The record-union., 1895-09-02

NEW YORK, Sept. 1.-The Defender at
tracted thousands of people to Erie
Basin, where she was dry -dooked this
morning to have her bronze hull put in
shape for the coming contest with VAL
| kyrie III. for the blue ribbon of the sea.
| Under the supervision of Dockmaster
Mckinney she was taken into the dock
before 6 \. NJ. Pumps were set at work
and ut \. NJ. the hull was dry. Captain
Half and a small portion OF his crew
We're at New Rochelle. They arrived later;
and the canvas-olad sailor boys set at
work rubbing sdown the hull. The man
ganese bronze underbody was in very
good condition, but the men worked at
it all day polishing the metal with sand
| paper and filing down boltheads, until
it presented a perfectly smooth surface
and shone like FURNISHED gold. The up
per part of the hull, which Is made of
aluminium, was rubbed down and given
coat OF white enamel paint. Instead of
being dead white. the paint had blush
! tinge.
| While this work was going on below
other men were busy on deck. The
gooseneck was strengthened by riveting
q lat plate on 1t. Wooden caps were
made and fitted into the outer ends of the
/ new boom and gait. These spars are hol-
low steel tubes, tapering from center to
ends and are made of steel plates three
! sixteenth OF an inch in thickness. The
! boom is lO6 feet long and has diameter
of Shout sixteen inches in the center and
| eight inches at the ends. 1t has no
tianges inside or outside. The spars
| worked we'll yesterday, and apparently
do not buckle at all.
The boom does not look TO be half as
heavy as the lighter one OF the two which
! Dunraven's boat has used. As hollow
! steel booms were first used in England
and the fact that the Nalkyrie was to
have one was kept secret until almost the
last moment. The Yankee ingenuity
| which has taken up the English idea and
vastly improved upon 1t in time to fit the
| Defender with both boom and gatf far su-
perior to the Valkyrie'5 is to be COM
mended. To Nat Herreshof is due the
| credit.
! There are absolutely no signs OF in
| jury to the hull from the various ground
| lngs the Defender had at Hog Island and
Newport. Aside from the work on the
new boom and gatf and rubbing down
and painting the null there was nothing
done to the hull to-day.
Crowds swarmed the deck and watched
the crew fitting their ship for next Sat
urday's race. The Defender will leave
-
Hook for spin.
The Valkyrie remained at the dock
close to the Defender all night, as the
storm prevented her from being towed
TO the Horse Shoe yesterday afternoon.
At $50 A. u. she was toWed out of the
basin and across the bay to an anchorage
off Stapleton.
For once the custom of giving the Brit
| ish crew rest on Sunday was broken.
At ll:40 A. NJ. the mainsail was hoisted,
| jib and staysail broken out, and the Val
kyrie slid down past quarantine out
| through The Narrows, ana with light
westerly wind reached down the lower
| bay. At 1920 o'clock the Valkyrie an
chored in the Horse Shoe.
| The Morning journal will say: Last
| night machinists at work Oh the Defender
discovered an accident to her mast that
will necessitate 1T being unstepped aud
reset in new mortioe and wedged down.
/ So great has been the strain that the mast
| and mortice have been Chafed, and the
! big stick wabbles about with half q foot
! of space about its base. 1t has lurched
| from one side to another until it has
| dragged the stout iron braces attached to
! the hull almost from their fastsnings,
and tonight when the damage was first
| discovered they were holding to the hull
| by mere thread. The discovery was
fortunate one, for had the Defender gone
to sea with her mast in the condition in
which the accident placed it, she would
have gone to the bottom in the first putt
/ OF wind that struck her sails. Machinists
were put to work Immediately to repair
the damage 1t is not known whether or
not the terrible strain to which the null
has been subjected has worked any per-
| man6UC damage.