Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 29, 2025
Both have bad bars, especially the latter. I therefore can by no means agree with Mr. Walker's report: 'The western outlet of the Ebumesu, near the village of Eku Enu, or Ekwanu, is quite practicable for ordinary surf-boats during the dry season say half the year and even in the middle of June I found the bar smooth and safe. All the Aximites described the Ebumesu bars as practically impassable.
The debarkation took place inside of the little island of Sacrificios, some three miles south of Vera Cruz. The vessels could not get anywhere near shore, so that everything had to be landed in lighters or surf-boats; General Scott had provided these before leaving the North. The breakers were sometimes high, so that the landing was tedious.
As I gazed, the scene was rendered still more real by the approach from seaward of a great surf-boat, similar to the surf-boats that brought the settlers from their respective ships to the shore. Such boats are still used at the port to land goods and also passengers, when the breakers are too high to admit of their being landed in small boats at the wooden pier.
They selected the mainland abreast of Sacrificios Island. On the 9th of March, the steamers "Spitfire" and "Vixen" and several gunboats ran close inshore and shelled the sand-hills and chaparral in which the enemy might be concealed. Only a few horsemen were made to scamper away. The Government for this very landing had sent out a number of surf-boats, flat on the bottom and sharp at both ends.
All of these local conditions were known, or might have been known, to General Shafter before he left Tampa; but when he arrived off the coast they seemed to take him wholly by surprise. He had brought with him neither surf-boats, nor steam-launches, nor suitable lighters, nor materials with which to construct a pier.
The whole support of this service is provided for by annual grants from Congress. Besides its vast coast line, it guards the shores of its great lakes. Since the sea-bordering portions of America in many places are destitute of human habitations, the constant employment of surfmen is required for the express purpose of looking out for vessels in distress and manning the surf-boats.
The surf-boats are bulky, broad, and flat, strongly built to stand severe hammering on the sand, and comparatively shallow at the stern, to admit of their being backed towards the beach, or hauled off to sea through the surf by means of a rope over the bow.
Army officers, as a rule, know nothing of water transportation, and cannot reasonably be expected to know anything about it; and to put them in charge of transports, lighters, and surf-boats is almost as inconsiderate as to put a sailor in charge of a farm and expect him, without any previous training, to run reaping-, binding-, and threshing-machines, take proper care of his live stock, and get as much out of the soil as an agricultural expert would.
The tenderfoot on an expedition of this sort naturally expects to find himself plunged into a whirl of noise and tumult. The crags were colourless and shimmering in the heat. The harbour was calm and greeny-blue. One by one, with our haversacks and water-bottles, belts and rolled overcoats, we went down the companion-way into the waiting surf-boats.
The salutes have been fired, and the vessel has been surrounded by a flotilla of surf-boats and catamarans. The commander and the passengers are being rowed ashore, and the Governor with his Councillors, dressed all of them in their smartest official attire, are waiting on the beach outside the Sea-Gate of the Fort to bid them a hearty welcome.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking