The Last of the Windjammers
The Last of the Windjammers. By Basil Lubbock. Vol. II. (Brown, Son and Ferguson. 36s.)
Ma. Basil. LUBBOCK'S researches into the history of well-known Sailing ships have historical importance. Everybody knoirs that steam has gradually beaten sail off the seas ; and if the records of the marvellous designs, the stateliness of line, and the capabilities in speed of our famous sailing ships were to be preserved there was no time to be lost in collecting
them. A generation hence many memories would have passed away, many photographs would have been destroyed and many logs lost.. Several writers have been at work in recent years doing historical justice to the sailing ship days, but no chronicler is better equipped for his task than Mr. Lubbock. He knows what he is talking about and his enthusiaim amounts to a passion.
It was said by-an old sportsman that the most beautiful work of God was a thoroughbred horse and the most beautiful work of man a thirty-eight gun frigate. There has never
been more than one opinion about the beauty of a great ship under sail. One of the most perfect descriptions of that beauty was written by Rusldn. It erred, as Ruskin's writings sometimes did, in being slightly overloaded with epithets, but it was worthy of the vision which Ruskin had seen. As the beauty of these ships has been fading away from the sea so also his the knowledge which was necessary to sail them in safety. Mr. Lubbock asks sadly what able seamen of to-day could turn in a deadeye cutter stay fashion, or put a Grecian splice into -a stranded shroud, or clothe a bowsprit or a topsail yard. As regards the last feat the modern would not know how to' measure off the necessary amount from the coil for the foot ropes; stirrups, •Flemish horses, bunt slab lines, life-lines and rope jack stays. Although he may have great pride -in his work, his pride is not -in the tradition that wanted to see everything t! ship-shape and Bristol fashion."
In the 'eighties of last century when steam was spreading
everywhere, sailing ship owners had to decide whether it paid better to make slow passages with large cargoes or fast passages with small cargoes. The renowned clipper type of ship was an experiment in the fast passage type. There were few better clippers than those built in the United States, but the canny British owner tried to compromise by combining a full mid section with fine ends and the medium clipper of the 'eighties was the result. By the end of the 'eighties it was 'admitted that large cargoes were the winning card, and the mid section of the ship was gradually made to extend further forward and further aft with the consequence that the bow lines broadened out and the fine run aft was shortened up. Besides, the large cargo paid better from another point of view. It was often cheaper to let grain remain in a ship's hold rather than store it in a warehouse.
Every reader of this book will feel a pang of regret that the clipper ' Caliph,' which was undoubtedly Hall's master- piece, was lost early in her career, for her captain said that she was the fastest ship he had ever sailed in, and it was freely predicted that she would be able to beat both the Cutty Sark' and-the Thermopylae.' Her disappearance was a mystery. She was not known to have passed through bad weather, and it was conjectured that she had been captured by Chinese pirates. The loot of Chinese pirates, however, is almost invariably offered for sale sooner or later and no trace of the ' Caliph's ' fittings has ever been dis- covered. There is little doubt, therefore, that she was lost in heavy weather which may have been local.
When Volume I of this book was published some readers remonstrated with Mr. Lubbock for using the contemptuous word " windjammer." Mr. Lubbock defends himself in this volume by saying that the nickname has gradually become a phrase of admiration and affection. We are not convinced. The word does not appear in any of the old nautical dictionaries and cannot be • traced back for more than fifty years. Mr. Lubbock fancies that Mr. T. Jenkins Heins may have invented the word when he put it on the title page of his first book. The name " limejuicer " (which amused R. L. Stevenson, as one may see in his novels) referred only to British sailing ships and was derived from the British practice of serving out a daily ration of lime juice as a preventive of scurvy.
It is just possible that auxiliary power may even now increase the number of sailing ships. The Germans are trying hard to solve the economic problem. The French built the largest sailing ship which has ever been launched as recently as 1911. The present writer when sailing past Dover the year before last saw a German four-masted ship under full sail. All her kites were flying and the sun shone upon her. He had not thought ever again to behold the like of that spectacle of delight—he had seen nothing so beautiful in the Channel for some forty years. It is usual for sailing ships to pick up their tugs not far from the Chops of the Channel, but the captain had a fair steady wind and he had carried on. Bless him I
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