Omaha daily bee., 1895-08-18


The wind was brisk and from the south
east. The blue waters of Massachusetts bay
ran brimming in long, foam-topped ridges to
the bright horizon, where the pale clouds fed
like frightened ghosts before the hurrying
breeze. In the foreground near the spot
where Marblehead Rock reared its brown
pyramid above the restless lashing of the
milkwhite foam fleet of yachts was
scurryng about. like a flock of great gulls
swooping hither and thither over the vexed
bosom of the sea. 1t was race day in the
Corinthan Yacht club Of Marblehead and
the crack flyers Of Salem and Lynn and
dozen other seaport towns were maneuvering
for advantageous positions at the start. At
length the gun sent them all away upon
their course and as the swirling tangle of
! sails Strengthened itself out on the first long
reach of the course twenty hemsmen
breathed more freely. l had made fast the
Rosalie's jb sheet which was my especial
care that day, and had stretched myself
| across the deck. when, Burbage said:
1--WE were in CHASTITY close quarters there
one time. | thought were in for
| collision like the big one at Brenton's Reef"
What was that?" | inquired.
DO you mean to say you didn't read about
1t at the time?" demanded Burbage.
"Of course, he didn't" said Eton, the
owner of the yacht, land that's why you are
SoiuS " lell us all dDOul II. 1Ou III just
have time to do it before we have to luff
around the first mark"
BURBAGE'S STORY.
Burbage heaved a sigh rolled up his eyes,
and said: We'll, | suppose I'm in for it.
This collision was one in which / had an
active personal interest, and | am free to
admit that | don't care about another eX-
perierce of the sort. 1t just goes to show
that in maneuvering for position at the start
you are liable to all sorts of trouble. This
particular start took place on one of the
cruises of the New York Yacht club. The
runs from port to port had been rather slow
and all hands were wishing for little
citement, and they got it.
The citizens of Newport had offered several
handsome cups to be raced for off that place.
All the fast yachts in the fleet were entered
for the contests, and when the day opened
with. brisk wind from the southeast all
hands were happy. | was a guest aboard the
hfty-foot sloop Florina, which was entered
for the cup offered for her class. There was
also a cup for the big single-stickers, one
for b g schooners another for schoOners of
eighty feet, and still another for forty six foot
sloops. There were thirty-seyen entries in
all the classes, and every one of them passed
| out by Fort Adams with her racing number
up. The steam yacht Magnetic, the flagship
of the fleet with Commodore Perry and the
regatta committee aboard anchored abreast
of Brentons Reef light ship and sent up
signals which informed the racers that the
course would be fifteen miles dead to wind
ward and return. Now if there was any
| thing in the world that suited the Florina.
| that was it. Sac was one of the smartest
| boats in going to windward that was ever
| turned out. and she wasn't designed by Bur
| CESS or Herreshoff, either, but by an old
sea captain, who laid down her lines by
| what he called the rule of thumb and a good
| nose for salt water.
A LIVELY START.
"We made I'm Our minds bat tbere WAS
| going to be too much wind to make a club
| topsol comfortable, so we set working
| topsan. We were glad afterward that we
| did. because it gave us just that much less
| hamper aoft and probably saved us from an
| upset. The nineyfoot sloops had their
| balloon canvass aloftI however, and from the
| way they went ripping through the water on
| the way out of the harbor / made up my
mind that it wouldn't be healthy to be in the
| way of any one of them at the start. The
schooners, too, had lively move on, and
| altogether it was pretty brisk morning.
THE start was made in the usual way.
| A preparatory gun was fired and ten min
utes later the starting gun, after which all
| yachts have five minutes in which to cross
! the line. 1t was stupid to start all classes
| at once, and after that day they never did
it again. The Magnetic to the west
ward Of the lghtship, and of course we all
maneuvered for position off to the west
ward of the flagship, so as to come down
| to the line with the wind nearly abeam, luff
under the stern of the Magnetic and haui
| by the wind on the starboard tack. You
may easily understand that with fresh
| southeasterly breeze we were bound to come
around the Magnetics stern at pretty
| lively pace. The Florina in a beautiful
position when the skipper started her for the
| line. Only two yachts were to windward OF
| us and they reached the line almost in the
| smoke OF the gun. We were not more than
| thirty seconds behind them, and we rushed
| down to the line with our lee rail under
! water and soping deck adrip with the
| flying spray The big schooner Maybrd was on
| our weather quarter. and before we reached
| the line she established lap on u.s. that
| we had to keep away, and let her cross the
| line little nearer to the flagship than we
WERE Just before we crossed / looked