The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-14


tons are very much open 70 error, and in
the English publications az least have been
amus,ngly controlled by the personal pref
udice Of the calculator.
Results Not Conclusive.
The results as a whole cannot he said to
tell anything certainly. except that the
defender Of the Americas cup i'm 1899 IS
going TO have a harder time OF IL than
has been known by any previous defender
This is not intended TO mint that the
shamrock is going 20 win. IL only means
that there is going to be AN al fired nus
Tie 10Y the blue ribbon of the sea
The dimensions of the Shamrock are said
to be l25 feet over al and as close as
/ possible 20 80 feet on the water line Her
| beam IS mentioned variousy from % feet
TO 26 feet. 1t may be taer or neither
as far as anybody ON this side knows.
her draught of water is mentioned at
| various figures, lying between 10 feet &
inches ana 26 feet As fact, we know
| nothing about 1t except this, thot ian a
dock in which the vessel lay the dock
| master had orders to Keep The wafer "A,
% feet deep. Allowing for a liberal mar
gin Of five feet, this would stil suggest
possible % feet of drau-ht. which would
be about feet inches deeper than the
Keel of the Columbia.
The dimensions of the Columbia are 1872
feet over all, 50 feet inches on the water
! e
| dfauSht of probably 10 feet inches or 70
feet.
For beauty of outline the Shamrock can
not be compared to the Columbia Her
oNerhangs are neither as long nor as
graceful Her lack of sheer is positively
ugly and her excess of lreeboard makes
her look heavy as compared with the low
lying Herreshom boatThe masts also seem
TO be unnecessarily bulky as compared
with the home boat. Her
model above water is said
| TO be heavy of outline, add to have gone
to what is known as the brute" rather
| than toward that scientific nn,nass of form
which is apparent in the Columbia and
much more marked and beautiful In the
! Defender
But what the under water body of the
shamrock may be is a secret which few
| Know. The engineering difficulties I'm at
! taching thin fin keel 10 a shallow fiat
| huh strongly enough 10 hang ninety tons
OF lead at the bottom Of il have never vet
| been solved for The racing ninety foot cul-
| ter. tltes extreme secrecy Ia The build
! ing and launching of the Shamrock may
| possibly have a much better business ba-
SIS than any one has suspected. He may
| nave solved the eng nearing difficulty
which has so far 'stumped" other build
ers, and it may he that his discovery holds
| a fortune for MIN. With this eXplanation
! the launching of the yacht in petlicoats
! the presence of detectives and all kinds
| OF guards become comprehensive. ana
! there will probably be a revelation, or at
| least an extensive satisfying Of curiosity
| when the Shamrock has to go into the
ENC Basin drydock to polish up for the
races.
Rugged for Ocean Passage.
The Shamrock is now rugged as a ISetcb
for her ocean voyage Under this same
| KIND of rig the two Nalkyries came to
| America ana returned home. As in their
! cases the huge racing mast of the cutler
| is lifted out, and win be sent across the
ocean on the Furnessia, of the Anchor
Linz together with the Shamrocks four
suits of sails, racing spars and all bal
| loon canvas. In the empty step of the
manmast viii be placed a stout and com
paratvey short SPAR which carries a
mainsail of small dimensions. Wen in
board from the counter is placed the
mizzenmast In the ketch rig this mir
zenmast is not at all like the little pipe
stem that Is stuck up in most of our To-
cal yawls and it does not blow out on the
ilrst possible occasion. 1t is a stout stick,
that can carry reefed sail through a
gale of wind. The ketch rig when I'M
reefed is rather like the schooner rig
whe nthere are two reefs In the mainsail
In other words. the mizzen or the ketch
which sets over the stern is a much small
! err sail~than the central and body canvas.
| called the mainsail. Under this rig the
| Nigilant made a record trip for sailing
| yachts eastward from New York to Great
| Britain in 1894
One remark should be added about these
yachts. The American defender has been
/ punt as yacht. She has been built Of
good steel and solid bronze from keel pla .e
to gunwale, and she is competent to cross
to any waters to race with the best yac1ts
that foreigners can produce. No matter
" n tbfAf
be, it will always be satisfaction to
know that the American represent alive
was stauch and able vessel that resortea
TO no kind of tricks or local structural adj
| Vantages. on the other hand. the chal-
| longing craft is an exaggeration of The ex-
ample taught in the Defender, and is not a
vessel which any sea-loving people could
ever regard with affection, no matter how
much they might wonder at her speed
II is a curious commentary on the mod
ern demands for high speed that in order
to be dangerous to others a yacht must
first be dangerous 10 herself.
The breaking of the Columbia's ho-
low steel mast last Wednesday should
not cause any want Of confidence in the
| American representative or her designers.
| This new lower mast, which was intended
to house the topmast within 1t. was much
in the nature of an untried toy, though
certainly of a dangerous kind The ex-
pertinent, however costly, was interesting,
though IL might have been first tried on Il
less important and valuable boat than
the Columbia Many yachtsmen held
grave doubts as to whether the hollow
cylinder of steel plating would endure the
enormous strains that are put on the rae
ing mast of a ninety-f0ot cutter, and the
result after the first half hour Of trial
showed that the doubts were not misplace
ed. The result of this accident is now
expected to prejudice sailors against steel
masts. They certainly want a spar that
they can cut away with axes when IL
breaks, and not a thing that viii lie down
IN the water and cannot be removed ex-
cept with a steam derrick. The Column
bia is now going back to her Oregon pine
mast, a splendid and trustworthy spar.
which most people hope she will retain.
Drainage South of the city.
Editor Morning News: Mr.. Dale's re-
marks in to-day's paper would lead one 10
think that with the exception Of a ditch