The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-19
SPORTING WITH DEATH.

More than money, more than yacht
craft, means this fight Of the 90-footers
to decide whether John Bull or Uncle
Sam can build the better boat, declares
the New York World.
1t means loss OF life for somebody. It
means a daily flirting with death for
those who survive. The percentage Of
lives lost this season for the sake of the
Americas Cup is greater than il was
in the Spanish-American war. Sham
rock and Columbia have each already
lost a sailor. even before the preliminar
les.
All told, on the FIVE boats-Shamrocks
I and III, Reliance, Columbia and Con-
stitution-some two hundred men are en-
gagged. TWO deaths IS per cent of the
whole number. In the Spanish-American
was out of 100000 men engaged, in army
and navy. about 800 were killed in battle.
In other words, where only one man in
a thousand was killed in battle one man
in two hundred has been killed in cup
hunting, with the best of the season
still ahead.
How comes this sporting with death.
Ask the men who sit on the spreaders,
and pull the sheets. and trim the sails.
and do the hundred odd duties aboard one
of these swift things of the sea. With
them a second gained even at danger Of
life and limb, is the one thing to be
desired.
They'll tell you of the slender masts.
cut down TO the last pound to save any
weight. They'll tel of the thread like
rigging, figured down to the last hun
dredth of an inch; of the paper-shell
hulls which dent sometimes at the ring
of some shart wave, or break like an egg
shell if they strike a submerged log or
slide against some unknown rock.
On three slender wire ropes depend the
entire strength of the modern 90-footer.
If one rope goes there is an instant
wreck aloft. rain or rigging comes
pounding down on deck-death or injury
to an yone in its course. Splintered
spars crash through the tapping sails;
the mast goes by the board. Nothing
can stand against the downward rush of
things aloft.
These three slender ropes-threads they
look like against the sky-are the pre-
venter backstay, the gobline and the
masthead runner. If one Of them snaps
all the gear aloft is bound to go The
three are the vital parts which keep a
90-footer's rigging trim and steady. Ev-
cry puff increases the strain upon them.
Well-heeled into the brine, any one
of them may so at the next puff. Here's
the Touchdown. as the old salts called
out: Look out! jam down your helm
is anybody hurt?"
The preventer backstay runs down from
the tip Of the topmast to the boom. 1t
steadies the topmast. If the topmast
preventer goes then down crashes the
topmast in a clutter Of rigging, and some
bodys bound to be killed or hurt.
The gob-line runs down from the end
of the ub-topsaiI-yard to the end of the
boom. If it snaps down comes the club
topsaf amidst a rain Of steel wire and
heavy iron blocks.
The masthead runner supports and
steadieS the mast. 1t runs from the
masthead to a joint just aft of 'midships.
The line is fitted to blocks, and when
the boat is running free the runner on
the side on which the boom lays is eased
off There's little hope for the mast if
one of these lines parts.
1t is a dollar to a red apple that the
mast goes by the board, carrying some
body overheard. and perhaps manning
two or three more.
Nor are these all.
Racing masts are prone to buckle. Booms
and gaffs often snap asunder. Two OF
the three Shamrocks have had these &C
cidents. One cost a sailors life this
spring. Another all but killed the man
who is now Edward VII, King Of Great
Britain.
Constitution and Columbia have had
buekled masts. too. Reliance, Independ
ence. Constitution and Shamrocks I. and
IL have had buckled topmasts. Column
b!a has had a buclled boom, and Consti-
tuition and Shamrock I have had buckled
ganrs: Minor accidents have been many
minor as far as actual damage might
be concerned. yet fraught with danger
10 every man aboard.
Suppose a martingale snaps or a bob
stay goes wrong. Here come the giant
headsails Tapping down across the deck.
Any man in their path is sure to be swept
overheard with fractured skull or broken
limbs.
'C-c-crack!"
Thor- goes the steering gear. See her
yaw now The big yacht is wallowing
in the sea. Her sails slap and jibe. Ev-
erything aIoft win be coming down on
the run if thu men are not smart. It
may cost a life to make things secure.
But there's an excitement 10 it all-the
excitement to men in battle. Their lives
in danger? Yes. But think Of the glory
10 be won.
Who wouldn't sail IN a 9o-footer. even
if death perched at the masthead and
followed in the ripping wake?