Sept. 24, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
503 
Grayjacket Wins Two Events. 
F. C. Noble’s Class Q yacht, Grayjacket, won 
two good prizes in a special race of the Crescent 
Athletic Club last week. That club held the 
Childs challenge trophy, for which the Atlantic 
Y. C. challenged, and according to the terms 
of the race, other clubs are allowed to enter 
the contest. Unfortunately, the Crescent Club 
did not have a yacht fast enough to defend the 
cup this year, and so after having held it for 
two seasons it had to let it go without a con¬ 
test. 
As it was late in the season, it was arranged 
that the Childs trophy should be sailed with 
the race for the Wilson cup. This last named 
trophy is offered each season for the champion¬ 
ship of the Lower Bay. Yachts of all classes 
are eligible, and they sail with time allowance 
figured on their actual rating. Had it been a 
day of moderate weather, there would have been 
at least a dozen starters, but the wind was quite 
fresh and yachtsmen seemed to think that it 
was a foregone conclusion that Grayjacket 
would win. That yacht has made a great record 
this her first season, and is at her best when 
the wind freshens. 
There were three starters for the Childs 
trophy—Grayjacket representing the Atlantic 
Y. C. and More Joy, owned by W. H. Childs, 
and Joy, owned by lie Sauvage and Geer, repre¬ 
senting the Bensonluirst Y. C. Alice, owned by 
Davis & Eagle, raced for the Wilson cup 
against the other three. The wind was N. by E. 
and the course took the yachts to Bensonluirst, 
Fort Hamilton, Buoy No. 7, and home to Sea 
Gate, 11.5 miles. To Bensonluirst it was wind¬ 
ward work, and from Buoy No. 7 to the finish 
was also on the wind. 
They got away well bunched, but Grayjacket 
at once drew ahead, and when on the wind, the 
last leg, she sailed away from the others. Alice 
had trouble with her back stay and was far 
astern, so that her allowance of 17m. did not 
help. The elapsed times were: Grayjacket, 
2.01.00; More Joy, 2.09.08; Joy, 2.21.13; Alice, 
245 - 56 . 
^ The Atlantic Club consequently takes the 
Childs trophy and Grayjacket wins the cham¬ 
pionship and the handsome Wilson cup. 
Sonders for Kiel. 
Ti-ie trial races of the Eastern Y’. C. held to 
select three Sonder boats to go to Kiel next 
spring resulted in the selection of Beaver, Bibe¬ 
lot and Cima. Beaver is owned by George B. 
Dabney, August H. Eustis and George Nichols, 
of the Beverly Y. C. She was built from de¬ 
signs by W. Starling Burgess and took part in 
the series of races sailed against the Spanish 
yachts and won the Gov. Draper cup. Bibelot 
was built by Herreshoff and is owned by Harry 
Payne Whitney, of the New York Y. C., and 
Robert W. Emmons 2d, of the Beverly Y. C. 
Cima was built from designs by Charles D. 
Mower and is owned by Guy Lowell, of the 
Eastern Y. C. She was one of the trio to sail 
against the Spanish and is considered the best 
heavy weather boat of the three selected. 
The races were sailed on Buzzard’s Bay be¬ 
cause it was thought that the conditions there 
were nearly the same as those at Kiel, but this 
year light winds and smooth water prevailed in 
nearly all the races. Capt. Luis Arana of the 
Spanish Sonder boat Chonta, offered a prize 
for the yacht making the best record in these 
trials and the committee has decided that this 
trophy goes to Beaver. 
Sixteen yachts took part in the trials, and 
after half of these had been eliminated, the 
other eight sailed several good races, but all 
in light winds until the last day, when there 
was a good brisk wind and choppy sea. Two 
races were sailed then. The first was won by 
Bibelot, which benefited by a shift in the wind, 
and the second was won by Cima in a fair test. 
Cima had shown that she was very good in 
light weather, and the record made in the fresh 
wind made the committee choose her as one of 
the three. 
1 he summary of points in five races sailed 
by yachts in one division were: Cima 8, Beaver 
8, Sea Coon 14. Bibelot 16, Helen 16, Peg 16, 
Coot 18, Bessie 21. 
The summary of points in all races sailed 
were: Beaver 10. Cima 14, Bibelot 17. Peg 19, 
Sea Coon 25, Helen 27, Coot 28, Bessie 38. 
Atlantic Y. C. 
The closing event of the Lower Bay and the 
twelfth race of the series for the championship 
was sailed last Saturday. The wind was very 
light and only three classes were able to com¬ 
plete the course. In Class Q the times at the 
end of the first round were: Grayjacket, 
4:12:04; More Joy, 4:12:11; Spider, 4:15:05; 
Soya, 4:14:25; Florence, 4:16:47. The times 
of the classes which made the race were: 
Sloops—Class X—Course, 4 Miles. 
Bobs . 
. 1 16 32 
Merry Widow . 
1 22 07 
Slow Poke ... 
. 1 If) 37 
Skylark . 
1 22 21 
Mouse . 
. 1 20 21 
Suffragette .. 
1 23 16 
Scud . 
. 1 21 57 
Pike . 
1 23 35 
Sloops —v 
—Course, 4 Miles. 
Skeets . 
. 1 31 4S 
Aries . 
1 50 55 
Bullfinch .... 
. 1 34 05 
Meteor . 
d.n.f. 
Viva . 
. 1 3S 42 
Chairman 
Boucher decided to start the 
other 
classes the 
next day. 
The elapsed times 
made 
then were: 
• Sloops—Oass S- 
—Course, 12 Miles. 
Grayjacket .. 
. 2 14 12 
Florence . 
2 19 44 
2 21 34 
s, 
oops—C"'- S 
—Crurse 12 Miles. 
Bensonluirst . 
. 2 52 13 
Alice . 
2 53 40 
Handicap—First Division—Course, 12 Miles. 
Joy .. 2 28 15 La Cubana . 2 39 07 
Miana . 2 32 07 
Corrected times: La Cubana, 2.27.33; Miana, 2.27.40; 
Joy, 2:28.15. 
Handicap; — Sec^nrl Division—Course, 12 Miles. 
Breeze . 2 54 16 Careless . 2 42 45 
Dogger Bank Fishermen. 
Not long ago a tramp steamer out of Hull, 
England, and bound for Riga, sighted a little 
trawling smack which had been swamped by the 
great seas that, breaking aboard, put out the 
fires. The crew was saved, but the really re¬ 
markable thing about it all was that when ob¬ 
served by the rescuers those toilers of the deep 
had their nets out and were about their usual 
business'. 
Trawling off the Dagger, a submarine bank 
170 by 70 miles, are fleets of from 100 to 150 
vessels, each manned by a crew of five or six 
men. The fish are sent to Billingsgate and Shad- 
well and through those great distributing cen¬ 
ters find their way to English breakfast tables. 
Each fleet is commanded by an admiral whose 
vessel is readily distinguishable by a flag at the 
forestay. The smacks are ketch rjgged, 65 to 
95 feet, and ai>e worked by companies and by 
individual owners. 
The crews get small standing wages and a per¬ 
centage. They have no outfit to speak of; any¬ 
thing strong and warm serves as clothing. The 
mission to deep sea fishermen provides sea boots, 
stockings, steering gloves and similar articles at 
nominal prices. The mission also supplies sound 
tobacco and equally sound reading matter, and 
from the same source men receive free, medical 
treatment. t 
The process of trawling, writes Henry Water¬ 
man in -Zion’s Plerald, is simply ground fishing 
or fish dredging. A smack tows a large net 
which is attached to a trawl beam between fifty 
and sixty feet long, at each end of which is a 
heavy iron band that keeps the trawl beam 
swinging about three feet clear. This appara¬ 
tus is dragged along the bottom of the water. 
The gear is raised to the surface by means of 
a 'small steam engine. In the old days the trawl 
was raised by hand, a process which meant a 
terrible strain at the capstan ,for two hours. To¬ 
day the task is accomplished in half an hour. 
A fleet of a hundred vessels will readily care 
for an area of ten miles. The necessity of all 
obeying the admiral’s signals as to when to haul 
the net or when to sheet it is evident, as, failing 
good discipline, the smacks would be in con¬ 
stant danger of collision and fouling one an¬ 
other’s gear. The smacks lay to to haul the nets, 
and when trawling in a good breeze sail at a 
rate of about three to four knots, as the fish 
lie close to the bottom in twenty to thirty 
fathoms of water, thus making it necessary to 
pay out some eighty fathoms of trawl rope. 
Fishing is carried on almost wholly at night, 
and when it is good the men often, have to be 
satisfied with three hours’ sleep in the twenty- 
four. Each fleet is accompanied by steam car¬ 
riers, one of which leaves each morning for 
London', Hull or Grimsby with the catch of the 
previous night. Sometimes the fleets are as far 
off as the coast of Denmark, and were it not 
for these . carriers much time would be lost. 
1 hen, too, ice would be a necessity in the ab¬ 
sence of the carriers, an item of no small im¬ 
portance. 
In the “old days,” prior to 1881, the deep-sea 
fishers were little cared for by mission, board 
of trade or philanthropist. The prevailing con¬ 
ditions at that time beggar description, and the 
lot of those men was anything but happy. While 
yet boys they began as cooks or apprentices and 
life was a seesaw between fifty days at sea and 
seven days on shore. For pleasure they de¬ 
pended on the Dutch coper, a small vessel which 
was always near a fleet, and was a veritable 
curse to the North Sea. The coper dealt in cheap 
tobacco and cheaper liquor, and, not content with 
that, peddled prurient books and obscene pic¬ 
tures Terrible tales are told of fights and other 
disgraceful episodes on board the copers. I re¬ 
call one weird story of a drunken lot trying to 
rouse a still drunker comrade. Failing to do 
that they saturated his clothes with turpentine 
and applied a match. The man was burned to 
death, the ship took fire and was barely saved. 
I lie mission to deep-sea fishermen changed all 
that. 1 he mission took the position that atten¬ 
tion to bodily welfare is the first thing to con¬ 
sider. It has smacks of its own which fish 
alongside the fleets and the revenue so raised 
goes toward the support of the mission. Such 
revenue, however, is at best but incidental, and 
voluntary subscription had to be resorted to. 
1 he expense of such work is heavy, the mission 
maintaining nine smacks in the North Sea as well 
as carrying on work in British North America. 
Each smack combines church, temperance league, 
library and club. In addition four well equipped 
hospital boats make extra demands for money. 
The smacksmen make excellent sailors under 
all conditions. Tnured to danger from early life, 
living in an atmosphere of constant danger, they 
fit into any berth and show a dash and hardi¬ 
hood that are little short of the sublime. 
To a genuine landsman the call of the deep 
is a mystery. Occasionally some curious investi¬ 
gator takes a trip to the Dogger Bank. One 
trip is generally enough. The smacks are neces¬ 
sarily dirty, the smell of fish is everywhere and 
everything is covered with fish scales and gurry. 
The fetid air of the cabin makes the forecastle 
of a coasting brig a sweet resting place in com¬ 
parison. 
Two Good All-Round Sportsmen. 
A novel sporting event was brought off by 
two members of the Royal Victoria Y. C. last 
week, says the Yachting World. The contes¬ 
tants were Captain R. Alexander. J.P., and 
Colonel Rhodes, who started their day’s outing 
at 9 a. m. with tennis, croquet and archery on 
the Ryde Tennis Club’s ground. From there 
they motored to the I. W. Gun Club's head¬ 
quarters at Ashley for a clay pigeon shooting 
match, then back to Ryde for a game of bowls. 
Proceeding to Bembridge, golf, squash, racquets, 
and a sailing match took place, after which, at 
the St. Helen’s miniature rifle range, there were 
rifle and revolver matches. The motor was then 
requisitioned for a ride to Carisbrooke for half 
an hour’s trout fishing. Returning to the Royal 
Victoria Y. C., quoits, billiards, snooker pool 
and ecarte were indulged in. Colonel Rhodes 
won eight events and Captain Alexander seven, 
with a pointless draw at the fish stream, where 
nothing was caught. 
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regularly. 
