Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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'ici-213 ZSilNIs45vfJ COLUMBIA GLACIER-ALASKA COAST GLACIER AND SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS-INNER PASSAGE- ALASKA Twen iq-Ihre-e

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r. V -.s-.-.r-..-1,,,.7--- One hundred years later, I435, a boy was born in Genoa, Cristaforo Columbo, who was to start the rush of explorations across the sea. Columbus, as early as I474, made known to a learned cosmographer, Paul Toscanelli, his determination to seek a western route to lndia. It was not, however, until August 3, I492, that Columbus enlisted the aid of Spain and started on the greatest voyage in the history of commerce. It was on the night of October I2, I492, that Columbus with his staunch ships, Santa llflllflld. Plinfa, and Nl'na, sighted the shores of a new land. Now came the great age of the discoverers of lands across sea. The voyages of Vespucci along the coast of South America, and of Cabot along the mainland of North America took place. De Gama sailed around Africa to the east, while Ponce de Leon, heroic figure of romance, sailed in search of the Fountain of Youth. Balboa, a swashbuckling gallant, was the first to look upon the great Pacific Ocean. That prince of navigators, Magellan, sailed from Spain, and three years and twenty-seven days later his remaining ship, Victoria, docked at San Lucar. It landed without its great commander, who had been killed while at the Philippine lslands. Sir Francis Drake, the gentleman pirate, plundered the Spanish galleons. The Spanish Armada sent to humiliate England was defeated by Drake and his co-workers, Hawkins and Frobisher, thus giving England supremacy of the seas for their commerce. A decade after the landing of the Pilgrims from the Mayllower, America launched a ship at Salem and began its great career on the sea. ln the seventeenth century the seas were overrun with pirates, the flag of the Jolly Rogers flew boldly over the ships of such great pirates as Morgan and Kidd. Gradually larger and stouter sailing vessels were built and America struggled along on the seas as Europe was threshing out of the web of Napoleon. The war of commerce between the United States and England was fought in I8I2. The victories of Old Ifonslides and the United States gave the young land a feeling of confidence in its men on the seas. Packet ships started, whalemen and merchants sent their ships around the world, and passenger and fast freight ships began service across the Atlantic. The last of the great sailing ships, the clipper, with its tremendous spread of sail, flourished for a space. Steamboats were invented. ln ISI 7 Fulton's steam- boat, the Clermont, had paddled on the Hudson, and in ISI9 the S. S. Savannah sailed across the Atlantic. The Civil War brought ironclacl fighting ships in the Confederate AJGFFIIVTYGC, and the Union MOnz'tOr. The motive power at sea has been increased by the steam turbine, and now the oil burning Diesel engine is superseding steam in ships of average tonnage. Ships like the Leviathan have reached the limit of navigable size, the harbor depths limiting further increase in dimensions. The dimensions of the monster ship are: length, 907.6 feet: breadth, I00.3 feet: depth, 58.3 feet. The gross tonnage is over 55,000 tons. Ships have been perfected and studied until today we have ships of the most advanced type to carry on our commerce' EDWARD A. FISCHER Twenty-two

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my-.f is VSCKN e SENTINELS OF THE SEA BOARD our Vessel all is confusion. The captain, the mate, all of the crew are running wildly from deck to deck, no one knowing just what to do. Upon inquiry we find that we are nearing the dreaded Shinnecock Shoals. The second mate knows the approxi- mate position of the ship, but an error of even one degree is sufficient to send us to destruction on those rocks, and now, to top it all, this fog has settled down on us. Life-preservers are distributed. Anxious fathers and half-crazed mothers dash to and fro gathering their family. Little children and babies, frightened by this unnatural bustle, cry-they know not just why they should, but they do. Suddenly there is a grating, scraping noise, a terrific bolt-the ship has gone aground. ln the sudden, momentary silence that hangs like a pall over the boat, we can hear the crash of waves as they break on the rocks, and we begin to wonder if life-boats can be of any use on such a sea: the answer is: they can't. Tomorrow on the second page we will at last make the headlines: St. Louisans Lost as Ship Grounds on Shoal. That might well be a true picture but for one thing-it wouldn't happen. lnstead, as we neared the shoals, we should see a light seemingly floating in space, blink, blink, blinking assuredly as we calmly and safely sailed on. The lighthouse would prevent any such catastrophe. Lighthouses have prevented such occurrences for thousands of years, until now we take them as a mere matter of course. Guiding lights for ships at sea have been known ever since the discovery of ships, it is even possible that Noah saw a lighthouse or two on his noted voyage. The ancestor of all modern lighthouses, however, is the Egyptian lighthouse at Pharos. This was a 460 foot pyramid constructed about 250 B. C. its illumination was furnished by an oak-log bonfire at the peak, and its light is reported to have been visible forty miles at sea. Because of this first great beacon, the science of lighthouses is today known as pharology, and a light is known as a pharos. Another old lighthouse was the world- famed Colossus of Rhodes, a huge, IO5-foot high representation of Apollo holding aloft a brazier in which the light for the beacon was kept burning. Colossus is reported to have stood with one foot on one side of the harbor and the other on the opposite side, and, although many doubt the story, it is known that this was a huge and unique lighthouse. Down through the ages man has constructed lighthouses, always on the tower motif, but it was not until the construction of the Eddystone light that modern lighthouses came into existence. Perhaps it would be well to recount the building of this house, for the construction demonstrates the perseverance necessary to construct a tower. ln I695 the first lighthouse was built of stone on Edclystone point off the coast of England, but this was destroyed by a gale. ln 1706 a second tower of oak timbers was constructed, and, just to show Twenty-four