The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-05
A NEW MAINE SlILER.
The Four Master Roanoke is the
Last Of her Type.

A Sailing Vessel in New York Harbor Thar
VIII Try Conclusions with Recent Steel
Made English Boats-How She Is Rigged.'
Her Crew and Route.
ANY one strolling along the bullzhead
Of Erie basin, which is a vast hospital
and haven for craft of all sorts, may no.,
tice a great ship with skysall poles,
seemingly fragile as toothpicks, tower
| ing above the loftiest spars of the big
lgest vessels moored around her. She is
| q four master, and her aerial intricacies
of rigging and halliards and ropes are
Chinese puzzle to the landsman, but q
vision of delight to the shellback. She
| is the Roanoke, giantess of wooden sail
| ing vessels, and the last of her type that
will ever be constructed in America.
! For that reason she is worth more than
| passing notice. She represents the van
| ishing era of wooden bottoms, discrimi-
| mated against by the marine underwrit-
ers since the advent Of steel ships. L
Long ago the wooden sailing craft
ceased to be carrier of any significance
| in the British trade. All of the big
British clippers are of steel, and nearly
all those of recent construction are four
masters. The British skipper calls his,
| four master a bark because she is
schooner rugged on the fourth, which is
known both as the spanker and jigger
mast. The Yankee skipper thinks that
any sailing vessel with three masts
square rugged is ship.
The four masted British ships may be
numbered by the score. The four masted
American ships may be counted on the
fingers of one hand. But the nautical
| optimists say this is to be changed, and
| that the change is at hand. The keel of
| the first American steel ship soon will
| be laid, and after she is launched others
will follow her down the ways in rapid
succession. The builders hope to do
| with the steel clippers-which will be
constructed on approved American rae
| ing models-what our builders did with
| wooden clippers before the war. They
held the record then from every port,
near or remote, and they made modest
| fortunes for their builders and owners.
The best of the steel British ships cam
not approach the wonderful perform
ances of the great feet of Yankee fiiers
of forty years ago. The Northern Light
is credited with making the voyage from
San Francisco to this port in seventy
two days. The Flying Dutchman, built
by William H. Webb, of this city, in
1862, covered 1920 knots in sixteen con-
secutive days, an average of nearly
twelve knots an hour. The Dreadnougnt
made the $500 knot run between New
York and Queenstown in less than ten
days.
| The Sovereign of the Seas made the
passage from the Sandwich Islands to
| New York in eighty-two days, covering
on one day 375 knots, which is better
| than the best days run of an eight day
steamship from Queenstown. The Mary
| Whiteredge ran from Baltimore to Liv-
| erpool in thirteen days and seven hours.
| The Red Jacket made over 1926 statute
| miles day for one week. These are
some of the records the Roanoke will
try to equal. Veteran shippers do not
| believe she can do it, but her commander
| is hopeful.
The Roanoke is not the biggest Amer
lean ship ever built. That distinction
belonged to the Great Republic, which
was even larger than the colossal steel
| five master France, the largest sailing
vessel in the world. The Great Repub-,
| lie was built in East Boston by Donald
Mckay in 1883. Her master, Captain
| Joseph P. Hamilton, is the same Hamil-
| ton who now commands and partly owns
| the Roanoke. The Great Republic was
| not SO heavily spared as the Roanoke.
She carried 1858 square yards of can
vas, while the Roanoke spreads neaTly
| 10000. From boom end to boom end
that is, from the tip of her bowsprit to
| the tip of her spanker boom-the Roam
oke measures $40 feet. Her length on
| the keel is 81 feet, and her length over
| all is 331 feet. Her extreme beam is
1913 feet, her depth 1910 feet and her
| draft ~ feet. The golden ball on the
top of her main skysail pole is nearly
| 200 feet from the deck. Her main and
mizzen lower masts are 80 feet high, and
| her fore lower mast is 81 feet high. Her
| lower spanker mast is SO feet high.
Her fore, main and mizzen topmasts
are 56 feet high and her spanker topmast
| is ~ feet high. Each OF her three top
| gallant masts is 2S feet high, her three
royal masts 10 feet, her skysail masts 10
feet and her skysail poles 6 feet. Each
of her three lower yards is 95 feet long,
her lower topsail yards SO feet long, her
topgallant yards 6S feet long, her royal
yards 55 feet long and her skysail yards
"A feet long. These are gigantic spars,
and their size can be appreciated only by
the sailorman who furls sail on them.
On her maiden voyage from Bath to
this port, with 1,400 tons of ice in her
hold as ballast, the Roanoke had only
light winds and could not test her sail
ing qualities. She will go into service
on Che triangular track from New York
to San Francisco, to Liverpool Cor
Havre), and back to New York. She
will carry crew CT about forty men of
mixed nationalities. She will also have
what are rare in these days-six or seven