The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-08-28

III n
The fastest steam yacht afoat ID
the StiIetto. She is a strange looking
little vessel, n~inety-iye feet long and
eleven feet in beam-a perfect water
knife. She has q straight bow, and
her widest part is a little forward Of
amidships. From that point to the
stern she diminishes in width till she
ends in a sharp point. The sharp
stern lies low in the water, so that the
boat has the appearance OF pointing
her nose into the air. She has a high
freeboard in proportion to her size,
and her flush decks are enclosed with
a light railing. Her rig is that of a
three-masted schooner and her little
masts look like walking sticks. Her
single funnel, situated forward Of the
main mast, is painted a dirty gray.
Her hull is painted black about a foot
and a half above the water, and the
rest of it is white. Herrow ofportholes
in the white part look like pinheads in
q sheet Of note paper. She had a race
on the Hudson River recently with
the Mary Powell, which has heretofore
claimed to be the fastest boat in the
country. The contrast between the
two boats was extraordinary. The
big wheels of one smote the waters
defiantly, clouds Of smoke rolled out
of her smokestacks, and her walking
beam plunged up and down with q
force that made her decks tremble.
The other, little and slim, looked like
q needle on the water, through which
she slid with al easy, graceful motion,
hinging the spray behind her. The two
boats cut the waves nose to nose, and
the Powell's pilot eyed his saucy neigh
Dor q trifle anxiously. Soon the fire
men began to shovel on the coal, the
steam gauge showed a pressure of
thirty-six pounds, and the river boat
bounded ahead. But the yachts
smoke-stack belched out an angry
cloud, and she whisked up to her first
position, bow to bow. The Powell
made another effort to win the
advantage, and crowded the steam
to a pressure of thirty-nine pounds.
But the yacht was equal to the
occasion and refused to yield an
inch. The next moment a great
sweeping streak of silver foam was
flung off the Stiletto's sheer, and a
glistening, boiling white mass of spume
shot out from under her sharp stern.
A moment later two jets ofwater were
shooting three feet into the air be-
hind her, and her bow was cutting
through the water like a bullet through
the air. She gave q great leap for
ward, and every living soul on board
the Mary Powell, from the captain In
the wheeldownto thecook inthekitch-
en-, opened his mouth and eyes, held
his breath, and stared with Sne on
centrated essence of his whole soul.
Great Scott and huckleberriesl" ex-
claimed a deck hand; "look at thatl"
The Stiletto was simply walking
away from the Mary Powell, and
in a short time was one hundred
yards ahead of her. The one hum
dred grew to two hundred and then to
three hundred. Down in the neighbour
hood of the steamboat engine Dom
things were lively. The engineer. vas
watching his steam gauge and running
in and out to see where the yatcht was.
The firemen were ramming coal into
thefurnaces at agreat rate. The Mary
Powell is allowed to carry forty
pounds of steam. At one time her
gauge showed thirty-eight. 1t was no
use, however. The little boat kept
right on crawling away from her, and
at Tarrytown light it was plain to see
that the Stiletto was a winner. She
was off Sing Sing at AS, having done
the distance, a little less than thirty
miles, in In IL m. The Mary Powellis
time was LII 24m.