The New York herald., 1922-09-03

Henry Ford plunged badly on her
first trip to the Banks; but that fault
was corrected by shifting some Of
her pig iron ballast forward. The
only criticism that l have heard con-
corning the Henry Ford is that her
greatest beam is considerably for
ward of her midship section, which
gives her a rather wide bow, and
long, tapering run aft-a modern
renaissance of the old school of ship
! designing. Judging by form alone
j should say that with started sheets
the Henry Ford should travel like
Detroit motor car in high gear.
What her broad fore section will do
on the wind in a seaway We doubt
less shall see, Eastern Point and
| the Reef of Norman's Woe usually
provide an honest fisherman's breeze
in October.
But the reader doubtless is less
interested in the technical details Of
these vessels than in some definite
indication of their speed. No one
knows just how fast they are. The
Elizabeth Howard has done sixteen
knots an hour in the open sea with
a full cargo of salt aboard. I once
timed her coming out of Fortune
Bay, Newfoundland, In midwinter
with only her four lower sails set in
a seaway that broke over her bow.
Going close hauled, she did four and
a half knots in twenty minutes.
That is thirteen and a half knots an
hour. In the puffs she slid along at
| sixteen or seventeen. Coming out of
January day, bound home in light
ballast, she was hit by one of those
| l"Levanters" that wrecked the Apostle
Paul. She fed before the gale for
forty-eight hours under bare poles,
not square foot of canvas set. For
four consecutive hours she did eleven
and half knots an hour by the
masters harpoon log.
Any comparison between these
modern fishing schooners and racing
yachts is difficult. The fishermen are
much larger than the yachts and
more strongly built. The fishermen
must go out to the Grand Banks at
all Seasons of the year and take
what comes for months at a time.
The racing yachts-even the Amer
lea cup defenders-m take refuge
inside Sandy Hook when Father
Neptune rides his white horses on
a nor'east gale. A generation or so
ago Gloucester schooners went out
and raced in a nor'easter when even
sturdy steamboats, filed with race
day enthusiasts came in out OF the
wet. In that memorable contest the
winning boat was keeled over so far
that members of her crew sprang
over the rail and walked along her
weather bilge.
In race between these fishing
schooners and America cup defend
ers in the average summer weather
of Long Island Sound the yachts
would win; but out in the open sea,
. in an honest fsherman's breeze the
yachts would not have a Chinaman's
chance The fishing schooners do
not carry any outside ballast. They
carry usually about a hundred tons
OF pig iron slowed along the keelson.
Outside ballast would snap the sticks
!, out of them in a winter gale on the
Grand Banks.
: Yachtsmen may get an idea what
sort of racing may be seen off East
ern Point next month when say
that the main boom of the Elizabeth
Howard is seventy-five feet long, the
main gaff forty-eight, and that the
main sheet--a Manila rope almost
as big around as mooring line
will not be cleated; it will be held in
the hands of the crew. The skipper
will not waste any time luffing up to
give the crew a chance to haul aft
the main sheet; nothing like that.
He simply will sing out, Take a pull
: on it," And those red blooded, hard
fisted volunteers, who have pulled
/ haIliards and sheets and dories and
t fishing travis all their lives, will
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