SUCCESSFUL USE OF OIL TO CALM ROUGH SEAS. 
209 
the sea, free from the danger of broken water, and protected by 
the application of the oil, until, at the end of that time, the 
hurricane passed away, and the ship was enabled to proceed 
on her voyage uninjured. It is not too much to say that had 
it not been for the efficacy of the oil, the ship, in her helpless 
condition, must have succumbed to the violence of the hurri¬ 
cane, and probably all on board would have perished. 
The great danger of the sea is not from the height to 
which the waves sometimes rise ; waves are not dangerous 
from their height, unless they break at the top. On the day 
after a storm, when the wind has fallen, a tremendous swell 
will often be seen, the waves rising to a considerable height; 
but no danger is to be apprehended from waves of this kind, 
however unpleasant they may be to non-seafaring passengers. 
It is when the winds howl, and the white sea-horses are seen 
raising their snowy crests, that the sailor knows danger to be 
at hand. Should any one of those black walls of water 
crowned with white, crash on to the deck of the ship, the 
results would be terrible. The oil cast upon the waves does 
not cause them to go down, and form a calm spot amongst 
the turmoil; it merely, in certain cases, prevents the waves 
from breaking, and turns a raging sea into a heavy swell. 
It is only in certain cases that ships can be brought into 
the water which has been treated with oil; if a ship is sailing 
or steaming with the wind on her beam, at right angles to 
the course on which she is steered, the oil cannot be so 
distributed as to lie on the water through which she is going. 
But should the vessel be in great danger from the waves 
which are breaking around her, the following plan can be 
pursued. The vessel should be hove to, that is, steered nearly 
into the wind’s eye, and kept as stationary as possible ; she 
will then drift slowly to leeward, that is, in the same direction 
as the wind. One or more oil-bags attached to light lines 
should be put overboard to windward, and the result will be 
that the vessel, being more exposed to the wind, will drift 
more rapidly than the bags, which will be left some distance 
to windward, and thus intercept and mollify waves which 
would otherwise come leaping and foaming towards the ship. 
As, to be any protection, the oil must be distributed over 
the sea in the direct line from which the seas are advancing, 
and at a sufficient distance to give it time to spread and act 
upon the waves before they reach the vessel to be protected, 
it follows that, as regards any small boat, the oil can only be 
used when it is in one of two positions, namely, when anchored 
and lying head to sea and tide, or when running dead before 
the sea for the shore. In the first case the waves would 
