Feb. 12 , 1910 .] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Lay of a Modern Mariner. 
The new government charts have now dis¬ 
carded the old compass points and substituted 
figures for the 360 degrees of the circle. In¬ 
stead of east there is now 90, south east is 135, 
south 180 and so on. Quartermasters will no 
more be told to steer east southeast, but in¬ 
stead the course given is inj^.or in place of 
northwest will be 315- A writer in the Shipping 
Illustrated has the following: 
“ ’Twas six bells in the morning watch, our 
ship was heading 30, dark clouds came up from 
23, the sea grew rough and dirty; our course 
was changed to 35, then 30 and a quarter; per¬ 
haps you understand these terms—I don’t know 
as you orter. ‘How is her head?’ the skipper 
bawled. ‘She’s heading 32.’ ‘Keep 4 points off 
to 28 and then I think she’ll do.’ ‘Avast here. 
Capt!’ the helmsman cried. ‘I’m clever and 
I’m able, but I’m blamed if I can steer your 
ship by the multiplication table.’ The skipper 
pored long o’er his charts and tried to make his 
course—‘20 by 10 and then add 1 makes 31, of 
course, and then subtracting 3 or 4 I think I’ll 
have it right.’ Oh, how the wind blew 23 that 
dog-goned stormy night! 
“But while the Cap was adding up, subtract¬ 
ing. multiplying, the Sarah Clark plunged on a 
reef her course had been defying; and. mate of 
all the souls aboard I’m the only one alive. 
This hapened near the Friendship Isles—up 10 
and 3 and 5.” 
Bergen Beach Y. C. 
The members of the Bergen Beach Y. C., at 
their annual meeting recently, elected these 
officers: Commodore, Edgar H. Watson; Vice- 
Commodore, J. H. Hildebrand; Rear-Commo¬ 
dore, Charles H. Kent; Treasurer, George D. 
Baker, Recording Secretary, Clifford H. Eagle; 
Financial Secretary, C. C. Hough; Measurer, 
Charles H. Greene; Director for three years, 
E. S. Child; for one year, E. E. Wells and D. 
Reardon. 
The members are having a class of 14-footers 
built for racing this year, and they will also take 
part in the open races on Jamaica Bay, and par¬ 
ticularly in the ocean handicap races of the 
Canarsie Y. C. 
Commodore Watson is having a cruising 
power boat built at the shops of Reardon at 
Sand Bay, Canarsie, which will be 41 feet long, 
12 feet beam and be equipped with a 25-horse- 
pcwer motor. This boat will be of the trunk 
cabin type and have very good accommodations. 
Quincy Y. C. 
At the annual meeting of the Quincy Y. C. 
held last week these officers were elected: Com¬ 
modore, Ira M. Whittemore; Rear-Commodore, 
Frank F. Crane; Secretary, John O. Hall; 
Treasurer, George S. Morse; Measurer, Ralph 
E. Winslow; Executive Committee—Henry S. 
Crane, Eben W. Sheppard; Joseph L. Whiton, 
Jr., Harry E. Winslow; House Committee— 
F. W. Esterbrook, Edgar W. Emery, Thomas 
E. Furnald, W. S. Hibbard, William H. Hud¬ 
son, William S. Hardwick, George L. Tupper. 
The following appointments were announced: 
Fleet Captain, W. S. Hibbard; Fleet Surgeon, 
Dr. Fred E. Jones; Committee on Cup Chal¬ 
lenge, Joel F. Sheppard 2d; Delegate to the 
Yacht Racing Association, W. S. Hardwick; 
Delegate to the Inter-club Association, Joshua 
P. Holbrook; Chairman of Board of Judges, 
John O. Hall. The club decided to make all 
surviving charter members honorary members. 
New Rochelle Y. C. Dinner. 
The annual meeting and dinner of the New 
Rochelle Y. C. was held at the Hotel Man¬ 
hattan last Saturday evening. Among those 
present were: Mayor Colwell, of New 
Rochelle; Judge Mark M. Schlesinger; Com. 
Hazen L. Hoyt, Manhasset Bay Y. C.; Com. 
2 ( i •') 
Henry A. Bishop, Bridgeport Y. C.; Com. W. 
C. Towen, Brooklyn Y. C.; Com. R. H. Gil¬ 
lespie, Stamford Y. C.; Com. Harry A. Jackson, 
Jr., N. Y. A. C.; Com. W. S. Sullivan, Harlem 
Y. C.; Com. E. Doerffel, Morrisania Y. C.; 
Com. George F. Lewis, Huguenot Y. C. 
The regular ticket as presented by the Nomi¬ 
nating Committee was elected, and the flag 
officials for the ensuing season are: Commo¬ 
dore, M. W. Houck; Vice-Commodore, E. C. 
Myrick; Rear-Commodore, Stephen C. Hunter. 
Commodore Houck has just purchased the 
yacht Dixie as his flagship. 
American Power Boat Association. 
The annual meeting of the American Power 
Boat Association will be held on February 24. 
The following nominations have been made: 
President, H. T. Koerner, Motor B. C. of 
Brooklyn; Secretary, Morris M. Whitaker, 
Crescent A. C., of Watertown; Treasurer, J. 
Norris Oliphant. Thousand Island Y. C.; Meas¬ 
urer, Henry J. Gielow, Atlantic Y. C. 
Topgallant Forecastle and Poop. 
Why do most vessels have a topgallant fore¬ 
castle and a poop? Bill Bowline, who hasQrom 
time to time enlightened me on maritime history 
and the development of marine architecture, 
tells me that topgallant forecastle and poop are 
survivals of the old galley days, those piping 
times when the jolly tars of Tyre carried mate¬ 
rial from Phoenica to King Solomon for the 
building of Jerusalem’s famous temple. . Bill 
says he understands that these hardy manners 
pulled their vessels through a canal over the 
isthmus traversed by the Suez to-day, and, in¬ 
deed, went both to China and to the shores of 
England on their craft. These ships, or gal¬ 
leys, were the models for Greece, Rome, Ven¬ 
ice, Spain, Portugal, and were little improved 
on till the Dutch and English began to be the 
leading maritime powers. Their stems were 
high for the accommodation of cargo and to 
provide dry quarters for the officers, and the 
bows were high for the purpose of keeping the 
vessel dry in a sea-way and for the beaks 
on the prow used in ramming the enemy in 
action. Between the poop and the forecastle 
were the seats of the rowers, who necessarily 
had to be nearer the water than the forecastle 
and poop decks would permit. The same plan 
of deck elevation, roughly speaking, survives 
to-day, because the modern vessel is. essentially 
a cargo carrier, and whenever feasible weight 
is kept as near the keel as possible. In the 
meantime, the superstructures of vessels gen¬ 
erally have been made lower than those of old, 
both’ for purposes of stability and for the im¬ 
provement of sailing and steaming qualities. 
Bill Bowline and I have begun looking up 
records and old prints of ships in order to dis¬ 
cover just when houses on deck first came into 
vogue. So far we have been able to trace 
them back to about 1850, but have no doubt 
that long before this time they were in exist¬ 
ence. While some sailing vessels to-day lodge 
their men above deck in the topgallant fore¬ 
castle, these craft are comparatively few, and 
fewer still are the vessels of any size which 
have a forecastle in the bows under the main 
deck. The forecastle in a house on deck came 
into existence, not as a result of any desire to 
make living conditions more pleasant for the 
crew, but to increase the space devoted to car¬ 
rying cargo. But there can be no gainsaying 
that a forecastle in a house is far superior to 
either of the other types. There is more light 
and air, and in case of a head-on collision or 
stranding the crew have a better chance of es¬ 
cape. If water tumbles in, it is soon cleared 
away, something that was possible only with 
difficulty in the old-style forecastles, which were 
invariably dark, ill-smelling and leaky. At any 
rate, whenever it was invented and whoever in¬ 
vented the house forecastle, it is a blessing 
which windjammer sailors, despite the ir grum¬ 
bling, appreciate.—Shipping Illustrated. 
ARTHUR BINNEY 
(Formerly Stewart & Binney) 
Naval Architect and Yacht Broker 
Mason Building, Kilby Street. BOSTON, MASS. 
Cable Address, * Designer,” Boston 
COX CSL STEVENS 
Yacht Brokers and Naval Architects 
15 William Street, - New York 
Telephones 1375 and 1376 Broad 
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