The Republican journal., 1904-12-01
PASSING OF THE SAIL.


AS a long-distance means of CONNER
cial transportation, the sailing vessel is
doomed-so we are assured by NJ. Dan
iel Belief, who furnishes, in an article
contributed to the Revue Scientifque,
facts and figures to support his asser-
tions. The substitution of the motor
for the sail is going forward, he says,
more and more rapidly, and except for
pleasure and for certain special pur-
poses the latter is fast going out of use.
The day will come, perhaps, when as a
means of propulsion for any but the
smallest craft the sail will be as ObsO-
lete as the oar Says NJ. Belief:
Everywhere, in all the commercial
marines of the world, we see this disap-
pearance of sails before steam. Thus,
in the largest fleet of all, the English,
we now find only one ton OF sailing YES
sells to nearly five of steamers; and,
moreover, in the sailing fleet is includ-
ed host of secondary boats built for
the shOrt-distance cOasting trade, where
speed is less important than in inter-
national commerce, and where the
freights might not be sufficient to pay
the cost of construction and main
tenance of a steam vessel. In Germany
we have one ton of sails to four of
steam, and the situation is constantly
changing in favor of the latter. There
are, nevertheless, two countries where
this phenomenon is not taking place
Norway, where the existence of great
numbers OF sailing vessels is due to the
fact that they are largely wooden boats
that carry the lumber of the country
and France, where the null
tiplication of sailing vessels has been
artificially favored by absurd legisla-
ton.
"The Germans and the Americans
have recently built gigantic sailing YES
sells, for instance the Preussen, of u,
have built ships of 10000 tons, with no
consider that the limit of the modern
ed. Doubtless we hear of ex-
traordinarily quick transatlantic pas
sages by these boats but these
are due to fortunate combinations of
circumstances. And, in fact, the giant
sailing vessels are far from being COM
pletely safe; some of them have been
mysteriously lost, like the famous
Maria Rickmers, of the German firm of
the same name, which was probably
broken in two by the strain to which
such long vessel must be exposed. In
fact the law of progress has decreed
that the sail should be gradually aban-
doned in favor of steam transporta-
ton, and the English merchant marine
has come to a realization of this"
But the ordinary passenger steamer,
we are told further, is not fitted for
freight business, and in place of the di-
vision between steamers and sailing
vessels, we are going to have two kinds
OF steamers; first, those intended ex-
clusively for passengers, which will
move more and more rapidly and SO
demand higher and higher prices; sec
ondly, freight or cargo boats, with two
subdivisions-those of considerable di-
mansions, with powerful engines, con-
shutting express boats, which will also
carry passengers who dc not care for
the highest speeds; and slower boats
that will take nothing but freight
The evolution of this state Of things
IS already in progress, according to the
author, and great strides have been
made toward it in the past decade. In
1891 the Iokomaru, of 6,20O tons, was
considered a huge cargo boat; but in
1899 we had reached the Ivernia,
of 1920 tons. The latest, the Ced-
ric, will reach 27,s7O A recent
special investigator, Mr.. Mckerchnie,
is quoted as saying that as we build
more OF the larger and slower steamers
we are finding that the necessary power
does not increase proportionately to the
capacity. These huge cargo boats are.
therefore, proportionately cheaper than
the small ones, and can thus compete
more successfully with sail power. A
curious development is that of large
sailing vessels with auxiliary steam
power, which have come into use at
the same time that the large steamers
are more and more abandoning their
auxiliary sails, which were once so COM
mon. The author believes that these
are uneconomical, on account of the
expense and the drag of the unused
propeller; and he points out that their
use originated through desire to util-
lie for occasional motive power the
steam engines already installed for the
manipulation of the huge sails,
The abandonment of sails, the writer
notes, is even to be seen now in the fish
ing fleets, where mechanical propulsion
Is found to be peculiarly valuable. 1t
is believed that the petroleum motor
has future here on the smaller fishing
boats, where cheap power is necessary.
These motors are now used in Denmark,
both to drive the boat and to operate
its nets. The naphtha dory, still sma H.
er form, is employed more and more
frequently by fishermen on our northern
coast from Maine to Newfoundland.
Finally, the writer calls our attention
to the displacement of the old familiar
pllot-boat by the larger steam vessels
an entire transformation of the pilots
trade-which has now taken place in
New York, and will shortly have been
accomplished in all the great ports of
the world. NJ. Belief concludes:
1--WE thus see that the disappearance
OF the sail is spreading more and more
widely, and although it may be desirable
to make use of the winds free power
on land, especially for the production
OF the electric current, mechanical
propulsion is becoming more and more
the rule at sea,and sail navigation is
doomed to disappear, except where it is
only sport and not a means of COM
merclal transportation. Literary Di-
gest.
When you feel like sighing-sing,
Signing will never pleasure bring,
Learn to laugh, YOU can laugh and laugh