208 
SUCCESSFUL USE OF OIL TO CALM ROUGH SEAS. 
ignition with unfailing certainty ; and the fuse is timed so 
that it bursts at the point required, just as the shell is 
touching the surface of the water ; the oil from each shell 
covers a very considerable area of surface. In a trial at 
«/ 
Folkestone on 29th January, 1881, of these shells, which 
are the invention of Mr. Gordon of Dundee, about a dozen of 
them were fired at a range of from 450 to 500 yards. The 
effect was wonderful; the raging waters were gradually allayed, 
and for a considerable space the sea was converted into a lake 
with a gentle swell, in which a ship or a boat could ride with 
perfect ease. The smallest seaport may, therefore, with an 
old mortar and a dozen or two of gallons of oil, make a 
temporary harbour of refuge whenever the necessity arises. 
Another plan for protecting harbours in storms, that has 
been devised by Mr. John Shields, of Perth, is a submerged 
pipe, carried out several hundred feet from the pier, into which 
oil is pumped; a lead pipe about 1J inch bore is used, and at 
distances of a hundred feet apart are fixed upright pipes 
eighteen inches high, m each of which is a conical valve 
opening outwards and protected from silt by a rose. In a 
trial of this plan at Folkestone harbour, a lifeboat was 
rowed out of the harbour, and lying off the pierhead, rolled 
a good deal, but did not get a splash while in the wide glassy 
strip of oil-covered waters that soon stretched away for half 
a mile or more, though to seaward of this glistening streak 
the waves were curling and breaking into foam. On the 
harbour-side the effects of the oil were noticeable far in-shore, 
and few white caps were to be seen ; the film, greatly atten¬ 
uated as it must have been, and not more than 100 feet wide, 
acting apparently as an efficient breakwater. 
The distance to 'which the protecting effect of the oil 
extends, and the efficiency of this protection at sea, is 
illustrated by the following case. A large trading steamer 
plying from New Orleans, encountered a terrible hurricane in 
the Caribbean Sea, in October, 1887, when the ship was 
disabled and became unmanageable, and lay in the trough of 
the sea in a dangerous position, and entirely at the mercy of 
the waves, which repeatedly broke over her. The captain, 
finding it impossible to keep the ship’s head up, determined 
to have recourse to the oil experiment. He put four oil-bags 
on the windward side of the ship, when the oil acted like magic. 
The sea became smooth for at least twenty-five yards in that 
direction, and not a sea broke over her, while ahead and astern 
and to leeward the ocean was in a wild rage. Here was an 
extraordinary escape from immediate danger; the remedy was 
continued, and the ship lay for thirty hours in the trough of 
