SOUND-SIGNALS. 



727 



Brenton's Reef 

 Light Vessel 



(Bell and Horn) 



This diagram shows the result of observations made by Lieut. -Commander Chadwick, U. 8. N., on Beaver Tall -, 

 Ehode Island, made November 16, 1880, from a sail-boat. Thermometer at beginning, 58' Fahr.; ending, 67*. Wind, 

 moderate, from the west. Weather, clear and cold, with bright sun. Time, beginning at 11.15 A. M. 



aboard of the signal itself. Every one strained 

 his ear to hear the signal, but without success ; 

 and we had begun to doubt of our position 

 when, the fog lifting slightly, we saw the 

 breakers in altogether too close proximity for 

 comfort. We passed the point as closely as 

 was safe, and when abreast of it and at right 

 angles with the direction of the wind, the fog- 

 signal broke on us suddenly and with its full 

 power. We then ran down the wind to New- 

 port, and had the sound with us all the way. 

 The fog continuing during the next day, the 

 signal kept up its sound, .and we heard it dis- 

 tinctly and continuously at our wharf, though 

 five miles distant. 



The keeper of the lighthouse at Point Judith 

 has declared that at a particular place between 

 that point and Beaver Tail Point the paddle- 

 strokes of a steamer become inaudible for a 

 moment or two, giving the impression that the 

 vessel has stopped, notwithstanding the fact 

 that they are seen to be revolving and had pre- 

 viously been plainly heard at a longer distance. 



On the night of May 12, 1881, about mid- 

 night, the Galatea, a propeller of over 1,500 

 tons burden, with a full load of passengers and 

 freight, bound through Long Island Sound from 

 Providence to New York, grounded in a dead 

 calm and a dense fog on Little Gull island, 

 one eighth of a mile from and behind the fog- 

 signal, and got off two days later without dam- 

 age. . That portion of the island itself which is 

 above water is but a knob, barely large enough 

 to hold a circular platform about one hundred 



feet across, on which stand the lighthouse and 

 fog-signal building. Great Gull island, per- 

 haps half a mile from it, is the nearest land. 

 Little Gull island is so surrounded by deep 

 water that vessels can sail around it. It was 

 alleged, as is usual in cases of accident near a 

 fog-signal, that the siren at Little Gull was 

 not in operation at the time of the accident. 

 The signal there was a second-class steam-siren ; 

 it was of a similar instrument that Tyndall said 

 in reference to his experiments for Trinity 

 House : " What may with certainty be affirmed 

 is, that in almost all cases the siren may cer- 

 tainly be relied on at a distance of two miles ; 

 in the great majority of cases it may be relied 

 on at a distance of three miles ; and in the 

 majority of cases at a distance greater than 

 three miles" ; and yet the Galatea failed to hear 

 the Little Gull siren, and went ashore about 

 two hundred yards from it, on an under- water 

 prolongation of the island on which the siren 

 was in full blast. 



The Lighthouse Board ordered an investiga- 

 tion. This was made by the Assistant Inspector 

 of the Lighthouse District, a naval officer, who 

 reported that after taking the sworn evidence 

 of the light-keepers at Little Gull and the other 

 light-stations within hearing distance, of other 

 government officers who were so located that 

 they might have had knowledge of the facts, 

 and of the officers of vessels that were within 

 ear-shot, including those of the Galatea, he 

 reached the conclusion that the fog-signal was 

 sounding at the time of the accident ; and that, 





