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 



