SUCCESSFUL USE OF OIL TO CALM ROUGH SEAS. 
171 
now become definitely established that there is a great deal 
of practical value in the idea, and that it admits of being put 
into use with very important advantage, and of even being 
instrumental in the saving of life, and the saving of vessels 
when exposed to rough seas. 
Illustrations of this are given by the following cases :— 
A sailing vessel, the Stockholm City, crossing the Atlantic 
from Boston, encountered a terrible westerly gale, and had 
no alternative but to drive before it, a course that became 
extremely hazardous. The captain, therefore, resolved to 
make use of oil; and a bag of strong sail-cloth filled with tow, 
well soaked in oil, was suspended at each angle of the stern 
of the vessel, and allowed to trail in the water; two other 
bags were placed amidships, and two others at the bows. 
The action upon the waves is reported as instantaneous; the 
most dangerous breakers were converted into a harmless 
swell, and, whilst driving for about 170 miles before the storm, 
not a sea was shipped. 
Another case is that of a sailing vessel, the Nehemiah 
Gibson; the captain, foreseeing a hurricane whilst sailing 
with the wind astern, and with a heavy sea which became 
constantly more violent, took two sail-cloth bags, each hold¬ 
ing half-a-gallon of porpoise oil, and pierced with holes to 
allow the oil to leak out gradually. The bags were suspended 
so as to dip in the water, and the oil produced the desired 
effect. The huge waves that rushed into the ship’s wake, with 
their breaking and dangerous crests, and rising much higher 
than the vessel, threatening to overwhelm her, were suddenly 
pacified as they reached the track of smooth water produced 
by the oil; the crests of the waves disappeared, and they 
passed harmlessly under the keel of the vessel. 
The value of this method appears most signally where it 
becomes necessary to rescue the crew of a vessel in distress. 
The Martha Cobb, sailing from Newfoundland to Europe, 
rescued by this means the crew of a vessel about to founder. 
Her own cargo was petroleum, and as some of the casks 
leaked considerably the sea could be smoothed by simply 
working the bilge pumps. Bringing his ship as near as 
possible to the wreck, the captain was able to cany off the 
crew in safety in a very small boat, which would otherwise 
have been instantly swamped. He considers that, in any 
tempest or heavy sea, persons may be safely conveyed in boats 
from one vessel to another, provided the one to the wind¬ 
ward makes a judicious use of oil. 
For some years past the life-boats on the Australian 
coasts have succeeded in crossing the reefs in bad weather by 
