The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-07-23

room presents handsome appearance, with
its walls stained rich red color and the pol
ished floor and ceiling. Opening from it at
the southwest corner is the pretty little chart
room, and on the easterly side the ladies are
provided with tasty room. This floor also
contains a kitchen, large and well lighted
work room, wash rooms, water closets and
26 lockers. A staircase leads to the roof
from which commanding view of regattas
and similar occurrences is obtainable.
The members and their friends assembled
at O'Clock last evening, and after some time
spent in social converse during which many
exclamations of admiration for the house
were heard. adjourned to the floor below,
where two long tables groaned under the
weight of delicacies furnished in excellent
style by Mrs. Ulmer Commodore Senter
presided, and among those present we MOTTO
ed Collector Dow, Capt. Lay of the Dallas,
III. N. Jose, Esq, Judge Haskell, Mayor
Deering, ex-Mayor Senter, and others. AT
ter the good things had received such atten-
tion as can only be given by hearty yachts
men, Commodore Senter raped for order,
and introduced as the first speaker of the
evening Judge Goddard, whose remarks
were frequently interrupted by applause.
The Judge spoke as follows:
JUDGE GoDDARD's REMARKS.
Judge Goddard, being called upon to state
his experience, said:
When look around upon the assembled yachts
| men of Portland, and on this superb yacht house.
worthy Of the M stalwart and sinewy club that has
does honor to the manhood and spirit, to the NOR
al and intellectual as well as to the physical ex-
ceHence OF the young men of our city. Neverthe-
less am reminded that stand before a new gem
Grafton, toward which can only claim the rela-
ti0nship of patriarch
My recollection covers a full rounded half CEN
tury for like our great .poet's my earliest memo
| res and fancies were Of
1.-THE sheen of the far-surrounding seas,
And the islands that were the Hesperides
Of all my boyish Dreams"
just fifty years ago my naval experience began
| In an eleven feet boat on the basin. A boy of my
acquaintance, Putnam Richardson now Of Gene
va ~ y. told me that this boat could be hired for
whole afternoon for three cents, and offered to
furnish twothirds of the price if | could raise the
remainder. did so and we walked out, finding
the boat at wharf on the Westbrook side. It
was provided with amast spirit and sail and hole
rudder.
My companion suggested that we had better
stretch on across the basin close hauled on the
wlnu and peat, SO as not to get leeward. So we
stood over to the towpath with the usual s. w.
WIND, steering with an oar. but at the end of our
TACK she refused TO come IN stays, so that we had
| to row her around In spite of our seamanship
we could not quite fetch the wharf on the return
tack and at the end of the afternoon we had to
send down our mast and row back about a quar-
ter OF miledead to windward.
we repeated our yachting pretty nearly every
peasant wednesday and Saturday afternoon for
the rest of the summer, but were never quite able
to beat back to our own wharf.
In 1888 we yentured on broader field hiring
boat OF Otis Edwards, who kept her near the foun-
dry where he worked about where Browns sugar
house now stands. The boat was anchored at the
eastern end OF the present Boston & Maine rail-
road yard, near the diving rock where we learned
| to SWIM. Edwards boat had two masts with spirit
% Cents an Afternoon for her nnepence maa ~ pay
The first year we did not dare to sail down the
harbor, but contented ourselves with explorations
OF Long Creek and Fore River up to StrOudwater
well remember the boom of immense spars
which then lay on the Cape flats, just above Port
Those spars had history, for they were some
OF the identical masts which had been cut for the
Royal Navy before the revolution and were lying
az Stroudwater when the town was burned in
1775. In due time we ventured eastward until
we naylgated as far as the lighthouse, White
Head, Peaks Island, and down the roads about
half way down Great Hog Island not daring TO
be farther East.
We also penetrated the Presumpscot 10 its Mt
most nayigable limit, the foot of the Falls at
Smelt Hill one of the most picturesque cascades
imaginable.
After four years. absence at Bowdon l re-
s1med aquatic pursuits on an advanced scale in
1o45 At that time, as in fact ten years before,
Lazarus Harlow Kept four sail boats in the dock
east OF Union wharf; two sloops, the Fayorte and
the Socrates, and two schoOners, the Laurel and
the Swlftsure. Pettingil kept several boats east
| of the Custom House, among them two schooners
apont the size OF Harlow's, the Benner and the
Mechanic.
Mr.. James Deering, grandfather of Henry
Deerng, Esq, kept schooner boat in which he
used to visit his farm at Hog Island and it is said
| rus in the Laurel,
"While victory in even balance hung"
In those days which antedated small steam
craft, the boats OF Harlow and Pettingill supplied
tne thee entire sailing public; now comparatively
| schooner boats cost So day and the soops 81 |
considered myselffortunate when syndicate could
be constructed to engage the Fayerite for a fort
night. About this time John Fenno put on some
boats of more modern build, among them the Hell
en- Mar, soop. In 1876, in company with the
late Charles W. Cahoon the famous inventor '''9
made voyage to Bath, through Bath river to
Wiscasset, when Hell Gate and the Boiler were
IN their glory, and down the SheepScot to Booth
bay, taking in gay boat load of the beaux and
bellies OF WIseasset, among them Hon. Henry In
gals, and Hon. John BabSOn now of Boston
On the way down the Sheepscot il came on To
rain, and after dark it became rather disagree
able beating against the wind and tide. At length
in narrow passage we found that we were not
making anything ,tacking repeatedly opposite a
great birch that loomed Hike a spectre out Of
the midst. l sent Cahoon forward who
after protracted absence reported private
chor "' ''ii-
1t seems that the anchor had spped overheard
from the bow and the scope had an run out Ca
hoon quietly hauled it aboard and the accident
pdSocu uillOtlCtu Dy our guests. FlnallV had
10 come TO anchor in good earnest, some dozen
miles from Wiseasset, and found rather scanty ac
commodatlons for the girls in brick house.
whose churlish proprietor assigned us boys quar-,
tiers III his barn. But in the morning Babson had
his revenge, for just as we put off for Boothbay he
called his host one side and informed him conf
dentally that there was a rumor as we left Wis
caSset that the bank had failed
Our Nabal who was, as Babson happened to
Know, a large St0ckholder, instantly harnessed
his horse and started off in his wagon for Wiscas-
set at full speed at the moment that we moved
down the river before the wind.
In succeeding years | explored the coast pretty
thoroughly as far as Pemaquid, Casco Bay. with
an the lntermnaDle @ lntrlcaeles OF Harpswell and
neag Sound, the Gurnet, Wills Gut Quohog Bay
New Meadows, Cundy's Harbor, the Basin, Small
Point Harbor, etc. etc. the Kennebec to Angus
ia, the Sheepscot to the head of the tide in Alma
Christmas Cove, Damariseotta and the ancient
city of Pemaquid.
By that time had aspired TO the command of
the Laurel, and many of our distant VOYAGES were
made by chart and compass through impenetrable
White Head and Bald Head ledge but aIfway
KoGk if then 9nllghted and again nothing from
g1ackKhlle 1 iedge 70 the Sheepscot Sisters and
Inehce notnlng until we made Ebenecook harbor
and Hendricks Head light i'''i "''
e,g, AGAIN, II 1894, we saw nothing between the
Sisters and the Narrows below Wiscasset where
gorgeous scene opened to our delighted vision
as rM we sallea instantly into brgh Sunshine.
ILL dnat KIND OF sailing required pretty fair judg-
perceptlye faculties for the strength and direction
oI lne tldes the leeway and the rate of sailing had
tlny OF the compass would have been useless /
also sailed up through Merry Meeting Bay into
tne Androscoggin, ,anchoring just below the bridge
AZ Brunswick, and heard Samuel Trask ESQ, of
TINS city, deliver the Latin Valedictory at com
@nleneement @ at Bowdom College, forty years ago
next september. Another year | went up the
Cathance river to Bowdoinham Village.
In the fall of 1S49, a party of four Charles NJ
Freeman Of Limerick, the late James Neal, the
venerable eX-president of the Maine Central Rail
road Co, and myself conceived the scheme of
ascending the canal to Sebago pond and return
ing by the way of the Presumpscot river. This we