24 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July i, 1911. 
Pandora’s Long Voyage. 
A Spartan navigator who traces his ancestry 
back many years before Columbus set sail for 
this land arrived in port on one of the queerest 
yawls that ever started circumnavigating the 
seven or more seas just for the sport of sea¬ 
going on Thursday, June 22, and anchored off 
Bay Ridge. He is a real Spartan of the classi¬ 
cal gray-eyed type and wears his shaggy auburn 
hair long.’ The little ship, a mere 37-footer, box¬ 
like in some respects and square-sterned as a 
North River scow, is named for the Greek lady 
who played the same part in the mythology of 
Sparta as even in the theology of Palestine. The 
navigator is Peter Arapakis, and he had the 
privi ege of naming the ship Pandora. He 
might have named her Hope, said to be the 
omy thing in the box that Pandora was curious 
about, but he preferred to have her all Greek, 
although her owner, also a navigator, is an Eng¬ 
lishman, Captain George Blyth. 
Captain George is not classical, and realizing 
when he took the Spartan skipper into partner¬ 
ship in Perth, West Australia, more than thir¬ 
teen months ago, that he would have to have an 
assistant to help in the literary end of world 
circling, he gave the Spartan the privilege of 
christening the yawl. 
The two skippers bring the latest news from 
Eas.er Island and Pitcairn Is and which Captain 
George says has been out of touch with affairs 
of the world ever since just before the Boer war. 
At least, that is what he says Pitcairn islanders, 
who are sometimes given to exaggeration, told 
him. 
The Greek skipper said he noted the titantic 
stone images on Easter Island and remarked 
that they were nothing like as fine as the colos¬ 
sal statuary uncovered in Sparta. He admitted 
that they were big and said he had never heard 
anybody give an explanation of their origin. 
Easter Island was not getting along very well; 
the popu ation was decreasing and the navigators 
said they thought there could be hardly more 
than fifty people there. They swapped canned 
goods for the fine, ripe fruit of the folks of 
Pitcairn, descendants of the mutineers of the 
ship Bounty and the natives. Captain George 
said the Pitcairners dec ared that they had not 
even heard of the death of King Edward and 
that if ever folks needed a wireless system, it 
was those lonesome fellows on that and Easter 
Island. 
Pandora is much unlike any yawl that ever 
has been seen hereabout. Her jigger mast is 
set very close to her taffrail and the jigger boom 
is worked from a sort of outrigger that projects 
from the stern of the little ship. She is 37 feet 
9 inches long, 14 feet 2 inches beam and draws 
6 feet aft and 4 feet forward. For so stout 
and bluff-bowed a boat she makes excellent time. 
Altogether since she sailed from West Australia 
in May, 1910, she has covered 22,000 miles and 
her average per day has been about 120 miles. 
The highest run was 170 miles. From Perth 
she sailed to Melbourne, to Sydney, to Auck¬ 
land, to Pitcairn, a run of 2,750 miles, to Eastern 
Island, to the Falkland Is'ands, to St. Helena, 
to Ascension Island, whence she sailed on May 
7 for this port, covering the last long lap of 
4,850 miles in forty-six days. 
Pandora almost dumped out the last vestige 
of hope in'a racketing she got off the Horn. 
The two navigators were in the cabin, which 
looks not uni ke that of a small houseboat, let¬ 
ting the ship steer herself (she has a self-steer¬ 
ing attachment) when an immense sea boarded 
her. In an instant the stout yawl rolled over 
on her starboard side and kept right on rolling. 
The two skippers found themselves lying on the 
ceiling of the cabin and felt mighty gad that 
the same ceding was oroperly calked and built 
for strain. They heard the mast give away and 
felt the sh : p robing, still to starboard, back to 
her original and more comfortable position. The 
Spartan savs he believes he must have been 
nearly a quarter of a minute upside downward. 
They came out on deck when she had done her 
.remarkable stunt and found that they had lost 
mainmast and boom, jivgermast and that the main 
boom had been smashed. They cut away the 
wreckage and lay to in the turmoil as best they 
coma witn a sea ancnor made of spars iasned 
togetner. A snitt 01 wind at daytignt enaPted 
tnem to matce repairs enough to get under way. 
iney spoke me lNorwegian wnater 337 and 
she toweu tne i andora into Hope Haruor 111 
itie Paikianus, wile re site ntted out again, l'ne 
Jrandora was knocked auout 111 otner rnriy b.ows, 
irequently tunning under bare poits, but tins was 
ner worst experience. 
1 he skippers nave cameras and have taken 
pictures ot their ship 111 every haruor they nave 
visited. When tney leave tins port tney will 
steer a course for London, thence to tne ivled.- 
terranean, where the spartan win visit tne 
scenes ot Ins hrst successes on the main, one 
ot which was covering 1,500 nines in a io-toot 
sioop wnen he was a boy of sixteen. 
Leaving the Mediterranean, Pandora will pro¬ 
ceed to Australia by way ot the Suez Canal. 
(Japtain Arapakis will write a narrative of his 
trip m Englisn, which he speaks with scarcely 
a suggestion of an accent, and like a man who 
nas read much. He says that he and Captain 
George may put the ship on exhibition here to 
help defray tne expenses of the voyage. 
The'Roaring Bessie. 
Roaring Bessie, owned by Martin C. Erisman, 
is attracting much attention at Marblehead, where 
she recently arrived from her builder's yard, 
one is a copy of the Block Island boats which 
in days gone by were the only means of transit 
between that island and the mainland. The 
weather conditions summer and winter required 
an abie boat and one easy to handle. Since the 
advent of steamers and now of motorboats, the 
vessels of this type have disappeared. The last 
one, Lena M., was taken to Boston last summer 
and Roaring Bessie is a copy of that boat. She 
was built by Lawley. 
Roaring Bessie, according to modern stand¬ 
ards, is, other than that she is a yacht and pro¬ 
pelled by sails, the antithesis of present day 
boats under the racing rule now in force. Yet 
her measurement under the rating rule is con¬ 
siderably less than other boats of her length and 
sail area. 
Her appearance is most striking. The sheer 
is bold and. the bow very' powerful, the stern 
sharp. The two tall spars are unsupported by 
any standing rigging as in other vessels, e’as- 
ticity of the whole in a sea being the effect 
sought. 
The boat is 33 feet long on deck, 29 feet 
waterline, 12 feet beam and draws five feet of 
water. Forward under a flush deck there is a 
comfortable cuddy for two men, aft a galley and 
the ballast space containing four tons of stone 
ballast. The deck is flush, with the exception of 
a comfortable cockpit. The rig is peculiar to 
the Block Island type and is very simple and 
easy to handle with a minimum of gear. She 
has been built for her owner, who is a naval 
architect, to cruise and live on this summer. 
There is no doubt that with a fair turn of 
speed Roaring Bessie will be a surprise to many 
yachtsmen, for she is a comfortable vessel and 
responds to a great diversity of conditions. She 
does not resemble the modern yacht. She has 
a beauty of the old vessels of days gone by, but 
she is graceful and has ail the earmarks of sea¬ 
going ability. 
Cottage Park Y. C. 
Moslem II. was the winner in a race for the 
18-foot c’ass of the Cottage Park Y. C. last 
Saturday. The yacht sailed in a fresh easterly 
wind. The times: Moslem II., 1.46.35; Aurora, 
1.47.41; Kittiwake, 147.55; Bonitwo, 1.48.08. 
A COLD MEETING. 
Maud—I wasn’t aware you knew Mr. Jones. 
Where did you meet him? 
Kate—Oh, I fe’l in with him while skating.— 
Boston Transcript. 
Motor Boating Fixtures. 
JULY. 
1. New York Motor Boat Club, Albany race. 
1. Stone Harbor Y. C. 
1. National Y. C., Cape May. 
2. Pacific Inti. P. B. A., start from Vancouver, 235 miles. 
4-6. Mississippi Valley P. B. A., Dubuque. 
4. City Island Y. C. 
4. Farragut Sportsmen’s Association, Camden. 
4. New pngland Mfg. Association, City Point, Boston. 
8. Yachtsmen’s Club, ocean race. 
8. New York Motor Boat Club. 
8. Fall River Y. C. 
13. Fall River Y. C. 
14. Marblehead race. Motor B. C., Huntington. 
15. Seaside Y. C., Atlantic City. 
15. Camden M. B. C., Reedy Island race. 
16-17. Philadelphia Yacht Club. 
18-20. Interlake Association, Put-in-Bay. 
22. Halifax Race. National Y. C. 
27. Fall River Y. C. 
29. Ventnor Y. C., Atlantic City. 
Alpha a Handsome Boat. 
Vice-Commodore Charles F. Markham’s new 
56-foot high-speed power cruiser was launched 
last week in the presence of a gathering of 
friends of the owner at the Narragansett Bay 
Y. C. yards, Sabin Point, where she has been 
in process of construction since last April. 
The new boat is one of the handsomest of 
her kind on Narragansett Bay and will, it is ex¬ 
pected, be able to travel eighteen miles an hour 
at least with the power furnished by a 100 horse¬ 
power engine designed by Mr. Markham. 
The rakish lines of the new boat show up 
more pronouncedly with her afloat than they did 
in the construction shed. With her 56 feet over¬ 
all length she.has only a 9 foot 6 inch beam 
and a draft of 3 feet. The interior arrangements 
are luxurious to a degree. A galley is located 
extreme forward. Behind this there is a guest 
sabin, which can also be used as a dining saloon. 
The engine room is located under the bridge. 
Aft of this comes the main saloon which is up- 
ho stered in dark red and finished in panel ma¬ 
hogany. The panel work is one of the features 
of " the boat. In addition to plenty of room on 
the bridge, the craft provides a comfortable 
cockpit for wicker chairs. Electric lights will 
be furnished by a 7 horsepower Brown engine 
which will run a dynamo. 
Alpha, as she is called, was tried on Saturday 
on a trip to the Bristol races. 
The Robert E. Lee’s Pilot Wheel. 
The pilot wheel which guided the steamboat 
Robert E. Lee in the famous race with the 
steamer Natchez in 1870, when the Lee made 
the record on the Mississippi between New Or¬ 
leans and St. Louis, is now being used on the 
steamer Nashville, plying the Cumberland, ac¬ 
cording to the St. Louis Republic. 
The old nautical relic was recovered from the 
City of Providence, to which steamer it had been 
removed from the Lee. The wheel is oyer ten 
feet in diameter, more than thirty-two in cir¬ 
cumference and is made of walnut and cherry. 
It is of the double circle type of wheel, with two 
circles of staves around the spokes, which are 
inlaid with two rows of highly polished bass¬ 
wood. The wheel is in an excellent state of 
preservation and apparently is as sound as when 
it guided the Robert E. Lee to victory in the 
famous old steamboat days on the Mississippi. 
The record run was made with Capt. Cannon 
in command of the Lee, and as the story goes, 
“a negro on the safety valve.” 
National Y. C. 
The motorboat race of the National Y. C. on 
Gravesend Bay was marred by accidents last 
Saturday. Three boats reported to the regatta 
committee. Just after the start Sim Two and 
Souis Noi both broke down. ' E F. Lucken- 
back’s Empire, however, covered the course and 
won the prize. 
