The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-02-23
A RACE THAT WAS
NOT TO THE SWIFT.
Cap'n Joshua Grindle Spins Yarn to
Show That 1t "Doesn't Alters Pay to
Be So Darned Fast"

snow mat II 'D0eSn't AIleIS ray u
Be So Darned Fast"
When group of downeast coaster
captains begin to brag of the fast pas
sages they have made, steamboats, seem
slow, for while some Of the old lumber
hookers can sail like pirates, the skip
pers love to exaggerate and in a brag-
ging match none will be outdone by the
Others. In a shipbroker's Office in Ban
gor the other day the chairs were all
occupied, and the convention was ready
to discuss anything from freights to the
Bible-and settle it, too. No set of men
possess such wonderful fund of mis-
information on subjects generally out
side their calling as these mariners of
Maine, and nothing could be more en-
PERTAINING than one of their smoke
talks, where the most astonishing state
ments and fantastic theories are launch
ed with tremendous emphasis into an
atmosphere redolent of tobacco and tar.
Someone had been telling of how the
Old schooner John I. Williams had run
away from the whole eaStbound fleet,
and made the passage from Boston to
Bangor in such and such time, when
there arose chorus of cOntemptuOus
comment to the general effect that the
John L. Williams, while she might be
fairly good vessel on certain points of
sailing, was a lazy tub compared with
this or that schooner in which the re-
spectize scotfers had sailed in the six
ties or seventies, or some time away
back. They got to telling then of the
flash packets of the old days, and the
NJ. L. Crockett, the Mary A. Hyer, the
Frank Herbert and others had all been
oly "A 60. hi <,.x,
stated, and it is fact, that the M. l..
Crockett had made the run from Boston
to the mouth Of the Penobscot river
in 22 IL hours, and that the Mary A.
Hyer had made round trip between
Bangor and Boston, carrying hay up,
inside of four days, while the Frank
Herbert had beaten a steamboat from
Thatchers Island to .honhegan, sailing
with the wind tritle aft the beam. No
one disputed any Of the stories, but
each one tried to show where, every
thing considered, he had beaten all rec
ordS between Bangor and Boston or
some other port along the coast. Then
the master of the Harriet Samantha,
whose name is Joshua Grindle, having
filled his pipe to his liking, gave his
flaming red whiskers reflective stroke
or two and remarked:
Yes, they can do it once in a while,
with good luck and nothing to hinder,
but then it don't alters pay to be so
darned fast. There was Jim Crockett
young Jim Pm talkin' about, jest
spilled hisself by maxim a flynn trip
from here to New York. How was it?
Well, it was in the time fore the rail
roads ruined everything, an when a
good many pertaters was shipped from
Bangor in vessils. jim, he was in old
schooner Arrow, that was great YES
sill in any weather, an he got load O
pertaters for New York at cents a
buShil, which was good freight Long
about the same time, the schooner Bal
tic, Capt. John Hodge, she got load
o pertaters for New York, too. Both
vessils belonged to Capt. Tom Hall of
Winterport, an both cap'nS was a.
courtin' Capt. Toms Youngest darter,
Lizzie, who'd be with fifty thousan'
When the old man died, an up to that
time their chances seemed about even
well. 1t was mp and tuck, 'twixt
Capt, jim and Capt. John to see who
would work 1t so as best to please the
Old man an at the same time have the
most lOahu' time round home i'll Win
terport, an Capt. Jim havlm' the fast
est vtsS!i, o course he sort O had the
weather gauge O Capt. John, who had
about the sluWest old sled that ever sot
hi water 1t was long IN November
when they loaded the pertaters up to
Bangor, an Capt. Jim he liggered that
ht could make two trips while Capt.
john was maxim one, an then git all
hauled up Tor the winter an be maxim
great head"ay with Liz fore Capt.
John he got back. 50 he hustled them
pertaters into the Arrow, lowed out
one night when 1t was ralnin' an dark
as pitch, KNOWN it'd come off moth
west next day an send her kitin' across
to the cape Cape Cod. Capt John, he
had to Walt his turn Ill the berth. an it
was three days afterwards when lie got
out, an then the wind come round
southeast an blown gale, so he
didn't git outer Fort Pint cove for a
week. BY that time, Jim, he'd got to
n eW York IN the Arrow, an it looked
as if he'd make the Two trips all right.
Coal trelghts wasn't much when Jim
was III New York, SO he didn't wait,
but bumped her for Bangor again, and
he met The Baltic, bound up, Oh the
Shoals.
We'll, same day that the Baltic got
TO New York, the Arrow got back to
Bangor, an 1t beln' So late and vessils
skurse, jim he got seven cents a buShil
on another load O pertaterS. He says
10 me, he says, when | met him down
TO Cap'n Ross offs leaviil' his order
tor tug. IN show 'em low to prance
these old hay Wagons round! Jest let
NE get slant O. wind an III be up to
New York an back inside of ten days,
AN be poppln' corn with Tom Hairs
darter tore the Baltic gets east o the
cape
Il thought likely he would do the
trick, but you can't tell about these
things. Capt. Jim and two or three
more was to tow out OF Bangor that
nlght-all the vessils there was left
here, mine beln' one of 'em. The tide
served bout four i'll the mornin', an at
ten O'Clock that night it came off cold
enough to freeze the hair off n a COW. |
never see ice make SO fast. Well, CAPT.
j IN he went to show that night an
OF course beln' in a warm hall, he didn't
know how cold it was gettin outside.
1t was after 'leven when he came down
to the vessil, an then 1t was pretty
solid all round her, tor she laid up in
the kenduskeag stream, which, bein'
shOal water, freezes qulcker'n the main
river. He heard the tug a-whiStlin' out
i'll the main river for all hands to git
holm l,n I,,3k