The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-04-26
One LONE SQUARE RIGGER.
An UNFAMILIAR VISITOR At A
SOUTH STREET PIER.

1t Recalled the Days When for Blocks
There was a Continuou sRow Of Fly
ingJibbOOms---A Modern Steel Ship
Such as British BuniIders are Turn
ing Out.
Looking up Wall street the other day
from in the Treasury Building a
man saw the familiar clock face of
Trinity, with the tall spire rising above
it, and then, turning for a look the
other way, he saw at the foot of the
street the yards of ship, ship in
South street, a sight unfamiliar enough
there now to make this man want to
go, down and look her over, which he
did.
1t was the big four masted steel ship
Eclipse, her hailing port London, and
last from Hongkong, and now unload
ing at the pier just north of Wall street
ferry cargo of firecrackers, joss sticks
and cassia, the air all about with the
pungent aroma of the cassia. A big
ship, $50 feet long, and built in Port
Glasgow four years ago, of 2,769 tons
measurement and with d cargo capaI
city of 5000 tons, and modern to the
limit of steel ship construction. Lower
masts and topmasts of steel and all
her yards of steel up to and including
her upper topgallant yards, and all her
Lighthouses and everything about her
CD ID tle,tf
tuted for wood.
A modern deep sea steel sailing ship,
and a fine, big, handsome ship she look
ed as she lay alongside the pier with
her yards all trinity squared, though
she didn't look now, the captain said,
as she did when she came in from sea,
for it was impossible, with cargo going
in and out of her, to keep a vessel look
ing her best in port.
At her side as he climbed aboard the
visitor was not met by one of the ship 8
apprentices, and minute later he was
in the presence of the master of the
ship in the ships cabin. And a very
comfortable cabin is this, pleasant to
the eye and very conveniently and COM
Ifortably arranged and furnished.
A parlor organ is on one side and
hanging from one of the deckbeans
overhead, in one corner, a bird cage.
Pictures were on the walls, including
picture of the Eclipse herself under
| full sail. She's 12-knotter, the
Eclipse; not so fast, to be sure, as some
of the ocean liners she may meet but,
with favoring weather, showing her
heels to many steam freighter; and
pa gallant sight she must present under
sail.
off the cabin are staterooms, and the
captains bathroom forward Of 1t the
officers dining room; and, between the
cabin and this dining room, a gangway
leading up to the poop deck.
She has a double steering wheel--the
Eclipse-or rather, two steering wheels,
one set forward of the other on the
tlller, so that in heavy weather four
men can stand at the wheel convent
emily; and, which is somewhat novel
there is a set up over the wheel, from
aft, an ample steel hood to protect the
steersmen from following seas.
Forward on the poop deck is the
chart house, and from this deck an ele-
waited gangway runs, above the spar
deck, the length of the ship, to the
deck of the forecastle.
Well aft on the spar deck, and set
Iathwart-s ships, is the chicken coop,
raised on stills, so that when seas wash
the deck they won't wash the chickens.
And next forward is deck house for
the ship'@~apprentices this house, in
warm latitudes, making perhaps the
most comfortable quarters on the ship;
for it has windows on both sides, and
| it has two skylights; and from what
ever quarter the wind blows 1t cannot
fail to find its way here.
Commonly British ship of this size
carries five apprentices. Just now the
Eclipse has but three; two having late
| ly left her, each to join another ship as
third mate. After five years of sea
training-one year less than that II he
had previously been attached to a train
ing school-the apprentice is eligible
for examination for a certificate as
third mate.
Forward, again, along the deck. there
is house for the boatswain, the sail
makers, the carpenter and the engine
man, with a room for the carpenter
shop, and forward of that the house fol
the donkey engine and boiler and the
cooks galley; and forward of that a
house as quarters for the crew, tbs
forecastle. a..
| In old times the crews quarters were
invariably actually in the forecastle
down forward under the forecastlt
deck, in the bows of the ship; whereas
now the almost as invarable custom
is to provide quarters for the crew in G
house on deck, this deck house, how.
ever, going by the old name.
The forecastle here is large and light
and airy, and running across it's aftei
end is an enclosed gangway with row
of set wash basins and with two stee
tanks, one at either end of the row, fol-
water.
| Forward of this deck house, under tn,
tforecastle deck, on one side of the shlI
is the paint room, and on the othei
side the oil room, And then you cllml
by companion ladder to the fore
Icastle deck itself, high above the water
and from there, looking aft, you get {
new and bigger idea than ever of tn,
size of the ship. A big ship. thu
Eclipse.
There are plenty of people who car
remember time when the wharve'
along South street were lined with fine
big ships American built vessels most