The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03
OLDEST OF ALL SHIPS.
The Polly, Built in 1908, is still In
Use on the Atlantic.
From the Chicago inter Ocean.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
The Oldest vessel flying the American
flag is now in the port of Bangor as right
and tight and ready for business as any
craft in port. This is the schooner Polly,
built in Amesbury, Mass, in 1905 and now
hailing from Portland. Vessels built here
a dozen years ago or later are now on the
docks for repairs and there are scores of
coasters twenty or thirty years old that
have been new-topped or otherwise re-
paired extensively one or more times since
they left the stocks, but the Polly, stub
toed. high-sided, and roly-poly seems to
be as good as ever; all because, as her
master says, they used good white oak
in the days when she was built, instead
of the shaky and sappy stuff called oak
now.
1t is not so much her long career as
merchantmen. however, that causes the
chief fame of the Polly She was once a
-war-that is, a privateer-in the
risky days of 1872 when the United States
had more of naval fight on hand, pro-
portionately, than it has to-day The
men-of-war of war of those times were
not leviathans, and, while the Polly would
be laughed at now as a dimuntive as well
as an awkward little tub for such bust
ness, she was then regarded as quite a
formidable craft.
Capt. Daniel Mcfarland, her present
master, who knows her history pretty
well, says that the Polly fought scores of
battles in the wareof 1872 and that she
captured no fewer than eleven prizes from
the British. Once she was herself can
tured when the captain was lying sick II,
his bunk, her venturesome mate and crew
tackling something too stout for her. but
it was not very long before the Yankees
captured her back again, and she has been
under the American flag ever since
Many are the stories told of the Polly
the forty-fve-ton privateer that chased
British vessels of twice her size and more
and from all accounts she must have been
terror. Her log Is now preserved in tb-
Portland custom house and Capt. McFar-
land says ats better than anything IN the
navy books. Her last fight was with an
armed British merchantmen at poipt
half way between Mount Desert and tbe
Duck Islands, in which she was victorious
and captured rich prize. Since then She
has been constantly engaged in the coast
ing trade, and she appears as sound RI da1,
Only one other vessel, so far as known
approaches the Polly in age and length OF
active serVice-the schooner Good Intent
twenty-three tons, built in Braintree
Mass. in 1913, and now hailing from
Bucksport. There was a bark called the
True Love, built in Philadelphia about the
year 1853. for many years engaged In
whaling and afterward sold for English
account but her name has long since dis
appeared from the lists and she is doubt
less under water or broken up
These old craft were generally built OF
the toughest kind of while oak. and the
quality of the timber put into the Polly
can be judged from the fact that nearly
all of her original frame still remains in
her while five stral1es on her port bilge
and part of her cardboard on the starboer1
side remain to show the wearing qualities
of the planking used in Amesbury In 1905
To-day the Polly is rugged as a fore-and
aft schooner with no foretopmast and only
three men-sometimes only two are re-
quired to navigate her. But when she was
new there was no such thing as an out
and-out fore-and-after. In those days all
the smaller vessels carried what is known
as the topsail schooner rig-they had
square topsails. and often square topgaI-
lants. This rig is good for any weather
and many old sailors think IL a great mis-
take TO have discarded It,
Up to 1915 or 1880 topsau schooners were
not uncommon in this port but now the
last of that rig hailing from these parts,
the old Anna Elizabeth, has long since
gone under, and the topsall schooner is a