The Little Gleaner, Vol. X.: A Monthly Magazine for the YoungVarious
Religion
The Little Gleaner, Vol. X.: A Monthly Magazine for the Young
Various
Christian literature for children -- Periodicals
A fourth, and happily a successful, search by Her Majesty's ships has
just been made for a reported rock towards the southern end of the Red
Sea, on which two steamships, the _Avocet_ and _Teddington_, are
supposed to have struck during the year 1887, both ships afterwards
foundering.
Owing to a considerable error in the position given by the former
vessel, the first search was mainly over ground too far to the westward,
and operations were suspended until more accurate information could be
obtained. The loss of the second ship, in a position given five miles
north-east of the first, caused a second and careful search to be made
on a more extended area, still with no indication. A surveying vessel
was then sent two thousand miles in order to institute a rigorous
examination; but six weeks' close search--though under great
difficulties of strong wind and heavy sea--bore no fruit, and various
theories were started to account for the loss of the two steamships.
The fourth ship, Her Majesty's surveying ship _Stork_, has been more
successful. Guided by some slight indication afforded by an
insignificant rise in the sea bottom, the rock has been at last found.
It is a small coral patch, only fifteen feet under the surface of the
sea, and stands in twenty-eight fathoms of water, in latitude 14 deg. 22
min. 8 sec. N., longitude 42 deg. 41 min. 32 sec. E. It lies midway
between the two best positions that critical cross-examination had
finally settled as most probable for the respective vessels that were
lost. Though it is between five and six miles from the direct straight
line of track, the existence at times of strong currents transverse to
the axis of the Red Sea, causes the danger presented by it to be by no
means insignificant, though it is a matter for marvel that it has never
been struck before.
The difficulty of finding such a small rock may be appreciated from the
fact that one of the searching ships was at anchor within four hundred
yards of it, with her boats sounding round her, without its being
perceived, though she was driven from her anchorage by a gale before the
spot was passed over by the boats.
Seeing the enormous British trade, valuable both in lives and property,
that passes down the Red Sea, it is a matter of general congratulation
that the Admiralty refused to discontinue the search until the last hope
of finding a rock was dispelled, and that the efforts to discover it
have at length been crowned by success.
KENILWORTH CASTLE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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