36 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 14, 1905. 
Around Cape Cod in Escape, 
BY JAMES D. SPARKMAN. 
TuEsnA.Y,^After the finish of the New York Athletic 
Club race from New Rochelle to Block Island, I 
transferred my dunnage from Saladin, on which I had 
shipped as mate, to the 30ft. yawl Escape, having 
promised her owner, who had planned to spend the 
summer on the coast of Maine, but who was recalled 
to town for a few days, to take her around the Cape. 
Escape was designed by her present owner, Mr. George 
Matthews, and was built in 1896 in front of his residence 
at 73d street and East River. Her principal dimensions 
are 39ft. 6in. over all, 29ft. waterline, loft. beam, and 6ft. 
Sin. draft. _ ' 
A stone retaining wall topped with an iron fence and 
the swift current of the river made it impossible to use 
launching ways, but this difficulty was easily overcome. 
A v/recker's derrick was moored alongside the wall, slings 
were rigged under the boat, tackles hooked on, and she 
was lifted bodily over the fence, swung across the deck 
of the scow, and lowered into the water on the other side. 
-The boat was intended primarily as a cruiser, and noth- 
ing_ has been sacrificed in the way of accommodations, 
wl-iich are not only roomy, but very comfortable, with full 
head room under a narrow house or skylight. 
Her racing record has been quite remarkable, as she has 
held her own against practically all the fast yawls built 
since 1896. 
A friend, Mr. P. L. Howard, who had agreed to join 
me at Block Island, arrived on the boat from Greenport 
at about noon. Main and mizzen had been hoisted, jib 
set up in stops, and as soon as he got on board, we 
tripped the anchor and slipped through the inlet of 
' New Harbor, which, having now over i6ft. in the 
channel, is available for large vessels. The wind had 
been S. by E. all the morning, but by the time that 
we were clear of the island, it had backed to E. and 
began to freshen. The glass had been gradually falling 
and, as it looked nasty to seaward, we decided not to 
attempt to buck the flood tide which was just beginning 
to make, but kept off and ran over to Newport. 
Escape at start of N. Y. Athletic Club race — New Rochelle to 
Block Island, June 25, 1904. 
Saladin, which had left Block Island some hours ahead 
of us, had also given it up, so we anchored alongside 
and invited her owner, who was alone, to dine with 
us on board Escape. 
Wednesday. — About daybreak we were awakened by 
the noise of a vessel coming to anchor apparently right 
on top of us. It proved to be a Gloucester seiner, but 
we could barely make her out through the fog. The 
wind was S.E. and strong. About 9 o'clock the fog 
lifted a little, and we counted thirty seiners and sword 
fishermen, most of them having come in during the 
night. One particularly fine vessel caught our eye, and 
we resolved to look her over later in the day. 
I have always had a .great admiration for the Gloucester 
fishermen, and never lose an opportunity to "gam" with 
them ; so after lunch we put on slickers and rowed over to 
Priscilla Sm.ith — the schooner we had noticed in the morn- 
ing — and found a "game" in progress, in which we were 
invited to take a hand. In "deep-water" vessels sailors 
play what they call "Bluff." The stakes are usually 
promises to pay at the end of the voyage (which are 
seldom kept), or chips redeemable in plug tobacco from 
the ship's "slop chest." I played it religiously while 
at sea, and have been a poor poker player ever since. 
On the Gloucestermen, however, they play the real 
thing. When "number ones" are plenty and the mar- 
ket right, considerable money changes hands on a trip. 
The Smith was a new vessel of the Fredonia type 
which has been so successful. Since the launching of 
the Carrie Phillips, designed by the late Edward Burgess 
nearly twenty years ago, many of our prominent yacht 
designers have given the Gloucester fishermen the 
benefit of their skill and genius, and a finer fleet of 
vessels cannot be found in the "Seven Seas." 
Thursday. — Blowing harder than yesterday, but not 
so thick. About noon the schooner yacht Rusalka set 
doubled-reefed ' mainsail and staysail and got under 
way for New London, in order to be there in time for 
the boat races; but one look outside was enough for 
her, and she turned tail in a hurry and her party went 
to their destination by train. 
During the afternoon a big English yawl, under gaff 
trysail, staysail and spitfire jib came in from sea. She 
proved to be Saybarita which had been expected for 
§everal days. As soon as she came to anchor, we 
rowed over and went on board. Her skipper reported 
a fairly good passage, with the exception of the first few 
days out, when she broke her main boom, wrecking one of 
the skylights, otherwise doing little damage. He wanted 
to know all the latest racing news, and was much disap- 
pointed to learn that neither Ailsa nor Vigilant were 
in commission. Our friend on Saladin was getting un- 
easy at the long detention in port and his remarks about 
the "fog hole," as they call this part of the coast, were 
lurid. 
Friday. — The wind had hauled to S.W. during the 
night. Though there was still some fog we got under 
way about 9 o'clock with the fishing fleet, which also 
had not been lying in port from choice. Outside, the 
new wind against the heavy easterly roll had made a 
Saladin— Owned by R. VV. Rathborne. 
ragged sea, and there were some deep holes in the 
water between Brenton's Reef and Hen and Chickens 
Lightship, which we made out in the haze about half a 
mile to the N. Our course should have brought us much 
closer, and we surmised that our compass must be 
about ^ point out, due to the attraction of the 
acetylene gas generator in. one of the cockpit lockers. 
This had evidently not been noticed by her, owner, as 
he ran 2 or 3 miles out of his course in the Block 
Island race during the night, and had attributed it to 
bad steering. The tide was running strong against us 
through Quick's Hole; but we pinched through on one 
tack, and found it much thicker and the. wind heavier 
in the Sound. It was now blowing a regular "gray- 
back sou'wester," so we reached across for the Vine- 
yard side to save what we could in- the slack water 
under the shore, and also to get inside of Lucas Shoal. 
We anchored off the New York Y. C. Station No. 7 
at 3 o'clock, six hours from port to port. , Our pur- 
chases in Newport had been light, owing to the pluto- 
cratic prices charged for everything in the way of 
yacht supplies. We therefore sent our man over to 
Vineyard Haven to stock up, while we dined ashore 
with friends. 
Saturday Morning. — We were up early and found a 
hard wester blowing. Before starting, we turned in a 
Escape — From a photo by W. N. Bavier. 
single reef in the mizzen, two in the main, and hoisted 
No. 2 jib in yarns. The boat was swung inboard, se- 
curely lashed, and at 6:30 we were under way. Cross 
Rip was passed two hours later; tide against us. It 
was still so thick that objects were visible only a short 
distance, but by m9.king ^ point allowance for compass 
error, Hankerchief and Shovelful Light vessels were 
picked up close aboard. By 11 o'clock we had passed 
through the "slue," and gybing around Pollock Rip 
Lightship, changed our course for Chatham Bar buoy. 
The wind had been freshening all forenoon, and a 
sloop-rigged smack, which we had passed on the shoals, 
lowered away and turned in her last reef. Off Chatham 
a large barkentine inshore seemed to be in trouble, and 
we afterward learned that she had grounded on the 
shoals and her crew taken off by the life savers. A 
few miles further up the beach we passed a, blue-nose 
topsair schooner with' yards unslung and- some of her 
sails blown away (a dismasted schooner in tow, with 
the stumps of her masts sticking about 6ft.: above deck 
and some of the gear still hanging o^vier the side), and 
the Patriot of Gloucester bound west under four lowers. 
She fairly staggered in the puffs and heeled over until 
her sheer poles were awash. 
We tried to snap her, but the flying spray made it 
impossible, which we afterward regretted, as we learned 
from the Boston papers the following morning that 
she had run ashore that afternoon and pounded to 
pieces on Monomoy. It seems that she was bound for 
Chatham for bait, and, while beating through the "slue," 
missed stays and fetched up on the "heel the Cape." 
We carried the double-reefed mainsail until alareast off 
Nauset Three Lights, when it blew so hard that we 
had to lower away to save the sail. 
From there to Highland Light, we averaged 7 knots 
under jib and mizzen. A large fleet of coasters and 
fishermen was anchored under the lee of the bluffs. It 
might have been wiser for us to have stayed with the 
rest of the fleet, for as we came out from under the 
shelter of the land and felt the force of the heavier 
waves of the Atlantic, we realized that the little yawl 
had a hard tussle before her. We .had, however, lost 
so much time at Newport that we determined to push 
on and do the best we could. About 5 o'clock the 
wind, which had been hauling, came out "on end," 
making it a dead beat to Race Point. Finding the 
boat could make little or nothing to windward under 
jib and mizzen, we decided to set the doubled-reefed 
mainsail again and thrash her through it, the only al- 
ternative being to turn tail and retrace our course down 
the Cape. The full strength of the ebb was running, 
and as we neared Race Point, the sea became still 
heavier. Every few minutes the Escape jumped into 
it up to her mast, and the water, as it ran aft, would 
lift the dinghy, and down she'd come on deck with a 
bang as the water receded. After a dozen or so tacks, 
with the ugly water tower at Provincetown always in 
sight, we figured at about 8 o'clock, when darkness had 
set in and when we were 3 miles off shore, that we 
could make the point on the next tack and fetch past 
Woodend Light. While we were waiting for a chance' 
Blue Nose topsail schooner under lee of Cape Cod. 
to bring her round, a fierce puff and a heavy comber 
hit us at the same moment — over she went until the 
skylight was buried. Fortunately, the dinghy was on the 
v/eatherside. She hung for what seemed to be at least 
a minute with the wind literally blowing over her 
sails. All hands were up to their waists in water; but 
we worked her out of it, and, coming about on the 
starboard tack, cleared the Point and laid a course for 
Woodend Light. When we were free to look about us. 
we found that every thing portable, except ourselves, 
had been washed out of the cockpit, save only the 
compass and binnacle, which we picked up in five pieces. 
The gear, fortunately, was all new, and she came out 
of a rather trying situation without any damage, either 
to sail or rigging. The cabin, however, was a sight — 
glassware, crockery, bottles, clothes, etc., in a heap, 
and water over the cabin floor. It had leaked in 
through the cockpit lockers while hove over, and at the 
rate it poured in, wouldn't have taken long to sink her. 
The arrangement of these lockers was the only bad 
feature of an exceptionally fine boat, and, I think, her 
owner has profited by our experience and made them 
watertight. 
We dropped anchor off Provincetown about 9:30, 
'cold, tired and hungry; but we had kept our promise, 
and the boat was around the Cape. After changing 
our wet clothes for others almost as wet, supper was 
served on what was left of a fine outfit of hand-painted 
china. We bunked on wet cushions under wet blankets 
that night, but slept like logs until late next morning. 
Sunday. — It was beautifully clear, and we had planned 
to run over to Marblehead and leave the Escape there, 
as our time was about up; but things were in such a 
mess, that we decided to spend the day drying out and 
getting things presentable for her owner. The rigging 
had slacked up, and the new suit of Ratsey sails, reefed 
for the first time, needed attention. This was the only 
part of the yacht's equipment which could not be 
easily replaced, but they came out all right and helped 
win races later in the season. 
According to the Boston papers, the signal station at 
Highland Light reported the velocity of the wind 32 
miles an hour at 6 o'clock, but later in the evening it 
blew much harder, and for a while certainly exceeded 
40 miles. 
