The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-11-12
THE ROANOKE.
Last Of the Large Wooden Vessels
to Be Built in America.
Some Interesting Information Regarding
the Great Boats of This Coun-
try-Chanses in Ship
building.


toothpicks, towering above the lofties
spars of the biggest vessels mooret
around her. She is a four-master, enc
her aerial intricacies of rigging anC
halliards and ropes are q Chinese puzzle
to the landsman, but vision of delight
to the shellback. She is the Roanoke
giantess of wooden sailing vessels, and
the last of her type that ever will be
constructed in America. For that rea-
son she is worth more than passing no.
tice. She represents the vanishing era
of wooden bottoms, Disseminated
against by the marine underwriters
since the advent of steel ships.
Long ago, says the New Yorker, the
wooden sailing craft ceased to be a car
rier of any significance in the British
trade. All of the big British clippers
are of stee', and nearly all those of re-
cent construction are four-masters. The
British skipper calls his four-master a
bark because she is schooner-rigged on
the fourth, which is known both as the
spanller and jigger mast. The Yankee
skipper thinks that any sailing vessel
with three masts square rugged is
liz bGltiSu SulDS
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 viii be laid at Bath, 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 VIII be constructed on
approved American racing models, what
our citizens 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 cannot approach
the wonderful performances of the great
fleet of Yankee flyers 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 II.
Webb of this city in 1852, covered $50
knots in sixteen consecutive days, an
of nearly twelve knots an hour.
The Dreadnaught made the 2, S00-knot
run between New York and Queens
town in less than ten days. The Sow !
ereign of the Seas made the passage
from the Sandwich islands to New York |
in eighty-two days, covering on one day
BIS knots, which is better than the best
days run of an eight-day steamship
from Queenstown. The Mary White
redge ran from Baltimore to Liverpool
n thirteen days and seven hours. The
Red Jacket made over 325 statute miles
2 day for one week. These are some Of
he records the Roanoke will try to
equal. Veteran shippers do not believe
'he can do it, but her commander is
lopeful
The Roanoke is not the biggest Amer
can ship ever built. That distinction
to the Great Republic, which
vas even larger than the colossal steel
ive-master France, the largest sailing
essel in the world. The Great Repub-
&c was built in East Boston by Donald
lcKay in 1858. Her master, Capt.
oseph 2. Hamilton, is the same Hamil- ;
on who now commands and partly :
WINS the Roanoke. The Great Repub- =
C was not SO heavily spared as the :,
She carried 1858 square :
ards of canvas, while the Roanoke
breads nearly 10000. From boom end =
} boom end-that is, from the tip of .
er bowsprit to the tip of her spanker :
oon-thc Roanoke measures $40 feet.
er length on the keel is 81 feet, and
81 length over all is 331 feet. Her ex- =
enc beam is 1913 feet, her depth 29.1O =
ct and her draught II feet. The d
'lden ball on the top of her main sky
il pole is nearly 200 feet from the Y
'ck. Her main and mizzen lower h
asts are SO feet high, and her fore
wer mast is 81 feet high. Her lower W
anEer mast is 9S feet high. Her fore, 81
ain and mizzen topinasts are Sc feet p
gh, and her spanl1cr topmast is 50 s;
ct high. Each of her three topgal-
at masts is % feet high, her three a
yal masts 10 feet, her skysa1 masts Is n
1t and her slzysail poles 6 feet. Each G
her three lower yards is 95 feet long, N
+ lower topsan yards S8 feet long,
r topgallant yards 6G feet lonr, her D;
val yards So feet long and her sllysail e
les feet. Each of her three lower tc
rds is 95 feet long, her lower topsail T
rds IS feet long, her topgallant yards in
feet long, her royal yards 55 feet long,
her slysail yards n feet long.
csc are gigantic spars, and their size
! be appreciated only by the sailor
n who furls'sail on them. ht
IN her maiden voyage from Bath to
s port recently with 1,40O tons of ice W
her hold as ballast, the Roanoke had Pl
y light winds, and could not test her
ing qualities. She win fit out at fiji
c basin, and be ready for her first of
go Of 5.l0O tons in December. She
go into service on the triangular wi
Ok from New York to San Francisco, WI
Liverpool Tor Havre), and back to
2 York. She will carry a crew OF loc
ut forty men of mixed nationalities w;
will also have, what are rare in
Sc days, six or eight ambitious Ga