184 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 4, 1911. 
Stories About Capt. Barr. 
No yacht skipper was better known on both 
sides of the Atlantic than Charlie Barr Wee 
Charley” he was often called by his friends. He 
won fame in British waters with small craft, 
brought the Minerva to this country and raced 
her here. He looked on this land and found it 
fair, and while here he became the foremost 
skipper in the world, thrice sailing the defend¬ 
ing yacht in races for the America’s cup to vic¬ 
tory. 
It was just two years ago since Capt. John 
Barr, elder brother of Charley, died John 
was more than twenty years older than Charley 
and many thought the elder Barr was father of 
the man who has just died. The ancestors of 
the Barrs were followers of the sea, and John 
when very young took to sailing small boats 
and while Charley, who was born, in 1864, was 
serving an apprenticeship to a grocer Capt. 
John was winning fame as the skipper of a ten 
tonner named Ulerin. Young Barr left the 
grocer’s business as soon as possible and took 
to the sea and from that time he steadily forced 
himself to the front and won in his career 
through life because he was plucky and skilful, 
loved'his boat and the sea and because when he 
started to do anything he did it well. 
Of course he began in the forecastle and 
served as a deck hand, as all good sailors have 
to do, but it was not long before his skill was 
recognized. Fie was engaged first with his 
brother, and when the summer season was over 
instead of returning to the grocer’s shop he 
engaged to go flounder trawling on the middle 
reaches of the Clyde in an eight-ton smack, 
the wettest, coldest, dirtiest work to which man 
can doom himself, so that he might the quicker 
and better perfect himself in the difficult art of 
sailing a cutter rigged vessel. 
Young Barr had not been long on board 
the smack when it became apparent that Fate 
for once wasn’t blind when she beguiled this 
man to the sea. With the exception of. himself 
the men in the smack were comparatively el¬ 
derly men, and one bitter cold winter morning 
the little boat was caught in a shrieking nor’- 
easterly gale off Portincross on the Ayrshire 
coast three or four miles south of Fairlie. Mill- 
port was the natural harbor to make for but 
after several gallant attempts to sail the smack 
there it was apparent that she could not make 
port. The elder men had become enfeebled and 
disheartened when Barr, who had been work¬ 
ing splendidly, quietly took the tiller and as¬ 
sumed command. Having seen how hopeless 
it was to attempt to beat the boat to a port of 
safety, he boldly put her before the wind and 
started to run to Androssan. The boat was 
only half decked and he had an awful time to 
keep her from being pooped by the bigger seas. 
Off the entrance to the harbor in spite of all 
his skill, she nearly foundered and he had to 
give up the idea of making Androssan and 
headed her for Troon, a harbor lying in the 
deep open bay a few miles to the south. The 
weather was becoming wilder and the outlook 
more desperate. He made that harbor but 
neither he nor his mates could ever coherently 
tell how it was done. The owner of the smack, 
a fine old Clyde fisherman named John Camp¬ 
bell, never wearied of telling, however, that 
‘there was nae doot whate’er they would a’ hae 
been droon’t but for young Charlie’s pluck an’ 
skill.” 
That was the training of this genius. A 
Scotchman by birth, a sailor by nature, a grocer 
by early training and navigator and helmsman 
of imperishable fame by dint of indomitable will, 
unequalled skill, infallible judgment and an ir¬ 
repressible love of boats and all that pertains 
to them. 
It was not very long after this experience 
that the two Barr brothers crossed the Atlantic 
in the cutter Clara, a 40-footer owned by 
Charles Sweet. Capt. John was skipper, and 
the voyage across the Atlantic was a long one. 
Next they were together on the Scotch chal¬ 
lenger Thistle in 1887. Charlie was a sailor on 
that yacht, and it was his first experience in a 
contest for the America’s cup. He returned to 
Scotland, and in 1888 brought across the 40- 
footcr Fife designed cutter Minerva and for 
three years raced her successfully in these 
waters. Eighteen 40-footers were built here be¬ 
fore Gossoon was turned out to defeat the crack 
Scotch cutter. Charley next commanded the 
Burgess cutter Oweenee and then handled the 
Wasp, owned by Archibald Rogers. It was on 
this craft he said he had the worst voyage in 
his experience. The Wasp was one of the first 
of the spoon-bowed yachts and in going around 
Cape Cod she was caught in a hard blow and 
pounded so that Captain Barr said he thought 
she would pound to pieces. 
In 1893 he took the cutter Navahoe across 
the ocean, but did not stay the season with that 
yacht, which was practically a failure. . In 1895 
he had his next experience in cup racing. He 
sailed the Vigilant for George J. Gould in the 
trial races with the Defender. In 1896 Barr 
had charge of the schooner Colonia, and then 
followed the Columbia for two seasons, and Re¬ 
liance. In 1904 he took the Ingomar across the 
ocean and raced her there for Morton F. Plant. 
The next year he had command of the Atlantic 
in the race across the ocean for the Kaiser’s 
cup, crossing the ocean in 11 days, 16 hours, 
22 minutes. He sailed the 7°‘footer Mineola 
and last summer finished his glorious record 
with the Westward, which won every race ex¬ 
cept one, and that was a handicap. 
Many yachtsmen are of opinion that it was 
Barr who kept the cup here when Shamrock II. 
came after it. He had charge of Columbia that 
year and Columbia outsailed Constitution in the 
trial races. She went to the line in the cup 
races in the pink of condition and Captain Barr 
knew every mood of that yacht. The races 
were all close, but Barr’s cleverness and skill 
were worth minutes to the Columbia. In the 
first race Shamrock was first at the weather 
mark, but Barr nursed Columbia home and she 
won by a few seconds. In the last race of the 
series Shamrock had a lead of some minutes 
when Barr stood away from the challenging 
yacht and held over toward the New Jersey 
shore in the hope of getting a better slant there. 
He found what he wanted and was able to finish 
so close to the Shamrock that Columbia won 
the race on corrected time. He afterward said 
that had Shamrock won that race she would 
probable have won others and the cup, as Col¬ 
umbia’s sails had all blown out and were use¬ 
less for such racing. 
Barr was only five feet five inches tall. He 
had black hair and black mustache and black 
eyes that saw everything. When racing a big 
yacht he had a habit of talking to himself while 
at the wheel. He would roll his wheel oyer and 
keep his eyes alternately on his head sails and 
his opponent. Those on board while the yacht 
was turning to windward would be lying down 
at the weather rail and the little skipper would 
talk in this way: 
“Wonder what he’s going to do now? What’s 
he sanding off there for? Don’t he know bet¬ 
ter? He’d better come about.” 
Then as if asking for advice he might say: 
“Shall I tack now or hold on?” Some one on 
board might venture an opinion on this if he 
did not know Barr, but it made no difference 
with the skipper. He had his campaign all 
planned and worked it out to his own liking and 
generally to success. 
He was not always popular with skippers of 
other yachts because when he had worked his 
own vessel into a winning position he never 
let up, but made the victory as complete as 
possible. He was popular though with his men 
because he would never ask a man to do what 
he would not do himself and he never declined 
responsibility or allowed others to take blame 
for what he had ordered. 
Once when the Reliance was rounding up to 
her mooring she was caught in the tide and the 
tip of her bowsprit struck the end of Consti¬ 
tution’s boom and smashed it. A quartermaster 
was at the wheel and he came in for a storm of 
abuse from the managing owner. The man was 
told he could leave the ship. Barr quietly re¬ 
marked, “If any leaves the ship, I will. I 
caused the accident.” He didn’t leave. 
An example of his nerve and daring is shown 
in the race across the ocean, when he sailed the 
Atlantic. The weather on May 25 had been 
hard. The yacht was driving before a westerly 
gale under a square sail. It was getting toward 
night and things looked bad. Many on board 
were nervous. The seas were running high and 
the yacht was working. Captain Barr called 
Wilson Marshall, the owner, and ask?d his ad¬ 
vice, telling him that he owned the yacht. Mr. 
Marshall listened to Captain Barr and was 
shown how the storm was affecting the yacht, 
and Captain Barr told him to remember too, 
that they were racing. He asked whether they 
would drive on, hoping the weather would mod¬ 
erate, or take in the sail and lay to. Some were 
for taking in the sail, but it was finally left to 
Captain Barr’s judgment and he drove on. The 
weather moderated at midnight. Had he taken 
in sail the Atlantic would have been beaten, as 
the Valhalla was only twelve miles astern and 
driving along under topsails in weather to her 
liking. 
One season Captain Barr handled the 70-foot 
sloop Mineola, and racing against him was the 
Yankee, sailed by Harry L. Maxwell. In a 
steady breeze on the Sound without any flukes 
Yankee won. The race was a hot one from 
start to finish. After the yachts had reached 
their moorings Barr went ashore and was asked 
how Mineola came to be beaten. “Why,” re¬ 
plied the canny Scot, “Maxwell simply outsailed 
me. That was all.” He never made excuses for 
defeats. 
The schooner Ingomar was built by Herres- 
hoff in 1904 for Morton F. Plant and Captain 
Barr was given charge of the yacht. She 
crossed the ocean in fast time, fitted out on the 
other side and then went through the campaign 
winning prizes in German and British waters. 
At Kiel Ingomar raced against the Emperor’s 
yacht Meteor and as is usual a member of the 
home club was put on board Ingomar, the vis¬ 
iting yacht, because Mr. Plant was not a mem¬ 
ber of the club. 
Ingomar and Meteor were maneuvering for 
position at the start on one big race. A quar¬ 
termaster had the wheel on Ingomar, Captain 
Barr standing near and directing things. 
The Kaiser had the wheel on his own yacht 
Meteor. The Ingomar was on the starboard 
tack, standing for the line and had right of 
way. The Meteor was on the port tack and 
under the rules had to keep clear. The two 
yachts were drawing together on opposite tacks 
and the German representative, taking in the 
situation, turned to Captain Barr and said: 
“Captain, the Kaiser.” 
Barr looked at the Meteor, looked again at 
his own yacht and made no reply. The two 
yachts drew nearer and the German got ex¬ 
cited. “Captain,” he said, “captain, the Kaiser, 
tack.” 
Barr then realized what he meant, and turn¬ 
ing quickly to the visitor he said: “The Kaiser 
ceases to be the Kaiser when he steps on board 
a racing yacht.” Turning to the quartermaster, 
he said: “Hold your course.” The next minute 
the two yachts came together, but fortunately 
no damage was done. 
That evening the Kaiser sent for Captain 
Barr. He talked yacht sailing with him, and 
when the captain left gave him a souvenir. The 
next day the Emperor kept the Meteor far away 
from the Ingomar. 
Captain Barr always took as good care of 
himself as he did of his boat and never lost a 
race through not being in proper condition 
physically. This was never better instanced than 
in the first race between the Reliance and Sham¬ 
rock III. in 1903. The first leg of the course 
was to windward and for nearly an hour and a 
half it was a mighty battle between these two 
boats, so that supporters of the Reliance began 
to the think that the Shamrock, a much smaller 
boat, was going to win. Even on the Reliance 
there was much worrying being done. The 
Shamrock had the weather position and she 
held it in spite of all Captain Barr could do 
with the Reliance. The two yachts would split 
tacks for a short period, but when they came 
together again Shamrock still held her advan- 
