The Portland daily press., 1894-10-29
THE COASTER.
What the Word Means Now a Days.

Something About the Old Lumber Laden
Craft so Numerous in the Harbor the
Past Ten Days,and the Men Who Sail
Them.
The unusually large fleet of COASTERS"
was still in the har Dor yesterday afternoon.
and from Fort Allen Park. in the bright
sunshine, presented a beautiful appearance,
as all the sails were set and the outgoing
/ tide kept them all pointing in the same
direction, like large flock of flying birds.
This appearance of motion, without motion,
rendered the spectacle very much like
painted picture.
But why have they stayed for four days?
Why are they SO exceedingly particular as
to the exact condition of wind and weather
before proceeding on their journey west
ward? To understand why, you must be in
troduced to the COASTER as it is today,
and when you have met one. you are ac-
quainted with the entire fifty sixty that
are now lumber laden in Portland harbor,
and as many more that have hay and lime,
ETC.. aboard. The coaster" is usually a
twc-masted schooner of about one hundred
tons burden. She is old, very old for a
vessel; that is from eighteen to thirty years
of age. She is only "held together by coal
tar" as the saying is, and her planking is
SO loose that if the sea is at all rough, she
begins to work" open and to leak, and it
is ''all hands to the pumps" and if there
is a gale they must make 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 now a days. Men,
who have the money, don't put it into that
kind of vessel for an Investment, because
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 Calais
or any port this side as far as Tenants
Harbor, bound to Boston or possibly 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 it is very strong. If the
wind is just right she might reach Boston
in day and night. But on the other hand
she might be from two to three weeks
making the journey, lodging from port to
port, and perhaps remaining nearly week
in one place, as some of them now in this
harbor have done.
But they can't make much money out of
that, can they: They certainly can't. Most
of them carry less than 100000 feet of lun-
Der, and the way rates are now the owner
can't pay his men and clear more than
$4,000 a year.
And yet the captains of these coasters,
who are. neatly always their owners, have a
comfortable home and aAlittle farm down on
the coast somewhere.
They plant potatoes enough in the spring
for their own e.ssThe wife and children
take care Of the garden. The father sails
his old leaky boat along the coast all the
summer and fall, clears 00,pulls her up on
the shore in November and then goes into
winter quarters. What does he do winters.
He does nothing; that is, if running the
government at the corner grocery and do
ing the chores and living with his family
and enjoying himself can be called nothing.
His is simple life, but it is ansindependent
and happy one. He owns his little farm on
the coast, as lonely a spot probably, as ethe
sun ever shone upon in New England, or
millionaire ever built his summer cottage
upon and paid thousands of dollars for. Of
course it doesn't cost our coaster captain
very much and his permanent home is not
SO elaborate as summer cottage, but it is
snug and comfortable, and though potatoes
and fish might prove too frequent
for fastideous taste, yet you can get used
to anything. y
If you should visit in some one of the
little communities in pretty cove down
east, where the coaster captains hibernate
for the winter and should be.talking in the
family circle on the fist evening of your
arrival, very soon the door would open.
somebody would peek in and the door would
shut. Then 1T would open again and some
neighbors would glide silently in. sit down
and look you over from head to foot with
out saying word. This would be repeated
till most of the neighporhood had come in
and satisfied their curiosity.
Engaged in conversation they would
prove very agreeable and intelligent, 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 money and living
on fish, potatoes aid pork, while the fisher
men have all the market affords, they
probably have just as good time and SO do
their families.
The schooners that carry lime are gener-
ally old condemned fishing schooners that
have been bought at Cape Cod for a song,
comparatively speaking. But they are
better than the lumber coasters, because
they don't leak. A lime schooner must not
leak, of course. The great majority of these
coasters did not leave the harbor Saturday
and Wednesday because there was not
enough wind to make it worth while. Many
may have gone out last night if the wind
was favorable.