Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1893-09-01
THE. ROANOKE,


have noticed recently great ship with
skysail poles, seemingly fragile; as
toothpicks, towering above the Hottest.
spars Of the biggest vessels moored
around her. She is four-master, and
her aerial intricacies of rigging and
halliards and ropes are Chinese puzzle
to the landsman, but a 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 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
bark because she is schooner-rigged on
the fourth, which is known both as the
spanlser 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 ut
hand. The keel of tho first American
steel ship soon will be laid ut 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 will 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 sevcnty-two days. The
Flying Dutchman, built by William II.
Webb of this city in 1852, covered 1920
knots in sixteen consecutive days, an
average Of nearly twelve knots an hour.
The Dreadnaught made the 2, SOO-knot
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
875 knots, which is better than the best
days run of an eight-day steamship
from Queenstown. The Mary White
rcdgc ran from Baltimore to Liverpool
in thirteen days and seven hours. The
Red Jacket made over 325 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.
Inc Roanoke is not the biggest Amer
lean ship ever built. That distinction
belonged to the Great Republic, which
WINS even larger than the colossal steel
hve-master France, the largest sailing
vessel in the world. The Great Repub.
lie was built in East Boston by Donald
Mckay in 1853. Her master, Capt.
Joseph p. Hamilton, is the same Hamil-
ton who now commands and partly
owns the Roanoke. The Great Repub-
bic was not SO heavily spared as the
Roanoke. She carried 1858 square
yards of canvas, while the Roanoke
spreads nearly 10000. From boom end
to boom end-that is, from the tip of
her bowsprit to the tip of her spanker
boom-the Roanoke measures $40 feet.
Her length on the keel is 81 feet, and
|. her length over all is 1871 feet. Her ex.
treme beam is 1913 feet, her depth 20. 10
feet and her draught 27 feet. Tho
golden ball on the top. Of her main sky.
sail pole is nearly 200 feet from the
deck. Her main and mizzen lower
nasts arc 90 feet high, and her tore
lower mast is 81 feet high. Her lower
spanker mast is 9s feet high. Her fore,
main and mizzen topmasts are t6 feet
high, and her spanlser topmast is 81
feet high. Each of her three topgal.
liant masts is % feet high, her three
royal masts 10 feet, her skysail masts Is
feet and her skysail poles feet. Each
of her three lower yards Is 95 feet long,