The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-17

Ser: his brother. Capt. Arthur L. Crow
iey-wGao has been sailing the Wells,
the first six-master-win command
her; and her first voyage will be to the
Philippines with coal.
A seven-rnast ed schooner Is in some
ways not essentially different from
six or a five master. yet every time
we add another hundred feet to the
span of our bridges, another story to
our high buildings, another cylinder to
our. nn9rine engines. or another mast to
our schooners, we naturally pause ana
look back to see what a great distance
We have come. This seVen-master,
then. serves as a convenient milestone
in an industry which has figured in the
affairs of our Atlantic coast since the
first little craft were built for nshlng
on the New England coast 2OO years
ago.
The first fore and aft sailboats
(which took the name 'schooners')
were easy to handle. AS the vessels
grew bigger. however. and the sails
Increased IN the same proportion, they
finally got too big to be managed
There was nothing to do, therefore,
but divide them up and pile the pieces
one on top of the other in the FORM
of topsails and topgallants. In order
to accomplish this the old slanting Ia
The1-l1ke X9TQS Tdu " DC oAoh6
Zontally and placed outside the shrouds
instead of between them. That made
the Square rigger'' The square rig
ger, therefore, was argey
makeshift. designed to overcome
the dificulty of handling great
sail arear Size was rfVe" en-
tirely satisfactory--that is. she was al
ways limited, except in steady Wlnus
and long runs, as in the trade VINO
attitudes. Even in her palmlest DAYS
the same clippers that raced so glorl-
ouelv across the seas with roaring
white cloud at their figure-headed BOWS
and a broad. smooth swathe of foam
behind. that rocked and rolled so ma
Jestically up over the blue horizon,
their pyramids of canvas swollen OUT
either side with studding sails and TER
ed high with topgallants, royals SKY
sails, cloud rakers. and sky-scrapers'
and paid for themselves IN a slnsle
yage-these same craft often lay lor
days together in a harbor unapie 10
get out against a head wind. wen
to-day the quare-rigger bound from
Gibraltar to England goes ilrst nearly
10 Iceland before she gets a slant OF
wind to take her back up the channel.
II it should begin tomorrow TO blow
strong northwest and keep II UP not
another square-rigger should we see
from Sandy Hook to Cape Breton III
we went out and towed them IN
Against the gale The trouble Is, a
square-rigger, by the clumsinness OF
her gear can not head up to within
lees than six and a half points OF tle
Wlnd-elght points would be a rlsat
snele-and at so large an angle when
tne side slip or "leeway OF the snip
ls added. all the beating 70 windwhs1
enc can do only carries her back ana
Forth on the same straight line.
~ much for the innovation, whics
grow big while the schooner stayed
Ntte. Just because big schoOners conld
Nei De- handled But when the own
and shippers and builders were
naaly perfuaded 10 try steam macl1n-
~ nrst 10 get up anchor then q
Isli sail and finalig 70 do nearly az
pulling and hauling, then the
D. erto unmanageably large sails be-
l.Nn quite possible. The schooner
'.Id De o. large o. she liked-ainOst
any rate, 8e large ~ a ship. Ana
ne ship W6F no longer needed.
p the world there ere perhaps DOT
'9ten ~ her building today. except
compounds part fore-anq-0ff,
. tquale-rigged IKE bark, or q
vac ebout 1850 when sailing yef
pnEan to haye f1ree masts, four
t hpleafed ~ 1861 nYe-maatff6
isH years later lhe bfgiuulng