More "Dauntless" Ones: Schooner Days CMXCCVIII (998B)

by C. H. J. Snider

HERE'S a hearty hail from Herman Masters of Hamilton in his 81st year, about the yacht Dauntless, of which we were talking last week. He is quite correct, though we believe that the Dauntless was, as said, built by Alex. Cuthbert at Cobourg in 1870.

"I knew and remember her quite well," he writes, "for a long time, 45 years to be exact.

"John R. Dafoe of Napanee owned her at that time and ever after, until her finish about 15 years ago, when he turned her over to Mr. Frank "Buff" Maracle of Napanee, who broke her up and that was her end.

"I always understood she was built in one of the lower provinces for Lord Dufferin but did not meet his expectations hence her appearance on the lakes and in the Bay of Quinte.

"About 41 or 42 years ago I helped rebuild and refit the Dauntless for John Raymond Dafoe. Wm. Greer put a new trunk cabin on her at that time at Light's dock in Napanee and when she was ready I took over and sailed her for Mr. Dafoe. Mr. Dafoe, Mrs. Dafoe and Mr. and Mrs. William Waller and daughter Lenora composed a party, and we went down to Hay Bay for some fishing, from there to Prinyer's Cove or McDonalds Cove, whichever you wish, from there to Kingston, and from there back up the Bay of Quinte and through the Murray Canal and into Brighton Bay (Presquile) and I left her there and went to Toronto, and Mr. Dafoe and his Worship the Mayor took her back to Napanee so that is all I can tell you about the Dauntless.

"If you can tell me the year the Genesee and Beaver raced in Toronto Bay I would like very much to know as I was in the yacht Wave Crest at that time with Capt. J. R. White of Rochester. There were quite a number of American boats there at that time, the Onward, Cinderella, Helene, the Canopus from Watertown or Sacketts Harbor.

"Also, some time, give us a little writeup about the C. Gearing of Picton. I was a sailor in her the last trip she made. She was at the Grove Dock in Trenton waiting for a load of cordwood to take down to Kingston Pen, when she took fire and burned to the water's edge. She was owned and sailed by Capt. Frank Duetta of Picton.

"Please ask some of your readers to write in about the Fabiola, Kate of Oakville, Loretta Rooney, Nellie P. Downey and several o hers. I might also say Wave Crest, Capt. 'Mack' Shaw, who later had the Bertie Calkins."

With pleasure, Mr. Masters. We knew all these vessels and have written about them in Schooner Days, and will be glad to hear more of them from others.

As for the Beaver-Genesee races at Toronto we were there, and towed the Beaver in the day she broke down. The year was 1899.

OTHER DAUNTLESS ONES

Dauntless is a grand name, for it carries a grand idea. It was a favorite afloat 80 years ago, perhaps because of the wonderful ocean passages of the centreboard schooner yacht Dauntless, whose speed rivaled the clippership Dreadnought.

There was also the clipper Dauntless which rescued, the crew of the Lightning, on fire at sea for 21 days.

On the lakes there was the fine three-masted schooner Dauntless of Buffalo, 438 tons, built by B. B. Jones in 1857 and owned by S. V. R. Watson, and three Canadian schooners. One was built at Port Severn in 1868, measuring about 70 tons, 67.5 ft. long, 19.8 ft. beam and 5.5 ft. depth.

Then there was the Dauntless of Port Dover, formerly the Bay Queen, a schooner of 177 tons built by G. T. Waterbury in 1857, and owned by Allan and Hall. She was fast under both names, having a bold flaring clipper bow and seeming higher in the stern when loaded than most.

We had a race up Lake Ontario with her in 1895, when I was in the Vienna with Capt. John Ewart, the other vessels being the Oliver Mowat and E. A. Fulton, both bound for Toronto as we were, and the L. D. Bullock, bound for Hamilton like the Dauntless. She was right up with us before breakfast, after leaving Oswego, but at sunset you could barely make her out with glasses astern.

"And she was counted a fast vessel in her time," said Capt. Ewart, putting his glasses back into the case, with considerable satisfaction. Perhaps she was loaded too much by the head.

SHE WENT DOWN

This Dauntless was in the Hamilton trade that summer, and on the third of October when coming up the lake she developed a leak. The wind was light, and they pumped all day, but still the water gained. That night, abreast of Thirty Mile Point, long before called Golden Hill, they decided to leave her. Everybody was worn out with pumping, and the water was level with the deck to leeward. They got the yawlboat down, with a lantern in it, and cast off, leaving the schooner's lights burning. Within ten minutes they vanished, and they knew they had just left her in time. Before morning the three-masted schooner Clara Youell, which had left Oswego some hours after the Dauntless loomed up in the darkness and picked up the yawlboat. The Dauntless crew knew she would be along soon.

THIS ONE WENT FAST

Another Dauntless I never saw, but she was a stepper, too. She was the Dauntless of Oakville, a terrible roller, so that she lost more by the deckload of lumber she rolled overboard than she made by her lumber freights, and had to stick to grain or coal or something she could keep under hatches. But Capt. Dave Reynolds, of the RCYC launches, told me he ate breakfast in her one morning coming out of Kingston and ate his supper in her in Toronto. Allowing 13 hours between the meals that is the best time I have ever heard for the 160-odd miles between the two ports under sail.

How would you answer this one of Elgin Dolan's, from Etobicoke?

"Could you tell me the name of the ship sketched below, and is it possible to build one out of glass here?"

Below, in the letter, is sketched what at first looks like a lawn mower bow on, but resolves quickly enough into two curved floats joined by a curved bridge, with a mast sprouting from the crown thereof.

Well, the "ship below" is called a catamaran, and the type, as Mr. Dolan suggests, and Commander Jack Braidwood, R.C.N., confirms, after his voyage round the world in the Yankee, is the fastest afloat.

But the name catamaran is as far as we take any responsibility. The mast could be stepped as shown. Although we do not live in a glass house we will throw no stones at the idea of building a catamaran of glass but suggest using the yellow pages of the telephone book on the glass moulders.