FOREST AINU STK-UAM. 



337 



THE CATA.MARAN "TARA.NTELLAl." 



fasting and ^eating. 



HIGH WATER FOR THE WEEK. 



Date. 



Boston, 



New York. 



Char leston 



Nov. 30 



H. M. 



T 05 



8 04 



9 01 

 9 5T 



10 51 



11 41 

 13 



H. M. 



3 55 



4 57 



5 53 



6 44 



7 31 



8 19 



9 or 



H. M. 

 3 11 



Deo. 1 



JVC. 2 



Dee.3 



4 10 



5 05 

 5 58 



Deo. 4 



6 47 



Dec. 5 



T 3S 



Dec. 6 



8 29 







THE CATAMARAN TARAN- 

 TELLA. 



We express our indebtedness to the Spirit of 

 the Times for the use of its exoellent cut of the 

 Tarantella, which graced the pages of our con- 

 temporary laBt week. From an exceedingly in- 

 teresting article, due to Mr. N. Q. Herreshoff, 

 tho builder of this catamaran, we take the fellow- 

 ing extracts. 



As to the tendency of catamarans to turn over, 

 Mr. Herreshoff writes: "And now, whiM we 

 are flying along, with the waves lifting and break- 

 ing high under the after tie-beam, let ua over- 

 haul another of the alleged failings of the cata- 

 maran, to wit : Their tendency to turn over end- 

 wise or pitch-pole. Now, the centre of effort of 

 the sails of the Tarantella are lift. 6in. above 

 the water-line, With the wind abaft of beam the 

 tendency to bury the bows of the hull is quite 

 obvious. This desire to bury forward is correct- 

 ed, in a measure, first by having more than an 

 ordinarily large jib, which, on account of its in- 

 clined position, lifts strongly that part of the 

 boat. Then the midship link, at which point ia 

 imparted moat of the press of the sails upon the 

 leeward boat, is so placed in relation to the dis- 

 placement of tho halls, that the downward push 

 (to which the force of' the wind on the sails is 

 resolved) presses more toward the stern, so the 

 leeward boat always keeps in good fore and aft 

 trim. The trouble then lies only in the lifting of 

 the stern of the windward hull. Of course, if 

 . you lif t the stern of the boat, and thua make the 

 bow bury itself, the effect is just the Bame, and 

 just as unpleasant as wheu the bow sinks for 

 want of buoyancy with the trim of the stern 

 ■where it should he. '* * * ' Building the cata- 

 maran high in the bows cannot remedy this 

 fault in tb» least degree ; the pnly thing to be 



done is to take care of the stern, and the bow will 

 take care of itBelf. Having stationary ballast 

 will keep the stern down, but this is against my 

 principles. I want to have everything about the 

 boat as light as can possibly be ; so wheu the 

 stern of the Tarantella looks light, my com- 

 panion sits on it, and says it ia one of the best 

 seats on the whole boat. It is almost always dry, 

 and one gets there a more realizing sense of the 

 speed with which she tears along. It is as it 

 would be riding on the back of the wildest horse; 

 not nearly so wild, in fact, but a great deal 

 steadier, having only a purely up and down mo- 

 tion as she flies over the waves, which is most 

 exhilarating and exoiting. " 



Writing of the Bpeed of the Tarantella, for she 

 must be a fast one, the same authority states, 



I have made lately several trials of windward 

 speed in the Tarantella, the best of which was a 

 beat to Newport from Bristol, distance 13 miles. 

 The wind was so nearly ahead, that the sum of 

 the length of the port tacks was 1% miles, whilst 

 that of the starboard was 8% miles. This run 

 was made in lb. 58m. "ftie tide was fair. From 

 this and several other Biinilar trials, I have rated 

 the maximum speed of the Tarantella, dead to 

 windward, at G)4 miles an hour. Of her speed, 

 in free wind sailing, the fastest I have aotually 

 measured, was 18 miles an hour, though on one 

 other occasion I am positive of sailing over 32 

 miles an hour. It was at the first striking of a 

 Bquall, the water was nearly dead smooth. Un- 

 fortunately I was not near any point where I 

 could take time. These extreme speeds are by 

 no means made every day in the week. In our 

 average Bummer winds, Bay about three-fourths 

 of a whole sail breeze, the oatamaran, Bailing 

 free, will go 15 or 16 miles an hour. 



As the season advanced, and the winda. became 

 stronger, I had several opportunities of trying 

 the Tarantella under shortened sail. With a 

 three-reefed mainsail and storm-jib, I made aa 

 fast time in smooth water asunder any condition. 

 With a double-reefed mainsail alone, Bhe worked 

 admirably to windward. But what seemed to 

 me moat surprising was, that, under shortened 

 sail, she would make remarkably good time, even 

 faster than the common style of yachts, and that 

 hi breezes when ah sail might be carried. 



One day, late in September, the wind in force, 

 and direction chanced right for me to race with 

 the Richard Borden, our fastest bay steamer. I 

 lay in wait for her, as she was making her daily 

 trip to Providence, and pounced upon her off 

 Pappooaeaquaw Point. I passed her with the 

 greatest ease, and R t Rooky Point I .was a full 



half-mile ahead, notwithstanding the breeze 

 which over the last part of the course became 

 quite moderate. The last aot of the season was 

 the sale and dolivery of the Tarantella to Commo- 

 dore F. Hughes, of Greenport, L. I., under 

 whose flag she now sails." 



Mr. W. L. Aldan, (whose article on catamarans 

 in Harper's Monthly Magazine, of October last 

 was so favorably read by yachtsmen), gives the 

 highest praiae to the Tarantella, and the skill 

 evinced in her construction. Mr. Alden consid- 

 ers that the flexible joint system, as used by Mr. 

 Herreshoff in the coupling of the catamaran, is a 

 most admirable idea, in fact, just the improve- < 

 ment which cultivated thought would give to the 

 original barbaric conception. 



—The arrival of the bark W H Reese at Bath, 

 Me., with a cargo of maata, spars, decking and 

 ships' keels from Paget Sound, W T, is consid- 

 ered by the Bath Times an event worthy of note. 

 The Boston Advertiser remarks: 



Suitable spars for our large ships, and suitable 

 plank for upper decks of first-claBS vessels of auy 

 size, have for many years been difficult to obtain. 

 The appearance, even the value, of many of our 

 fine ships has been greatly lessened by the Bhort, 

 kuotty, splintered, miserable docks given them. 

 If these Oregon spars and plank prove what is 

 claimed, there is no doubt but they will be readi- 

 ly sought for and purchased. 



—J. H. Rnahton, the manufacturer of the best 

 light cedar floats in the country, is erecting a new 

 building on Water street, near the ntone black- 

 smith shop, to accommodate the increasing de- 

 mand of hia business. — Flaindealer, Malone, N. 

 Y. 



MAGAZINES. 



Wide Awake for December! That exclama- 

 tion point ia for the boys and girls when they tear 

 off the wrapper. A Fox figures in the frontis- 

 piece, and the exploits of his cunning highness 

 are narrated in a sprightly sketch, by Elizabeth 

 Kees. Child Marion Abroad, whose European 

 wanderings have been followed by scores of 

 young readers, and whoBe sweet ways have en- 

 deared her to so many of her American friends 

 returns home, and bids adieu to the pages of 

 Wide Awalce. Sophie May also concludes her 

 serial story, Solomon's Seal. Price's Pocket 

 Book, The Wedding at Podger's and the install- 

 ment of the Adventures of Milthtdea Peterkin 

 Paul wa fuiiof jatereet and. humor, Pow to 



Make a Fire ia a capital illustrated description 

 of the different methods employed by savage 

 races to produce fire. Uncle Sam's Almanac ia 

 an intelligent description of the nautical almanac, 

 and another valuable paper is one of the aeriea 

 "Poets' Houses," the present chapter being devot- 

 ed to Tnomas Bailley Alurieh. There are sever- 

 al poems scattered throughout the magazine, 

 contributed by Edgar Fawcett, Ella Farmony, 

 and others. One of the most useful things in 

 the whole number ia the "Behaving" paper, in 

 whioh weiare.told "How to Amuse Younger Chil- 

 dren." The Tangled Knots, Parlor Pastimes, 

 and other features are as lively and sprightly as 

 ever, and will doubtless afford amusement for 

 more than one long evening. Wide Awake is 

 published by D. Lothrop & Co., 80 Franklin 

 street, Boston. 



The Field and River is a bright magazine, de- 

 voted to woodland, farm and garden, natural his- 

 tory, field sports, boating and fishing and pro- 

 tection of game ; published at New Brighton, Pa. 

 Its general appearance is neatness itself, and 

 there has been excellent judgment used in the 

 selection and arrangement of matter. 



St. Nicholas appears this month in a new 

 dress, designed by Mr, Walter Crane, whose 

 work in the Baby Opera and other charming pic- 

 ture toy books, has made hia famous among all 

 nursery amateurs of good taste. The Decem- 

 ber number has ninety-six pages with fifty-sev- 

 en illustrations, and the publishers tell ns they 

 have printed 100,000 copies, and are going to 

 make happy— we think it's a million children. 

 The frontispiece ia a copy of Ittenbaoh's beau- 

 tiful picture, The Holy Family. Longfellow hag 

 a poem, The Three Kings, and Bryant has alBO a 

 poem, The Mocking-bird and the Donkey. Misa 

 Aloott begins a aerial for the girls, Under the 

 Lilacs, and a fine portrait of Misa Alcott accom- 

 panied with a biographical Bketch appeara else- 

 where. The boya, too, have their share of the 

 good things, among which we notice a posthu- 

 mous Bketch by Theodore Winthrop,entitledRow- 

 ing Against Tide, and a Robinson Crusoe fairy 

 story by Gustavua Frankenstein, The Tower 

 Mountain, Indeed fairy atories seem to be rel- 

 ished by the St. Nicholas pablic, for here is one 

 by that prince of story-tellers, Lewis Carroll, 

 the author of Alice in Wonderland, and another 

 by Frank B, Stookon, More sober auhjeote, 

 however, receive due attention, Among other 

 papers is one by Gall HanuHoo, who, discourse^ 



