to 

 repel attack. The Indian strategy is 

 to pass between the Government army 

 posts unobserved, so that their plans 

 may not be reported a very difficult 

 thing in a region traversed by electric 

 wires. To break them is to announce 

 their purpose and betray themselves, 

 alarming the posts and settlements on 



