COASTWISE IN A "THREE STICKER" Based on an account by Bronson W. Chanler Gently edited by the Great Harbor Maritime Museum Big coasting schooners were not an uncommon been quite badly let go by my predecessor. sight in New England during the late thirties, but In spite of the great weight of spars and gear in these they were a dying breed. You might run across the The set up down below was commodious but plain. old schooners and the great spread of canvas car- four master Theoline running up the Bay of Fundy The companionway stairs went down on the port ried, it was customary to sail very short handed, with with a load of coal from Newport News for side of the house aft, into a corridor, with the two men to the mast an accepted rule of thumb. In Eastport, or the big Reine Marie Stewart, with Captain's large cabin almost immediately on the the Douglas I doubt if we could have hoisted the 2,000 tons of salt from Turks Island in the Bahamas right and the head, followed by the cook's room and lowers without aid of the power windlass. Captain for Yarmouth. the mate' room on the left. The corridor opened into Wasson himself was in his seventies and far from a central saloon amidships, under a skylight, where robust. Cataracts in his eyes made it difficult for Then there were the three masters, mostly freight- the crew ate at an oilcloth covered dining table. The him to see anything clearly. His youngest son, ing coal between New Jersey and Maine island galley was to starboard, opposite two staterooms, Lester, was a lad of sixteen and not yet fully devel- ports in those days, sometimes with lumber in the and another set of companionway stairs went back oped, and I was a nineteen year old greenhorn. opposite direction, to up to the deck, at the Boston or New York. That left only three fully able bodied seamen to run forward end of the the schooner, led by the mate, Alvin, who was Typical of the American house. Captain Wasson's eldest son and a tower of schooners were the The Captain's cabin strength. The other two hands were schooner men Rebecca R. Douglas, of was paneled in dark from Jonesport or Machias, whose names escape me Calais, and the Lucy wood, had a heavy now. Evelyn, of Machias. The Canadian three masers double bed, chest of A word about the Douglas herself. She was built in were called "terns" and drawers, desk, and a 1894 at Bath, Maine, of 475 gross toms and was 140 many of them hailed leather divan on feet long with a 34 foot beam and a depth of ten feet. from Parrsboro, in the which he slept at sea. She had a heavy wooden center-board that added an Minas Basin, at the very One of the windows extra ten feet to her draft when down. It was hoist- head of the Bay of opened into the binna- ed by means of an iron rod that extended above the Fundy. I was once told cle, SO that the deck level and was attached to a four-part block and that the only safe way to Captain could see the tackle suspended from the mainmast cross-trees. enter the Basin without course being steered This rig had enabled her to sail in the Chesapeake, getting up too much from inside his cabin. where she spent a good many years of her early life. speed over the bottom, The head, which In order to increase her below deck cargo capacity was to sail out against those living aft were for the dry lumber trade, she had a raised deck amid- the fast flooding tide and privileged to use, was ships, which was more or less flush with the roof of go through stern-first. a primitive affair. A the forward house. One thus had to go down a six The Minas Prince and Citnalta were among the last wide diameter soil foot companionway at its forward end to reach the of this fine fleet. pipe led straight down through the counter to the original deck level to enter the forestle or engine open air, several feet above the waterline. Simple room, and down about a three foot companionway By 1940 big coasters had been laid up for lack gravity, with the aid of an occasional bucket, did the aft to reach the level of the quarter deck. Like all of freights, compounded by old age and damage trick. The cook's and mate's rooms were minimal, Riz-Deckers (raised deckers) this arrangement from groundings. But the war, with its need for with a built in bunk and a small locker, plus a few somewhat spoiled her silhouette, although Captain every available bottom, gave the schooners one last clothes hooks. The galley was like any New Wasson tried to compensate for that by painting burst of activity and many were put back into serv- England farmhouse ice. By the V.J. day, however, none were left in com- everything above the kitchen, with a fine coal mercial service on the Coast of Maine. I consider original rail line white range, central work table, myself lucky to have had the chance to make a trip and giving her an open sink with hand pump from Mount Desert Island to New York in the monkey rail, rather than below the window, coun- solid bulworks, amid- Rebecca R. Douglas, under the command of ters, and shelves. A walk- ships. Captain Burtis M. Wasson, in the summer of 1942. in locker under the deck held sides of bacon, hams, When I first saw her she was grounded out along- In rig the Douglas was and other meats. A barrel side the coal wharf at Northeast Harbor. She had typical of schooners of of flour and a barrel of her type. Tall sparred finished discharging and the crew was scraping the sugar were lashed down in weed off her bottom. Pearl Harbor had "come in' and with high topmasts, the corners of the room. she routinely set her the previous fall and I had decided to enlist at the The shelves were well three topsails above her end of summer school. Meantime, I had a short stocked with dry groceries more or less equal sized vacation and five of us had chartered a little sloop of every sort. lowers. The fore and from Havilah Hawkins in Brooklin, to cruise down main were nearly rectan- to Eastport and back. We were all big men and The forward house, built gular, in that the gaffs there were only four bunks and I had drawn sleeping around the foremast, was on the floor. The Douglas looked wonderfully large were as long as the divided lengthwise into booms and only moder- as we ghosted up toward the mouth of Somes two parts. On the star- ately peaked up. The Sound. I persuaded the others to anchor off the board side was the engine mizzen boom extended wharf SO I could row in for a parley. room, which contained and ancient and massive sin- quite far outboard over the stern, SO that the spanker gle cylinder gasoline motor. This hoisting motor Captain Wasson told me, when I asked if he could was somewhat larger and had a more slanting leech. had a vertical cylinder about six feet high with a use an extra hand, that he had had to let the cook go Forward she carried the standard four headsails, a spark plug at the top. The fly-wheel, with perhaps a because he was drunk, and that if I could cook he flying jib and outer jib set on the jibboom, which five foot diameter, could be turned by hand, with a might sign me on, although he generally didn't trust was raked steeply upward and whose extreme tip pet cock open to release compression, until it was anybody who came from any further to the west- was very high off the water, and a club-footed inner spinning at a pretty good clip. Then the pet cock ward than Jonesport. I told him that I could cook jib and fore staysail, the one set from the end of the was closed and the momentum of the heavy flywheel plain fare well enough and that I would do my best bowsprit, and the other on the stem-head. The carried the mechanism through several cycles, on to please him and that he didn't have to pay me. He headgear on these old schooners was very elaborate; one of which the spark plug would fire, hopefully, told me to come back in the morning. double or triple chain bobstays, dolphin striker with and the motor would be running. By engaging martingale stays, whisker shrouds, and SO on. Next day Captain Wasson had me sign the ships appropriate gears the engine could be used to hoist articles as cook at $50 a month. If I was going to the vast anchor chain, or to power the windlass The only propelling power available to the work I should be paid for it, he said. He had gone whose axle extended the full width of the house, to schooners was provided by the substantial yawl to the village of Northeast the night before to drums protruding on either side. Throat and peak boat, that hung in davits across her stern, This open inquire of Mr. Small, the druggist, as to my charac- halyards were led along the deck through a system boat had an inboard maker-and-break engine and a ter. "One of the finest families among our summer of snatch blocks to these power heads when making fair sized screw, SO that it could be lashed under the people," this kind old gentlemen had told him. So I sail. The port half of the forward house contained counter to push the schooner along, or, of course, was shown below to the cook's quarters, which were the focstle, a simple bunkroom for the deckhands, tow her out stern first from a slip or wharf. These aft in the Douglas, as was the galley. I put in the whose plumbing facilities were limited to a bucket engines were fired by a dry-cell bell battery passing morning scrubbing out my stateroom, which had when in port, and the bowsprit shrouds at sea. through a coil and had a heavy fly-wheel over in the opposite rotation. If you did it right the motor in the fog, anchored offshore within earshot of a filled the air, the bangs and crashes of slatting gear would fire up again in reverse and bring you to a breaking ledge, and had all the usual adventures of began to dominate, and the muffled shouts of orders smooth The Douglas also carried a heavy row- young cruiser. I was a little jealous, but glad to be could be heard through the din. I clung to my blan- ing skiff, which was not brought on deck but lashed avoiding the return of the sloop to her owner, ket and braced in my bunk. I was not inclined to see to the topsides when at sea. Her freeboard was SO because they admitted having broken up all the what was up, or to offer my services. I was lonely great when sailing light that the lower gunwale of bookshelves and drawers to provide fuel for the and afraid, debilitated by the sea-sickness. boat was probably more than ten feet above the stove. water. Presently there was a loud thud as one of the crew At dawn the next day the Captain made one of his dove down the forward companionway into the After a second day of bottom scrubbing, the yawl frequent trips on deck to sniff the weather and found house. He banged on my door and suggested I boat towed us out into the channel on the evening the wind had backed into the East, SO that we could come up and lend a hand. He said the wind had tide where she lay to fetch out the Western suddenly dropped out flat and the heavy gear had anchor, Alvin's wife and Way. Great activity begun to slat and they knew they had to get the sails daughter Myrna, who and much enthusiasm off her before something let go. She of course had had been visiting, as we made sail. With lazy-jacks and with the foresail already furled, two returned home to the crew busy coiling men at each of the other two masts had run down Machias, and the down the main hal- the throat and peak halyards of each sail simultane- Rebecca R. Douglas yards that littered the ously. When they were about half way down, the was ready for another deck, the Captain said main sheet block had pulled out of the deck and the run to Hoboken, where to me "You must be main boom was swinging free as she rolled. The she would pick up anoth- acquainted here if block, considerably larger than a man's head, was fly- er 500 tons of coal to you've spent all your ing across the deck at the end of the four part sheet bring back down to summer at Northeast at hair raising speed. It was to avoid this missile that another Maine island Harbor. Taker her the man had just dived below. port. So it went. A hard right out the channel way to make a living, just and on past the Ducks Without enthusiasm I followed him back up to the scraping by and hoping and Long Island. We'll main deck. The rain was falling in sheets, the dark- to avoid expensive gear run her off for ness pervasive, and the wildly swinging boom terri- damage, running light Provincetown from fying. Standing calmly in the middle of this turmoil and earning nothing half there." Great excite- was Captain Wasson, erect, unflinching. I knew the time. Hoping for a ment. Actually at the that with his cataracts he couldn't possibly see the quick and easy passage, wheel of a three master, block that was narrowly missing his head on each or what was called by gathering speed on a roll. "Come on boys, get a turn around that boom schoonermen "a good broad reach in smooth quick as you can." The idea was to lassoo the mas- chance along." water. I was amazed sive spar when it hesitated a few seconds up against by her liveliness. We the shrouds, before starting back the other way. I Morning dawned fine seemed to be flying stood there more or less helpless, watching the and calm, with just a along. struggle, not seeing anything useful that I was capa- whisper of northerly ble of doing. By some miracle Alvin and the others breeze, a fair wind to get Once we were couple got the boom lashed down and the sail roughly clear of the islands. With great effort the three low- of miles outside everything and the course was shift- furled. The spanker was tidied up, the headsails ers and four headsails were hoisted, the anchor ed southwesterly toward the Cape, it was clear that hauled down, the wheel lashed amidships, and all broke out and fetched up snug, the headsails and the wind had settled into the northeast, dead aft. hands ordered below. "No need for anyone to stay foresail backed to turn her, and with bare steerage The foresail was lowered and stowed, the main and on deck," says the Captain "we'll just let her drift," way she slipped past the tip of Greenings Island, to spanker were guyed out wing and wing, and the two then to me "see if you can rustle them up a hot meal." head on out the Western Way. But as these fickle outer headsails hauled down. As The galley was in shambles; morning northerlies SO often do, it died. Lying there had been quite a breeze the barrel of flour had come becalmed halfway between Southwest Harbor and from the southeast for several adrift and spilled, groceries Cranberry Island, we let the anchor go again and days, there was a pretty good had jumped out of the shelves, dropped the headsails. Presently a light southeast- beam sea running. With no crockery was smashed. But I erly filled in, against which we could not fetch out. steadying effect from the wung managed tea and scrambled We lay there a week. out canvas and the hull light and eggs somehow, and every- riding high, the old schooner body turned in for what was The southeasterly turned into one of those wet and began to roll something terrible. left of the night. blowy ones, with more than enough wind and plen- I suppose her freeboard amid- ty of rain. I was kept busy cooking during this time ships was getting on for twenty It seemed odd not to leave a and as my galley was warm and dry, it was a popular feet, and pretty soon she was watch on deck, but I suppose place to visit for the rest of the crew. Captain rolling her rails right down, first there was very little anyone Wasson allowed as how he liked fresh bread or bis- one side then the other. The could do. There was no elec- cuits and pies every night for supper. I managed a motion was horrible. tricity aboard the Douglas couple of ready-mix gingerbreads laced with raisins, and therefore no deck lights of which was about as far as my baking went. I had to My best efforts in the galley that any kind; the kerosene run- admit my ignorance. "Don't know how to bake day were pretty marginal. I am ning lights could not be seen bread? Why, I'll show you" says Captain Wasson not generally subject to sea-sick- at any distance in the pouring rolling up his sleeves. Together we kneaded and ness, but this was an entirely new rain, and with no radio or pro- "rolling pinned" SO that by the end of the trip I could dimension of are and it did me pelling power, there was no crank out a fine pie crust and a reasonable small in. The rule under way was that Grandaughter visiting way to avoid collision by white loaf. the cook put the food on the either alerting another vessel saloon table, called all hands to chow, and took the Captain Wasson had spent nearly fifty years at sea in or moving out of the way. So drifting peacefully in wheel alone on deck for an hour. At the end of that the middle of the Gulf of Maine did not justify schooners and he knew the coast from the time he went below, washed up and cleaned up, depriving the crew of rest after their prodigious Caribbean to Canada like the palm of his hand. planned his next meal and went to work on its efforts, and in anticipation of considerable work of Needless to say he had a wealth of stories, both preparation. For three glorious hours per day he repair the following day. The night passed without afloat and ashore. He was all for women, but had no had the deck to himself. The rest of the time there incident, although the rolling, as she wallowed use for drink. Cribbage was his favorite game and were two men on deck, standing watch. The broadside to the seas, was not to be believed. he enjoyed an occasional cigar. Originally a Nova Captain appeared periodically to have a look Scotiaman, he was a naturalized American and lived around, but stayed below, aloof in his cabin, most of Next morning things calmed down considerably in Calais, where he had a large family. Before buy- the trip. and the sun reappeared. The main boom was ing the Douglas, he had owned the three Master topped up and brought back amidships. A spare Henry H. Chamberlain for many years. In spite of By the time I had done a cursory job on the supper sheet block was rove off and a long tear in the heavy his frailty, he was every inch the skipper. dishes, I staggered to my bunk and lay there half canvas of the mainsail was patched and sewn by asleep and awake, looking at the tarnished paint hand. Like all old schooners the Douglas rather Toward the end of the week my friends in the sloop of the ceiling and wall, wrapped in an old blanket. "smiley" seams, which meant that with any kind of came back through, after sailing down to Eastport Sometime after midnight there was a change of unusual motion, the hull leaked pretty badly. She and back, while I had moved only about a mile. motion and of sounds. The creaking of the hull tim- was not, as they used to say some of the smaller They were glad to come aboard and warm up, hav- bers as she mushed along stopped, the rolling coasters, SO spongy that you could "kick your way ing been soaked through for several days, been lost became even more acute, the sound of heavy rain out through her sides in your stockinged feet." But there was perhaps a couple of feet of water sloshing waters. For our part, we had stowed provisions in down to the lee rail. In light air the spanker boom around in the bottom of her empty holds, which was the yawl boat and kept it ready for hasty lowering, in could be hauled up to windward before tacking, SO taken care of by an effecient pump driven off an old case of emergencies. as to giver her a good push around. And of course automobile engine, mounted in a wooden box on the headsails and foresail could be heald aback, for the main deck. With a four inch suction hose run As the sun sank, the breeze died and Captain the same purpose. All in all beating up Long Island down through her cargo hatch to the bilges, a good Wasson decided to drop the hook for the night. He Sound in a three master took on rather the same fla- deal of water could be moved without inconven- was through the Race and inside the outer reaches vor as short-tacking a cruising boat through a nar- ience to the crew. of Long Island Sound. We had enjoyed "a good row channel. Except of course, that there was a chance along," working up to the westward all day hundred miles of it. By evening all repairs were with eased sheets. He poked By after the afternoon of the third day she rounded complete, a light northerly had her nose into Niantic Bay and up smartly off the tip of City Island, the headsails filled in, and we were again let go the anchor, dropping the were run down, and as she lost way the anchor was under way. Captain Wasson headsails, but leaving the three let go. No fuss, no bother. A good harbor furl was looked at the chart, gazed at lowers up. This procedure was put on all sails and the long wait began. She had the ceiling for a moment, and normal practice among coasting made the roughly 360 mile trip from Mount Desert without hesitation stuck his schooners, as the canvas and in some five and a half days, which was not consid- pencil down and marked a spars were SO heavy there was ered bad time going to the westward in a coaster. small cross. "I reckon we've no danger of the sails filling Captain Wasson sent Alvin ashore to phone the drifted to here over the past away, or the gear flogging agent to let him know we were in, and to send a tug eighteen hours," he said, laying about, unless there was a fresh as quick as possible. No one had any illusions that it off a fresh course "you should breeze blowing. She lay quiet would happen soon. Patience was a quality soon raise Cape Cod Light soon and still, a bright riding light learned in the coasting trade. after it gets dark." And when it shining from her headstay. did, there it was, right on the After supper Captain Wasson After a couple of days Captain Wasson decided that bowsprit. Although I'm sure suggested that the crew might he would go ashore himself and take the elevated he was an accomplished navi- like to go to visiting ashore and and the subway to lower Manhattan, to visit his gator, having traded to the urged us to row in with the skiff. agent and see what freights hea had been able to line Caribbean in his younger days, "You might meet some pretty up. He asked me to accompany him, because he Captain Wasson relied entirely girls in there" says he, "but keep said his eyes were SO bad he could not read the on simple dead reckoning on away from the bar rooms, mind." names of the subway stops and he didn't want to get these coastwise trips. He did Of course all hands jumped at carried off into Brooklyn. We made our way to the not stream a taffrail log, had no the chance, and after landing on old Customs House on Battery Street, where his RDF, in spite of the existence pebble beach and struggling agent had a one room office on an upper floor. This of a number of useful radio beacons by that time, over the New Haven railroad tracks, made a bee line old and frail gentlemen greeted Captain Wasson and no chronometer or sextant. As they used to say, for the nearest bar. Like all such evenings, there was warmly, offered him a cigar, and in the time honored he was "well acquainted." nothing much to it. We talked among ourselves, custom went through the ritual of inquiring into his After supper the Captain asked me to stand Alvin's swigging down beer and an occasional shot of passage, the weather, the health of the crew, and the whisky. No one else took any interest in us and nat- condition of the vessel. It seemed that freights were twelve to four watch for him because he had been SO scare but there was a chance to take a load of coal busy with the repairs he had not had much chance to urally there were no girls. We were back aboard before midnight, about half tight and thoroughly down to North Haven. The press of wartime ship- rest. When midnight came we were bowling along pleased with ourselves. ping had put a strain on harbor facilities, and we the outside coast of Cape Cod in smooth water, would just have to wait for our tow. It was very old with Pollack Rip lightship in sight ahead. Alone at The following days brought typical Long Island fashioned and formal. the wheel, with young Lester at the lookout for- Sound summer weather. ward, and the Captain in his darkened cabin, lying Later we went to a chandlery Light westerlies picking up on his divan close to the open window by the binna- in the afternoons, and dying where Captain Wasson had cle, we ran through Pollack Rip channel, past Stone flat out by sundown. We been dealing for many years. Horse, and on toward Cross Rip light vessel. It was beat our way slowly up the It was a musty old place in a a night to remember. Old Captain Wasson calling length of the Sound, anchor- back street, perhaps John off the course changes from memory, mark by mark, Street, or Maiden Lane, ing for the night at the end describing the next flashing buoy to be left to port or close to the East River. of a tack on whichever shore starboard, never troubling to come on deck to have we happened to be on when Everyone there knew a look around apparently comfortable that his great the breeze dropped, and Captain Wasson and crowd- schooner was speeding through treacherous waters, without regard from any ed around to greet him and in the hands of a couple of green lads. harbor. It was a laborious ask after the Douglas. There By mid morning she was through Vineyard Sound, procedure, as these old was already a sense of nostal- then on past Rhode Island and Point Judith, and up schooners didn't point too gia for sailing ship days around New York water- into Block Island Sound towards the Race. She well and in spite of the cen- flying along with a fresh reaching breeze, the sea terboard, we made a certain front and the Captain was amount of leeway, riding as looked up to as one of the last sparkling with white caps, both shore and sky clean and bright, as only a smart northerly can make them. light as did. of a dying breed. He ordered we Furthermore, it was not pos- large quantities of provisions In mid afternoon we overhauled and passed close to sible for the the two men on to be delivered alongside windward of a rusty British tramp steamer going Hoboken, later on, and also a the same way we were, a stream of black coal smoke watch to tack the schooner, blowing flat off the top of her funnel. She was prob- SO all hands had to turn to certain amount of cordage and hardware for the bosun's ably a ten knotter and we were doing a good twelve. during this part of the voy- All hands lined the rail and gave a cheer as we age. Although the Sound is locker. Riding back uptown perhaps ten miles wide, it in the Lexington Avenue passed. seemed we had no sooner subway, with crowds of Because this was war time, New York shipping was got squared away on one tack, then it was time to office workers, I couldn't help thinking that poor old required by the Coast Guard to enter through Long come around again. Captain Wasson, grey and stooped peering through Island Sound. Nazi U-Boats lurking off the south his glasses, looked more like an overage accountant shore of Long Island, were ready to pick off vessels Apart from the four headsails to be brought over, struggling home from his office stool, than the great silhouetted against the night glare of New York's there was the bother of tacking the topsails. For this shipmaster that he was. It was the end of a line. illuminated sky. This meant for the Douglas not a man had to go aloft to the cross- trees, haul the only a lengthy delay at City Island waiting for a tug, tack of the sail up over the peak halyard and triatic I left the Rebecca R. Douglas a week or SO, still but also considerable expense of a tow through Hell stay between the mast-heads and lower it back anchored off City Island, still waiting. My vacation Gate and the East River, to the Hoboken Docks. down the leeward. He then had to climb down to was up. I had been aboard about a month. Captain Captain Wasson, like all schooner-men, hated to pay the deck, move back to the next mast, and go back Wasson had me sign off, paid me my fifty dollars, we shook hands, and I left her. Six months later he sold for a tow. He felt sure that pilots and towing com- up again. Alvin, who was strong as a bear, went across hand over hand along the stay from one mast- her for $20,000, a wartime price he could not resist. panies and politicians were conspiring to line their head to the other. It was quite a stunt. Another She was lost in a gale off Cape May the following pockets at his expense. But he had no choice. As a man on deck had to release the tack and then secure Spring, on her maiden voyage under her new own- practical matter, it is doubtful that a submarine the end after it was dropped back down to him in ers. Her new captain and all but two of the crew would have wasted a torpedo on an old schooner, went down with her. and the commander might not have wished to sur- the windward belly of the sail. A further chore was face. to sink her by gunfire, in such congested to shift the heavy tackles that vanged the booms Poor old thing.