The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-27

|. cob Astor's Nourmahl; August Bel
mont's Stout; Col. Albert Paine's JAphro-
dite, and half a hundred others, each
flying the New York Yacht clubs pen
nant at the fore and the private signal
of the owner at the main.
The big racers had already been towed
out, and when the fleet arrived they
were circling like great gulls about the
lightship. The polished bronze hull of
the Shamrock, cleaning in the sunlight,
made her look like yellow-breasted gull
with white pinions. The white revenue
cutters and yachts of the patrol fleet,
each with the vertically striped revenue
flag at the fore peak, marshaled the ex-
cursion fleet behind the line Shortly
before IL o'clock a big black tug, flying
the blue flag of the regatta committee,
puffed through the fleet, measured off
the 2C0 yards starting line from the light
ship, let go her anchor and then hoisted
the signal, I'D. B. w." including that
the course would be east by north, hf-
teen miles straight into the eye of the
wind and return Then another big tug
started off straight out the Long Island
shore to set the outer mark The log
over her taffrail which measured the
distance took no account of the tide
which was running out, so that the dis
tance she covered before the f1oat was
dropped overheard measured by the bot
tom of the sea was probably nearer
seventeen than fifteen nautical miles.
JoCKEYING FOR THE START.
Five minutes before II o'clock puff
of smoke burst from the committee boat.
The Blue Peter went up and the prepara-
tory signal for the race had been given.
Then began the jockeying behind the
line. of which Charlie Barr, the American
skipper, has proved himself SO many
times a grand master. And the skill
he displayed today was enough to warm
the hearts of those who saw it. He got
into the windward berth, and, try as the
Englishman would, he could not shake
him off AS the red ball which marked
the warning signal was hoisted ten mill
ltes later the English skipper in de-
spair put up his tiller, crossed the line
and tackled about the hghtship, but the
Columbia hung toehim as II one tffer
were answering for both, and W .ten they
again reached for the line it was like
two thoroughbred horses neck and neck.
But Barr was still to windward The
fascinating game the two shippers were
playing was so intense that both miscal-
culated the time and crossed the line
thirty seconds before the starting gun
was fired. = rlsss ~ &-s
Three blasts of the whistle sounded the
recall. The two big scanvas-clouded
racers wore around; as. if turning on
their heels and, coming up again in
| the smoke of the gun, fed away
ACROSS THE LINE,
both on the starboard tack, but Colum-
! bia half a length in the lead and a
| length to windward Both carried the
same sails, main, club topsail, stay, lib
and baby jib topsail. The sight made
thp Snept9tOrS tinpia with
| delight Then for ten minutes down the
Long Island shore in plain view of the
! people there. the big single stickers
smashed into the head sea, sending spray
| smoking to the cross trees. Strained as
| Shamrock was, she could not hold her
white rival even. Slowly, but surely,
Columbia forged ahead. pointing higher
| and footing faster. Shamrock tackled
| and tackled again but Columbia went
about with her each time and appeared
| to be more nimbe Timed again and
+ again by the experts, she was quicker N
| stays by ten seconds The beat down
the Long Island coast made a beautiful
marine spe 1tacle. The patrol fleet un-
der the direction of Capt. Walker OF
| the revenue cutter service, maintained
a perfectly clear field. Half mile of
revenue cutters and yachts at an angle
of four points from each side of the
course formed right angle, changing d.
rection as the yachts tackled: In the
hollow of this angle, as if in a fence
corner, there was no more Interference
| with the yachts than if they had been
sailing in the middle of the Atlantic,
while behind the end on either side were
! the solid floating moving lines of careen-
! ing hulls rail to rail- their smoking
| stacks making a black wall above them
| On into the bucking seas the yachts
went, squirting great geysers from their
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