The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-05
POLLY, OUR OLDEST VESSEL
SIZE WAS BUIET IN 1905 AND sTIER
FLIES TEE FLAG.

Th1a A0.Ton Craft was an 1879 PrtVntoer ava
she mad . Rseord or Elsv~s R~isss-shs'as
RNro-ana-AFteP ef This Kina
eG RIG DeWn ~Hast-Changes IN RigHtng.
BANGOR, Me-, June 3.-Tho Oldest vessel flying
the American nag Is now In the port Of Bangor
az right and tight and ready for business as any
craft in port. This il the schooner Polly, built
In Amesbury, Mass, in 1908. and now hailing
from Portland. Vessels built hero n dozen years
ago or later are now on tho docks for ropairns
and there are scores of coasters twenty or thirty
years old that have been new.topped or other
wise repaired extensively one or moro times
since thOy left the stocks, but the Polly, stub
TODD, high.Sided and r~oly.poly, seems to Be 40
good as ever; all because, as her master says,
they used good white oak in the days when she
was built, instead of tho shaky and sappy stun
vailed oak now.
1t is not so much her long career az . mors
chairman, however. that causes tho chief fame
of the Polly. She WAS once q man-o'-war-thao
10, a privateer, in the risky days Of 1919, when
the United States had moro OF o naval fight ON
hand, proportionately. than 1t has to-day. The
man-of.war of those times were not leViathann,
and, while the Polly would be laughed at now 40
a diminutive as well as an awkward little tub
for such business, she was thon regarded as
quite q formidable craft, Capt. Daniel Nc
Farland, her present master, who knows
her history pretty well, says that the Polly
| Aoek hb - W. IA NV Won Va AoAAp eh0
that she captured no fewer than eleven prizes
from the British. Once che was herself cap
tured when the Captain was lying siok In his
bunk. her vonturesome mate and crew taokling
something too stout for her, but 1t was nob
very long before tho Yankees captured her back
again. and she has been under the American
flag over since.
Many are the stories told Of the Polly, the
forty-five.ton privateer that chased British YES
sells of twice her size and more, and from all ao-
counts she must have been q terror. Her log 10
now preserved in the Portland Custom House.
and Capt. Mcfarland says it's better than any.
thing in the navy books. Her last fight was
with an armed British merchantmen, at q point
Islands. In which she was victorious, and cap.
tured a rich prize. Since then she has been con-
appears as sound to-day as any Of the neoS
sailing out of Bangor. Only one other vessel
length Of active senr~ieo"the 81 Schooner Good In.
tent. % tons, built in Braintree, Mans. in 1918.
bark bark " called the true Love, buiit /; PhiiadsipSIS
about the year 1893, for many yearg engaged in
count. but her name has long since disappeared
from the lists and she 10 doubtless under water
These old craft were generally built of the
toughest kind Of white oak. and tho quality OF
the fact that nearly all of her original frame still
remains in her, while five strakes on her port
side remain to show the wearing qualities Of the
g%lHnking used in Amesbury in 1905. To-day the
no foretopinast and only three m~en-sometimop
only two ere required to navigate, her: But
an outand-out fore-and:after. In those days all
the smaller vessels carried what Is now known
sails isS and SSp oite" aO saSsre fSsnSs SO ? YSis S.s so e
EoGdt TOR 70 . any srS,t w n,1a t ! "a and TaI ma d1Sy Gla S1tloro
Up to 1878 or 1880 topsaii schooner were mob
uncommon in this port, but now tho last Of tha0
| hath. has long aimee zone under. and thu tnnanil
Schooner is a Curiosity, indeed. y Down IN the
% Bs a1peftp sSip 5 e %ss tSe ihS syyili rf SuIE{ ssttsi ap.s Il
schoonerI, and the Goldnnch, of Liverpool. N.
IS; s3 a.e F q by fse e,5 s9Ts to Load 20 IL for oS O1e re e:
az soonest Ue ,sS,s ever ever So, seen I'll, in Bangor tSI4g d. She
The brig is also disappearing from the Ameri-
can registry r, t There Te,o are only two 6rIgs. the
where formerly there were dozens. and, no brig
has been built = In ! this country since the STSsalos
While all the coasters are Of the fore-and-afa
rig nowadays; half a century ago it was jYst the
recalls tho time, about the year is4o. when he
commanded the schooner Economy. rugged with
the larger ones carried not only square topsAir
ters say that HI the sarah Buck; built a. Bacfs.
port about the year 1s43, was the first fore-and-
was Commanded by Capt. Noah Rose Of Isles
6oGoi and when she appeared here the old tars
thCh a u 'I'il titL IL "oui0
never work in any weather. She worked all
right. however. although she was not as good
those days they built small vessels, tho Sarah
Buck. which was considered to be OF good size.
carrying only l25 tons of coal. =,
In recent years a lot of queer rigs havo been
contrived. The three mustcd topsail schooner
first vessel of this rig ever seen in Eastern
waters was the AltamahH Of %l'oston; and she
was originally a British tramp steamer which.
having been cast away on the southern coast.
schooner, and admitted 10 American registry.
The William 4. Cloves of Port Jefferson. y. y;
E Suii;t i s0 . fds G ss kHc"% or 'n any "fss Ve sisa
for that matter. as n thrcc.lnasted topsail
sorely afflicted with rheumatism, and in order
that he might steer and watch her without
house constructed with a monitor roof over the
forward part, with heavy plate glass windows
was enabled to steer the schooner without walk
ing his rheumntic pains, and II was called 2
as sailors say, long since. Down in the mari:
time provinces they have built several Of these
for them that they sail well and act well in all
weHthers. Many people make the mistake Of
calling these vessels barkcntines: they are not.
for they carry fore.and-aft foresails.
Some of the provincial schooners have square
tReSS Mind w and lover s%sy V When mH on the re% Wind' s DTbSEC
tutinR then a fore-and.ait forcsail and gaftop-
sail, One of the first three.mGsie yessels. aside
the Fame Of Bluehill. She had II short mlzzen:
like a bark. carried a square maintopsRii. and
square forCtopsail and iOpgallant. 1t was .
nuecr mixture. and they used to call her a
''jackass bark. The name "~jackAss brig "
was formerly applied To the rig properly known
as tho brlganIinc. Another nondescript Of carly
DAYS on the Pcnobscot was the Rhoda. which
had both a square and q fOre-and-Rft foreBaiI
and double foretopsails.
Nowadays, when n man builds a schooner the
question is not ms to rig. but merely ono Of size.
II sufficient money can be raised tho vessel ie
made as big as a common ship. The Biggest
schooner on salt water, and. strictly speaking,
the biggest in tho world. is the Frank A. Palmer.
1892 tons. built in Bath in 1897, and now on
her way to Key West with about 1900 tons of
coal for the United States navy. The man who
built her is now at work on a still bigger
schooner. four masted, and in Camden, on
Penobscot Bay, they are building a schooner TO
beat the Bath monster.