234 FOREST « AND STREAM. (IMarch 21, 1903. 
CRUISING YAWL SAIL PLAN DESIGNED BY THEODORE W. BRIGHAM FOR B. H. WELLS, 1903. 
Before I got out upon the horn the schooner was down 
on her beams-end, and even the flapping jib was drag- 
ging her into it broadside. She went down until the 
water threatened to pour into her, but the Skipper stuck 
to the mainsheet, and she gradually rounded up into it. 
Had he started the main sheet in the excitement that 
squall would have surely turned her over. With both 
legs wrapped around the horn guys, I strove to get in 
that headsail. Several times I had to let go, and hang 
on, but finally I succeeded in getting the jib aboard, 
and Culham and the Skipper gathered in the mainsail, 
and we let her drift. The squall brought up a six-foot 
sea and soon y^^e were bobbing about like a cork awaiting 
a subsidence of the wind. 
Finall/, for occupation's sake, we reefed the jib and 
mainsail and during a lull hoisted them away. Away we 
went at a nice clip for about two minutes and then the 
wind dropped light and we commenced to roll. 
"Hoist the foresail." 
We cast off the gaskets, and had just seized the hal- 
yards when another squall, which seemed to embody all 
the spent fury of the preceding two, dropped upon us. 
When I went out to gather in the jib this time, the 
schooner, rising on a heavy sea, jabbed me clean through 
the next roller. I clung on, I knew not how, and re- 
sumed my labor. I got a second ducking before I got 
that jib inboard. As soon as I came aboard the Skipper's 
voice roared out to me, above the shrill harping of the 
wind through the wire rigging and the clatter of the 
halyards against the spars, "Lend a hand, or the rudder's 
gone;" I hurried aft. A sea had swamped our dinghy, 
and the schooner had backed down upon the water- 
logged little craft, and now she was threatening our 
rudder, which hung outboard upon gudgeons and pintles. 
Clark's broad back was bowed, as he swung around a 
precarious footing on the counter, and pulled mightily 
upon the side of the dinghy. Canny Culham, with his 
feet jammed under a seat in the cockpit, leaned over 
the side and heaved upon the little craft, but she stirred 
not. There was half a ton of water in her. The Skipper 
passed her painter forward and we dragged her along- 
side. There was nothing to cling to between the stays, 
and to fall overboard meant an undertaker's bill, for no 
swimmer could live in such a turmoil of water, but all 
four let go and took a chance. We needed that dinghj'. 
As Tainui raised upon a big sea we bent to our task, 
overturned the dinghy, and hoisted her across the cabin 
top. The next plunge sent Clark headlong into the cock- 
pit, while the Skipper and I seized the sidestays and 
gripped tightly. Culham took a flying leap across the 
deck and wound up with his arms around the furled 
foresail. The dinghy slid across the cabin top. 
"She's gone," shouted the Skipper disc:on§olately, bi}t 
she stopped on the deck's edge and Culham from his 
point of safety gaily waved the dinghy's painter end. In 
the plunge he had seized the painter and had passed it 
around the foreboom. It was a quick bit of work and 
saved us our dinghy, for, had she gone adrift, we would 
not have dared to spread canvas to follow her. We had 
no time to congratulate Charlie, for we were threshing 
about in a manner decidedly hard upon the nerves. 
"Get a sea anchor out," shouted the Skipper. I looked 
around. I didn't see any sea anchor and had but a hazy 
idea of what such a contrivance looked like. Culham 
passed up a pail. "Send that out," he called. I did, and 
the pail sank like a stone, and did us no good. Tainui 
was iDroadside on and plunging like a broncho fresh 
haltered in the seas, which were now about ten feet 
high — they seemed forty — and as far as eye could reach 
the lake was covered with cotton-topped waves. The 
livid threatening green of the lake water, the black lined 
sky, the whitecaps of the waves and the yellowish gold 
of the western sky, formed a symphony of color of sur- 
passing magnificence, but we did not stop to admire. 
All we considered at that moment were the teeth of 
the menacing waves. 
"Send out the jib for a sea anchor," called the Skipper, 
as he shied a coil of stout bolt rope at me. 
I wound my legs about the foreshrouds, tied a rope's 
end to each corner of the reefed jib, and set adrift, with 
about twenty feet of line. Before I dropped the jib over- 
board, I cast off the reef points, leaving the reefing gear 
at leach and luff, still fastened, and equalized the three 
lines attached to the corners of the sail. The jib filled 
with water, bellied out and partly hauled her head to the 
wind. Still she plunged and rolled, the wind blew harder 
than ever, and the seas pounded us broadside on. The 
clouds blotted- out the shoreline and left us in solitude to 
fight it out with the elements. The wind blew so hard we 
could not keep our caps on our heads and still from the 
westward poured the whitecapped myrmidons of the 
storm king — a thousand thousand — each bent it seemed 
to us, upon our destruction. Any one, had it boarded us, 
would have filled the craft to the combings and left us, 
waterlogged, at the mercy of the seas. 
"Let go both anchors ; they'll help keep her head to the 
seas," said the man at the stick. Of course our supply 
of chain would not reach within a hundred feet of the 
bottom, but the weight dragged her head around a trifle, 
but still she rolled almost broadside on. The wind had 
shifted around into the southwest, and the pressure kept 
her lying broadside to the seas, which still rolled in from 
the west. A big fellow would bear down upon us looking 
large enough to simply swallow us, but when she rolled 
into us, that chubby, little white craft would simply walk 
up the wall of green water, and n^stlf ^ second or two 
in the foam on the crest. Then she would slide down the 
farther side, like a toboggan down a shoot the chutes, 
and would ride up the side of the next one like a feather. 
It was hard enough to hold on without doing anything, 
but there was work to do. In the plunges Tainui carried 
away the ropes of- the improvised sea anchor. To renew 
those ropes was a ticklish job. It took three of us to 
do it. I did the work while Clark and Culham kept me 
from falling overboard. Culham slipped a halyard end 
around my waist and took a turn around the foremast, 
while Clai-k fastened his fingers in my belt behind and 
wound his legs around the shrouds. When we got the 
jib alongside everything was in a tangle. There was no 
time to waste untying knots, so we went at the tangle 
with a knife and soon released the jib, and sent it out 
anew. We still rolled deck under at every plunge, and 
the spars whipped about like switches. 
"Get the jumper stays down, or we won't have a stick 
in her in another hour," the Skipper called, as soon as 
he noticed the masts swaying. Down we came with the 
auxiliary stays. The masts certainly were jumping about 
in a dangerous manner, as we discovered when we at- 
tempted to set the jumper stays. After another ten min- 
utes' rolling, Commeford produced another sea anchor, 
in the shape of a big ulster. Culham, the lightest man 
on the crew, was sent out upon the horn to fasten the 
line attached to the ulster to the end of the horn; Cul- 
ham had his troubles out there too. Half a dozen seas 
svibmerged him before he got the line fast, but they could 
not shake him off his perch. With the ulster out, we 
rode much easier, but the wind kept shifting until half an 
hour later we were again in the trough. It was fully 
another hour before the wind from the southwest broke 
up the roll from the westerly, though it came from that 
direction good and hard. About five o'clock our nerve 
came back and we decided that it was up to us to get 
some muslin on her if we were to make the southern 
shore before dark. We reefed the wet jib and setting it 
bi-'hind the foremast headed by the wind for the shore 
about Niagara. Even this scrap of canvas lifted us along 
at a good gait, but our nerve came back in large sized 
chunks, and we were only satisfied with our progress 
under the reefed jib about 15 minutes. We suddenly dis- 
covered that we were hungry, and that at the gait we 
were going it would be midnight at least before we 
reached Niagara, 12 miles away, and the chef had a 
chance to get busy with his pots and pans. Up rattled 
the reefed mainsail, and the reefed jib was shifted out 
upon the horn. Ten minutes later the reefs were cast 
adrift, but still we were not satisfied, though we were 
rail down. 
"Reef the foresail and we'll set that too," came the 
order, but before w? had finished the job the wind had 
