Evening star., 1901-11-16

ing much the same purpose as the CEN
ter board formerly used in trading craft
as 1t is used today in yachts. The fact
that she is built of steel will also en-
able her to have a double bottom--an INSIDE
Water-tlght floor, that is four feet above
.hs real bottom, with seven upright steel
keeIsons between the two. This space is not
wasted, Tor when she is required to sail
without cargo, 200 tons of water can be
@ run INTO IL TO serve for ballast, and readily
pumped out again when desired. Even il
II were, she might We'll afford to waste H.
ior owing to the thinness of her plates she
is nVe feet wider INSIDE than a wooden YES
sel OF the same displacement would be-to
say nothing of the space saved over the
wooden keelson.
How She VIII he Handled.
The question OF handling a schooner or
these extraordinary dimensions is not SO
serious as one would think. When YOU
ask Captain Crowley-a heavily built man
OF middle age, square-jawed, bruad-chested
now she will handle, Like any other
schooner he replies, confidently; and since
ne mas handled them ALL from two masts
up ne speaks with authority. And how Will
she steerY AS easily as a yacht" saws he
so her steam steering-another innovation
IN salllng Vessels-will not be used except
IN going In and out of port where quick
changes In course are needed Connared
with gong about'-that is changing from
one TACK TO another-on square-rigger, the
with schooner
Indeed very simple and yacht-like The
square-rigger must call up her watch from
below and have all her thirty men on deck
pe1ore she begins, and must keep them pull
ing and hauling good twenty minutes be-
fore she is fairly on her way again. On the
seven-masted schooner, in spite of her 43.oDD
feet of sail, things will work differently
First the topsails will be clewed up out of
the way. The mate will then take his posi-
| ton on the quarterback, place a man amid
ships to send on his orders-400 feet being a
long way to make oneself heard 'In the
teeth OF the booming gale"-while five or
six more cher entire crew, cooks steward
enginemen, and all, consisting of only sew
enteen mem go forward TO haul the many
Jlbs, one over the other, as she comes round
when the moment arrives the mate waves
his hand the helmsman spins over his
wheel, and the Jibs, let fly, begin Stating
with a deep-throated boom boom boom"
Slowly at first, then more rapidly, the high
Prov swings up toward the wind, meets the
crest Of the next oncoming wave with a
sullen blow, sending the spray high in the
air and drenching the decks. For a moment
the long spike bowsprit saws hesitatingly
up and down in the winds eye, while all
of kicking blocks and cordage the booms
sway threateningly from side to side.
On the other Tack.
Then she fills away on the other tack the
jibs leave off their thunder as the fastening
crew make them fast once more, and, all in
five minutes. she is bowling along again
with a steady rise and fall, white plume
under her bow and reeling out a broad wake
behind her at twelve knots an hour. A
craft like this never has to be reefed. They
simply take in one two of her sails. She
can never, however, sail directly before the
wind with advantage, for the two aftersails
then becalm all the others; but must make
long zigzags to windward. All vessels with
more than three masts have the same fault.
But ii is not serious fault, except In the
"trades'-for elsewhere there are few long
continued following winds.
So has grown and prospered our Yankee
invention, the schooner, from a small
wooden hull with two masts to the steel
seven-master; and doubtless will she
continue to grow. Some have said she
would go when the pine forests went. but
scarcity of pine will not prevent her being
built of steel. Some say she cannot grow,
because larger sails could not be made to
hold together in one piece; some because
she cannot be managed in harbors; some
because she will not handle under sail. But
they have reckoned, one guesses, without
an appreciation of all the ways and means
that enter into modern ship construction.
However that may be, suffice 1t that We
may conscientiously say, so far so good:
that in 1901 we built schooners 400 feet long