The San Francisco call., 1899-09-10

afterward caused trouble. CAPTAIN
Brown ne said, by -zay Of joke, l be-
Iieve you have propeller astern."
This was taken up and passed along
until the English sailors heard it, and
asked if it was true. They would not
be convinced otherwise, and after the
race spread this report ashore. Then we
were boarded by greater crowds than
ever and were not cleared Of the charge
really until the America was put into dry
dock No one could understand how the
Aurora was beaten SO badly without
some device such as this. She finished
about half an hour behind US, and this
time would have been tripled had not
strong breeze come up after we had
crossed the line"
Across the street from the Herreshon
shipyards in Bristol. where the Defender
and the Columbia were built, there stands
an old country house with a generous
New England "stoop." In front of it
there is a row Of magnificent trees, and it
looks out upon the Bay of Bristol Some
times in pleasant weather little old
woman in black comes out and sits for
while with one of her daughters and
watches the stately yachts come up the
harbor from Newport and Fall River. She
is the mother of all the HerreshOffs. Last
February she celebrated her eighty-ninth
birthday. and she was yet hale enough to
take pride in the Columbia as she was
building IN the shops. She is a descend
ant of the famous family of Lewises Of
Boston, merchants and shipmen and
she brings to the present branch
of the family much of it's
skill as ship designers and builders.
Her husband, Charles Frederick Herres-
hoff. died thirteen years ago. leaving
family of seven sons and two daughters.
two of whom-James B. and Nat Care
the organizers of the famous shipbuilding
company. Never was there a family more
positively touched with genius. John B.
Herreshoff, the president of the company,
who has been blind now for more than
forty years. developed in his early boy
hood genius for invention. Some Of the
older residents of Bristol tell to-day about
the wonderful Herreshoff churn, which
converted the milk on the HerreShon
farm at Providence Island into butter
1t was the invention OF John b. Captain
Nat" as he is called in Bristol, built boats
from the time he was a mere boy. At
one time he constructed a catamaran with
which he cruised up and down the
barbor. 1t was an odd-looking, wide
craft. with abnormally large sails, and
when it first appeared he was the butt
of much good-natured railIery- Forth
with he began to issue challenges TO race,
and much to the astonishment OF every
body. he won all the races. And finally,
10 show what he could do, he sailed down
the harbor from Newport, watched for
one of the big sound steamers bound up
from New York and veering into line beat
the steamer into Providence.
Another of the blind Herreshoffs, Lewis,
is an expert swimmer, as we'll as some
thing of a literary man. l saw him not
many days ago wading out into the bay
With a flock Of little girls. Two of them
held 10 mis- shoulders and he swan out TO
a tioat anchored twenty yards away, and
there he taught them to dive. Still an
otter of the blind brothers has become an
accomplished musician and gives lessons
in Providence. Two others are expert
mental chemists; one lives on the
old homestead of the family
on Papasquash Point,
across from
Bristol.