The Portland daily press., 1898-10-04
NAMES ANCIENT scHooNeRs.
A Down Ea st Fleet Which is Disappearing
Slowly From the Seas.
New York Sum-

Bangor, Sept. 3O.-From April to De-
cember 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 rev are
even older, and all for general decay and
dilapidation, allow and aloft, put ClarK
Russell's Flying Dutohman in the snaoe.
They leak like Stoves, and generally carry
the most ancient style Of pumps, 30 that
when they begin to take water it is more
work to keep them free than 1t is to make
sail on them. For the rest, old and
patched sails, primitive blocks and pull
legs, running rigging that should be in
junk shop and windlasses patterned after
the style that Noah used in the Ark,
make up picture that would cause dis
may to any but Down East coaster
sailor.
These old craft, as rule, carry lumber,
which accounts In great measure for
their longevity; they can't very we'll sink.
for their cargoes won't let them. They
are owned sometimes by o dozen people,
the Captain generally having a small in
terest an eighth or q quarter, but often or
by shipping firms, lumber dealers and
brokers, who sometimes give the Captain
So per cent. of the gross earnings for sail
ing them, but mora frequently pay him
so much month. Nine owners out OF
ten look for dividends only, and consider
anything spent for repairs as SO much
money lost The result Is that the vessels
are SO poorly found that 1t is wonder
that they ever get anywhere. They have
been known to leave port without enough
oil on board to keep the sidelights going.
The majority of these old coasters never
get further than Boston, or on the north
side of Cape Cod, but few of them VEN
ture over to Nantucket Shoals ana up he
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 heavys gale, the chances are
strongly against any of her people ever
seeing home again. Every spring and fall
it is expected that about SO many OF the
old tubs will be lost, just as the Glouces.
ter people look for some of their fishermen
to go under evsry year ON the Banks. III
it might be no great matter, but too often
the poor fellows who sail them go. too.
Very few of the old hookers ever make
q winter trip, being laid up In Novem Der
or December for the season. Some OF the
men who have sailed in them then make
West India voyages in better vessels.
while others go fishing and others still
loaf around home or 90 into the woods,
for Down East coaster can turn his
hand to almost anything. Most OF the
schooner manage to make little money
for their owners during the SUNNI or, but
ii is tough work for the men who sail
them. Many sohooners OF 100 tons or more
carry only four men all t3ld-Captain.
mate, cook-and- hand and one before the
mast The last three named always have
to work cargo, and often the Captain
takes hand. The cook .and-hand gets the
worst of it. for while one minute he is
boi ing the pot, the next he may have to
help at making sail or reetng DOWNFALL
for $40 a month.
When coaster Of the Down East cut is
lying in port and her crew assemble In
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 q schooner one
night that the question OF eternal punish.
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
~
that there must be hell for the Swaz-
cysr' The Swazeys were famous sea-
going family with whom the old fellow
was continually at war, and he couldn't
think of any place too bad for them.
The old coasters cannot last great
while longer. evnn with the best of luck,
and enterprising masters want better yes.
sells. Whole families of Captains, like the
Pendletons and Coombses OF Penobscot
Bay. who q few years ago were In little
old Hcoasting 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
masters are the favorite ftype sof vessels
now, and it is rarely that small schooner
Is built, except for fisherman. In Bath
now they are building monster schooner
and in Camden still larger one, each
with coal-carrying capacity of about
4, COO tons, and there are lots of others
n early as large on the stocks. Hard pine,
spruce coal, and ice are the principal
Heights along shore now, and they are
moved in largo quantities, calling for
vessels of great capacity. There is no
money now for coaster, unless 1t can
carry a coal mine at load. and 1t is the
same with other freights SO low are the
rates on account Of the competition Of
steamers and barges.