Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-25
COASTERS ARE GOING
Big Schooners Rapidly RepIac-
+ ing Ancient Craft.
NONE BEING BUILT NOW
Old Tubs Are Lost by the Score in
Fall Storms.
FEW CAN STAND WINTER TRIPS
Changes in Vessels Along New Eng
land Coast In Last Few
Years Very Great.
NONE BEING BUILT NOW
FEW CAN STAND WINTER TRIPS

BANGOR, Me, September 25.-Every-
body strikes but the Maine coaster. He
does the hardest and most dangerous
kind of work for starvation wages, and
sticks to it through thick and thin. Deep
water men. although now fed like fight
ing cocks. are always complaining, and
are great sticklers for their rights In
matters OF work and wages, but the
coaster takes what he can get, and II
that is not much he just grins and
bears it.
The strangest thing about the old-fash-
toned down-east coaster fleet is that 1t
yet survives. for the old tubs are lost in
scores every fall, and no vessels of their
class have been built in the last twenty
five years. In the early seventies the
Maine shipyards began to turn out three
masted schooners of $50 to 800 tons, and
these were called big vessels-too big for
coasting, but all right for the West In
dia trade. In the eighties, when the
West India trade had dwindled to almost
nothing, the first batch of three-masters
went into coastng, and more and bigger
three-masters were built. Then came the
four-masters, intended for and chiefly
employed in the coal trade, while the
three-masters carried southern lumber
and phosphate rock.
The four-masterS were great success,
but were called .'man-killers" because of
the weight of their booms and sails. The
first fOur-master that came to Bangor
was a queer-looking old sled named the
Weybosset, which took In a cargo of ice
here in the boom year 1880. She was
regarded as a wonder. and people trav-
eled miles to look her over. She was an
old steamer hulk rebuilt, and registered
only about 100 tons. while there are four
masters of more than twice her size
afioat today, such the Gov. Powers,
1,o79 tons, built at Rockland in 1905.
Five-Master Called Freak.
When the Governor Ames. the first
five master, was launched at Waldo
boro. in 1888. knowing salts called her
a freak and said that. anyway, the
limit in size of schooner rigs and in
the number of masts had been reached.
The Governor Ames, recently lost, reg
iStered only 1879 tons net, and was al
ways considered very hardy vessel.
She sailed around the Horn to San
Francisco and Puget sound, carried
lumber from Oregon and Washington
ports to Australia, and made the voy-
age from Puget sound to Liverpool
1deep-loaded with timber and spars in good
time and without much trouble. Sew
seral four-masters outrank her in size.
and some of the newest of the five-mast-
ers are LOCO tons larger.
The George w. Wells, built at Cam
den, Me-, in 1909, was the first of the
six-masters, and her size-2,T43 tons
net-was considered immense until
other siXmasters were built, like the
Eleanor A. Percy, 1862 tons. launched
at Bath in November of the same year
The only seven master, the steel-hulled
Thomas w. Lawson. 4.914 tons. built at
Quincy. Mass. in 1902. long ago met
the fate that had freely been predi cted
for her She was always regarded as
an awkward freak although she earned
big dividends.
So runs the history of schooner
h1ril NJ Oh in
a s sailors call the big craft, but none of
the old time two-masters OF 100 to zoo
tons. and with constant losses and no
building the end of the fleet must soon
come. Then probably the down-east
lumber and stone will be carried in
barges. just as Rockland's lime is now
carried. and much of the coal. For a
few years yet, by dint of rebuilding
and patching and purchases made at
Long Island sound ports. the down
casters will maintain a shaky and
leaky fleet, but the finish Of the old
timers cannot be far OF.
Two Coasting Fleets.
Thus there are two New England
coasting fleets. the new and the old. The
new is composed Of monster schooners
that are the marvels Of these mari
time days-the four. five and six mast
ers The old fleet is the ragged and
battered survival Of another age, and
ii is rapidly disappearing from the
seas. During the months from April
TO December there may be found at any
eastern port. notably at Bangor. scores
of two-masted schooners ranging In
size from so to 200 tons and in age any
where from twenty to sixty years
some few even older, which for gener-
al decay and dilapidation. allow and
aloft, put Clark Russell's Flying Dutch
man in the shade. They leak like
sleeves, and generally carry the most
of haf yhnr,
they begin to take water when jump
ing into a sea it is harder work TO
keep them free than it is to sail them
For the rest, old and patched sails
rigging that should be in a junk shop
and windlasses Of obsolete patterns.
all make up picture that would
strike dismay TO the hearts of any but
down-east coaster sailors.
These old RATS as rule. carry lumber,
which in a great measure accounts for
their longevity-they can't very we'll sink.
for their cargoes won't let them. They
are owned sometimes by a dozen people,
the captain generally having a small in
tereSt-an eighth or a quarter-but oftener
by shipping firms, lumber dealers and
brokers. who sometimes give the captain
81 per cent of the gross earnings to sail
them. but oftener pay him SO much a
month. Most owners look for dividends
only and seem to consider anything spent
in repairs so much money lost. The
result is that the vessels are so poorly
found that 1t is surprising how they ever
get anywhere. If they should lose a
block or an anchor. or anything should
part while at sea in bad weather, they
would be in fix Frequently they have
been known to leave port without enough
oil to keep the sideights going. and some
times they are run into while at anchor
because they have no riding light up.
Go Only to Boston.
The majority of these old coasters never
get farther than Baston or the north side
of Cape Cod but many, of them venture