SAILING CRAFT 101 



chapter. The schooners along the different 

 coasts, up the lower St Lawrence, and round 

 the Lakes ; the modern French-Canadian sail- 

 ing bateaux ; the transatlantic English brigs 

 that still come out to Labrador ; the many 

 Britishers and Yankees that used to come 

 to Bluenose harbours and to Quebec ; the 

 foreigners that come there still ; and the host 

 of various miscellaneous little vessels every- 

 where all these are by no means forgotten. 

 But only one main thread of the whole historic 

 yarn can be followed here. 



Before starting we might perhaps remember 

 what a sailing vessel cannot do, as well as what 

 she can, when the proper men are there and 

 circumstances suit her. She is helpless in a 

 calm. She needs a tow in crowded modern 

 harbours or canals. She can only work against 

 the wind in a laborious zigzag, and a very 

 bad gale generally puts her considerably off 

 her course. But, on the other hand, she could 

 beat all her best records under perfect modern 

 conditions of canvas, scientific metal hull, and 

 crew ; and the historic records she actually has 

 made are quite as surprising as they are little 

 known. Few people realize that ' ocean re- 

 cords ' are a very old affair, even in Canada, 

 where they begin with Champlain's voyage of 



