The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-17
DISAPPEARING TYPES.
The Coasters of Maine and Their Quaint
Old Shippers.

From the Portland Press.
The unusually large fleet of coasters"
was stiH in the harbor yesterday after.
bright sunshine. presented a beautiful
appearance. as all the sails were set and
the outgoing tide kept them all point
ing in the same direction. like large flock
of flying birds. The appearance Of motion.
without motion, rendered the spectacle
very much like a picture.
But why have they staid for four days?
Why are they so exceedingly particular as
to the exact condition of wind and weather
before proceeding on their journey west
ward2 To understand why you must be
introduced to the coaster, as it Is to-day,
and when you have met one, you are ac-
quaipted with the entire fifty or sixty
that are now undertaken in Portland
harbor and as many more that have hay
and lime, etc, aboard. The coaster Is
usually a two-masted schooner of about
100 tons burden. She is old. very old for
a vessel; that is from Is to 80 years of
age She is only held together by coal
tar as the saying is. and her planking is
so loose that il the sea is at all rough she
begins to work open and to leak. and 1t is
all hands to the pumps, and II there is "a
gale they must make d harbor or go on
to the rocks, like the three wrecked on
Cape Elizabeth in the last storm, or take
the risk of riding out the gale.
But why are they so old? Because they
don't build coasters nowadays Men
who have the money don't put 1t into that
kind of a vessel for an investment be-
cause it wouldn't pay. The only men who
can afford to own them are the men who
sail them and live on them.
For instance, coaster starts from Ca
lais or any port this side as for as Ten
ants Harbor, bound TO Boston. or pos
sibly New York She is old and leaky,
and her deck is piled high with lumber.
She can't be handled unless the wind is
just right and she can't live If IL is very
strong. If the wind is just right she might
reach Boston in a day and a night But
on the other hand she might be from two
to three weeks making the journey. dodg-
ing from port to port. and perhaps re-
naming nearly a week in one place, as
some now here have done.
But they cant make much money out of
that, can they? They certainly can't.
Most of them carry less than loo, 900 feet
of lumber, and the way rates are now the
owner can't pay his men and clear more
than $500 a year.
And yet the captains of these coasters,
who are nearly always their owners, have
a comfortable home and a little farm
down on the coast somewhere. The plant
potatoes enough in the spring for their
own use. The wife and children take care
of the garden The father sails his old
leaky boat along the coast all the sum-
mer and fall clears S400 pulls her up on
the shore in November and then goes into
winter quarters What does he do win
ters? He does nothing: that is, If run
ming the government at the corner grocery
and doing the chores and living with his
family and enjoying himself can be called
nothing. He is a simple life, but 1T is an
Independent and happy one. He owns his
little farm on the coast, as lonely a spot
probably as the sun ever shone upon in
New England, or millionaire ever built
his summer cottage upon and paid thous-
ands of dollars for or course, it doesn't
cost our coaster captain very much, and
his permanent home is not so elaborate as
a summer cottage, but it is snug and com
Portable, and though potatoes and fish
might prove too frequent for fastidious
taste, yet you can get used to anything.
If you should visit in some one of the
little communities in a pretty cove down
east, where the coaster captains hibernate
for the winter and should be talking in
the family circle on the first evening of
your arrival very soon the door would
open, somebody would peek in. and the
door would shut. Then ii would open
again and some neighbors would glide ST.
lently in, sat down and look you over from
head to foot without saying q word. This
would be repeated until most of the neigh
borhood had come in and satisfied their Gu
riosity. Engaged in conversation they
would prove very agreeable and intelli-
gent; most of them read great deal in the
winters and take weekly publications.
These coaster sailors are a distinct class
and very different from the fishermen.
They are Older men, have settled down
with wife and family, are more steady and
sober and though earning much less mon
ey and living on fish, potatoes, and pork.
while the fishermen have all the market
affords they probably have just as good a
time and so do their families.
The schooners that carry lime are gen
orally old condemned fishing schooners
that have been bought at Cape Good for a
song, comparatively speaking. But they
are better than the lumber coasters, be-
cause they don't leak. A lime schooner
must not leak, of course.
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