496 
FOREST AUt> STREAM 
That Seven-Masted Schooner. 
Ho, brothers ! a bonanza, and 1 must share it. 
Over in England dwells a man who surely is one of 
Hs, if the love of a canoe in a smashing breeze, and the 
joy-taking in the tug of a two-pound trout can make 
-iiim! and he hath other attributes for the fraternity, as 
the following will show. 
Which his name is Whistler — C. W., by designation; 
Rev. C. W. if you are very particular, and he is authority 
on things King Alfredish, as the boys who read his books 
will tell you. [N. B.^ — I wouldn't ask for better ones for 
myself, while the lire is crackling on a howling winter 
night, and the apples and cider are .right handy.] Well, 
I happened to hit him in a "lucky spot" with a book of 
my own in the Viking line— never mind about that — and 
eventually sent him my amphibian advice to Dr. Erhardt 
[wonder if the Doctor followed it!] and incidentally 
mentioned seeing on my vacation a six-masted schooner 
or so, with the promise of a seven-master sometime. 
Now I have permission to quote his reply, "by all means 
if it will make anyone else laugh. It is a work of charity 
and full payment if one can raise so much as a grin to 
do a man good withal at this time of the year." So here 
goes, omitting some matters of no moment to the pub- 
lic eye, even that of brothers. If you can better the 
mythical report of the Penobscot Dog Vane let's see it! 
"I have seen five-masted sailing ships, but never a 
seven-masted schooner. She is a 'lusus navigationis' for 
sure, and will come to a bad end trying to ride out a 
gale under foresail and mizzen, when she will break in 
two. ■ Steering such a craft must feel like driving a tan- 
dem. 
"I am concerned about the seven-masted schooner. 
"On cross-examination .the mate admitted that when 
he said the vessel was the quickest over a quarter mile 
course, on any wind which he had ever known, he 
meant that he calculated she was there already, her 
length between perpendiculars being 435 yards Asked 
by the court to explain what he remembered of the 
catastrophe, he said that it was mighty little. He was 
steering, and the jibboom seemed to swing round and hit 
him, somehow. He could not remember more. The 
vessel was hove to at the time under easy sail, and he 
believed the foresail was took aback. Asked whj'- the 
helm was not lashed under those circumstances, he ex- 
plained that it was of no use. The schooner acted like 
an eel in a washtub under those conditions, and the only 
steady point about her was half way between No. 3 and 
No. 4 masts, which seemed to act as a center. Asked to 
account for the disappearance of the fore end of the 
vessel, including the first four masts, he said he believed 
the captain was trying to prove that he could sail a 
four-masted schooner by himself, and might turn up at 
any time. He did not see it sink. He allows he was 
unconscious, but that is what one would expect of the 
skipper. There were no bulkheads, but the cargo was 
basswood. He always had expected some such fracture 
amidships, but was willing to take chances. 
"The leading seaman corroborated the account of the 
mate, terselj'. He said the vessel shied at a breaker, 
tried to buck, and shut up like a jack knife. The skipper 
was forward. It was true that he and the mate had had 
words as to where the vessel would double up. He was 
preparing to lash each mast to the others ahead and 
astern of it at the time, in order to save parting com- 
pany. He did not know which the mainmast of the ves- 
sel was. It was a usual point of debate among the crew. 
H^e had known nien to come to blows on the question. 
It was recognized that Nos. i and 7 were the fore and 
mizzen masts, of course. Asked how the masts were dis- 
tinguished when orders were given, he explained that 
they were known by the names of the men who tended 
the sails attached to each. The vessel was not under- 
manned. There was a man to each mast, and the boy 
tended the head sails. If a Penobscot man couldn't 
manage one set of fore and aft sails by himself he ought 
to be set to dig potatoes. His own mast was No. S.- but 
was known as ' Bill's mast' He believed the boy was 
at the bottom of the whole trouble. He mostly was. 
(Called to order.) 
"The boy, who was in tears, said that it was no fault 
of" his, and that if it was he couldn't help it. He was 
told to keep the fore staysail aback till furuier orders, 
and he did it. He had two turns of the sheet round a 
cleat to windward, and was sitting on the running end. 
He had never known the sheet render under those cir- 
cumstances, and it did not render in this case. He could 
not help it if the wind swung round and hit the sail from 
the lee bow. Asked which was the lee bow when the 
wind was blowing over the other, he turned sullen, and 
said that if the assessors didn't know what he meant 
they hadn't ought to set up to try a shipwreck case. 
(Removed in custody.) The mate, recalled to explain, 
said that when he said the sail was took aback he meant 
that it being aback already on one tack, namely the port, 
was suddenly filled from starboard. No further explana- 
tion was obtainable from him, and the court refrained 
from cross-examination, he showing a tendency toward 
profanity. 
"The fisherman who picked up the boy and subse- 
quently rescued the other members of the crew, said 
that he had observed the schooner for half an hour or 
more before the squall struck her. She was hove to on 
the port tack and the fore end of her was making bad 
weather of it all the time. Her stern seemed to have 
struck a patch of calm water. He had no doubt that the 
foresail filled suddenly with a shift of wind, and that 
the strain caused the calamity. The bows seemed to be 
whisked away from under the boy, who was flung vio- 
lently toward the horizon, 'like as if he'd been shot out 
of a catapiller.' Possibly he meant a catapault. Any- 
how the boy flew. The schooner broke in two, same as 
he had often seen a topmast snap, and the bow's end of 
her went to leeward like smoke passing him at two 
fathoms distance. The captain spoke to him as he 
passed. Asked what the captain said, he replied that 
the remark which was most evident was, T told the mate 
so.' He would rather not repeat the rest. Pressed on 
this point, he said he would write what he heard, for the 
benefit of the president of the court. He having done 
so, the president read it, and blushed. The paper was 
cremated by an officer in the court room fire. Our 
representative was not allowed to see it. Examined 
further, the fisherman said that if the wind held, the fore 
end of the schooner might fetch Up against Bermuda in 
the course of the week. He believed there was a demand 
for wood in that island, The Boer prisoners wanted it 
to make toys of. It amused them. He did not consider 
schooners of that length healthy, if they were progres- 
sive. What he liked was a vessel with a solid keel which 
wouldn't buckle, nohows. He preferred being catastro- 
phized solid and not in sections. 
■'The shipbuilder volunteered the statement that the 
vessel was bitilt as strongly as he could make her. In- 
deed, she had been termed a mountain of wood. He 
was not certain if that term referred to her after loading 
or not. If the street had been a bit longer, he would 
have put one or two more masts into her. He was not 
stingy. Asked to explain his reference to the street, he 
said that he hired the right of way down Penobscot's 
main avenue, and used it as a shipyard. He guessed the 
folk went round easy enough. He had heard no com- 
plaints. The pesky street turned at right angles at the 
top, so that he could not lengthen the vessel further. It 
was easier to build one long vessel than three and a half 
short ones. There were only two ends to fill. He be- 
lieved in putting all one's eggs into one basket. There 
seemed to him no reason why one basket should be up- 
set than a dozen. If Capt. Hank Smith couldn't keep 
the ends of his vessel separate that was not his (the 
builder's) fault. 
"The finding of the court was that the cause of the 
wreck w^as entirely due to the failure of the captain to 
estimate breaking strain, aided by the rashness of the 
boy. If the latter had not sat on the foresheet, it might 
have rendered and thus reduced the strain. They fully 
exonerated the boy, as he was only obeying orders. The 
captain was to come up for judgment when found. He 
would be reprimanded, on points to be considered. The 
Assessors added a rider to the effect that the State 
should limit the length of Penobscot schooners, or more 
progressive States might endeavor to see that district 
and go one, or even a dozen, masts better. They con- 
sidered it sinful waste to stick masts into an Atlantic 
bridge." — Extract from "Penobscot Dog Vane." 
A Cold Cruise. 
Early in February, ^ 1896, the four-masted schooner 
Stella B. Kaplan lay just above the Congress street 
bridge discharging coal. I came aboard one afternoon, 
chucked my baggage into the cozy stateroom adjoining 
Capt. "Joe's," and went on deck to watch operations. 
A team drove down to the wharf with the crew, and 
they bundled over the side with their bags and boxes 
and disappeared in the forecastle. 
About 4 o'clock, after a severe squall of wind anq 
snow, we cast off, took a tug, went through the draw 
and anchored off Castle Island. A wild nor'wester was 
blowing, and after the cold and wind-swept decks the 
genial warmth of the cabins felt wonderfully good. 
Before daylight the next morning we got under way, 
stumbling around in the dark half awake and shaking 
with cold. Foresail and jibs crept up and the cable 
came slowly aboard, link by link, while we stood by and 
shivered. Steam is mighty handy, but you don't get' 
warmed up when it does the heaving. 
I went to the wheel, she slowly paid off, and with a 
moderate westerly we dropped down with the tide. The 
glass stood at 6 below. I had on about all the raiment 
I possessed; two suits of flannel, a /ed sweater, and a 
white one over that, an overcoat, a knit cap and a long, 
red toque over that, fur mittens and heavy rubbers, and 
could hardly move. 
Boston channel is none too wide, and from the wheel 
of an iioo ton vassel it looks like a ditch; you seem to 
be right on top of the islands, and think she will never 
have room to swing. I managed to foul the can buoy 
off Nix's mate in my care not to run her ashore, but got 
out of the harbor all right, they put the mainsail and 
spanker on her and we slid away before the rapidly 
freshening breeze. 
The Kaplan was a big vessel, then, but alongside the 
five and six masters of to-day she would hardly be 
looked at. 
I often wonder what some of the old skippers of a 
half or even a third of a century ago would think to be 
placed aboard one of the monster schooners of the pres- 
ent time. The tremendous length of deck, the multi- 
plicity of masts, the improvements in rigging (how 
spidery the steel wire standing rigging looks after the old 
hemp), the great speed, and on board some of the largest 
A'essels, capacious wheel houses, where the tediousness 
of a long two hours' trick is mitigated by comfortable 
shelter, would be a revelation; and on going below what 
would they say to steam heated double cabins, large, airy 
staterooms, bath rooms, chart rooms, pianos or organs, 
telephones and electric bells — and forward a donkey 
engine that handles the vessel while the crew stand by? 
Indeed, one of the big schooners of to-day woidd be 
helpless without the donkey; no crew could get the 
anchors by hand or even make sail. 
One of the men came aft to the wheel, and with appe- 
tite sharpened by the keen air, I tumbled below when 
the steward hurried aft with his basket. 
At noon we were off the cape, the wind was blowing 
a bitter gale and the mercury stood at 8. Nothing 
northbound passed Highland Light that day. 
We met a pilot boat jogging along with close reefed 
foresail and somewhat iced up, but otherwise the ocean 
was swept bare of shipping. 
Once through the slue we beat up over the shoals a 
few miles in the gale, hauling the jigger-boom to wind- 
ward with the donkey each time we tacked (another mod- 
ern wrinkle), and anchored off Bar Harbor, and the 
next night at Falmouth. Here we lay through a sharp 
southeaster, and then came two days of fierce westerlies. 
During a lull on the second day I took the yawl and 
two men and started for the shore, and a hard pull we 
had. We hauled the boat up on the ice-clad rocks and 
walked over to Woods Holl, and on our return found 
the gale increasing and a strong current running, and 
by the time we reached the vessel I was ready to stop. 
There were twenty-one large schooners at anchor near 
us, rolling in the heavy swell, and when, at about 9 
o'clock the next morning the wind suddenly struck in to 
the northward, ten of us, southbound, got under weigh 
together. It was quite exciting. One large four-master 
passed close under our bows as we filled away and we 
kept company with her, hardly altering our respective 
positions all the way to the capes of Virginia. 
"That's B ." said Capt. Joe, "under charter for 
three trips." Seafaring men, as a rule, do not speak of 
a vessel by her name; they refer to the masters. I have 
heard a skipper, after a long look through the glasses at 
a sail, hull down, remark to the mate: "There's T: ; 
guess he must have been laying to an anchor a couple 
of days. He sailed before we did." No craft so far 
away but they can give a pretty shrewd guess at her 
identity, and her full history follows from the day she 
was launched. 
The cold weather continued, and when I came on deck 
at 5 the next morning, I found the mate, Mr. D . 
swinging back and forth, forward of the wheel, muffled 
up in all kinds of garments, thrashing his arms and 
stamping his feet on the icy deck. Two long icy 
pendants, of a rich chocolate hue, hung from either 
mustache, upon which even the warmth of the breakfast 
table, an hour later, had no effect. 
To my involuntary explanation, "Isn't this fine?" came 
the growl, "D — d fine, this is — I wouldn't miss this for 
an}''thing" 
He had been "pushing coal" up and down the coast 
for thirty years, and possibly the novelty of the thing 
had begun to lose its luster. The poor man was lost a 
few months later in the great November blizzard. 
But to me it was a most interesting experience. When 
daylight came I looked at the glass— 8 below! That is 
pretty cold at sea. The water was covered with vapor, 
which wreathed and whirled in the wind, at one moment 
opening out in long lanes ahead, and the next closing 
in, so wc could hardly see the jib-boom end. 
Our horn was tooting, and occasionally a faint echo 
from off the weather quarter told the whereabouts of 
our friend of the day before. The wind was northeast, 
and blowing a gale. We were split open, carrying three 
lower sails and two jibs, and making about 12 knots. 
Toward^ noon it began to snow and a man was kept 
aft sweeping about the wheel. 
Many times I sighed for my camera. The helmsman, 
bundled in rags, covered with snow, heaving at the wheel 
to meet her as she yawed in the sea; the length of deck 
swept bare of snow in spots; the lookout sounding his 
three toots on the horn — likewise clothed to the limit 
and snow-covered; the "old man" walking his short dis- 
tance back and forth, are scenes which memory holds, 
but which a photograph would keep with every detail, so 
dear to the heart of an enthusiast. 
We swept on in the blinding snow at a steamer's pace. 
The man at the wheel became a little careless — a sea 
slapped into the rudder, the wheel tore itself from his- 
hands, and catching him ih the clothing, tossed him 
neatly into the air and landed' him on the lee rail. A 
narrow sciueak that. To go overboard in that water 
meanj: death. 
We could see nothing aheadi and assumed that there 
was nothing. It takes the nerviest kind of nerve to run 
on to a lee shore in thick weather. 
Few people realize the responsibility that the masters 
of these large schooners have to bear. With their great 
length — say 300 feet, and draft about 25 — they are awk- 
ward things to handle when running before a gale of 
wind, and I venture to say that, excepting the fishermen, 
who are sb-angers to fear, our coasting captains, as a 
rule, are as bold, fearless, and nervy a set of men as you 
will find on land or sea. A steamer can stop and back 
and feel round when a schooner must keep on or course 
around. A steamer can lay her course, blow high or low; 
the schooner has to lie becalmed, and wait for the gale. 
And the deck of any coal schooner in the dock discharg- 
ing her cargo, at which the spectator merely glances 
from the car window, has been the source of long hours 
of constant vigil and most careful reckoning and anxious 
thoughts, which would kill ordinary city men. Our 
mate, Mr. D , was out in the great blizzard of '88 
in a three-masted schooner, deep with coal, and for 
ninety-two hours never closed his eyes; and every gale 
that in the city means, perhaps, an extra wrap and wifely 
admonitions as to catching cold, off the coa.st, almost 
within sight of cities, means days and nights of sleepless 
toil and fights with wind and cold, and terrible lee 
shores. 
Toward night the snow ceased to fall and we made 
the light-ship off Cape Charles, and anchored off New- 
port News at 11 P. M., thirty-two hours from the Vine- 
yard. One of our consorts, the Yale, was not so fortu- 
nate, and in the thick snow ran into and sank an Englisli 
steamer. 
For two days we could not land on account of a ter- 
rific westerly, which lashed the water into foam and kept 
the mercury at 10 or 15, and Old Point Comfort right 
aboard ! 
But at length we were able to land. I waved adieu to 
the good Stella B., and in the Boston steamer came back 
over the same course to the Vine3"ard on a sea sniuuth 
as a floor, without a ripple to show that there was .''ny 
wind, and in a sun as warm as May, where, four days 
before, our ship resembled a waif from Arctic seas. 
F. L. Exo. 
SWAMPSCOTT. 
New 60-Rating: One-Design Class. 
Messrs. G.^rdner & Co.x have gotten out plans for a 
new one-design class, and two boats have already been 
ordered. One of the boats is for Mr. Henry F. Lippitt, 
owner of the schooner Quisetta, and the other is for Mr. 
George M. Pynchon. who headed the syndicate that built 
the Canada cup trial boat Illinois. Mr. Lippitt has sold 
Quisetta to Mr. S. C. Davis, of St. Louis, Mo. Mr. 
Pynchon, who formerly lived in Chicago, has now taken 
up his residence in New York, and both the new boats 
.will be raced during the coming season on Long Island 
Sound. 
The English boats Isolde. Senta and Eclin have proven 
to be such satisfactory craft, both from the standpoint of 
racing and cruising, that they have in a measure in- 
fluenced the forming of this new 6oft. racing length class. 
The new boats are similar in design to Dorwina, the 
champion of the 43ft. class on Long Island Sound last 
