The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-12-15
CALIFORNIA FIG SYRUP CO.
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal.
.oUisvILLE. Ky. NEW YORK n. y
Names Ancient Schooners.
4 Down East Fleet Which Is Disappear
ing slowly From the Seas.

\ Down East Fleet Which Is Disappear
ing slowly From the Seas.
From April to December there may be
found at any Eastern port, notably at
Bangor, scores of two masted schooners
ranging in size from fifty to two hundred
tons, and in age from twenty to sixty
years. A few are even older, and all for
general decay and dilapidation, allow and
aloft, put Clark Russelrs Flying Dutch
man in the shade. They leak like sieves,
and generally carry the most ancient style
of pumps SO that when they begin to
| take water it is more work to keep them
free than it is make sail on them. For
the rest, old and patched sails, primative
blocks and puleys, running rigging that
should be in junk shop and windlasses
patterned after the style that Noah used in
| the Ark, make up a picture that would
cause dlsmay to any but a Down East
coaster sailor.
| These old craft, as rule, carry lumber,
which accounts in great measure for
their longevity; they can't very well sink,
for their cargoes won't let them. They
are owned sometimes by dozen people,
the captain generally having a small in
terest, an eighth or a quarter, but oftener
/ by shipping firms, lumber dealers and
brokers, who sometimes give the captain
80 per cent. Of the gross earnings for
sailing them, but more frequently pay
him SO much month. Nine owners ont of
ten look for dividends only, and consider
anything spent for repairs as SO much
money lost. The result is that the YES
sells are 50 poorly found that it is a
wonder that they ever get anywhere.
/ They have been known to leave port
without enough oil on board to keep the
sidelights going.
| The ma iority of these old coasters never
get further than Boston, or on the north
side Of Cape Cod, but few of them ven
/ ture over Nantucket Shoals and up the
I Sound, or to New York, carrying lumber
up and coal back. In case one of them
( with a cargo of coal under her matches
meets a heavy gale, the chances are
strongly against any OF her people ever
seeing home again. Every spring and fall
I it is expected that about SO many of the
old tubs will be lost, just as the Glouces-
I ter people look for some of their fisher
men to go under every year on the Banks
| If the vessels themselves were the only
| loss it might be no great matter, but too
often the poor fellows who sail them 90,
too
Very few of the old hookers ever make
a winter trip, being laid up in November
men who have sailed in them then make
West India voyages in better vessels while
others 20 fishing and others still loaf
around home or go into the WOO s for a
/ Down East coaster can turn his hand to
almost anything. Most of the schooners
manage 70 make IA little money for their
owners during the summer, but it is
tough wrok TOR the men who sail them.
/ Most sch0oners of 100 tons or more carry
only four men all told-captan, mate,
cook and hand and one before the mast.
/ The last ihree named always have to
work cargo, and often the captain takes a
hand. The cook and hand gets the worst
Of it, for while one minute he is boiling
the pot, the next he may have to help at
making sail or reefing down-all for $50 a
month.
When a coaster of the Down East cut
! is lying in port and her crew assemble in
he cabin for an after supper smoke, one
man has as much to say as another, the
cook being Just as free to express his
opinion as the captain. The subjects dis
cussed include everything under the sun,
freights, politics and religion leading in
the order named. 1t was during relig-
ious discussion on board schooner one
night that the question of eternal punis h.
ment came up, and the mate related the
story of the Old coaster captain who had
long been a Universalist, but he had sud
denly changed to another church. Being
pressed for his reason for changing front,
the old fellow blurted out:
eyes, | know twas kinder sudden; |
never thought before that any one was
going to be roasted for his sins, but now,
b gosh, Eve come to the conclusion that
there must be a hell for the Swazeys.'
10 fn,N,
family with whom the old fellow was con
tinually at war, and he couldn't think of
any place too bad for them.
The cid coasters cannot last a great
while longer, even with the best of luck,
ana ente.prsng masters want better yes
Seis' Whole families of captains like the
| Pendletons and CoombseS of PenobScot
| Bay, who few years ago were in little
old 'coastIng wagons, are now masters
OF big three and four masted schooners,
and every other skipper wants to have the
same kind Of ship. Three and four mast
ers are the favorite type of vessels now,
and it is rarely that a small schooner is
built, except for fisherman. In Bath
now they are building monster schooner
and in Camden a still larger one, each
with coal carrying capacity of about a.,
O0O tons, and there are lots of others
nearly as large on the stocks. Hard pine,
spruce, coal and ice are the principal
freights along shore now, and they are
moved in large quantities, calling for yes
sells of great capacity. There is no money
now for coaster, unless it can carry a
coal mine at load, and it is the same
with other freights, SO low are the rates on
account of the competition of steamers
and barges. New York Sun.
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