The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-11
The DOWN EAST SAILORMEN.
YANKEES WHO TEMPT FATE AT
S25 A MONTH.

The Maine Coaster a Queer Mixture o.
Sailor, Farmer and Business Man
Daring Nay1gators OF Craft OFTEN
Unsea worthy-some Of Them Get Rich.
BANGOR, Me-, Sept 10.-Of all the sailors
ON the sea the Down East coaster does the
hardest work, braves the greatest dangers
and gets the poorest rewards. HIS occu-
patton has been described as tempting fate
at SOS a month. The coaster is an unsung
bero, but he is unconscious OF that, ana
would be happy II freights were fairly gooo
tram Bangor to Boston and New York
and there were not more than ten oonsecu-
tive days of easterly winds In any one
month.
The Maine coaster Is a queer mixture OF
sailor, farmer and business man, and fire.
Suently, also, he Is an expert deep-sea
fisher1nar. Many OF the masters Of the
little echooners have in their younger days
sailed round and round the world, finally
aettling down In some seacoast village
and buying into a small craft OF which
t1ey can at once be the managing owner
and skipper and in which they can make
q living by eight months sailing, hauling
the vessel up at Thanksgiving time and
fixing comfort at home until spring.
Some of the masters sail vessels owned
by other people, either at stated salary
or on shares, and occasionally it happens
that the vessel is sort Of family affair,
being owned and manned by father and
sons or by brothers
In times Of disaster this arrangement
n yery unfortunate, for when the vessel
goes down the entire male part Of the family
Is likely tn go with her, leaving behind
n ritiful srTay of widows and orphans
Such q case occurred in the loss Of the
schooner Ella Brown, several of the Pea
body family of Jonesport having gone
down in the vessel
The natives of the Maine coast towns
and OF the islands strewn along the shore
from Portland to Quoddy head are among
the finest sailors in the world. They are
eailors from force Of circumstance, hardy
from inheritance, and cute because they are
Yankees No other men could make liv-
ing out Of coasting In these waters, and how
the natives do it is a source Of wonder to
cvery one who ever studied the subject.
The coaster begins going when he Is IL
or IA and quits when he is too old to stand
q watch at the wheel-if he manages to
stay above water that long. Man and
boy, he Is generally lank and lean, with
q akin like leather, a constitution like iron,
and a capacity to endure great hardships
without complaint.
His vessel is generally Of great age and
small size-from twenty to sixty years old
and from so to $50 tons-rigged as a two
masted schooner. Generally she is dull
sailer and almost always leaks like basket.
Only the fact that she carries lumber ac-
counts for her being 80 long atioat Hun
dreds Of the old hookers now going would
have been on the bottom long ago only
their cargoes wouldn't let them sink.
A coaster OF average size trading be-
tween Maine ports and Boston carries a
master, mate, one seaman and a cook
and-hand. Many of them make trips from
Bangor to Boston with only two or three
men all told, and last summer the schooner
Angler, 80 TONS was navigated from Bos-
ton to Calais and half way back again by
her master single handed.
The coasters cargo nine times in ten is
lumber, and she gets from $l.75 to $2,25 a
thousand feet for carrying it from Bangor
to Boston and the Cape-Cape Cod. Out Of
this she has to pay for loading and dis
charging cargo, for towages, commissions
to brokers, crews wages and stores, and
other expenses, and just now all expenses
are much higher than in former years.
The stores consist chiefly of salt pork
ealted and dried Goldfish, flour, molasses,
potatoes, baking powder and kerosene oil
There may be a chunk or two OF corned
beef, and in the fall OF the year the skipper
will add, because then they are cheap, cab.
bages, apples, onions, DC, but at no time
Ia the bill of fare so rich or varied as to
worry the cook or invite the govt.
A man who wants to go must be both
strong and willing not only to reef, handle
and steer, but to work cargo as well, for il
frequently happens that no stevedores
are available or that the skipper is unwilling
to pay for loading and discharging. II a
man sailing before the mast gets in si1
months year at s25 or $50 a month he il
doing as well as the average Of coasters.
The mate and the cook land hand get q
little more, and the captain gets whatever
circumstances, weather luck and his bust.
ness abilities allow. This may be consider.
able, or it may be nothing at all.
Occasionally it happens that man gets
rich at coasting, but this is when he gets
O start in the world through superior bust
ness aDlllty OF SeainanbIilp, OF through the
assistance of friends who put him into one
OF those marine wonders-the new style
twentieth century coasters, four, five OF
six masted schooners.
The Coombses and Pendletons Of Penob.
ecot Bay and the Crowleys Of Massachli.
(setts are of this class, and Capt. Line
Jewett OF South Portland, master OF the
eix-master Eleanor A. Percy, is another
shining example. Jewett rose in a few
years from being master of a small fishing
smack to the command Of big Golfers.
Daring. skilful seamanship and good
management did it, although the prevalent
opinion alongshore is that he was largely
aided by bull luck. Jewett never stopped
for wind or weather. but went when there
was q possible chance to get anywhere
Owners saw that he was a money maker
and that settled it, He was put into big
vessels, and his luck stayed by him.
The Pendletons Of Islesboro have riser
from shippers and sailors in leaky old tubs
Of coasters to be the largest owners Of
ooezwise shipping in Maine, AMI ecvera
other families have accumulated wealth ir
the shipping business. The great ma.
jority. however. remain poor and take
their chances in vessels that have no reputa.
ton at all in insurance circles.
The risks taken by the men who 60 Il
sea in the old-fashioned coasters are sci