The Washington weekly post., 1899-05-16

extinct animal the entire beast. II was
done. and the ship. which was q larEe
ore. came out Of the dock n to with
stand the onslaught Of any wind or wave
Breaks Of skin and bone are frequent
and 10 meet these may be seen parts OF
the skeleton of the ordinary vessel all
about the place Thus when there is
news OF an accident which viii drive to
the yard one Of the many steam schOoners
or sailing craft which have been built
there, and have In consequence lines
which are vel &nown. preparation Of the
necessary timDers is at once begun. and
when the crippled vessel limps In there Is
awaiting beside the ward into which T. Is
placed the necessary splints and bandages-
and the ribs, planking, and Caiking are
rsIddly put into place so that there K a.
little delay a. possible The same pre-
pa aFedness is true in the event of e tsie
gram from one OF the up-coast ports tell
ing or an accident which carried away
rLdder Of a given vessel At once the
necessary lumber is put into the mill and
framed Tor the work which IL must per-
form and 50 there is little stoppage Of
the run Of the vessel
Needed in the North.
Much Of this work OF refitting and re-
pairing of old vessels and Iengtneninz and
aiding 10 them has been the result OF the
growth Of the trade with the North. There
has been such a demand for light craft
that most Of the steam schoonsrs have
been withdrawn from their original coast
ing trade and sent 10 the North Pacific,
necessitating the placing on their runs of
other vessels, and this has resulted in the
renewing Of the usefulness, # not or the
youth, of many of the half-worn vessels
of the past. They have done good work,
too, for there has been no accident which
could be traced TO the repairing of a yes
sci which was too old for the service TO
which II was afterward put.
There are many arguments for the
building and repairing of vessels here, but
none has more weight with the siio-Own-
er than that in the local yards there Is
used only such timber as has been rea-
sonably wei! seasoned II is said in the
North that when the shipWright has need
OF stick of timber which is not in stock
II Is taken from the log boom Or from
the growing woods and sawed immediate
ly, so that it may be that one day tree
IS growing and waving in the forest and
the next its heart is being worked into a
ship which VIII carry IL far away. Here
II Is the custom 10 allow the wood TO be
on the ground for five or six months be-
fore it is put where its shrinkage would
endanger the safety OF the ship.
Back of the repairing Of old ships there
is first the utilization Of the craft for all
that is in 1t. and then, again, the Sentl-
ment Of some Of the owners that they
must keep their ships as long as they can
be made to last. 1t is found in not
few cases that this is so strong that
some OF the oldest of the Schooners have
little in them that was there when they
were baptized. And i'm the mOdel-room
of Hay & Wright's yard, bending over
the table with drdughting tools, at work
upon some problem of repairing or build
ing is a kindy-eyed old Englishman.
who has been the presiding. genius at
some OF the most difficult and successful
of these wooden surgical operations, who
as he talks looks al a silver watch, which
shows that il was built upon an old mod
ell and he says: There is always some
thing which will last as long as man,
and he is lucky if he lasts as long as the
ship or machine. That watch | bought
forty-ene years ago, when | was coming
out from England. Often have / been
tempted 20 throw il away for new one,
but now I stick to it, believing that as
long as there is a piece OF II 10 run
shall run too, and not till it breaks down
will quit"
Cemetery of ships.
Next door 10 the hospital is the ceme
terry, their borders almost overlapping,
one of the conspicuous objects on the
edge of both being the old cable steamer
Prof. Morse. Gaunt, the old vessel looks,
with smokestack out and the shreds of
paint coming off the sides. This magnifi-
cent old ship was built in 1866, and, hav-
ing been condemned, she may never be
Hard service it has been. too.
that has removed the vessel from the
ranks of the earners. How hard the wear
could not be better told than In the ST.
lent evidence of the four-masted sailing
ship Lancing, which lies just across the
stream at the dock diSCharging cargo. |
Built in the same year, on the same gem
eraI lines as the Perler. for the Compag
ME Generate Transatlantique, and one of
the fast steamers OF her day, the trans |
formed sailing vessel may last for many