136 Our Food Mollusks 



lower corners of the sail are secured at the bow and 

 stern on travelers, so as to work across the deck. There 

 is no jib. In sailing close to the wind, yard and sail are 

 drawn so as to lie nearly parallel to the keel. It is said 

 that these boats are superior even to schooners and sloops 

 in beating to windward. Before the wind, yard and sail 

 are swung across the boat. They are fast sailers, and 

 may be handled quickly ; but the long yard is apt to give 

 trouble in squalls, and it is said that the danger of cap- 

 sizing is great. 



The most highly specialized craft employed in the 

 oyster industry, are to be found in Long Island Sound, 

 and vessels of a similar sort will doubtless eventually be 

 employed over much of the oyster territory. As early 

 as 1874, an oyster planter of Norwalk, Conn., put steam 

 power into one of his sloops for the purpose of towing 

 oyster dredges. The advantages of steam power in this 

 work would seem to be obvious. It may be used as an 

 auxiliary to sail power, the latter being employed alone 

 in weather favorable for it. It may be used on calm 

 days, and is at command at all seasons, and in every 

 sort of weather. Its power may be made as great as 

 desired, and is easily controlled. Steam may be used not 

 only for propelling the boat, but also for drawing in 

 the dredges. But the expense of installing boilers and 

 engines is relatively great, and this, with operating ex- 

 penses, may have convinced oystermen at this time that 

 steam would not be profitable. At any rate, when Cap- 

 tain Decker began to convert his sloop into an oyster 

 steamer, he was ridiculed by all the oystermen in the 

 region, and the failure of his experiment was predicted 

 with the utmost confidence. 



But, contrary to all expectations, its success was im- 



