The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

O DEEP sea navigators, "Roar-. ing Forties' is | an expression which teems with reminiscent ex- ploits and brings back vivid recollec- tions of one of the world's most famous sea passages--the Albatross route: This continuous run in an easterly direction along the lower hoops of the southern hemisphere is known to many steamboat men and all sailing shipmen of foreign- going craft. There are two sections of this wild and lonely ocean highway. The most traveled section is that part of open water beginning at Tristan da Cunha island in latitude 37 degrees 3 minutes south and longitude 12 degrees 18 minutes. west and extending to New .Zealand. Great circle courses, accord- ing to the chosen parallel of latitude, will put the distance between these two places at approximately 8000 miles. Vessels bound to India, China or Java leave the trail according to the mon- soons that await them. in the. tropics, while those who are bound to Aus- tralia-or New Zealand keep right on till they have in some cases made a complete half circle on the globe, hav- ing sailed or steamed through 180 de- grees of longitude. Measures 7000 Miles The other section of the Albatross route is the sweep of the southern Pa- cific ocean that spans between the Anti- in th WG WO to Australia. Some craft go farther south and take more chances' with ice, while low-powered tramp steamers in ballast from the cape of Good Hope are best handled on the north edge of this track. It must be remembered that in steamers of this latter type, a heavy following sea, such as one finds in the open waters on this run, causes very lively racing of engines and screws. With sailing ships they are supposed to "run" before any sea that Neptune sends along, and many of the smartest day run's in the history of sail have been rolled out on this famous track. The Albatross Route With cyclonic gales piping out of the _ west And hills of green sea smoking white Our ship rolls along to a harbor of rest In the shade of Australia's Great Bight. With waist all awash and spars almost bare And foresail clews wet in the foot She churns the ocean 'neath Crucis bright flare Heave taut for the Albatross route! In the N. E. monsoons vessels bound to, the bay of Bengal will leave the "Maggie Dorrit" track when on _ the meridian of St. Pauls or Amsterdam islands, while craftbound to China un- orties" A Boas of Experiences on One of World' s Longest and Most Lonely Sea Passages --Description of Famous Albatross Route Along Southern Hoops of the Earth By Capt. George S. Laing into this heavy weather track are, first, the prevalent gales are westerly, second, the degrees of longitude are consider- ably contracted. The "Maggie Dorrit" track shows that the vessel had fre- quently to keep "dead before it" when quarterly wind and sea became. too heavy, hence the ungraceful curve. In such a long and open run it is much more advantageous to "keep her away a couple of points' than court damage from quarterly seas or perhaps spring a top-gallant mast or yard through "grip- ping" to windward. Fails to Affect Popularity When the Suez canal offered a carpet slipper route to the Orient, the building of tramp steamers made the partial disuse of the Albatross route seem imminent, but this famous track will be popular as long as the earth revolves. Even cutting the string at Panama and separating the two Americas will make a very slight difference in diverting tonnage, both steam and sail, from the "Roaring Forties." Only a few years ago the writer as an officer made the trip from New York to Hongkong via the Cape of Good Hope, owing to the steamer--the ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN--being of the hurri- cane deck type that is heavy on dues in _ the Suez passage. A few points con- cerning this run in steam may be cited. podes and the rock bound coast of der canvas will shape for the N. W. We carried 3500 tons of oil in can and Chili, 'This run, say between Mel- cape in Australia from about the same case form. With the exception of six bourne and Valparaiso, measures nearly longitude. The most popular parallels hours at Singapore in Malacca straits, 7000 miles. The track shown in the of latitude to keep between are from where we coaled for the first time, the accompanying chart marked "Maggie 42 degrees S. to 46 degrees S. and main engines never stopped. Thus a dis- Dorrit" is a common one when going the two main reasons for going down tance of 12,000 miles was covered with- 10 ' : - ; oy ° 7 uf Keeling /slands 4 St Helena. SOUTH 3 ° | : AFRICA a egg _Rooeniquez 20 = "mhuerrius g \ euro TROPIC or CAPRICOEN rcs ours Nae Ya RN MET aaa NGA Dat as Cee ee ae SUR CN Nica are ee ha y USTRALIA x * INDIAN OCEAN " me vot + 3 » aa gATLANT Gc Care CoLony: rena R | § Abe Gape Leuwin Tt Cape of Good Hope <j Testa DA CUNHA Se q t ee © Amsterdam | : K be iy > Goven mE >| ae § > SASS Poe. pies ee OER Brit ote A Oa 708 oa ai argc a tt SON aap gE NN ee -- Lo + a ; { Jig aera Forties on Maury 's ~fcove |wesr Wings abe -- eos 46 > Ty OE a ee ee i icebergs | Yaron /s. cCrozers fee , SOUTHERM OCEAM f aelihy ahaa hee iz ' de 250, 350 and4 | Ice | ke bers KEEGULEN ane ? ce as eee fi | | this lonely route. | Seard Is | 5 0 80 90 700 710 720 730 tS MWe ba 20 30 40 50 60 a LONG/TUDE CHART OF THE ROARING FORTIES 167