The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-01-16
THE SEVEN-MAST R.

On the shores of the southernmost
| inlet of Boston Harbor, at the new
Fore River Shipyard, they are laying
| the keel for a seven-maSted craft, the
first seven-masted schooner ever built,
the largest ''fore-and-a AFTER" almost. IT
not quite, the largest sailing vessel In
the world. At the end of the graveled
beach lies the black and red Des MOines,
a cruiser of the Denver class, which is
to be launched next month; while i'm
mediately adjoining will soon rise the
great hulls of the New Jersey and
ships ordered for our navy and the two
ever planned But the new seven-mas-
ter will be larger than the cruiser and
almost as large as the battleshipS. She
will be 4o3 feet long over all, OF $50 feet
long from tip of her bowsprit to the
extreme end of her aftermost boom;
and she will be built Of steel through
out Bowdoin b. Crowinshield, who
modelled the lines of Lawson's indie
pendence, has designed her: Captain j.
G.. Crowley of Taunton will manage
her: his brother, Captain Arthur l..
! Crowley. who has been sailing the
Wells, the first six-master, will com
mand her and her first voyage Will be
to the Philippines with coal.
1t was about 1880 when sailing vessels
began to have three masts: fouI-maSt-
erS appeared in 1855: ive-maSUers only
a few years later. The beginning of
the new century saw two schoonerS
with six masts - fore, main, mlZZen,
spanker, jigger and driver, they are
called in order from stem to stenl-the
George W. Wells and the Eleanor a.
Percy, and already the keel is lald on
which presently to step the seventh
stick, which Captain Crowley, it may
| be announced, with a due sense OF the
Importance of putting a word INTO print
! for the first time has decided to call
the ''pusher."
The question of handling schooner
of these extraordinary dimensions is
not SO serious as one would think.
When you ask Capt. Crowley-a heavily
built man of middle age, square jaw
ed, broad chested-hoW she will handle,
| Like any other schooner" he replies,
confidently, and since he has handled
them all, from two masts up, he speaks
with authority And how will she
steer? las easily as yacht, said he,
So her steam teering-anOther lnnova-
ton i'll sailing vessels-will not be used
except in going i'll and out Of port,
where quick changes in course are
needed. Compared with going about
that is, changing from one tack to an
other-on a square-rigger, the similar
performance with a schooner seems in
deed very simple and yacht-like. The
square-rigger must call up her watch
from below and have all of her thirty
| dock hatnra cha harms onl
must keep them pulling and hauling a
good twenty minutes before she is fair
ly on her way again. On the seven
masted schooner, in spite of her 5000
feet OF sail, things will work differ
emily. First the topsails will be clewed
up out of the way. The mate will then
take his position OH the quarter deck,
place man amidshIps to send on his
, orders-40o feet being long way to
make oneself heard ''in the teeth of the
booming gale'-Whiie five OF SIX more
, der entire crew, cooks, stewards engine
men and all, consisting of only seven
teen men 20 forward to haul the many
]ibS, one over the other as she comes
, round. W hen the moment arrives the
, mate waves his hand, the lelnsman
spins over lnS wheel. and the lbs, let
fly, begin Stating with Il deep-t hroated
boom BOOM Slowly at first,
then more rapidly the high prov
swings up toward the wind. meets the
crest of the next 0ncOming wave with
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 tie wind S
eye. While all fore-and-aft is a terrific
CHATTER and banging of kicking blocks
and coldaGe as tie boons sway
threatenmgly from side to side. Then
She fills away on the other tack. the
jlbs leave off their thunder as the
Fastening crew make them fast once
more, and. all i'll five minutes, she is
! bowling along again with a steady rise
and fail, 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 III one or two of her sails
She can never, however, sail directly
before the wind with advantage, for
the two after-sails then becalm all the
others, but must make long ZigZags to
leeWard. All vessels with more than
three masts have the same fault. But
1t is not serious fault, except in the
''tradeS''-for elsewhere there are few
w
so has grown and prospered our Yam
kee invention, the schooner from a
small wooden hull with two masts to
the steel seven master, and so doubtless
will she continue TO grow. Some have
said she would go when the pine forests
went, but scarcity of pine will not pre-
vent her being builtof 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 construc-
ton. However that may be, suffice it
that we may conscientiously say so fa1
so good; that in 1901 we built schooners
400 feet long and gave them seven masts;
that in 1902 we shall endeavor to sail
them in true blue" fashion, and
make them pay.-Benjamin Brooks, in
Savannah Sunday News