224 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 19, 1903. 
boat. Cruises should be treated in as interesting and 
readable a way as possible, but should be practical and 
contain all possible information and data that would be 
of value to men going over the same route. A descrip- 
tion of the handling of the ship in all weathers will be 
regarded very favorably in making awards, and it is 
suggested to writers that an accurate account be ^cept 
of all incideKits happening while under way. 
4. Photographs of the boat and of the country passed 
through, not smaller than 4x5, should, if possible, ac- 
company each story, and they will be considered in 
making the awards, 
5. An outline chart of the trip drawn on white paper 
in black ink (no coloring pigment to be used) should 
also be sent in. 
6. Competitors should avoid the use of_ slang or in- 
correct nautical expressions in their stories, as it will 
count against them in awarding the prizes. 
7. The story should contain about seven thousand 
words, written on one side of the paper only, and must 
be received at the office of the Forest and Strearn Pub- 
lishing Company, 346 Broadway, New York Chy, on 
or before Nov. 15. 1903- 
The Cruise of a Catboat. 
BY C. E. NOXON. 
To A person inexperienced in the art of sailing, and 
ignorant of the caprices ,of wind and wave, there is a 
vast deal of schooling to be gained by a week or two of 
small boat cruising, and moreover when such a cruise is 
taken in a season like that of last year — a year in which 
there were but two months of summer, March and No- 
vember—it is more than probable that the novice will 
have an experience at once lasting and impressionable. 
At first we were not agreed as to the best way to 
spend our vacation. Carl was in for a hunting and fish- 
ing trip; I rather inclined to the idea of canoeing around 
the peaceful solitudes of the Kawartha lakes in Canada, 
while Beck stolidly held out for yachting. He could get 
a boat, he said, and a first-rate skipper, and all we would 
have to do would be to lie around on deck and smoke, 
read and sleep. And then he launched oitt into a rap- 
turous burst of eloquence over the prospects and possi- 
bilities of a cruise. He spoke of the delightful sensation 
hughey's table d'boat. 
of skimming lightly over the waves, with the exhilarat- 
ing breezes fanning our ruddy cheeks; tjfie ever-changing 
vistas passing like a panorama; putting m here and there 
at quaint and lovely little harbors, making new friends 
and talking nautical "shop," and perchance a lively and 
exciting brush with some ever-eager opponent. And then 
Ihe charm, the grandeur of the nights; with the boat 
dancing merrily on the deep, the musical lapping of the 
water at the how, the cool evening zephyrs lulling us 
into an ecstasy of repose, and the great yellow moon and 
m.yriads of sparkling constellations shining like a bene- 
diction on the scene. 
That was Beck's idea of yachting. He is vviser now. 
He knows that when it comes to cruising there is a whole 
lot more fun in anticipation than in realization ; and he 
knows also that on an innocent-looking catboat, with 
only one sheet and a couple of halliards— simplicity itself 
—there is more work and hustle than the average land- 
lubber wots of. It has furthermore been borne in on hnn 
that a yacht prancing around at her anchorage in the 
harbor is not the same docile craft, once out where she 
can cut loose and have her own sweet way. Carl and 
I know all this now as well as Beck. But we didn't be- 
fore, and so, in a moment of weakness, we yielded to the 
alluring temptations of a yachting cruise, and put m two 
strenuous weeks of battling with wind and weather and 
the unfathomable mysteries of a catboat. 
And yet we cherish no very great anmiosity toward 
yachting. We had a lively lesson in the school of ex- 
perience, and now, in the afterglow of retrospection, 
memory loves to wander back over the scenes of disorder 
and deHa;ht; to plunge madly about in stress of storm and 
glide gently by on the placid depths; to hear agam the 
thunder's roll and gaze with anxious eyes upon the light- 
ning's angry flash. ' , tt 1 
It was a beautiful morning m August when Hughey, 
the cook, finished stowing away the last box of provi- 
sions. Skipper Charlie Eastwood yelled "All aboard, and 
the big 30-foot catboat, Kittie, of the Rochester Yacht 
Club, filled away for Sodus Bay. It is unnecessary to 
dwell on the harrowing events of the first day out. It 
seemed as though the elements had been in hiding some- 
where outside the Charlotte light waiting to get a good 
v.hack at us, for we had hardly squared away when the 
wind increased, the sky became overcast and old On- 
tario looked like two parallel walls of water. It has been 
said by some irresponsible person that waves never at- 
tain a height of more than fifty feet, but I can summon 
witnesses to prove tliat the horizon was directly over our 
heads all the way to Sodus. The dinghy, which we were 
towing, after several unsuccessful attempts to board us, 
finally parted company with us, and subsequent events 
proved that that ^i»ghy vyas a wis? little |)OSt:- Hovy we 
ever made Sodus will forever remain a mystery, at least 
so far as I am concerned, for I was a cabin passenger 
during the last half of the trip, nursing a well developed 
grievance against yachts in general and catboats in par- 
ticular. That night, however, after eating one of 
Hughey's table d'boat dinners and puffing peacefully at 
what Ouida calls a "pocket philosopher," I began to take 
a more cheerful view of the situation, and being assured 
by the wise old skipper that such weather couldn't last, 
I decided to continue on to the next port. But the 
weather did last, and all the next day a furious gale swept 
down the lake, lashing the_ water into tremendous seas, 
loward evening, however, it showed signs of dying out, 
and the following morning we drifted slowly out into the 
lake almost in a dead calm. We fell in with the Kec 
Lox, also of the Rochester Yacht Club, and challenged 
them to a drifting match. They were going around the 
sackett's harbor. 
same course that we had marked out, and megaphoned us 
that they would stay with us all the way. But after vve 
had put a mile of nice open water between the Kittie 
and their spick-and-span sloop yacht, they evidently 
changed their minds about "staying with us," for we saw 
them putting into North Fair Haven along in the after- 
noon, while we continued on. It was a slow day and no- 
body was sorry when, just as the sun was dipping behind 
the western horizon, Ave sailed into Oswego harbor under 
the white ash breeze of Charlie's sweep. Here we met 
a horde of yachtsmen whose apparent sole ambition in 
life is to see that visiting yachtsmen are royally entertained. 
It is not within the province of this article to state what 
they did to us, but when the reader understands that on 
the nights of the two succeeding days, after making un- 
sucessful attempts to flee the city, we crawled back under 
the cover of darkness and moored our boat in the Stygian 
shadows of lumber piles, he will realize that we had no 
particular yearning for continuous performances of 
Oswegonian hospitality. If the god Bacchus were ever 
to come and make his habitation among the children of 
men, he would find his natural element among Oswego 
yachtsmen. 
It was not until Saturday morning that we finally got 
away from the Starch City, and with fresh westerly wind 
almost astern, we shaped our course for a long run 
across Mexico Bay, one of the most treacherous spots on 
the lake. This bay is marked by a long cove, the south- 
eastern end of Lake Ontario, and with a brisk wind driv- 
ing down the lake, combined with a suction-like draft 
from off-shore, we were compelled time and again to tack 
out into the open to save ourselves from being drawn 
into the breakers. Many rotting hulks line the shore, 
eloquent testimony of the treachery of this bay, and, as 
Ave learned afterwards, sailors avoid it as they would a 
plague. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when 
prinyer's cove, bay of QtriNTE. 
we cleared the bay and were standing off Stony Point Light 
in a dead calm. Sackett's Harbor, our objective point, 
lay about ten miles further down the lake. The pros- 
pects for a dreary night's sail were excellent. There was 
not enough air stirring to give us steerage Avay. The 
tedium of the run across Mexico Bay had put everybody 
in anything but good humor, and the skipper particularly 
was a bundle of irascibility. Suddenly he jumped to his 
feet. 
"Stand by !" he yelled, "and help^me reef her. There s 
something ugly cookin' over there." 
And following his outstretched hand Ave saAv there Avas 
"something," indeed. Over back of Galloup Island great 
black, ominous looking clouds were looming up and com- 
ing our way at a great rate. As I couldn't tie a reef 
knot any more than I could fly, I was ordered to take the 
tiller and "hold her off the Avind" This was the other 
horn of my dilemma, but I courageously grabbed it and 
waited for the oncoming hurricane. I must have shoved 
the fool tiller the wrong way, for when that storm hit us 
the Kittie spun around like a top, and before I had a 
chance to mend matters, Charlie Avas on me like a flash, 
and like another flash I was in the cabin with Hughey. 
That storm must have been born somewhere up in the 
Baffin P^y regipj:!, fojr f-here were hail, snow, ram, wmd. 
and several other elements mixed up in it, and the "Way 
that catboat ironed down the waves was a caution. 
About haif-way to Sackett's the storm abandoned Us, 
leaving as a memento of the occasion a temperature of 
about 25 degrees. Of course Beck and Carl Avere oiit iti 
all of it. An armless wonder Can navigate a catboat — 
anybody knows that— but they had become possessed of 
the idea that it required everybody on board to sail the 
Kittie, and as a consequence they would fuss around on 
deck and become all tangled up with the halliards, and 
swear, and get sworn at, and get wet, and dislocate a 
joint or two, and then, after it was all over, jump on me 
because I wasn't outside helping to make a confusion 
worse confounded. So that night while they heaped 
maledictions on my head, I quietly curled up in a blanket 
and went to sleep. 
Sackett's Harbor is a quiet little town admirably lo- 
cated on an eastern arm of the lake and possesses one of 
the most charming coves imaginable. It was here that 
the American and British clashed in a sea fight in 1812, 
and the old toAvn still carries the scars of that battle, 
the big town hall, built of stone, being perforated in a 
dozen places. _ It is_ here also^ that the Madison Barracks 
are situated, in Avhich is stationed the "Fighting Ninth," 
the regiment that covered itself with glory in China and 
the Philippines. ^ Soldiers literally throng the streets, 
their long, swinging gait demonstrating the regimen of 
army training, their ruddy complexions testifying to 
arduous service under tropical skies. 
We spent Sunday here, and on the following morning, 
with a fair wind abeam, we headed for Cape Vincent, 
intending to spend the night in the gatCAvay of the 
Thousand Islands. But we had hardly gone three miles 
when another exasperating calm settled down and left 
us to fiddle around in the doldrums the rest of the day. 
We whistled for wind, prayed for it, and then fell to 
cursing it, but it cameth not, and along toward sundown 
the trusty sweep was called into play, and we crept slowly 
back to Sackett's Harbor. The next morning ushered in 
a cold, drizzling rain that put a damper on everybody's 
spirits, but we ordered Skipper Charlie to make ready 
and get somewhere if we froze to death in the attempt. 
We had just swung clear of the dock and Avere spreading 
sail when Hughey, the bright boy, made the interesting 
KITTIE IN PRINAiTiR^S COVE. 
discovery that there was no bread on board. This bit of 
intelligence put us all in a happy frame of mind; espe- 
cially Charlie, to Avhom the task of making landing and 
getting under Avay Avas a matter of life and death. It is 
not necessary to repeat here the dialogue that ensued be- 
tween him and Hughey over the bread question; suffice 
to say that the latter was ordered out after that important 
staple. He returned in about an hour, said there was a_ 
bread fam.ine in the town, and that he had had to reach 
out into the country for it, backing up his statement by 
producing two loaves of such prodigious size (such as 
only a farmer's Avife can bake) that they had to be cut in 
two to get them into the cabin. 
Then we made another start, the sun came out, and, 
catching a lively breeze on our quarter, we were soon 
abreast of Peninsula Point, and with a sHght shift of 
position and a started sheet the Kittie began to lay down 
to her work with a vengeance. The Cape Vincent light 
shimmering Avhite in the glare of the noonday sun soon 
appeared away to the east, the Duck Islands loomed up 
on our port rail, while a smoky haze in the northeast told 
that we were rapidly picking up Kingston. In another 
hour or so we had Cape Vincent put down, the Ducks 
were mere specks on the water, and away to_ the north, 
almost directly off the horn, a shaft of white bespoke 
the Point Pleasant light at the entrance to the B.ay of 
Quinte. 
And then the wind died away. 
It was evening before Ave got another breeze, and about 
ten o'clock we Avere standing off Prinyer's Cove in the 
Bay of Quinte, not knowing whether to put in there or 
anchor outside for the night. Charlie said we had better 
anchor, as he Avas afraid a sandbar migh ground us. 
Acordingly he made haste to heave the anchor, and sent 
me below to loosen the anchor line. I uncoiled all T 
could find in the dark, and Charlie let her go. About six- 
teen feet must have gone over the side, but somehow it 
did not strike Charlie as being quite right. 
"Is that all the blanked line there is?" he asked. 
"Sure," I replied, coming on deck. 
Then he consulted his chart. It showed twenty 
fathoms. Then he swore. Then he went below himself. 
Then he swore some more. Hughey, who was sleeping, 
awoke just in time to dodge frying-pans, blankets, pil- 
lows, dress suit cases and other miscellaneous articles 
which had been sweetly reposing on about three hundrjd 
feet of anchor line. In the meantime the boat, under 
CarFs skilful guidance, had been steadily drifting toward 
the cove, and v/hen Charlie got through swearing we were 
inside and didn't need the anchor. We bumped up along- 
side a big excursion steamer in the darkness which wns 
moored to an apology for a wharf, and, being tired out, 
we put a stern line over the steamer's deck railing and a 
bow line over her flag-pole and retired to pea^jeCul 
4reanis. ' • ' ■ • 
