Word: lightships
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Four dashes, repeated for one minute every three minutes, is the radio beacon signal of the lightship that guards dread Nantucket Shoals. The first lightship was stationed off the shoals in 1854. Three years ago Lightship No. 117, a 132-ft. craft equipped with every device science could think of to protect transatlantic shipping, was launched at Charleston, S. C. and took up its rough and lonely post 40 mi. southeast of Nantucket Island...
...direction by rotating the loop antenna of the radiocompass. The beacon is strongest when the loop is parallel to the direction of the signals, weakest when it is at right angles. Since sound travels much more slowly through water than radio waves through air, the distance of the lightship can be computed by noting the time between reception of the beacon and oscillograph signals...
...sinking of the Nantucket Lightship yesterday afternoon provokes many, upon hasty judgment, into scathing condemnation of steamship companies, captains, and speedy runs, but a careful study of the facts already known and those that will be brought out in the Lighthouse Service Investigation will show the weakness of snap judgments. Granted that the "Olympic" was in the wrong according to decisions of Admiralty Courts which hold that in case a ship is unable to stop in time to prevent a collision she is going too fast for the conditions, yet in this unique instance there are many extenuating circumstances...
Both the "Olympic" and the lightship sounded their fog signals according to the rules of the road, but neither heard the other until immediately before the collisions although in normal circumstances their whistles would carry two or three miles. That the radio operators of the "Olympic" were efficiently alert is evidenced by the fact that the ship followed the course of the radio beacon accurately--top accurately; at the same time these very operators were keeping a sharp look-out for any change of strength of signals, which was not detected. The combination of the unfavorable atmospheric conditions...
...captains who are continually late, etc., more will come out in the investigation. The fact remains that although the "Olympic's" officers claim that she was proceeding at a "moderate" speed with alert look-outs posted, the collision occurred before the ship could be stopped; and that although the lightship knew she was in danger of collision the crew was not so disposed so that a quick escape with life preservers could be possible. This first instance of a lightship sinking because of collision and the simultaneous failure of two standard methods of signalling should bring forth, besides the investigation...