Fore-and-Aft : 287 



monument to the Dutchmen's love of the sea and passion for ship- 

 building. This island is little more than a truncated cone of lava rock 

 jutting out of the sea. Its top is green with tropic vegetation but its 

 sides are no more than black cliffs. There is no harbor and scarcely 

 even a beach to land on. 



Nothing daunted, the Dutch inhabitants of this island built siz- 

 able schooners at the top of the cliffs and then launched them by 

 lowering them into the water. In Trinidad I anchored my ship near 

 such a vessel and had an opportunity to inspect her. She sailed under 

 the proud title, The Dutch Princess of Saba. 



The building and use of schooners for trade among the islands of 

 the West Indies was once enormous and is still lively. Even in colo- 

 nial times there developed a large trade by schooners as well as by 

 other vessels sailing between New England and the West Indies. 

 How far the general type of West Indian schooners were influenced 

 by Dutch tradition seems to be uncertain and whether the New Eng- 

 land schooners influenced the development of the West Indies types 

 or the other way about is also an unsettled matter. 



Though hampered by political restrictions and interrupted by wars, 

 this trade had a long history. It seems Ukely that the two centers 

 of schooner development lying at either end of these trade routes 

 must have had some influence on each other and led to the exchange 

 of ideas of construction and design. From observation and casual 

 study I would judge that this was the case but I have not succeeded 

 in finding a comprehensive discussion of this matter in literature. 



The American schooner was certainly developed in a New Eng- 

 land port at an early date and had a very wide use. 



Respecting the origin of the New England schooner there is an 

 oft-repeated story which runs to the effect that there was a definite 

 time and place at which this vessel emerged. It goes on to say that 

 Andrew Robinson was the first to build such a vessel in 1745 at 

 Gloucester, Massachusetts. When she was launched she took the 

 water cleanly and scudded across it. A spectator is supposed to have 

 cried out, "See how she scoones"; scoon, apparently, meaning to 

 skip or scud as when a boy shies a flat stone over a smooth surface of 

 water. The builder is supposed to have replied, "A schooner let her 

 be." 



This may have happened or it may be a folk tale; in any event the 

 inference is misleading. There is little doubt that both the name 

 schooner and the type of vessel to which it applied had their origin 

 in Dutch shipbuilding practice. 



