Tough Trip With a Dane: Schooner Days CLV (155)

Scandinavians usually make smart sailormen on the lakes, as they should – Viking blood and all that. And some were just plain dumb.

Henry McConnell, of Picton, is one of the old-timers of the lake trade. He was reminiscing, either in the Picton Times or the Picton Gazette, not long ago on his worst trip in the sailing days, and that was with a Dane.

It appears that Henry, while in the schooner Atmosphere in Toledo, fell in with a captain who talked big of having just bought a three-masted schooner, the George W. Dairs [Probably the George W. Davis-ed.], and wanting a good man to sail in her, and the upshot of it was that he shipped with him and they went to Buffalo to load potash for Cleveland.

This Dane had been sailing vessels for owners loading what they ordered and taking it where they ordered it, until he had worn a track in Lake Erie and in his own mind. He had bought the schooner in partnership with a priest in Sandusky, Ohio, and as it turned out all the good father's prayers were needed to save the venture from disaster.

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"While in Cleveland," said Henry McConnell, "the captain told me he could get a load of iron rails for Point St. Ignace, on Lake Huron, and asked me if I was acquainted up there. I told him I had lumbered on the shores of Lake Huron for two winters, and traded up and down in the iron ore trade and grain trade out of Chicago. He shipped two miserable specimens of sailors in Cleveland, and we loaded our rails and started off for Lake Huron. Our mate was a very old man, and the other man in the forecastle was an Austrian and not much good. In fact our cook or stewardess, a fine Catholic girl, was in most ways the best man aboard.

"When we got into Lake Huron our captain was lost. He was all the time asking me what this place was and what that was and where we were, until I put it to him, plump and plain. Weren't you ever on Lake Huron before,' and he had to admit he had never been off Lake Erie.

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"But a fair wind saves many a heartbreak, and we had a good run up the lake and unloaded our rails and took in a cargo of pig iron at Point St. Ignace for Buffalo.

"While we were loading I was looking over the side when the captain came along.

"You're loading pretty deep for Lake Huron," I said, "with pig iron, too, a cargo with no life in it"

"Oh," said he, "she's not deep."

"Maybe you think I don't know when a vessel is deep or not." I blurted out. "Come and look over the side!"

"All he did was to order the trimmers to knock off. Even so, she was too deep to suit me.

"We got down near Presqu'isle on Lake Huron, when it came on to blow from the south-east. We tried to buck her through to Presqu'isle, but it came on too heavy for us, and we squared for the Straits of Mackinaw, forty-five miles away. We squared away at half past seven Sunday morning. It was my wheel at eight o'clock, and when I took her neither captain nor mate could give me any course.

"I knew very well what we had to do and what the course was, for I had been up and down here a great many times. The course was right dead before the wind, with only the mizzen drawing, and the other sails becalmed by it. This made her go slow through the water, and steer well if you watched her close, and it is my belief that is what kept her from foundering that day.

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"At nine o'clock it was blowing harder than before and snowing heavily. The captain came aft and said 'Now it all depends on you. If she ever comes up in the trough and broaches to that will be the end.' I knew that without him telling me. She wouldn't last two minutes in the trough of the sea. He sent the Austrian aft to take the lee side of the wheel in case I needed help, but I didn't need him and sent him forward to do what he could there. That was the last of company of any kind I had at the wheel all day.

"The poor old mate stood huddled up in a big overcoat, never saying a word. I could see the Catholic girl in the cabin, every time I looked into the binnacle at the compass. She had her prayer book open and was saying prayers for me and the ship as fast as she could finger her beads.

"The captain was forward, listening for the Spectacle Reef whistle on our starboard side. We never heard it through the wind and snow, though we must have passed within four or five miles of it.

"The seas were piling in on deck till she was filled right up level with the rail. I was going to call to them to knock the bulwarks out, to free her, when I saw a man get an axe. I couldn't see under the mizzen what was happening, but I noticed she didn't free herself. It turned out that they had got the axe to chop clear a rope which had plugged one of the scuppers.

"At eleven o'clock the boys forward got a big sack filled with oakum and poured oil on to it until it dripped. Then they crawled out and seized it to the jibboom. You would be surprised how that dripping oil calmed the sea. We made good weather while it lasted, but when it was all gone the seas began to burst aboard again and soon filled her up to the rail till she would stop in her tracks and shiver.

"But she was a good vessel, and though she had three feet of water on her decks at times, very little found its way below. The boys kept trying the pumps and fetched up nothing.

"All at once it stopped snowing, and the captain commenced hollering and pointing off to leeward. I tried to see what was under the mizzen boom exciting him, but couldn't. 1 thought it was a wreck. But I daren't leave the wheel to look.

"At last I tried holding the wheel with one hand while I stooped so low my head was level with the deck, so as to peer under the mizzen. What I saw was Cheboygan lighthouse, not a mile away. I was not more than three seconds away from the wheel, but in that time she fell off too much and jibed all standing. Boy, did she make everything ring! We would have had to jibe in a few minutes anyway, to get around the point.

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"As soon as the sail came over we could see the land and the lighthouse plainly, and the old mate became the liveliest man on board. He hopped up on the cabin top, right in front of me. I yelled to him to get out of the light. The captain went for him and then ran forward to get an anchor over the bows. He never took in sail or gave me an order to round her up - just let go as soon as he could, in the rough water off the point.

"The anchor couldn't hold her. It only brought her into the trough, and didn't she roll! The booms had no guys on them, and were swinging from side to side like flails. I couldn't get forward to tell him to carry her further in, to the smooth water. Then he let the biggest anchor go as well, and that fetched her up, head to wind and sea, but still too far out for comfort.

"This was at half past four. We had been nine hours wallowing the forty-five miles. The stewardess gave us a good hot meal at once. She was a great girl.

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"We lay there twenty-four hours. The wind went down and it came out bright. But there was a very dark bank to the southward, and two of the brightest sundogs I have ever seen.

"'Rainbow at night,

'Sailor's delight,'

"'Where's your rainbow?' I asked.

"'Off dere,' said he, pointing to the sundogs. 'Wot you call dem?'

"'Sundogs,' said I. 'And that bank means snow.'

"'We won't get no snow,' said he.

"You'll see before morning,' I said, and by midnight we were in the thickest snowstorm I ever saw, with horns and whistles going all around us. We were right in the track of a bunch of steamers, and no wind to give us steerage way. You couldn't see one end of the schooner from the other.

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"After two hours it cleared up into a nice night, and we got as far as Thunder Bay, with the wind off shore and smooth water.

"'Now,' said I, 'haul her by the wind as close as she'll lie and you'll fetch Sturgeon Point Light and keep her in smooth water. It's thirty-five miles from Thunder Bay to Sturgeon, and Sturgeon's a bright fixed light.'

"Half an hour later he sighted a bright fixed light and sang out to the man at the wheel, 'Keep her away, keep her away, that's Sturgeon Point.'

" 'No,' said I 'that's a steamer, you're not within thirty miles of Sturgeon Point.'

"While we were arguing about it the steamer passed us.

"Then he saw another bright light and kept her away from that. It passed us. It was a steamer, too. Then another, and again he kept her away. This was a steamer, too.

"'You're crazy as a bedbug!' I told him, and went forward.

"Next morning we wore about twenty miles from land, with a rough sea rolling, instead of the smooth water we should have had.

"'I don't know how we ever got away out here,' said he. 'You won't catch me up here again.'

"'Well, I can tell you how you got away out here,' said I. 'You got here by keeping her away every time you saw a steamboat light, instead of holding her up for Sturgeon Point. And as for catching you up here again you shouldn't have come the first time.'

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"However, we got to Buffalo eventually, and loaded coal there for Toledo, on his old run. There I left the schooner. I shipped in the Guiding Star of Oswego, to get back to Lake Ontario. I came home for the winter after we laid her up. The last I heard of this dumb Dane he had got his vessel ashore thirty miles west of Port Colborne, and lost her, with most of her crew."

Sir,—I enclose money order to continue my subscription. Saturday's Telegram just came. Where are "Schooner Days" this week? Without "Schooner Days" what are we to do? My subscription started through hearing of "Schooner Days," and how I have enjoyed them all and want more of them. What can you do to get them back?

Yours

JOHN E. POOLE.

Howell, Mich.

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Sorry, Mr. Poole. Your letter is one of dozens. C. H. J. Snider couldn't write Schooner Days and America's Cup at the same time. But here we are with the 155th of the series, and many more to come. Glad you like them.

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ENDEAVOUR'S PLANS

Sir.—On seeing your detailed drawings in The Evening Telegram last night, and being interested in model making I wish to build a model of the "Endeavour." In order to do this it will be necessary to have three-view detailed plans in order to get the contour of the hull. If you would publish these I am sure that you would oblige a great number of model enthusiasts as well as myself. Hoping to see the plans in the paper.

Yours truly,

TED WEBB.

163 Earlsdale avenue.

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Walter Starling Burgess got $50,000 for the plans of the Rainbow. C. E. Nicholson charged $150,000 for building Endeavour, plans and all. While neither designer will ask that much for a copy of his plans, I regret we haven't them available for you, Ted, at the present time.

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FROM GARDENIA'S SKIPPER

Sir.—The little boost for Tom Sopwith and his crew, written by Jerry Snider in the opening part of his account of Saturday's race, was very good, and I hope a copy of same will reach the skipper of the "Endeavour."

After you have sailed a poor race it helps a lot to get a little encouragement, instead of knocks.

Yours very truly

E. K. M. WEDD.

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WHETHER ENDEAVOUR TOWED

Sir.—Could you please inform me whether the "Endeavour" was towed across the Atlantic or whether it sailed across by itself. I just wanted to know so that I can settle a little argument.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

JACK DENTON,

1179 Ossington ave.

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Endeavour towed and sailed across, as conditions warranted. The requirement is that the challenger shall cross on her own bottom, not on the deck of a steamer, for example. Towing is quite legitimate.

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QUEEN OF THE LAKES

Sir,—I am writing you to find out if you could give me the exact date the schooner Queen of the Lakes went down as Mr. Redner claims it was about 1909, and I claim it was about 1919. Hoping you can supply the date, I remain, yours truly,

—G. BOYLE.

Belleville, Ont.

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You both lose. It was in November, 1907, that the Queen of the Lakes was lost. We lay in Charlotte in the schooner S. H. Dunn, along with her, both vessels waiting for a chance to complete the last trip of the season. The Queen of the Lakes was loaded for Kingston and we were loaded for Toronto. After a week's delay the master of the Queen of the Lakes got a weather forecast of moderate southwest winds, which was favorable for his course east, but no good to us, bound to the westward. He cast off his lines and sailed out, but before they got the mizzen on her it freshened and blew hard from the westward, and he had to settle the sail down when it was only half hoisted. They squared the old Queen away, but the sea, which had been torn up by a series of preceding gales made up as if by magic, and she labored very hard, opening up some of the butts under her counter. In less than an hour she was so full of water it was impossible to keep her afloat. They lowered the yawlboat and all got into it safely and let her go. She sank within a few minutes of their casting off. They came ashore eight miles below Charlotte, after a bitterly cold wet row.

We in the Dunn lay a month longer, waiting for a slant, and finally stripped her in Charlotte and came home by train for Christmas, going back for her in the following spring.

The Queen of the Lakes was a fine clipper-bowed vessel in her-time, but she was very old when she passed out. She was built at Portsmouth in 1845, and was originally a fore-and-after. Later her mainboom was shortened and she stepped a mizzen mast, but the three spars seemed to spoil her sail plan, and she never sailed so well afterwards. As long as I knew her she was painted black with a lead color bottom.

INTRODUCING THE "HEATHER BELLE"

This is a reproduction of a spirited model in the possession of Mr. A.E. Matthews, Toronto, who, with his father, once owned the Heather Belle. Her adventures are not set forth in the accompanying "Schooner Days" article, but will appear shortly.