GRIM MENACE

Evening Post, Issue 51, 2 March 1931, Page 7

GRIM MENACE

DORSET'S EUGGEDCOASU

PRAYING FOR WRECKS

Portland Bill, said to bo named from, the fires of Baal which Phoenicians., kindled, is one of the oldest judgment thrones in Nature's realm. Beneath it» rugged steps on Chesil Beach, that prodigious ridgo of a! billion pebbles join-,: ing Portland to tho downs of Dorset, have been slain or tortured, througli the ages ships'and men fatally failing under Trial by Ordeal, writes"" Com-, mander H. M. Daniel in the ' 'Daily Mail."';; •'■ :' ' ■. '' ~. . V •■■'. ■ From the first prayer, "Britannia i . Eule the Waves,'.' . the Wild West v Wind, till then undisputed monarch.; of the Western Ocean, resented thi» daring challenge of man' to his irresponsible supremacy. Mad with jealousy and rage, he thundered his rolling breakers on our rocks from' Capo Wrath, to Land's' End. Near ■ Weymouth he made a snare which we call West Bay. ; .■■ ■ . '•; , Here, in the blindness, of driving1 rain and sullen ; haze, sailing ships, ' homeward bound, handled by any but' tried and skilful seamen of the first degree, must sooner or later fall a vie-: tim to: his vengeance. \. .•; , After centuries of. frenzied triumphs • by unbridled western gales, praised and abetted by 2>ious prayers from the Portland parish churches, offered with-, in living memory for a Heaven-sent wreck, man-made machinery; and steam now thwart-the crazy god of tempests. i STBANDED SKIP. Despite steel engines, empowered by; earth-stored heat of Baal, our all-pow-erful sun, ever and anon, the . southwest gales still score a hard- fought victory over uneonquered man, • The latest prey of the Atlantic despot, a stranded auxiliary schooner named Madeleine Tristan; is being slowlystripped by, her crew of thrifty Frenchmen. :•■ - ■•'/■• •. . . •....'• ■•;. .- ■, ;. _ Barely a month ago, at breakfast time, .her -.throbbing propeller served only to helpthe captain beach his- ship in the kindest corner of the cruel bay; Piece by : piece, the steel, fragments of ' her unavailing engine' are being returned, to France by sail in the yawl Leonie,. A hollow stall of solid oak. the. schooner is being Tmried-inch by ' inch ma: grave of pebbles hurled upon/ her desolate hull by the triumphant waves, of West: Bay.,- /, ... t Laughing children swing beneath' her sorrowful bowsprit unmindful of the seaman's tragedy, and 1 merchants bar-, gain for the grain she never meant to land in England. V: ; / , ■'.■■.■:' !: Wreathed in smiles, Old Ocean contemplates his: cruel handiwork,' expressly, ordered by his war-lord,"South-"-' West .Gale,:.-. •••■■. .; ■ /\- , ■.; '.. : .'....■•■ One fearful ■ melody, as the : waves wash back v the shingle, haunts and in- I. spiresl each mood and song of-the constant,: changing sea, lisping or thundering on the unyielding Chesil Beach. It is the tune of terror to ;the Sailor's soul: - the sound of waves surging and S foaming on a lee-shore. ' "., ; Waves are for sailors- to ride like spirited steedsj, either at full gallop, helter-skelter before the wind, or in. cheerful canter athwart their rolling' course, (splashing, the sky with spray;) '• out of sheer joy, of life., ' v: BEATING THE WAVES, j There is grim ; satisfaction in\ outweathering a storm,.; lying like a patient petrel breasting the tempest- . driven ocean;, or' in a, massive battle- ■ ship, watching gre.eni waves of dash themselves against a thousand . tons of turreit-armour' into misty spray; of rainbow clouds., ;< ' ' , -' „ /There is1 music of life in the tinkle , and chortle of wave aiid wavelet, rippling past the bows,of, ship or canoe, :. but on Chesil,Beach :"therS "is ever a ",: solemhchant of persistent strife' twist man and Nature in the, eternal •" symphony of wijid and warring waves. ■~' . It is the same tune whether you hear - it pianissimo as 'you bask' in autumn... sunshine on the pebbled beach, watching the' lisping lino of foam beneath, you, born.of interminable wavelets on a turquoise' sea. It' is yot the . same'/ tune fortissimo, when-great breaking rollers crested with foam come toppling headlong, thundering with rage, 'upoa: ;• the beach. ' .. . . - "" Clqdyin oilskins and silenced by the; tempestuous.roar, you may watch the/ fury of the storm for hours as each, successive breaker in-}ts .tumultuous ,' strength pounds the 'pebbles with » .:• force of three tons to each: square foot, ■/; Then, with a sucking roar of, destruc- ' r tion the shingle, is dragged ; seaward , : . : and gathered into the verdant vortex^ of the ensuing wave, there to be carried to'l.itS: foaming' crest and: dashed, one*, 'more upon tho beach in. devilish rage. ;.,-, A And the.hard-by cliffs ■of Portland -.■; 'count1 in, secret' the souls of men arid • ships spilt on that fatal coast by th> : vengeanc© ofrthe western gales; , ' ;'