The Butler weekly times., 1895-09-05
lEAkY OLD COASTERS.
ships hat Dod:. RoaSh Weather and
Whose Captains Make $500 Year

ships That Dod:. Rough Weather and
Whose Captains Make $500 "A Year
The coaster i usually a tg~o-master
SEN u.r ~ abb. one hundred tons
burden. >ne is old. very old for a
vessel; that is. from eighteen to thirty
year of age She IS only held to-
getasr h. coal-tar," as the saying is,
and her plankiug Is - loose that if the
sea i~ AZ all r2urh she begins to work
open ana - -c;sa. and il Is all hands 10
the pumps. and if there Is gale they
must make a harbor or 90 on 10 the
rocks
But why are they 50 old? Because
they don't build coasters nowadays.
Men who have the money don't put it
into that kind of vessel for an invest
meut, because 1t wouldn't pay. The
only men who can afford to own them
are the men who sail them and live on
them For instance, "A coaster starts
from Calais or any port this side as far
as Tenants harbor, bound to Boston
or possibly New York. She is old aud
leaky, and her deck is piled high with
lumb 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 a
day and a night. But, on the other
hand, she might be from two to three
weeks making the journey. dodging
from port to port, and perhaps remain
ing nearly a week in one place, as some
now here have done. But they can't
make much money out of that. can
they? They certainly can't, Most of
them carry less than one hundred
thousand feet of lumber, and the way
rates are now the owner can't pay his
dollars a year.
And yet the captains of these coast
| ers, who are nearly always their own
| ers, have a comfortable home and a
| little farm down on the coast some
where. They plant potatoes enough
| in the spring for their own use, The
| father sails his old leaky boat along
the coast all the summer and fall
| clears four hundred dollars. pulls he,
/ up on the shore in Novembe and then
! goes into winter quarters. What doe:
he DO winters? He does nothing; thai
is, if running the government at tn,
corner grocery and doing the chore:
and living with his family and enjoy
ing himself can be called nothing. Hi
is simple life. but it IS an independ
ent and happy one. He owns his LITTLE
farm on the coast, as lovely a spo
proba bly, as the sun ever shone upon il
New England, or millionaire eve
built his summer cottage upon ant
-
course, it doesn't cost our coaste
captain very much and his permanen
home is not SO elaborate as a summe
cottage, but it is snug and comforta
, BILE, and though potatoes and fish nigh
prove too frequent for a fastidiou
taste, yet you can get used to anything
If you should visit in some one of th
little communities in pretty Gov
down east where the coaster captain
hibernate for the winter, and SHOULD
be talking in the family circle on tn
first evening of your arrival. very 500
the door would open, somebody woul
peek in. and the door would shut
Then it would open again, and som
neighbors would glide silently in, 81
down and look you over from head t
foot without saying a word. Thi
would be repeated till most of tn
neigh borhood had come in and salts
fed their curiosity. Engaged in con
. versation they would prove very agree
able and Intelligent, Most of then
read great deal in the winters an
} take weekly publications
These coaster sailors are distinc
:. class, and very different from the fish
ermen. They are older men, have sci
= tied down with wife and family. ar
more steady and sober. and, thoug
earning much less money and living o.
3 fish, potatoes and pork. while the fist
= ermen have all the market affords, the
probably have just as good time an
so do their families The schooner
? that carry lime are generally old cor
demned fishing schooners that hav
, been bought at Cape Cod for a song
/ comparatively speaking. But they ar
2 better than the lum Der coasters becaus
they don't leak. \ lime schooner mus