Air pilots -- Juvenile fiction; Mystery and detective stories; Reporters and reporting -- Juvenile fiction
But the thing that interested Jimmie most was the light. This, the
captain said, was an occulting white light, that was visible for twelve
out of every fifteen seconds. The light at the forward masthead is
always used, excepting when that light is out of commission. Then the
after light shines.
“If there was a string of lights like this one, each with a distinctive
flash,” said Jimmy, “a fellow could find his way by night at sea as
easily as he can follow his route on land when he follows the Air Mail
beacons.”
“There is a string of lights all along the coast,” said the captain,
“and each has its distinctive flash. Most of them are on land, but a few
are floating lights, like this, which mark danger points far out from
shore.”
Jimmy discovered that the great twelve-inch steam fog-whistle blows for
three seconds in each fifteen, when the fog is bad at this light
station, and the fog bell rings once every thirty seconds. Once every
twelve seconds the submarine bell strikes two groups of two strokes
each. And the radio fog-signal of the _Ambrose_ lightship is a
continuous string of dashes, exactly like the signal of the radio
beacons along the lighted airway. Thus, whether a passing ship’s captain
sees the light or merely hears the fog-horn, or detects the radio
signal, he knows what lightship he is passing.
Jimmy was so much interested in learning about the lightship that he
could have spent hours aboard of her, but the captain warned him that
the liner was visible on the horizon. Jimmy knew it was time for him to
be stirring. His plane was drawn up to the ship and he got carefully
aboard of her. Soon he was in the air. He came down close to the
pilot-boat, which was ready to put a pilot aboard the approaching
steamer. The men on this boat said they would get his photographs for
him when they put the pilot aboard the liner.
The big steamer came plowing along, her speed gradually lessening, until
she was practically at a standstill. Meantime a rowboat had taken the
pilot from the pilot-boat to the side of the liner. The pilot climbed up
the ladder at the side of the ship and spoke to the photographer who
stood at the rail, ready with his photographs. These were carefully
wrapped for protection. He handed them to a sailor who slipped down the
ladder with them and put them in the hands of one of the men in the
rowboat. The little craft headed about and pulled for the pilot-boat.
The liner began to move slowly and presently was steaming away at a
rapid rate.
Jimmy was all ready to board his plane when the men got back with his
pictures. He stowed them in his coat, climbed carefully aboard his ship,
and floated away to a safe distance. Then he rose from the water, headed
his plane straight for his landing-place on the southern shore of Long
Island, and went streaking back with his pictures. He gave them to a
waiting messenger and hustled to get back to his own field.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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