The morning call., 1892-07-03
A WELCOME BREEZE CANE AT LAST.

all reasonable commercial views. that
reaction in favor of the sailing
ship is quite possible. a return TO
tacks ana sheets would, | think, be good
for trade and for safety; it would increase
the merchants and the owners profits and
proloDg the mariners lives. For only con-
slder the red-hOt rush that is going on, the
blinded madness OF competition. tile hurry
pregnant with deadly penalties
The other day read letter in an Eng
llsh newspaper begging some dock authOri-
ties TO erect weighing machine for public
use. There was no time, the writer said,
10 weigh the provisions flung aboard for the
officers and men, and hence owners stood
TO be cheated in quantities. A vessel just
arrived must be dispatched afresh within
IS hours with the result that there was no
leisure FOR more than piIchforking the cargo
into the hold and dismiSsing the wretched
listed hulk, with her jerry plai es and feeble
engines and drunken. foreign, under
manned crew, with compasSes all wrong
steering gear full of menace. cargo waiting
for the first bit of seaway TO shift and tina
captain feeling like an executioper going TO
his death along with those he had been
hired 10 drown; dismissing her, / say, with
the devils benedictiOn upon her to some
handy port In the bottom of the Bay of
Biscsy.
No; slow-going canvas would correct
many abuses, extinguish scores of men who
now call themselves ship-owners or man.
aging owners, but Who are much more fitted
TO serve as drapers' or groeers' assistants,
put money into the pockets OF the reputable
owners, ana end the sorry and dishOD orable
specializing notions which, at the cost Of
inland 1gnoramuses, have been filling our
ports with steamers OF baTbarous cOnstTuc-
ton. as worthless as earning powers as they
are as fabrics. We may come back TO the
sailing vessel, as | say. and hope, indeed,
we shall, In the interest Of the whole of the
maritime calling. But the days Of sailing
craft as passenger vessels are. think. num-
bered. The emlgran:, having to pay but
little for his voyage, may for some cOnsid-
erable time yet continue TO enjoy the mol
some twilight of the tween decks S 0s the mag
Dificent Al iron clipper; the health seeker
Will also Cften CHI ose sail in preference to
steam for the promise the square-rigger af-
foTds him Of lingering long amid those salt
winds in whose breath he hopes to find life
and health. But the general passenger"
speaking OF him or her one does of the
general public" is sure TO 90 On adding TO
tie popularity OF the ocean steam-liner.
We want TO get 10 our port quickly; we suf-
fer from seasickness and we look with alb
horrence upon the ocean wave. A heavy
rolling boat, through which we are carried
al the rate of 500 miles In "a hours, ceases
10 be the slckeDiDg ium mblefcaton which the
most seasoned among us would find il In a
full-rigged ship, with her courses hauled UP,
her fore and aft canvas in, her light sails
furled, wallowing and heavily dipping upon
a swell coming in FURNISHED folds out of
SKY VI sBppUlIe, WHICH TIE eye explores III
vain for the smallest hint Of wind.
was making the voyage from England
10 Australia some 20 years ago now as a
cabin passenger in very pretty little sail
ing ship that might have passed for one of
the Aberdeen clippers of the oldWhite Star
line, with her bravery of green paint, white
poop rails. elliptical stern and other graces
OF that time We had made a good run
from the English Channel, snored down the
Bay Of Blseay, as they used to say, carried
topgallant stunsails through the horse
latitudes and swept in comet fashion in to
the northeast trades. catching them in
squall of thunder and lightning, and then car
rying them in half gale OF wind, till. as we
drew closer TO the equatorial parallels they
fined down into the familiar steady blowing.
the bright clouds sweeping overhead, and
sky and sea glorious blue. Well, all this
was very good, indeed. We talked of max
ing Sydney Heads in 20 days, and any man
would have conceived such hope justifi-
able who had marked the splendid sailing
qualities OF the little ship and her capacity
tor making the most OF whatever wind
blew. l have seen the log hove to 8b knots
when her yards have been almost fore and
aft and the weather sides OF the royals and
topgallant sails aback with the wind JAM
ming of the helm. To be sure. the water
was smooth, but you know, TO get anything
like such sailing ont of a structure You
must have beautiful moiding, lovely lines,
an eel-like slipperiness right along the
NnOie ltDgiu OF Der.
We lost the trade wind somewhere about
four degrees north of the equator When
went below at midnight il was blowing a
nice air, the black water was slipping by
full of lovely phosporic lights, the breeze,
cooled by the dew that lay like ice in the
starshine all about the decks, deliciously
famed the face and kept the cabin and
berths tolerably cool, putting as it did from
the foot of the windsails and softly breath
ing through the open ports. But when |
went on deck again at o'clock in the
morning for the bath was accustomed 10
take under the pump in the head found
the ship lying motioness in the heart of the
very deadest calm. suppose. that was ever
seen or heard Of in the middle of the great
ocean. There was not a stir of swell. not
the faintest lifting OF liquid fold 10 cradle
the ship by so much as an inch of rocking
either way. Nothing moved aloft III
was like lying high up river OF
in a dock. The light sails hung
from the yards without the least
perceptibe swaying of their cloth, and the
masthead vane was strless. There was
wonderful hush, too, that-broad as the
daylight was. and the sun flaming up right
ahead OF US, RS though the ship found
magnet in the glorious lumnary-subdued
the heart with an emotion of awe, such as
might seem possible to man only when
the mystery Of night bad gathered round
and shrouded sea and ship in its mystical
yagueuesS. There seemed a kind of steam
risfSg up right away around the hnrizon