"Oh! I know lots of captains going to sea who get 
seasick," I said, consolingly. 
"One cleaning out and then I'm all right," he con- 
tinued, ''and I feel much better for it, too, don't you 
know." 
"There isn't a better remedy going to clear a man's 
stomach than a spell of seasickness," said I, although I 
had never experienced it myself. 
For a few moments he busied himself about, coiling 
down the ends of the jib sheet, and I began to think he 
was going to get over it; but no, poor devil, he soon 
grew quiet again, and going below, threw himself down 
on the transom, dead to the world. 
The big Swede forward - could not suppi-ess a smile as 
I caught his ej^e after watching our host go below. 
When the fog set in, the wind came with it, and slowly, 
but steadily, increased to a good hard breeze. 
Pontoon originally was a cat yawl with one mast 
stepped clear up in the eyes of her, and to accommodate 
it she was built so full in the ends you could stand up 
in the fo'castle with your hat on and put your hand 
against the stern. While this made her as comfortable 
as a Harlem flat below decks with her roomy galley, for- 
ward and aft of this a saloon with swinging table and two 
folding bunks above the transoms, it did not improve her 
sailing or steering qualities any. 
Several tons of lead held this high-sided plumb bob on 
end, but so full and chunky was her model that running 
before the wind, as we now were, the rudder was working 
only in dead water. You had to put the helm hard over 
to make her mind it at all, and then she would yaw about 
so it would have broken an eel's back to have tried to 
follow in her wake. From port to starboard her stern 
swung with the regularity of clockwork, and from star- 
board to port, just as regularly I pulled with all my 
might on her short tiller, in vain endeavors to make her 
go in a straight line. 
The Pontoon yawed about and I tugged and swore 
until tired out, and then called Olsen aft to take a trick 
at it, for the Lieutenant was only a passenger, knowing 
nothing whatever about a boat, yet unaffected, as her 
owrrr was, by the motion. 
Po( r little Commodore, he alternated between the lee 
rail i.nd the cabin, and the fish between Newport and 
New Bedford were better fed on that day than any day 
in their recollection for many a long year. And when he 
couldn't feed them longer, he lay and groaned in agony 
on the transom. Sorry as I felt for the poor fellow, there 
was nothing T could do for him, as all our attention was 
needed on deck. Driving along through a dense fog 
with a half a gale screeching aloft the Pontoon was kept 
as near as possible to the course, and we kept careful 
calculation as to about the speed she was going, and 
made allowance for the tide. 
Dinner time came and went, but out of pity for the 
Commodore no one mentioned eating. 
About 2 o'clock, according to our calculations, we 
should begin to listen for the bell and horn that indicated 
the Hen and Chickens lightship. But all hands listened 
and listened in vain — not a sound save the swash of hurry- 
ing water greeted our ears, and I grew uneasy lest some 
unknown current had set us inshore so far we could not 
hear the bell. If we failed to pick up the lightship, there 
was nothing for us to do but heave to and wait for it to 
clear up; if we kept on running we would only fetch up 
on the mainland, or possibly somewhere around Cutty- 
hunk, on the Martha's Vineyard shore. 
Minutes merged into half hours, and no horn was 
heard, until very faintly we all three heard far off to wind- 
ward the sound of a fog horn. 
"Heavens! we're not that far off our course, I hope," 
said I, as I luffed up, and we trimmed in sail to beat up 
toward the sound. Blown into our faces by the wind, the 
fog felt almost like rain, and the Commodore had to 
shift into the lee bunk every time we tacked, for the old 
Pontoon was staggering along under full sail. 
From a faint moan, louder and louder grew the sound, 
until just as we made a tack to starboard, and the canvas 
stopped slapping, a roar so loud and deep that it startled 
all hands greeted our ears, and out of the dripping fog 
loomed the black hull of the Vineyard Sound lightship 
of Cuttyhunk, several miles to windward of the Hen and 
Chickens. 
I swore when T saw the name in large letters along the 
side of the lightship, and luffing around we bore away 
before the wind and sea, and while Olsen steered I went 
below and found the compass course from this lightship 
to the one we wanted to find. 
With the wind just abaft the beam so the headsails 
stoods full, the yacht sailed a straight course, and when 
we judged we were about where we were before we started 
to beat up to the other lightship, there suddenly loomed 
up right ahead of us the missing ship, but silent as the 
grave. We stood on across her bows, then jibed over 
and continued on the com.pass course for New Bedford. 
When we were well astern of the lightship we saw the 
dark figure of a man go forward along her leek, and then 
born down wind on the fog came the heavy clang of her 
fog bell, making our eardrums vibrate. "Dey never rung 
dot bell, dot's vye we don't hear 'im before," said Olsen, 
and I agreed with him. 
We now had a thirteen mile run to Clark Point light- 
house, but to us it was like a midnight sail for all we 
could see. The fog shut us in completely. The first 
thing we saw to indicate land after a couple of hours' sail 
was a large three-masted schooner, that loomed up ahead 
of us on a sudden. Running close under her stern we 
asked her skipper, who w'as watching us. what the course 
was to New Bedford, and sailed as he directed, with the 
result that in a half an hour a red spar buoy loomed up 
ahead, and sailing by this we made our way up to within 
a mile of the town, although we did not know we were 
so close until the Pontoon suddenly ran out of the fog, 
and there before us, bathed in the red light of sunset, lay 
the old romantic town of New Bedford, with the spars 
of the dismantled old whaling ships standing up black 
against the glow in the west. 
Here the water was like a mill pond, the breeze had 
gone down to a gentle air. and a feeling of thankfulness 
and rest seemed to prevail with nature, as well as us. 
Then it was the Commodore, who up to this time had 
been forgotten, came up the companionway and said with 
a resurrected smile: 
"I'll take her in now, Charlie." I was only too willing 
to surrender the tiller to him. But Avhen a week later, 
bedecked in gold buttons and creased white ducks, the 
Commodore related to an attentive audience on the club's 
piazza how he sailed the Pontoon from Newport to New 
Bedford, "in a howling gale and fog so thick you couldn't 
see the bow of the yacht, and brought her right smack 
up to the dock at New Bedford, b'gad!" and called on 
me to confirm his statements, I thought of the figure he 
cut on that run and turned away. 
Yacht Cluh Notes* 
The Entertainment Committee of the Yachtsmen's Club 
has sent out the following announcement for the lectures 
to be given during the month of March: 
March 6 — -"The Measurement Rule," John Hyslop, Esq. 
March 13 — "Ocean Steam Vessels and Their Manage- 
ment," Capt. P. C. Petrie, late Commodore Inman Steam- 
ship Company. 
March 20 — "High Speed in Steam Vessels," Chas. D, 
Mosher, Esq. 
March 27 — "Methods of Determining Position at Sea," 
Commander Henry H. Barroll, U. S. N. 
^ ^ ^ 
Several gentlemen interested in yachting a. tended a 
meeting on Thursday, Feb. 28, and organized a club to be 
known as the City Island Y. C. The following officers 
were elected: Com., Howard Horton; Vice-Corn.. Dr. 
Frederick C, Lawrence; Rear-Com., Piierre Wood; 
Sec'y, Albert Wood; Treas., Franklin Smith; Official 
Meas., Charles Herold; Board of Directors, - George Mil- 
ler, James H. Rice and Dr. L. F. W. Seifert. A set of 
by-laws, rules and regulations are to be drawn up and 
adopted similar to the Knickerbocker Y. C.'s rules and 
regulations. Five boats of Ai class, centerboard sleep 
type, are now nearing completion, and it is expected six 
or seven will mark the number for the first regatta. 
^ ^ 
The Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. met at Sherry's on 
the evening of Feb. 26 and adopted the new rule of meas- 
urement which special committees of the New York, 
Larchmont and Seawanhaka Corin h'an yacht clubs 
recommended for consideration and adoption. The rule 
is to go into effect on Jan. i. 1902. Any boats bui't after 
July I next will come under the new rating. The rule was 
adopted by the Seawanhaka Corinthian Y. C. indeoendent 
of any action that the other clubs might take, but the 
committee of the new rule was made permanent with 
power to act, in order to modify the rule should a 
change seem desirable. 
The committee consists of John Hyslop. chairman ; T. 
Fred Tams, A. Cass Canfield, C. H. Crane and Henry W. 
Eaton. 
The new rule, which taxes both beam and draft, is 
