Show THE ROANOKE I 1 last of tho the lares larca wooden to be built in america S some se e the areat boats boat of thu this cow couo try tn ch chances anses la shipbuilding I 1 anyone strolling along the ull chead of E erie rie basin which is a vast hospital hospit 4 I 1 and haven for craft of all sorts aorta may in havo have noticed recently a great ship with skysail poles seemingly fragile as toothpicks towering above the loftiest loft iest a spars pars of the biggest vessels moored I 1 around oun d her she is ia a four master and her aerial intricacies ot of rigging and hilliards halli ards arda and ropes are a chinese puzzle to the lafi landsman daman but a vision of delight to the shellback she is the roanoke Boa noke giantess eian tesa of wooden fal sailing ling vessels and the last of her type that ever will be constructed in america for that reason aha is worth more than passing notice she represents the vanishing i era of wooden bottoms diac discriminated ri minnied against by tho the marine underwriters underwriter s r since ince the advent of steel ships 1 lo 10 long ago says the new yorker the I 1 w wooden en sailing craft ceased to be a carrier I 1 of any significance in the british trade all of the bl big ig british clippers are of stee and nearly all those of recent construction are four masters the I 1 british slipper callshim calls his four master ia a bark because she tit ia schooner rigged on the fourth which is known both as the spanker wid and jigger mast the yankee slipper thuinli that any bailing sa vessel with three masts square rigged is a ahi ship the four masted british ships may be numbered by the score the four masted american ships may lie be counted on the fingers of one hand but the nautical optimists say this Is to ba changed and that the change is at hand the keel of the first fint american steel ship soon will be laid at bath and after she is launched others will follow her down the ways in rapid succession the builders hope to do with the steel clippers which will be constructed on approved american racing dicing models what our citizens did with wooden clippers before the war they held the record then from every port near or remote and they made modest fortunes for their builders and owners the best of the steel british ships cannot app approach ph the wonderful performances performance a of the great fleet of yankee flyers of forty years ago the tha northern light is credited with making the voyage from san francisco to this thia port in seventy two days tho the plying dutchman built by william H I 1 webb of thia city in 1853 1852 covered knots in sixteen consecutive days daya an average avem ge of nearly twelve knots knote an hour the dreadnought Dread naught made the 2800 knot run between new york and queens town in less than ten days the sovereign of the seas made the passage from the sandwich islands to new york in eighty two days dayi co cherin ering erin on one day knots which is better than tale th best daya day N run ran of an eight day steamship atea mahi from queenstown Queens town the mary redge ran from baltimore to liverpool in thirteen days daya and seven hours the tha red jacket made over ss statute mite miles a day daf for one week these are aoma ot the th e records the tha roanoke will trao equal veteran denot believe shi she ib can do it but her commander i hopeful the roanoke is not the biggest american ship ever built that distinction belonged to the great republic w which aich was even eten larger than the colossal steel five fiva master france the largest sailing vessel in the world the great republic was built in east boston by donald mckay in 1853 her master capt joseph P hamilton is the same hamilton hamilto to u who now commands and partly owns the roanoke the great republic was waa not so ao heavily sparred as the roan roanoke oke she carried square yards of canvas while the roanoke spreads nearly from bookend boom end to boom end that is from the tip of her b bowsprit to the tip of her spanker boom the roanoke measures feet her length on the keel is feet and her length over all is 31 feet her extreme extrema beam is feet her depth 2910 feet and her draught 27 feet the g golden 0 iden ball on an the top of her main sky 1 aall s all pole pola is nearly feet from the deck her main and mizzen lower masts aro are 83 92 feet high and her fore I 1 lower ower matt mast is 81 91 feet high her lower spa spanker mast is 88 98 feet high her fore main and mizzen kopmar topmasts top masts ts are 56 feet high and her spanker t topmast 0 is 83 82 feet high each of her three topgallant masts is 25 26 feet high her three royal masts 19 feet her skysail masts 15 feet and her poles 6 feet each of her three I 1 lower ower yards is ia 95 feet long her lower topsail yards yarda 88 feet long hr her topgallant yards 68 66 feet ion long g her royal yards 55 feet long and her skysail poles 6 feet each of her three lower yards is 95 feet f long her lower topa topsail 3 ii yards 88 feet long her topgallant yards yard 66 feet lingher Ion lon gher royal yards 55 feet long and her skysail yards 44 feet long these are gigantic spare span and their size can be appreciated only b by v the sailorman I 1 who furls burls bail on them on her maiden maidee voyage from bath to this port recently with 1400 tons of ice ic in her hold at as ballast the had only light winds and could not test her sailing qualities she will fit out at erie basin and be ready for her first cargo of tons in december sh she e win will RO go into service on the triangular track from new york to san francisco to td liverpool or havre and back to new york she will carry a crew of about forty men of mixed nationalities she will also have what are rare ia these daysi days F six ix or eight ambitious american apprentices most mostly ly from tj the school ship st M maryb A |