Another Oriole Wings Her Way: Schooner Days CCCXIV (314)

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WE'VE been beguiled by the newly printed "Annals of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club," with their gay flags in red, white, blue and gold, and their two hundred and seventeen illustrations, into following the wake of the Orioles for a while, instead of sticking to our trueloves, the commercial schooner of the lakes. We'll be back soon that theme, but meantime hear a couple of yarns about Oriole II successor to the Oriole who burned her great heart storming across the lake with her master the night of the Esplanade Fire in 1885.

Rivalry between Oriole II. and the new steel Clyde cutter Vreda was intense but friendly. During one L.Y.R.A. circuit, while the fleet was lying in the piers at Oswego or Charlotte, one of the yachtsmen of the Vreda, coming from his morning plunge, struck out for the yacht's bobstay, in order to climb aboard easily. As he grasped it he encountered something bulky, and diving under water, discovered that a bucket had been seized with wire to the Vreda's bobstay chainplate.

Vreda and Oriole partisans alike were first curious and then furious. Someone suggested that it had be an effort on the part of the Oriole to cripple the Vreda for the day's race. Hearing the uproar, Mr. George Gooderham voluntarily went on board the Vreda and disclaimed all knowledge of what had been attempted, both on his own behalf on behalf of his crew, whom he had carefully questioned. His earnest protestations were not received with that candor with which they were given and which they really deserved; and as a result for some time Oriole and Vreda no longer raced together.

Thirty years afterwards a professional sailor who had nothing do with the Oriole confessed the truth of the matter. He had a sum of money up on the new American flyer, Cinderella, which was to sail against Vreda in the same race, it was he who had wired the bucket to Vreda's bobstay during the night. He had given no thought to probability that Oriole would be also in the contest and would beat the favorite, and, of course paid no attention to the bad feeling which was bound to be created.

This second Oriole was a distinct advance upon the first. She was designed by A. Cary Smith and excellently built by Capt. John Driscoll on the Gooderham and Worts property on the waterfront at the foot of Parliament Street.

The waterfront vicinity was still beautiful at this time, and Mr. Gooderham's handsome family residence was not far removed from the harbor, on Trinity Street. Oriole's moorings for many years were in the east end of Toronto Bay, almost within hailing distance from the house.

Two tall pine trees in the woods then "out in the country" on the north side of Davenport road near the Bathurst street tollgate, were cut, down for her masts. They stood on the site later occupied by Sir Henry Pellatt's "Castle" Casa Loma.

Oriole II. was even more noted for her hospitality than her predecessor, and her visitors' book abounds with autographs of eminent business men, physicians, public men, and their wives and daughters, entertained on board.

Many distinguished names occur in this book. "LANSDOWNE, May 25, 1887," commemorates the visit of His Excellency the new Governor-General of Canada on that date. "JOHN A. MACDONALD" is the signature of another guest, June 27th, 1888—Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of the Dominion.

"With a good northwest wind blowing fresh the following party were found on board the Oriole on invitation of the owner at 2 p.m., foot of Sherbourne Street:

(Autographs)

JOHN A. MACDONALD.

GEORGE GOODERHAM.

THOMAS GIBB.

W. W. BEATTY.

ALEX. MANNING.

WILMOT D. MATTHEWS.

W. H. STOREY.

HENRY LOWNDES.

JOHN F. ELLIS.

JAMES E. W. ROSS.

W. R. BROCK.

JOSEPH POPE.

FRED R. WYLD.

W. F. MACLEAN.

D. R. WILKIE.

R. MYLES.

H. COULSON.

T. G. BLACKSTOCK.

R. L. PATTERSON.

C. W. BEATTY.

J. B. CARLISLE.

ALFRED GOODERHAM.

ROBT. CREAN.

HARTON WALKER.

ALEX. F. FULTON.

H. CAWTHRA.

"When Sir John came aboard he was received by a salute from the gun of the Oriole and presented with a white wideawake by Mr. Beatty. The yacht immediately weighed anchor and sailed out toward Hamilton, with Mr. Gooderham at the wheel. As soon as clear of the channel the party of visitors adjourned below to lunch."

This roster of names, including those of men outstanding in the business and political life of Toronto and Canada, might be duplicated almost duplicated at random in the pages of the Oriole's log. It is as typical as was the "white wideawake" which was the favorite headgear of the great Conservative chieftain.

No meet of the newly-formed Lake Yacht Racing Association was complete without the presence of the graceful fore-and-after. Pleasure-sailing, was her regular occupation when not racing or cruising, and the regularity with which her canvas was hoisted and she left her moorings, opposite the foot of Sherbourne street at 3 o'clock every fine summer afternoon with a gay party of Toronto's elite, was one of the features of the city's harbor life for more than a decade.

With so much "junketting," as her Spartan sailing master called it, the inconveniences of being becalmed were keenly felt in Oriole. Launched in the days before auxiliary power was dreamed of, she was at first dependent upon "Armstrong motors" and "white ash breezes" in her yawl-boat, for promptitude, but in her later years she had the luxury of an excellent little steam tender, named the Bobs in the hey-day of Lord Roberts' popularity.

The crew of Oriole II. in the last Prince of Wales Cup race she won — Sept. 10th, 1892, over a triangle with its apex off the Exhibition Grounds—consisted of:

George Gooderham, at the wheel. D. Coulson, Dr. McDonagh, on the mainsheet. Robt. Myles, E. B. Shuttleworth, T. G. Blackstock and Fred Manley the foresheet. C. Beatty, Ross Gooderham, W. Townsend and H. Hodgson on the maintopmast staysail, with the combined professional crews of the Oriole and the Aileen, which was not racing, working on the headsails under Capt. Richard Fugler, and all hands tallying on to the mainsheet as required.

The starters in this race were Vreda, Zelma, Aggie, Condor and Oriole, and the schooner practically ran the cutters out of sight, finishing half an hour ahead of them. Yet she only won the cup by a margin of 2 minutes and 56 seconds over Zelma, which finished third boat, just behind Vreda. Oriole had to give them all heavy time allowance.

Oriole II.'s last voyage off Lake Ontario was in August, 1896, when she cruised to Lake Erie in common with many other Canadian yachts, to witness the triumph of Canada over Vencedor of Chicago at Toledo, and the winning of the Canada's Cup. While at Put-In Bay, on the way to Toledo, an effort was made to arrange a match between Oriole and the large schooner Priscilla of Cleveland, which, like Idler, had been built for the America Cup. Oriole had beaten Idler at Mackinac. The match never came off, al-though it was the subject of discussion for years. In her performance on Lake Erie, in cruising trim Oriole showed that she had nothing to fear from Commodore Worthington's big schooner, and in fact she did so well that Priscilla's backers demurred at the granting of time allowance, although Oriole was, by her measurements, entitled to a large share.

Oriole II. was built with oak timbers and yellow pine planking. Her frames in the ends, however, were of tamarac. With Capt. Richard Fugler as sailing master she carried Mr. Gooderham's flag to victory from one end of the lakes to the other. Next week we shall hear about her famous race with the Idler of Chicago and Wasp of Cleveland at Mackinac.

Mr. Gooderham broke the first Oriole up rather than allow her to fall into hands which would be unable to maintain her in her original condition, and his sons followed the precedent with the second Oriole in 1906, after his death. They "put the saws to her," in Medlar and Arnot's shipyard at the foot of Berkeley street, as their father had ordered in the case of the first Oriole, twenty-one years' before.

THE SECOND ORIOLE, WITH ALL HER FLYING KITES