114 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. II. 1899. 
The First .VoyageSof Zulu.* 
It was a foggy and dismal afternoon in early May when 
the writer and his friends gathered on the pier at Cobourg 
and proceeded to get ready for sea; so damp and chilly 
that there was some little wavering about the expediency 
of putting to sea so late in the day. But we had already 
postponed the start from day to day for one cause or 
another, and were anxious to be off, and as to the lateness 
of the hour we had no intention of running very far, but 
merely wished to get off so as to have crew and stores 
aboard to take advantage of the first favorable opportu- 
nity. So accordingl}'^ about 5 P. M. Zulu slid out between 
the piers and soon dropped them in the mist astern. The 
wind was light "from the west, almost dead ahead, and 
we made a long board out into the lake, finally coming 
about with the expectation of picking up the Gull Light, 
which, in the course of another half-hour, we did; and 
coming about again for another board off shore we soon 
lost sight of it to leeward. Another couple of tacks and 
we were abreast of Port Hope, and the wind being still 
light and adverse, and daylight beginning to fail, we 
ran into the harbor to wait for better times and to pur- 
chase some necessary supplies which had been forgotten. 
A comfortable hot supper was soon ready, and then w^e 
had some music, vocal and instrumental, and finally turned 
in with good hopes of a favorable run on the morrow. 
It blew fresh during the night, but still from the west, 
and as we could hear from our berth, there was a nasty 
.sea running, so we lay quiet until within an hour or less 
of daylight ; and then, finding the wind going down, with 
some prospect of a shift, we cast off our lines, and under 
easy sail slid out again between the piers. 
The next two hours were trying ones for the crew, who 
had not ye>agot their sea legs, the yacht jumping and kick- 
ing in a sharp, high sea, with only enough wind to steady 
her ; but we managed to head pretty well up to our 
course, and gradually drew away from Port Hope Light 
until, as day broke, we had left seven or eight miles be- 
hind i:s. The wind freshened again, and we had a long, 
tedious beat to windward, with high clay cliffs alongside 
of us for some ten miles or more, but at last the cliffs 
broke up and wc caught sight of the lighthouse at New- 
castle, and the crew being by this time pretty well churned 
up as to their insides, we ran in for a half-hour's stroll 
ashore. 
Out again at 10 A. M.. wind still west, but sea going 
down and nmch longer and easier ; so we took a long 
stretch out into the lake in hopes of getting a favoring 
start, and. sure enough, aboiit noon a gleam of pale sun- 
shine came through the leaden clouds, and the wind sud- 
denly chopped round to soutl^vvest. Slinging round on 
the port tack, we found we could nearly lay our course 
again, and soon ran up close to Oshawa. Wind heading 
round again as We closed with the land, so we again tacked 
and stood out into the lake, with a grad'ially lightening 
breeze, until we finally lay almost becalmed six or seven 
miles out from Whitby, but not for very long. A bright 
.streak appeared along the northern horizon, presaging 
wind from that quarter, and presently it came, gently at 
first, but gradually strengthening and freeing, until we 
were not only able to lay our course, but to head inside of 
it, and then to start sheets a little, and bowling along past 
Frenchman's Bay in smooth water, we brought up under 
a weather shore at Port Union at 6 P. M., and sent a man 
ashore in the dinghy for the day s papers, warning him 
not be long, as our course to Toronto lay close under 
the towering cliffs of Scarboro', and we did not want to be 
knocked down by an offshore puff in the dark. 
Off again in fifteen minutes with the north wind piping 
lip now in good earnest, and the skipper had to interrupt 
the preparations for supper by calling for a double reef in 
the mainsail. This was quickly got in, and then com- 
menced a very lively race along shore, with furious puffs 
coming out of each ravine in the bluffs. The water 
boiling and seething along the lee scuppers, and the little 
8ft.-dinghy fairly "standing on her hindlegs," as our ship's 
doctor put it. We were making, according to actual tim- 
ing, eight miles an hour, and this is no bad speed for a 
boat of 19ft. waterline, and altogether too fast for the 
dinghy; but the painter held, and in a marvelously short 
time the bluffs began to give way to the wooded slopes of 
Victoria Park, and these again to low land, dotted with 
houses, and now beginning to twinkle with electric lights; 
and before we knew what we were about we had run up 
abreast of the red light at the Eastern Gap of Toronto 
Harbor. So quickly, in fact, that the skipper refused to 
believe in it, and stood on westward for a mile or more, un- 
til the great revolving eye of Gibraltar Point warned him 
that he had passed the entrance. Putting about we went 
back again, and beating through between the piers, were 
soon inside the bay, and in a few minutes more had se- 
cured a fine berth for the night at the town club house 
of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. We had intended 
standing over to Port Dalhousie, but the lowering of both 
barometer and thermometer promising a dead_ run onto 
an (to us) unknown lee shore in a dark night, and 
freezing temperature, induced the skinner to make a port 
for the night; he had been at the tiller since 2:30 A. M. 
almost without intermission, so perhan? the decision was 
pardonable, although, as afterward turned out, four or 
five hours' sailing would have put us twenty-four hours 
The skipper turned out at 6:30 next morning, and found 
a lowering gray sky with a piping northeast wind, which 
was sending quite a sea rolling np the lake. It was so 
bitterly cold that no one was anxious to face flying spray, 
and all hands went below for another hour, but we finally 
got under way toward 8 o'clock, and ran out through the 
Western Gap and on past Gibraltar Point with a fresh 
breeze on the port beam, but no sooner had we made a 
good ofiing than the breeze began to die away, and about 
ten miles out we at last lay becalmed, and to make matters 
v.orse, rolling about in the remains of the last night's 
swell. A calm in midsummer with a blazing sun and a 
clear sky is a thing to be expected from time to time, but 
a calm in the beginning of May with a gloomy overcast 
sky and a low barometer, and Avith curious, uncanny look- 
ing clouds drifting up from the north and west, seemed 
to presage something, and we found out afterward that on 
Lake Erie, only fifty or sixty miles from us, but 30ft 
higher, there was very nasty weather indeed, with cold 
*Tlie Ijii^ of Zulu wst-e puWished in the ^'osatii Atrf Stream 
of Dec. 10, tSSB. ' . . - ' - - 
rain and sleet. But for us, we wallowed about on a 
gently heaving, oily looking surface from noon until sun- 
down and from sundown till nearly dark, and then the 
sky commenced to clear from the north and west, and 
stars began to twinkle and sparkle, and a streak of silvery 
moonlight appeared on our port bow, and best of all, there 
came a gentle air on the starboard beam, and the uneasy 
heaving and rolling gave way to a rhythmic bowing. 
The dinghy's painter stretched out, and a little wrinkling 
appeared under its bows, then the air became a light 
breeze, and the light breeze a fresh one, hauling round to 
the starboard quarter, and by 10 P. M. we were bowling 
along with the spinaker set and Port Dalhousie and the 
lights of St. Catharines were winking and twinkling at us 
over the bowsprit, while those of Toronto were gradually 
dropping into the lake astern. So numerous were the 
lights ahead that we had some difficulty in picking up 
the right ones, but as we got close under the land the St. 
Catharines lights dropped out of sight and the lookout 
easily made out the double light of the harbor, and all 
too soon (for the air had grown milder and the sailing 
was most enjoyable) we slid in between the piers and into 
the moonlit basin of the Welland Canal, 
The skipper acknowledges to being a lazy man, but 
when he once gets going under favorable conditions he 
likes to keep going, and the conditions on this particular 
night were eminently favorable for the passage of the 
canal, and the day having been such a tedious one, and 
the run only thirty miles in all, it seemed a pity to lose 
the time tied up alongside a pier, so he proceeded up 
to the canal office and obtained the necessary pass, and 
Zulu was towed into the first lock, and the great gates 
swung to behind her. Then came a rush of mighty 
water as the valves in the upper gate were opened and in 
another minute we were slowly rising, rising out of the ' 
ZULU. 
De.signed and built by H. K. Wicksteed. 
dark lock pit into the glare of the electric lights. Then 
the upper gates swung apart, and Avith a long, light tow 
line and a man at the end of it, Zulu glided out onto 
the next level and into the lock above. Again and again 
the process was repeated, and meantime day- broke, and 
then the sun came up in a cloudless sky, and still Zidu kept 
rising higher and higher and penetrating further and 
further inland. The crew showed signs of weariness and 
insubordination, and were presently sent below for a nap, 
.while a canal tramp was brought into service on the end 
of the tow line. Passing St. Catharines, we reached about 
9 o'clock the foot of the Niagara escarpment, and now the 
locks catne thick and fast, and as we rose higher, ever 
higher, we had a magnificent view over the level country 
wc had just traversed, and the blue plain of Lake Ontario 
beyond, stretching away beyond to the horizon. By noon 
we had cleared the twenty-sixth and last lock, and floated 
on the level of Lake Erie, 330ft. above Ontario, and the 
crew heaved a sigh of relief in content, and feeling their 
sore and blistered hands, vowed they did not want any 
more canaling. 
[to be concluded.] 
The America Cup. 
The following interview with Mr. C. Oliver Iselin, the 
manager of the Cup defense, by Mr. W. E. Robinson, of 
the Boston Globe, is reliable, and so far as it goes more 
important than the numerous unverified reports in daily 
circulation : 
C. Oliver Iselin, managing owner of Defender and of 
the new defender nov/ building by the Herreshoffs, paid 
one of his flying visits to Bristol on Jan. 31, arriving from 
Providence on the 12:10 train, and leaving on the 3:50. 
His visit was for a look at the recently cast lead keel of 
the new boat as well as to see how the work in general 
was progressing. 
To inquiring newspaper men he was as chary as ever of 
giving any information as to the dimensions or construc- 
tion of the new boat, although to the Globe's yachting 
man, who was his seat-mate on the return trip to Provi- 
dence. hef>talked with considerable freedom on matters 
that did not touch the vital features of the latest Herres- 
hoff design. , , . , , , 
Asked directly for the material of which the new boat 
was being built, Mr. Iselin declined firmly but politely to 
give information on that or on similar points. 
"I put my refusal." he said, "solely on the ground that 
T do not think it best to tell the people on the other 
side of the water just what we are doing. We, know 
very little as yet of what their boat is to be, and there is 
no reason why we should gi%'e them any a.dVatitage by tell- 
ing our plans." . _ . ...w..^,..- 
"But several things already are known about the new 
boat, and have been made public." 
"Very true," replied Mr. Iselin, "but there are many 
other things that are not known, as well as many pub- 
lished things that are evidently guesses. Whether the 
public believes the published statements I. cannot say, but 
if I should give information it would at once acquire an 
official character, and be accepted as correct. No, I think 
it best not to give any information." 
"Not even as to material?" 
"No, not even that." 
"Yet the material will be known as it reaches the 
works and as the construction of the boat progresses, will 
it not?" ■ 
"Probably," was Mr. Iselin's reply, "but by that time 
we expect that Shamrock will be so far along that the 
knowledge will not matter so far as any effect on her 
construction goes. Dimensions? I shall never give the 
dimensions of the new boat for publication with ex- 
actness any more than I did those of Defender. I have 
no doubt you newspaper men will get them sufficiently 
close for all non-technical purposes, but I hold that exact 
dimensions, provided you get a fast boat, give an op- 
ponent too much of an advantage to improve in any boat 
that may subsequently be built." 
"You expect a decided improvement in the new boat?" 
"Yes, we do, but Defender is a hard boat to beat. Very 
few people really knew how fast she was in 1895, and she 
ought to be as fast as ever now that she has been put in 
good condition." 
"You have definitely decided on skipper and crew?" 
"Yes; Capt. Charlie Barr will sail the new boat, and 
will have a crew of fifty men from Deer Isle, Me., under 
him. They already have been engaged. About half of 
them were of Defender's crew, and so will be familiar 
with their work at the start. 
"The skipper for Defender has not been selected, nor 
the crew,- but we shall find some good man to sail her. 
Our present intention is to man her with a Norwegian 
crew, picked from the best men among the yacht sailors of 
that nationality, and let the two crews stack up against 
each other and see which is the smarter. 
"Yes, the racing of the boats against each other will 
be of great use in getting the new boat into proper trim, 
Practice sailing alone never will get a boat into such good 
shape as close racing. Vigilant was a great help to De- 
fender in 1895 in that line." 
"Is it a fair presumption that a steel boom and a steel 
gaff will be in favor in '98 as in '95?" was asked. 
"Yes, they are still in favor. Defender's steel boom was 
very stiff and strong, .and her steel gaff was carried in all 
her later racing. It was not until we found that the gaff 
could be depended upon that we made the steel boom, but 
both did excellent service. 
"A steel mast is a different thing. I do not know that 
any experiments looking to the practicability of a steel 
mast have been made." 
"How about sails, Mr. Iselin?" 
"I hope that we shall have better sails than ever beforfc 
in a cup contest. The Englishmen have rather beaten 
us heretofore on sails, in looks anyway, but this time I be- 
lieve wc can match them. The great trouble with our 
sails pr jviously has been the uneven stretching of the 
duck, due undoubtedly to something in the weaviiig. 
Now, however, we believe we have something that, with 
improvement in both yarn and weaving, will do away 
with much of the previous trouble. 
"The duck has been woven specially for us, and the 
sails themselves will be made by the Herreshoffs in. their 
new loft on Burnsiue street." 
"How did you find matters at the works?" 
"Everything is going smoothly. That lead keel is a 
fine casting. How much lead in it? Now that is forbid- 
den ground, or whether it is more or less than in De- 
fender's. Given the powder and sail plan of a man's boat, 
and you come pretty close to the boat herself. I had 
rather know a man's sail plan than anything else about 
his boat. 
"American experience has shown that the boat that 
can carry the most canvas, and carry it properly, usually 
wins. We started out with a looft. boom on Defender. 
Then when we found Valkyrie III. had one 105ft. in 
length we gave Defender one to match it, believing that 
she was powerful enough to carry it. Her racing proved 
the correctness of our belief. 
"The new boat's model? Oh, that question is in the 
same class as those about material, but I expect that 
Herreshoff will give us a good reaching boat, better even 
than Defender or Vigilant. You know we get plenty of 
reaching on the triangular courses, and a boat needs to 
be fast there as elsewhere." 
Speaking of Valkyrie III. as a possible "trial horse" 
for Shamrock, Mr. Iselin expressed the hope that Sir 
Thomas Lipton, might have her or some other fast boat 
to race against before crossing the Atlantic, both for 
"tuning up" and to see how fast a boat the Shamrock 
really would turn out to be. 
Mr. Iselin had no opinion to express as to the probable 
outcome of the Cup races, but there is no question but 
that he is as much in earnest in keeping the Cup on 
this side as he was in 1895, and that he and the yachts- 
men who are interested with him in Cup defense will 
leave nothing undone that can contribute to succes.s. 
The name of the new boat will not be decided upon 
until the return of Com. J. Pierpont Morgan from 
Europe. 
In the meantime the work on the new boat is being 
pushed at the Herreshoff Works. The top of the lead 
keel is being smoothed and fitted for the placing of the 
bronze keel plate, while the steel frames are being bent 
and made ready for setting up as soon as keel, stem and 
sternposts shall have been put in place. 
Not long ago the Globe said on what was presumably 
good authority that W. K. Vanderbilt was bearing the ex- 
pense of fitting out and repairing Defender. .The informa- 
tion was not correct. Mr. Vanderbilt and ex-Com. E. 
D Morgan, owners of Defender with Mr. Iselin, have 
turned the boat over to Mr. Iselin and Com. J. Pierpont 
Morgan to use as they please. These last named men are 
the only ones financially interested in the new boat. 
Although Mr. Iselin, in talking about the new boat, de- 
clined to give detailed facts and figures, there is no 
reason to change the opinion already expressed as to 
