474 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec 1902. 
Once through the slue of Pollock Rip, the old man 
decided to anchor, as it began to get thick, so we let go ; 
at noon the following day we got underway and with a 
rattling westerly tore along in the smooth water. 
At dark a small sloop yacht about 40ft. long passed us 
(o windward; she was well heeled down, under a reefed 
mainsail and jib, and showed her crew in oil-skins. We 
w-aved a^ greeting, and the mate gave her a long look. 
"That's the life for me. Plenty of money and cruise 
where you want to. No coal dust about her, I'll bet. 
Look at those," and he struck out a pair of grimy paws, 
hardened ar.d bruised.- "That's what going to sea is. 
Beauties, ain't they? I suppose you shore people have lots 
of money." 
Sailors always seem to think that a stiff hat and high 
collar and fairly clean hands are some sort of a financial 
rating; and I have heard an ill-concealed snort of con- 
tempt and pity from one of the hands, when, in reply to 
the captain's query as to where I would rather be that 
evening, I had answered, "Right here." Why any right- 
minded person should voluntarily isolate himself from 
all the pleasures of land, especially in the winter, and join 
his fortunes with those of a coal schooner, passes the 
comprehension of the average jack. 
"Couldn't you get me a chance to go in some yacht, 
mister? (That is a regular querj'.) I'd like something 
where I could keep clean ; this coal droghing is dirty 
work." 
■'Didn't that feller astern of us anchor? I don't see 
his lights," said the captain. "SiTppose we ought to if he 
did. It's funny how one vessel will do what another 
does. If one takes in a top.sail everybody else begins to 
look around and guess on the weather and thinks per- 
haps the first one has seen something that he hasn't, and 
then he will take in his," said the mate. "I have a friend, 
mate of a schooner, and he come out the Chesapeake in 
company with another vessel and kept along all day to- 
gether, with the wind sou'west. About dark the other 
one jibed over, hauled to and started to beat back. Well, 
this feller said the old man he w-as with looked round 
and sniffed and guessed and reckoned and finally hauled 
to. and followed the other one back to Hampton Roads, 
and then sent over to find out what the reason was." 
"CapL'iin was taken .sick," was the answer. "Why did 
you come back?" 
Meanwhile the wihd had been freshening, and at dark 
the schooner was tearing along well over on her beam- 
ends. Supper we ate squatting on the cabin floor, close 
up against the lee bulk-head, holding cup in one hand 
and plate in the other; while the steward crawled about 
with his. basket on his arm, occasionally expressing his 
opinion of wind and schooners, and of that cranky schooner 
in particular. : It was blowing fresh when we returned 
to the deck ; the man at the wheel had about all he could 
do to keep her straight. - The wind was about abeam and 
we \s:ere going at steamer speed. I went forward along 
the weaUier side at the captain's warning, where the 
lookout was swinging froni one side to the other. 
"Sh:e is turning the turf to-night, all right." 
. "Yes. sir. But I don't like the- way she lays over. She 
is too tender, altog€thef,'" and the old sailor glanced aloft 
at. the staysails and topsails,' straining against the stars. 
"Old marf diigflit to^ get those rags oft her before they 
blow away-. - i- -' . ' , ; 
\ A rnoment lateVa wicked ptiff struck the schooner, and 
the main topsail ^split across' and began to slat to pieces. 
Then "clew" up fore and main topSails. Haul down fly- 
ing jib. Haid. down main, and niizzen topmast staysails. 
Tie a couple of reefs in the spanker. Let her come to (to 
the man at the ■ wheel). • "Come te, .s-ir.''- Spanker sheet, 
all hands, "Spanker sheet, sir!" Well .spanker sheet. 
"Hook on your rolling tayckles and run that reefing-plank 
aft ; stand by the halj-ards. Lower away. Two reefs 1 
Keep her away a coup'e of points." "AU right, sirl 
Knot away," sings out the mate from the reef-earing 
then hoist away again, and the ' panker is reefed. 
"I like to get that spanker reefed, then you can handle 
a vessel." said Captain Joe. "-I've known of a fine ves- 
sel that was thrown away by holding on to a whole 
spanker a tew hours too ^ong. Then the spanker boom 
took charge when they did try- to reef it, carried away 
the wheel, she broached to, got her decks swept and they 
had to leave her — ju t thrown away." 
Shortly after midnight a heavy squall struck the vessel : 
she laid down like a j^acht and then came to in spite of 
the helm. 
"Guess we might as well let go and tie things up"; so 
we do and put a peak-stop on the sails, furl the jibs and 
set an anchor watch. 
Morning showed a beautiful breeze and clear sky, and 
soon after daylight we got under way. As the Avind- 
lass breaks go itp and down, the men look around. There, 
is nothing in sight but a lightship a few miles to the 
east'ard. 
■ "Cross-rip," said one. Again we make sail. The men 
sweat as they pull ; the air is rank with the odor of moist 
tobacco, and the stinking smell of the forecastle, which 
still clings to their clothes. No wonder sailors are short- 
lived. Here, in pleasant weather, in a mild month, and 
smooth sea, a man is expected to do a good half-day's 
work before breakfast ; add to that the broken rest, wet 
and cold, and the terrors of the land. While at sea the 
limit for sleep at one time is three and one-half hours, 
-never more, often Jess (a mate with whom I once took 
■a trip in the great blizzard of '88 was on deck for a 
•period of 92 hours without sleep), and if there is a hell 
on earth it is being dragged from a warm, comparatively 
comfortable ■ bunk to the wet, cold, dark deck to battle 
with straining gear and banging canvas. Steam has_light- 
ened the labor somewhat in sailing vessels, but the cold 
and wet. and danger, and sleepless nights still take the life 
out of the sailor man. 
The remainder of our passage was uneventful. We had 
■ moderate fair winds, and about a week after leaving Bos- 
ton dronped anchor oft Newport News. Here I left the 
vessel with the feeling of regret which I think always 
•comes upon one at parting with the fabric whieh has 
borne him in safety to his destination. 
Two month.s later thfe Lucinda G. Pottei- sailed on the 
-same trip from Boston to Newport News to load coal 
. back. >aiother captain went in her this time, and the 
passenger staved ashore. Of the ship's company of the 
trip as tol4 ibOY^, only Bwce, t|ie stey/afd stayed by. 
Captain Joe was in Bath superintending the building of a 
four- master. 
A few days before Christmas, which fell on a Thurs- 
day, they sailed. Terrible weather prevailed, and in a N.W. 
gale they ran down to Monomoy and anchored some- 
where under the lee of the land. Between Cape Cod and 
Hatteras is a stretch of water which could tell some fear- 
ful tales. See the chart of Cape Cod showing the wrecks 
of thirty years. It looks like a chtstcr of flies oh a fish- 
hook. 1 have heard captains who have been going to sea 
all their lives say that right off Cape Cod was where 
they caught it the worst; and as we were pacing the deck 
off Highland Light one day, one brown, weather-beaten 
old captain, a fellow passenger of mine in the Baltimore 
steamer, with a look in his half-closed eyes as if he were 
peering to wind'ard in a N. W. gale, gave a grunt of con- 
tempt, directed at the captain in his warm steam-heated 
pilot hou.se and said: "Look at that; a warm parlor and 
always laying your course, plenty of company and good 
grub and good pay; that's a little different from the life 
I've led, I've seen weather off here that would make a 
man white-headed in a night. Awful! Awful!" And 
the wrinkled eyes and gray hairs seemed to confirm his 
words. , J. 
Through the Sound with its cross currents and fogs 
and shoals, most of the coastwise traffic takes its way, and 
iii winter it is man-killing work to handle a big schooner 
on this coast. Sailors proverbially want sea room, and let 
it blow, but on the coast, when every wind may make a 
lee shore, there is no rest for the coaster. 
The Potter on Thursday, the 23d, with a moderate 
S.W. wind, worked through the Sound and anchored m 
the Vineyard. Wednesday, with the wind N., gave them 
a chance to get out, and on Christmas morning, when the 
wind went to N.E., they were well along with every pros- 
pect of making a quick run. 
The Avind and sea rose rapidly, and Capt. Evans reefed 
her down and let her come to, to keep in under the beach. 
The temperature was falling rapidly, and before night 
the cold was intense, and the wind, coming m heavy 
squalls, laid the schooner, crank as she was, well over on 
her side. As darkness came on, she was running quarter- 
ing, with spanker furled, under double-reefed fore and 
mainsails, main jib and flying jib. The man at the wheel, 
despite the freezing air, was wann with his exertions to 
keep her straight. 
The captain and mate were together on deck and stood 
watchina the vessel iumping through the seas. 
"How^'she is traveling! Seems as if she was terrible 
tender — more so than usual." 
. "Well, it's blowing very fresh," said the mate, and 
with this sea she rolls down." 
"But she seems to act different. Sort of logy and slow 
in rolling to windward. Don't you think so?" 
"I don't know. Do you suppose there is any water m 
her? The pumps sucked yesterday morning in the Vine- 
vard." 
"Well, perhaps it's my imagination," and the captain 
went below to supper, hurried through the meal and re- 
turned to the deck. 
The man at the wheel spoke up : 
"She steer bad, sir. I no unstan'." 
The mate stepped to the wheel. "Let me take her." 
After a minute. "She does steer quer. I'll try the well." 
He came back with a Avhite face. "There's a lot of water 
in the hold, sir." The captain jumped. "Call all hands. 
I wqnder how long this has been coming in. It can't be 
-Cfiry long, as we didn't notice anything till just now. Ship 
The'brakes and start 'em pumping." 
The sailors went at the pumps, but at midnight had 
failed to reduce the water m the hold. It gained slowly, 
but still gained, and though wearied with the night's 
labor, morning showed them putting up a stiff fight 
against a merciless foe. Things were looking serious. 
They had been divided into watches of four and four, one 
watch resting and sleeping while the other pumped: but 
at such exhausting labor, a half-hour at first and then 
fifteen minutes sufficed to use them up, so that sleep was 
almost denied them. They cut down through the cabin 
floor and passed the water up in buckets— as well try to 
scoop it out with their hands. 
But morning brought a shift of wind, which caused 
their hearts to sink; out of the N.W., butt-end first, came 
the blizzard, and the schooner, helpless and unmanageable, 
drove to sea. They had long ago lowered the sails and 
given all their attention to the pumps, and Friday and Sat- 
urday, the two days following Christmas, 1890, were for 
the e'ight men in that waterlogged craft days of desperate 
unequal struggle with grim death. In New York city, 
forty miles away, bells Avere ringing and Christmas festiv- 
ities' Avere in full swing. Ont in the bay, within a fcAV 
hours' steaming of a swift tug, men of the coast were 
fighting for their lives— and lost. Finally the poor fel- 
lows gave it up. "We can't pump no rnore, capen," said 
Chris, the mate. "We are all used up." 
Wallenberger. a SAvede of immense size and strength, 
lifted his hand.s, SAVollen and bleeding and half-frozen. 
Lie had done the work of two men, and his vast powers 
had been drawn upon to the verge of collapse. 
"We tired, cap'n. No use de pump." 
The men spoke and declared they could not lift another 
T)uiuid, and knocked off at the pumps and stood around 
waiting for the seas to come aboard. Nobody knew where 
they \vere. and nobody cared. No pen can write the true 
'^tory of that three-d,ays' drift. The little told here was 
gathered from the disjointed, half-crazed remembrance 
of a Swedish sailor, whose language at best Avas difficult 
to comprehend. , „ , . , r 
Sunday morning the leak had gamed so last that the 
schooner filled and capsized. There Avas left in some one 
■strength enough to crawl along and cut the lanyards of 
the Aveather ri'gging, and she finally rolled her masts out 
and the hull righted. As ihe masts Avent, the spanker 
boom swept the after house clear ot the skylight and 
caboose, smashed the wheel, monkey rail, boat and davits, 
took two of the men with it in its course, and lay under 
the counter grinding against the side. Somewhere in the 
tangle of spars and rigging to leeward, two others had 
met their fate and one was found ni the hold after the 
Acssel had been towed in and pumped out. The three 
who remained clung to the Avreck of the skylight and 
Avaited for the end. One of the three of less endurance 
tlmn the others, died during the day. But Wallenberger 
and the captain could not lift the frozen body and left it 
wher? it lay. Artother nigl^t shut down and hope fled, 
There was about one chance in a thousand of that low- 
lying hulk being seen or of their cries being heard, and to 
pass another night on the cabin top meant death. 
I Avell remember that bitter day. On shore the wind 
made the cold doubly felt ; but to the men on that water- 
logged Avreck, exhausted with three days' and nights of 
horror, Avorn Avith lack of food, sleep and shelter, and 
freezing in the winter's blast — and all this right at our 
doors ! 
But the captain and Wallenberger kept a sharp lookout, 
and when about 9 o'clock a vessel's lights were seen, they 
raised a feeble cry and were heard. They were then 
about fifty miles east of Five Fathom Bank Lightship, 
and PrOA-idence sent the schooner D. A. LaAvson, Capt. 
Smith, from Savannah to Philadelphia, just in time. Capt. 
Smith loAvered, the boat's creAV had a tough pull of an 
hour in a rough sea, and found Avhat was left of the 
Lucinda G. Potter. Tenderly the living two were taken 
aboard, but the Avarmth of the cabins proved too much 
for the poor frozen limbs, and the captain died soon after 
the rescue. Wallenberger's iron constitution pulled him 
through. Later tugs took the wreck into Philadelphia. 
She Avas sold, rebuilt and under another name sails the 
sea to-day. 
But the men of the coast come and go. The age of 
adA'enture and daring has not gone by. You might think 
so to Avalk along the street and see men in offices doing 
woman's work; but danger and heroism are there, just 
off the coast, Avithin sight of the glare of the lights of 
NcAV York and Boston. Take a second look at that 
coaster folloAving the tug doAvn the harbor some frosty 
moming, Avith the men jumping around decks, making 
sail. She may never come back. You don't hear much of 
adventure and strange experiences in distant seas, for the 
plodding tramps haA^e eliminated the romance you used to 
associate Avith snoAvy decks and a maze of sails and rig- 
ging. But while Cape Cod and Hatteras are on the chart 
you can find the same thing right here at home. And T, 
for one, uncover to the men who handle our coastAvise 
sailing fleet, to the men Avho broil and freeze and know 
long sleepless nights of toil and vigil, and terrible lee 
shores and fog and snow and collision — to the men of the 
coast. - 
The South Bay Scooter. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In the folloAving description of the "South Bay scooter," 
I trust I AviU convey to many of my fellow sportsmen the 
information that thej' have sought ever since the scooter 
has been brought into general notice by now and then & 
note of its many advantages as a valuable acquisition to 
every true sportsman's outfit, by every sporting paper that 
could secure an inkling of its uses. 
AWAITING INSTRUCTIONS. 
As no thoroughly detailed account of its general lines, 
dimensions, uses, etc., has yet appeared to my knowledge, 
I noAv take pleasure in giving such to the readers of 
3'our A'alued publication. 
The South Bay scooter is a boat designed especially for 
Avinter use. Its length is usually about 14ft., and beam 
amidships about 4ft. ; depth of hold, I2in. The boat is of 
the "Avhaleback" type, being, if anything flattest on the 
under side. The bottom is fitted with tAVO runners, brass 
shod, about gft. long, placed parallel about 2oin. apart, 
total depth of Avood and shoe about 2in. An open hatch- 
way or cockpit is cut in the deck about 6ft. long by 2ft, 
wide, narroAver at either end. The boat's full equipment 
consists of a mainsail and jib, a pair of 6ft. oars, one 
long pike pole and one short one, also a roAving seat. The 
deck outlines are not unlike any Avater boat, except that 
the stern narroAvs up to either a A'ery sharp round or 
sometimes to a point like the bow. 
READY.' 
By the above description you can see at once that the 
bo^t corobiws a craft suitable both for ice and water sai^- 
