The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-04-28
THE STRENGTH OF CUSTOM.

AS tie New Workers gaze at the full
sized limitations of the tiny caravels which
brought Columbus and his companions 10
the New World, they doubtless ask them
selves how they come to possess so curious
rig and how the hulls are SO strangely
spoon or scoOp-shaped. The only answer is
that the cut of the sails and the form of
hull com from the Mediterranean, where
such sails are still in use, and that these
peculiarities illustrate how tenacious is
custom and how reluctant the mass OF
mankind is to depart from established
methods. Lateen sails were approved by
the navigators of Cleo patra's and Caesars
time. and they are now graceful feature
OF the San Francisco fshng-boats brought
hither by Italian fishermen from the Cuff
of Genoa and the Adriatic Columbus
naturally had the lateen sail as a model
with which he was familiar in Genoa, and
for his caraVels ii Tas an easily handled
rig which could be hoisted or hauled down
without too much trouble. Perhaps if his
crews had had little more work to exercise
their bodies and preoccupy their minds
they would have shown less of mutinous
spirit The lateen sail did not go farther
north. For small craft in Northern Europe
the lugsail. the spritsail and the fore and
aft boomsail have been found more suitable,
but we get into the mists of history when
We strive to find out when they were first
shaped. The squirrel with its tail aloft on
cookie of birch bark may have given the
cue to all navigatoTs. But every land has
peculiarlies in the construction and rigging
OF craft.
The eastellated stern of the caravels is a
survival of the days OF galleys, when the
GpiIor attapHad IN
ana the soldier was armed to the teeth for
fighting and occupied the forecastle and the
high poop. We see the stamp of this GUS
tom in the towering sterns Of the Don's
ships equipped for the Spanish Armads.
These were contrived for n certain kind of
fighting, but the vessels got little chance of
coming to quarters with the fire-spit brigs
and schooners low in the water under
Drake. The Great Harry of Henry the
WIS time was a similar castelated craft,
hardly suited TO the glory of the seas. She
had fortified poop 50 high that the rolling
in a breeze must have been sufficient TO
make a shelback squeamish in the stomach.
In this type the square sails OF the modern
ship are represented. Up to the time when
the three-decker man-of- war was doomed
fighting ships exhibited the castle idea.
The stern had four decks, u fact. equipped
with guns. In construction to-day the gun
platforms are in barbettes or along the
side, or in port in the central part of the
ship. The less target vessel presents to
the enemy the better for success IN fighting.
These caravels are now mere toys. which
could be swung on board the modern war
ships by the davits. They are not as large
as some of the barges which would now be
employed in river expeditions. They had
their period of useful ness like everything
else in human advancement, and brave
were the men who sailed them. We cannot
but think with admiration of Hudson,
whose name is given to the noble river on
which floats the mighty cOnjoined war fleet
Of the nations of the earth, crossing the
Atlantic for the purpose of discovery in
craft Of nine tons