I always thought that the best place
to find relief from human noise was far out to sea, but that turned out to be
only partly true. One day when we were in the tropics, hot and sticky and running
in the trades, I heard the faint but unmistakable noise of a jetliner passing
high overhead. All I could think about then was how nice it would be to be
sitting aboard that plane in cool airconditioning, listening to the tinkle of
ice in my cocktail glass.
It occurred to me belatedly that
mankind makes plenty of noise out in the deep sea, too. There are not only
surface ships making the waters throb with their diesel engines, but also
submarines emitting various kinds of pings for highly secret purposes. There
is, in fact, a whole network of cables and listening devices spread out over
the floors of the oceans to pick up noises made by surface ships and
submarines.
I sometimes wonder what the point
is, though, since submarines can be as silent as they like, yet satellites can
often find them at night with the help of nature alone. When I was the editor
of a yachting magazine I once received an official photograph taken by a
satellite of a fully submerged submarine cruising at night and brightly bathed
in the light of phosphorescence. There was no hiding from the eye in the
sky.
It’s easy to believe that soon there
will be nowhere that is safe from human noise, not even Mt. Everest or the
South Pole. Noise is simply a part of life, and we must remember that humans
are not the only cause of noise. Nature is quite noisy, too.
Today’s
Thought
An
horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And
in that silence we the tempest fear.
— Dryden, Astræa Redux
Tailpiece
"How's your glassblower
friend?"
"Not so good. He inhaled by
mistake and they took him to the hospital with a pane in his stomach.”
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