FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



161 



[the poky "centennial."] 



Dory Voyagers Across the Atlantic. 



The fact that three Gloucester-built dories have successfully crossed the 

 ocean in recent years makes it fitting that some reference should be made 

 to such voyaging in " The Fishermen's Own Book." 



A little boat of ten tons burthen is said to have come to America from 

 the mother country in the colonial days, while of the fleet of Columbus in 

 1492 two were only half-decked over, and were of less than forty tons 

 burthen. 



The first man to cross the Atlantic alone was Capt. Josiah Shackford, a 

 Portsmouth, N. H., seaman, who sailed from Bordeaux, France, in 1786, in 

 a "cutter-built" sloop of fifteen tons, accompanied only by a dog, and after 

 a passage of thirty-five days arrived safely at Surinam, South America. 



June 15, 1864, Capt. John Donovan sailed from New York for London 

 in a brig-rigged yawl-boat called the Vision, put into Boston July 5, leaking, 

 repaired and set sail again, was spoken July 20 and supplied with provis- 

 ions by an ocean steamer, and was never afterwards heard from. The Vision 

 was 16 feet keel, 4 ft. 10 in. beam, 2 ft. 9 in. deep, and had masts 19 ft. 

 high, spreading 50 yards of canvas. 



The famous little Red, White and Blue sailed from New York July 9, 1866, 

 and made the trip to London in thirty-eight days, the shortest time known 

 to dory voyagers. She was 24 ft. long, 5^2 ft. beam, drawing 18 inches 

 of water forward and 20 inches aft, and was ship-rigged, spreading 65 yards 



