SAILING SHIPS.
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your review of Mr. Chatterton's "Sailing Ships" (Spectator, August 7th) refers to the "common opinion that for nearly all serious purposes in the ocean traffic of the world the days of sailing-ships are ended." To one observer on the Western shore of the Atlantic the prospect is fair that the white sail will not soon darken the sea by its departure even from the carrying trade. For our coastwise service we are building with fair rapidity a new type of sailing craft which seems destined to hold its own economically. I refer to the five-, six-, and even seven-masted schooners of the ' Maine ' type, which are now common in all our harbours between Baltimore and Portland. The multiplication of masts is the economic feature. Sails much beyond the familiar sizes must be very thick, and are hard to handle. By dividing the work among many masts the sails are kept within reasonable width and weight. A tonnage that would have required a swarm of sailors in the old square-riggers is in one of these huge schooners easily managed by a total ship's company of fourteen men, who set and trim entirely by steam-winches. The aesthetic demand is met by these tall craft much more successfully than one who had not seen them would suppose. Their' steel hulls are beautifully modelled, and in these days any arrangement, or even derangement, of new canvas at sea gladdens the eye. Probably none of these giants has crossed the ocean. For that enterprise they share the disadvantages of other craft under our Navigation and Tariff Laws ; but they more than hold their own against steam as coasting colliers and carriers of lumber and granite. Why their winch-power might not be sufficiently increased to give them a slight lift in a calm I do not see. As a type of sailing craft that can compete with steam at high labour prices, the multiple schooner is a welcome
[The schooners described by our correspondent have justice done to them' in Mr. Chatterton's book. But, as our corre- spondent admits, they do not cross the ocean. Of course they could do so, but we suspect that it is not only the Navigation and Tariff Laws which keep them to the coastal service. The fore-and-aft rig is very uncomfortable, not to say dangerous, for ocean voyages owing to the frequent risk of gybing. We wonder why our correspondent speaks of the schooners as a new type. Five- and six-masted schooners have been familiar in American waters for several years. What is really new is the multiplication of steam and electric appliances on board, so that nothing is left unprovided for except the propulsion of the ship !—En. Spectator.]
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