The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-07-06
Books Of Interest to 1aine Readers.

Among recent aCCeSSlOnS TO the BelIaSl
Free Library is ''By Way of Cape Horn,
Four Months on a Yankee Clipper" by
Paul Eve Stephenson. In a review of the
book The Rudder of January last said
''Taken as a whole this book is the most
finished and interesting account of sea
travel that has been put into print in
many year. We cannot pay a higher
compliment to the author than to say that
it takes rank with Dana's celebrate
work, and as that book is the standard
picture of life before the mast, so will
''By Way of Cape Horn be recognized
as the most graphic delineation of life
abaft the same spar.''
The Maine reader will not get very far
into the volume before encountering ia
miliar names, both of commanders and
vessels, and this gives to the book local
favor and interest. For example, under
date of May 10Th the author says:
For the past twenty-four hours we have
certainly done splendidly, logging one
hundred and ninety eight miles, hauled
as close to the wind as possible Capt
Scruggs even went so far as to say that
he thought that there was only two other
American ships af1oat that could have
made more than two hundred miles by
the wind--the Henry B. Hyde and the A
q. Ropes. Later l asked the skipper
which he considered was the finest all
around modern ship under the flag to- day
his answer instantly was, ''the Hyde by
all odds; and not only that but she's one
Of the finest ships that ever came out of a
Maine yard" She was built about ten
years ago in Bath by John Mcdonald, a
Nova Scotian and pupil of Donald Nc
Kay of Boston, who turned out many
celebrated clippers thirty or forty years
ago. The Hyde is a large ship, register
ing twenty-five hundred tons, but in spite
of her size she is three master, being, |
believe, the second largest ship of this rig
afoat, the British ship Ditton heading the
roll of three masters with net tonnage
of about twenty eight hundred. Almost
all sailing vessels of over two thousand
tons register are now built with four
masts.
The Hyde was built for and command
ed until recently by Capt. Phineas Pen
dleton, Jr., late of Searsport, now of Cali
fornia. Of local interest also is the &C
count on pages 81, 50 and 80 of the dis
masting of the ship May Flint, and of the
fine steamship displayed by her command
er, Capt. Z. D. P. Nichols of Searsport.
The author is not a greerhorn and this
was not his first long voyage, accompa-
MED by his wife. They made the trip to
witness the seas off Cape Horn, and had
their curiosity in that direction fully sat
isfied. One can but believe that the pic
lures of daily life on board the ship
Hosea Higgins, Capt. Abner Scruggs,
are Photographic III their accuracy; and
they bear out the generally accepted con
clusion that there is a good deal of ''hell
at1oat'' on blue water. The names of the
captain and ship are of course ticticious-
the former is said to hail from Rockland-
and the portrait of the captain is certainly
not IA t1attering one. The first officer fares
little better than his superior while the
second officer is said to be a fine seaman,
but a brute. The petty officers and the
crew individually ale made the subjects
of character studies which are more or
less interesting, the sea scenes are depict
ed in a mastery manner, and the han
ding of the ship i'll calm and storm is des-
cribed as only one well up in seamanship
could describe it,