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CRUISING IN THE 
WEST INDIES 



CRUISING IN THE 
WEST INDIES, 



♦ ■ BY ,».. 

ANSON PHE-fere- STOKES 

FORMERLY VICE-COMMODORE OF THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 



SECOND EDITION 

INCLUDING ACCOUNT OF SECOND CRUISE, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND 

A DESCRIPTION OF THE GLOBULAR NAVAL BATTERY 

INVENTED BY HIM 



NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD & CO. 

1903 



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Copyright, 1902, 1903, by 
Anson Phelps Stokes 



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THE DE VINNE PRESS 






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At a meeting of the New York Yacht Club, held 
at the Club House, May 15, 1902, ex- Vice-Com- 
modore Anson Phelps Stokes made the following 
motion : 

Resolved, that a committee be appointed, by the 
Commodore, to consider the question of a squad- 
ron cruise in the West Indies next winter, and 
to report at the October meeting. 

Several members spoke in favor and none op- 
posed, and the motion was carried unanimously. 



ADDRESS 

AT THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB REPORTING 

THE CRUISE OF THE SCHOONER YACHT 

SEA FOX TO THE WEST INDIES 

AND ADVOCATING A 

SQUADRON CRUISE 

THERE 



ADDRESS OF ANSON PHELPS STOKES 

IN THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB, MAY 15, 1902, 

ON HIS MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE TO 

CONSIDER THE QUESTION OF A 

SQUADRON CRUISE TO THE 

WEST INDIES NEXT 

WINTER 

Commodore: 

I have lately returned from a West Indian cruise 
in my yacht, the Sea Fox. 

The terrible disaster which has overwhelmed, 
within the last few days, the beautiful and fertile 
islands of Martinique and St. Vincent has startled 
the world. While rejoicing at the prompt and 
efficient efforts to relieve present distress there, let 
us remember, also, that for their permanent pros- 
perity the lovely Carib Islands have the utmost 
need of greater intercourse with the United States. 
This more neighborly intercourse our club can pro- 
mote to the benefit of all concerned. 

The unequaled advantages for winter cruising 
afforded by the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea, 
from Porto Rico to Trinidad, have led me to sug- 



gest a squadron cruise there, and to prepare a few 
short notes for the use of such of my fellow- 
members as may think of sailing in those waters 
for the first time. 

I had considerable previous yachting experience 
at home and abroad. When I owned the Clytie, 
I took her, in 1880, to Bermuda. I have yachted 
in English waters and among the isles of Greece, 
and last year I went, in the Mermaid, to and among 
the Bahamas for about two months. 

But when I tried to plan a West Indian cruise, 
I found much study was required to obtain the 
necessary information. 

Many books have been written about the West 
Indies by literary and scientific men, by newspaper 
correspondents, and by tourists. But the precise 
information needed by yachtsmen is as different 
from that required by tourists as the charm of these 
lovely shores seen from a yacht is different from 
the very inadequate idea of their beauty obtained 
from the crowded deck of a steamer, which hurries 
along at a distance, enters few of the most inter- 
esting bays, and passes much of the finest scenery 
during the night. 

However, the experience I gained as a tourist 
in West Indian waters three years ago was of use 
in planning for yachting there. 

10 



Recent events have led to largely increased 
American interest in these islands and in their 
future. 

The great variety found in the appearance and 
condition of the inhabitants, the various systems 
of land ownership and of labor, some islands be- 
ing cultivated by a few individuals or companies, 
some having peasant proprietors or systems of 
sharing, some Hindu and Chinese labor, some per- 
mitting squatting on crown lands, some having 
public sugar-factories established by the govern- 
ment or by European corporations, the general de- 
cay caused by want of commercial intercourse with 
the United States and with each other, the differ- 
ent colonial systems of the nations owning the 
islands, the tariff, sugar, and negro questions, all 
these present an important study for Americans 
who are now called upon to consider colonial 
problems. 

It is only by actual visits that the real conditions 
in the Virgin, Leeward, and Windward Islands 
can be understood. Yachts are the best means for 
visiting these islands, and we have, in the north- 
eastern and eastern parts of the Caribbean Sea, in- 
comparably the best waters for our winter yachting. 

If I can contribute a little to facilitate plans for 
yachting there, I feel it a duty that I owe to the 

II 



New York Yacht Club, which has twice done me 
the honor of electing me its vice-commodore. 



CONDITIONS TO BE CONSIDERED 

In the first place, a large and expensive steam 
yacht is not required in and about the Caribbean 
Sea, the trade-winds being all-sufficient. In forty- 
four days from Trinidad, through the islands to 
Cuba, we had only two calm days, and even in these 
days there were hours when we made good prog- 
ress. It is, however, often nearly calm at night. 
Sheltered harbors abound. 

During February, March, and April the trades 
blow steadily almost every day from an easterly 
direction, mostly north of east above Barbados, 
and south of east between Barbados and Trinidad. 
There are no hurricanes in the West Indies during 
these the best months for cruising there, and no 
northers in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea. 

The words Leeward, applied to those islands 
above fifteen degrees north latitude, and Wind- 
zvard, applied to those below fifteen degrees north 
latitude, are misleading. All the islands east and 
northeast of the Caribbean Sea ought to be called 
Windward Islands. 

12 



The principal islands between the Virgins and 
Grenada are generally about thirty miles apart. 
There are many smaller ones also well worth 
visiting. 

All the way from Porto Rico to the Orinoco a 
good sailing yacht, sixty to one hundred feet on 
water-line, is sufHcient for comfort, and, to my 
mind, far superior to a steam yacht for the enjoy- 
ment of these waters. 

Yachts much smaller than sixty feet water-line 
can be used there with entire safety during Feb- 
ruary, March, and April. Many native open dug- 
outs are met five to ten miles from shore fishing for 
flying-fish. 



PLAN OF CRUISE 

A plan of cruise is necessary to those who have 
limited time, and who wish to use the time to best 
advantage. 

Unless such a plan is decided upon in advance, 
it is not easy for owners and guests to arrange for 
letters from home. 

In planning a cruise, the first thing is to get a 
copy of Navy Department Publication No. 86, 
"The Navigation of the Gulf of Mexico and Carib- 

13 



bean Sea," vol. i. This furnishes, among much 
else that is important, a list of charts required. 

I will give, later, a list of some other books that 
may be found useful. 

Most of our members have engagements at home 
during the early part of January. Many are glad 
to be away February and March, and unable to be 
absent longer than sixty to one hundred days. 

One hundred days are sufficient to visit, in a 
sailing yacht, Bermuda, Barbados, Tobago, Trini- 
dad, and all the most interesting islands between 
Trinidad and St. Thomas, to see St. Thomas and 
some of the ports of Porto Rico, Hayti, Jamaica, 
and Cuba, and to return to New York from a 
Florida or other southern United States port. By 
hurrying, all this can be done in ninety days. 



FOR A SIXTY DAYS CRUISE IN A SAILING YACHT 

Those who do not wish to be absent from New 
York more than about sixty days, I should advise 
to send their yachts to St. Thomas, and that out- 
side scraping, varnishing, and painting, etc., be 
done there. It is cold, slow, and expensive doing 
outside work on yachts in New York in January, 

14 



and boats and upper works get messed up a lot 
going from New York to the Caribbean Sea. 

There are good facilities for hauling, etc., at 
St. Thomas, a dry-dock, and a marine railway. 
Owners and guests can go there by steamer. More 
steamers may soon be put on, and some of the 
tourist steamers may be found available. A num- 
ber of steamers are advertised "to call at St. 
Thomas if required." St. Thomas is now reported 
to be a very healthy port, a short canal having 
been cut to cause a circulation of water through 
the harbor. 

Before definitely deciding upon a plan of cruise, 
careful inquiry should be made at the offices of the 
various West Indian steamship companies as to 
the steamers that may be sailing to the various 
ports. It is possible that great changes may be 
made in this service. 

Barbados lies so far to the eastward that it can- 
not be reached from the nearest part of the Carib- 
bean Sea without nearly one hundred miles of 
windward work against the current. 

Antigua is not as interesting as many of the 
other islands. 

So those who wish to be absent from New York 
only sixty days had best, I think, join their yachts 
at St. Thomas and omit Barbados and Antigua. 

15 



It would be a pity to omit Tobago, as this is 
one of the most strikingly romantic-looking of all, 
and, according to most of the later authorities, it 
is the scene of "Robinson Crusoe." And it can 
usually be reached from Grenada without wind- 
ward work. 

By omitting Bermuda, Barbados, Tobago, Trini- 
dad, and St. Croix, and going to St. Thomas by 
steamer and returning thence or from San Juan 
by steamer, it is possible to visit the Virgins and 
Leeward and Windward Islands in six weeks, 
from the time of leaving New York to the time 
of return to New York, if there be no delay wait- 
ing for steamer. 

I would advise those who have only sixty days 
to be absent from New York to arrange to have 
their yachts ready in good time, and to sail from 
St. Thomas by February i. Then, for a day or 
two, to beat to windward among the smooth sounds 
and lovely bays of the Virgin Islands, while guests 
are getting a pleasant "notion of the motion of the 
ocean" in a yacht, and then to sail, inside of the 
Leeward and Windward Islands and without many 
stoppages, to Trinidad. It is better to be at the 
most southern port in the cooler weather, and it 
is best to visit most of the islands -while sailing 
toward the north, for the wind is more favorable 

i6 



if we continue on to St. Croix, etc., and in sailing 
near the beautiful shores, as one wants to do in 
visiting the Caribbean Islands, it is safer to have 
the sun at one's back, so that the color of the 
water can be distinctly seen, and reefs and coral- 
heads avoided. 

If Tobago be visited, this should be on the way- 
south, for it would be very slow sailing easterly 
along the north coast of Trinidad against wind 
and strong current. 



CRUISE OF THE SEA FOX 

I left New York, January 24, 1902, by train, 
and joined, at Charleston, South Carolina, my 
yacht, the schooner Sea Fox (96 1^ net tons, 89 
feet 5 inches water-line, 115 feet over all, and 11 
feet draught, yacht measurement, but drawing 
nearly 12 feet with her extra cruising stores, boats, 
fittings, and ice, coal, water, etc.). 

We sailed from Charleston January 26, arrived 
Bermuda January 31, left there February 6, and 
arrived Barbados February 14; left there Feb- 
ruary 18, arrived Tobago February 19, and at 
Port of Spain, Trinidad, February 21; visited the 

17 



principal islands between Trinidad and St. Thomas, 
including Grenada, Cariacou, St. Vincent, St. 
Lucia, Martinique, Les Saints, Dominica, Grande 
Terre, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis, 
St. Kitts, St. Eustatius, Saba, St. Croix, and St. 
John; sailed April 4 from St. Thomas, via Cule- 
bra, for San Juan, Porto Rico, where we arrived 
April 5 ; left San Juan April 7, and sailed along the 
northern coasts of Porto Rico and Hayti to the 
eastern end of Cuba, then by the western coasts 
of Great Inagua, Acklin, and Crooked Islands, and 
past Long, Exuma, Rum, Watlings, Cat, Eleu- 
thera, and other islands to Nassau, where we ar- 
rived early April 14; and, sailing at 4 p.m. the 
same day, arrived at Fernandina, Florida, April 
18, and at New York, by train, April 20 — eighty- 
six days from the time I left home. 

We could have been back sooner by going from 
San Juan to Charleston, for there is little doubt 
we would have had the trades as far north as 
about twenty-five degrees north latitude. But we 
wanted to see the other islands, and were delayed 
by calms and contrary winds off the Florida coast, 
where winds are commonly uncertain. We did 
not hurry very much, but stopped to dine at gov- 
ernment houses, and to entertain on board yacht, 
etc. 

18 



THE ITINERARY 

I have prepared an itinerary arranged for those 
owners of sailing yachts who may wish to be ab- 
sent from New York only sixty days. Most of 
this itinerary may be used, with the added notes, 
by those who, having more time, may wish to in- 
clude in their cruise Bermuda, Barbados, Antigua, 
and southern shores of Porto Rico, Hayti, Ja- 
maica, and Cuba and the city of Havana. 

The itinerary, it will be seen, allows five days 
for steamer from New York to St. Thomas, forty- 
three days among the islands, and twelve days 
for sailing and training from St. Thomas, or from 
San Juan, Porto Rico, to New York, via Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, or via Nassau and Florida, or 
along the northern coasts of Porto Rico, Hayti, 
and Cuba, etc. These coasts are very interesting.^ 
On the other hand, there is a certain exhilaration 
and monarch-of-all-you-survey feeling in yachting 
far away from land. 

^ Matanzas is a charming, healthy port, with clean water, 
lovely scenery, and a railway to Havana. At Havana, as at 
Santiago and other ports on south of Cuba, the water in the 
harbors is very vile, and will probably so continue until 
canals are cut as at St. Thomas. 

19 



NOTES 

I add a few notes regarding particulars to be 
considered in planning a cruise in a sailing yacht 
through the eastern part of the Caribbean, and 
some matters observed there, and a short mention 
of yachting in Grecian waters and in England ; 
also some sailing reminiscences, and thoughts of 
the future of the West Indian islands. 



WINTER CRUISING 

Among the considerations that appeal to me in 
favor of winter yachting in the eastern part of 
the Caribbean is that old and even infirm yachts- 
men can there enjoy outdoor life with great com- 
fort in a delightful and healthy climate, with fine 
steady sailing breezes six days out of seven, quiet 
anchorages, regular exercise, inland excursions 
over good roads, evening launch cruises about har- 
bors of wonderful beauty and along coral sand 
beaches, on which palms grow, while above are 
seen bold cliffs, the greenest of fields, and lofty 

20 



wood-covered mountains. One meets interesting 
people at government houses/ at messes, clubs, 
and on board men-of-war, and learns facts about 
colonial problems, while avoiding snow, blizzards, 
and influenza. Now that the old difficulty about 
ice is done away with by the general introduc- 
tion of ice-plants, one can always have good food 
on a yacht in these waters. 

I do not doubt that a few months' yachting in 
the tropics would generally benefit most old yachts- 
men.^ 

The eastern part of the Caribbean Sea is an 
excellent place for young yachtsmen to get the 
training necessary to make them useful if called 
upon to defend their country in the navy reserve 

^ The hospitality, grace, and charm found in the govern- 
ment houses of British colonies, as in the homes of Eng- 
land, are celebrated throughout the world, and beyond ade- 
quate expression by any words at my command. In the 
present terrible disaster, it is fortunate for the islands that 
there are in government houses at St. Vincent, St. Lucia, 
Trinidad, etc., those well fitted to meet the emergency, yet 
it is sad to think what dangers and sufferings are threaten- 
ing friends there. 

^ I ought perhaps to mention that when I left home I was 
suffering from traumatic neuralgia, following the loss of my 
left leg — the result of my horse bolting and crushing my 
leg against a tree in 1899. The neuralgia soon mostly passed 
away on the yacht, I obtained sufficient sleep, and the mild 
exercise at the wheel was beneficial. 

21 



or in the navy. We may sometime need a large 
navy reserve mosquito fleet in that neighborhood. 
It is possible that some who have been in the 
habit of spending summer months floating about 
in palaces on our smooth sounds and bays might, 
by a cruise in the West Indies, be led to take an 
interest in real yachting. 



A NEW YORK YACHT CLUB SQUADRON CRUISE 
IN THE WEST INDIES 

It would be an interestkig and a sporting thing 
for the New York Yacht Club to arrange a West 
Indian cruise for next winter with a squadron of 
yachts, the flag-ship carrying a surgeon. 

I think that if the club would decide upon this, 
and upon a regular plan of cruise, so many yachts 
would agree to join that it might be found best 
to have along a tug fitted with an ice-plant, and 
that could go ahead at night with a clerk who 
could collect milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, ar- 
range for horses and for distribution of mails, 
telegrams, local newspapers, and the daily news 
reports which are posted in the telegraph offices. 
These matters cause much delay. 

22 



When the great tourist steamers visit some of 
the West Indian ports, the day being known ahead, 
private carriages are collected for hire on that day, 
and much fruit and vegetables for sale. 



THE SEAL OF THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 

The seal of our club represents yachts boldly 
beating out of harbor into a sea beyond which no 
land is to be seen. Our motto declares that we 
are driven with swelling sails — Nos agimur tumi- 
dis veils} Let us not change this for the motto, 
We steam over smoothest waters. 

^ The motto on our seal, excepting the change of the first 
word, appears to have been taken from the Epistles of Hor- 
ace, book 2, epistle 2, verse 201 : 

Pauperies immunda tamen procul absit, ego utrum 
Nave ferar magna an parva, ferar unus et idem. 
Non agimur tumidis velis Aquilone secundo, 
Non tamen adversis aetatem ducimus Austria, 
Viribus, ingenio, specie, virtute, loco, re 
Extremi primorum, extremis usque priores. 



23 



ITINERARY 



ITINERARY 

FOR A SAILING YACHT CRUISE THROUGH THE 

EASTERN PART OF THE CARIBBEAN 

SEA, ETC., WITH ONLY SIXTY DAYS' 

ABSENCE FROM NEW YORK 

Days 

1-5 Steamer to St. Thomas. 

6 At St. Thomas. Get full supplies of ice and 

coal (hard coal if possible), and sail to 
some near-by port in the Virgin Islands. 

7 Beat to windward among smooth sounds, etc., 

of Virgin Islands. 

8 To St. Martin (if wind be favorable). This 

island belongs part to France and part to 
Holland. 

9 To St. Kitts, passing near Saba and St. Eus- 

tatius. 

27 



Days 

10 To Les Saints French Naval Station. Fine 

harbor, lovely scenery. De Grasse was de- 
feated by Rodney off these islands, April 
12, 1782. The severest battle in English 
naval records. 

11 To St. Pierre, Martinique. Before the ter- 

rible eruption of May 8, 1902, this was a 
very interesting old French town. There 
was a fine drive from St. Pierre to Fort 
de France, and it was best to take this drive 
going south, for better horses could be got 
at St. Pierre. Full particulars regarding 
this eruption and its results have not yet 
been received. Some changes may be found 
necessary in plan of visit to Martinique, etc. 
(See pages 31 and 32.) 

12 To Kingstown, St. Vincent. Perfect harbor. 

Charming scenery. 

13 To St. George, Grenada. A most lovely is- 

land. 

14 To Tobago. Robinson Crusoe's Island. 

15 At Tobago. See Man-of-War Bay and Ply- 

mouth Harbor, and drive or ride across 
island to Scarborough. 

16 To Port of Spain, Trinidad. 

17-19 At Trinidad. Only seven miles from the 
mountainous coast of South America. 
28 



Days 

'A most interesting island of 
peasant proprietors. No sugar 
grown, but much fruit, etc. 
The finest oranges I have ever 
seen. The views from the 

20 To Grenada. / south veranda of the Govern- 

21 At Grenada. \ ment House are wonderfully 
fine. On the east is the beau- 
tiful Vale of Tempe, south are 
the mountains, and west the 
lovely harbor. Drive or ride 
to Grande Etang. 

2.2. To Cariacou, going near other Grenadines. 

23 Among Grenadines, and to Kingstown, St. 

Vincent. 

24 At St. Vincent. Order horses by telephone, 

from Kingstown, to meet you at Chateau 
Belair next morning. 

25 Start early, sail to Chateau Belair, ascend to 

the Soufriere crater, and sail for Castries, 
St. Lucia. 

26 Arrive Castries; anchor to windward of hos- 

pital, which is below old Government 
House. Avoid neighborhood of coal docks, 
sewers, abattoirs, and swamp. Visit the re- 
markable new fortifications, etc., so far as 
you can obtain permits. Castries is a dirty 
29 



Days 

town, and this is one of the very few ports 
where you may find mosquitos.^ It is ne- 
cessary to enter at Castries before going to 
Port Soufriere, St. Lucia. Order by tele- 
phone horses to meet you next day at Sou- 
friere. 
27 Sail to Port Soufriere. Get line to shore; no 
good anchorage. Ride or drive to old sul- 
phur works, getting grand views of Pitons, 
etc. It is said that the sulphur works were 
closed by an export tax to prevent laborers 
from being attracted away from sugar plan- 
tations.^ Go in launch about the Pitons. 

^ Castries may be improved by a canal and by filling in 
swamp, through which a wide road has been made. Most 
small vessels anchor to leeward of the large coal docks, 
where the water is vile and the coal dust annoying. I an- 
chored first to windward of these docks, but found bad 
smell from sewers at low tide, and so crossed over to near 
the small coal dock, which was not being used. A little 
change in the wind brought mosquitos from the swamp, so 
I crossed to south side of harbor and anchored to windward 
of hospital under old Government House and inside the 
steamer buoy, to which an English man-of-war soon after 
made fast, and we had to carry an anchor near to the shore. 

^ In 1836 two gentlemen of Antigua, Mr. Bennett and Mr. 
Wood, set up sulphur works at the Soufriere of St. Lucia 
and began prosperously enough, exporting five hundred and 
forty tons the first year. But in 1840 the sugar growers 
took the alarm, and at their instigation the legislative coun- 

30 



Days 

These stupendous rocks, nearly three thou- 
sand feet, deserve much attention from 
every direction. 

28 Sail close by Diamond Rock to Fort de 

France (Fort Royal), Martinique. Birth- 
place of Josephine and of Madame de Main- 
tenon. Scene of "Paul et Virginie." Dia- 
mond Rock, from January, 1804, until 
June, 1805, was held by the British. It 
was rated as a war vessel on the Admiralty 
books, and did great injury to the French 
until it had to surrender for want of pow- 
der.^ It is six hundred feet high, one mile 
round, and one mile from the French island 
of Martinique. 

29 At Fort de France. Station and dock-yards 

for French steamers, etc. There is a dry- 
dock here. 

30 To St. Pierre, Martinique. See remarkable 

Jardin des Plantes — if the eruption has not 
destroyed it — and drive to Morne Rouge 
and to Morne Pelee. 

cil imposed a tax of i6.y. sterling on every ton of sulphur 
exported from the colony. Messrs. Bennett and Wood, after 
having incurred a heavy loss of time and treasure, had to 
break up their establishment and retire from the colony. 
Breen's "St. Lucia." 
^ "Naval Chronicles," vol. xii, p. 206. 

31 



Days 

31 At St. Pierre. Drive about harbor, etc., and 

to Hot Springs, and go about harbor in 
launch. 

32 To Roseau, Dominica. This is perhaps the 

most beautiful of these islands. Mount 
Diabloten, over five thousand feet. Ride 
to Boiling Lake, etc., and sail to Ports- 
mouth, which is a quieter anchorage than 
Roseau. There are no public carriages in 
Dominica. I got a private carriage at Ro- 
seau. Road extends only about five miles. 
Some few hundred Caribs still on the island. 

33 To Marie Galante, and sail to Pointe a Pitre 

on Grande Terre, the eastern and low half 
of the twin islands called Guadeloupe. 

34 Take automobile tour around Grande Terre, 

and go in launch through Riviere Salee, 
which divides the two islands of Guade- 
loupe. See great sugar factory. The con- 
sul should be informed some days ahead, 
and asked to secure automobile. There are 
only two now in Guadeloupe, but several 
more may probably be there soon. May be 
able to get naphtha there for launch; in- 
quire of consul and automobile people. 
Probably safer to have naphtha sent from 
New York in good time. 
32 



Days 

35 To Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. Note the very- 

beautiful scenery of Guadeloupe, and the 
waterfall that appears to come out of the 
clouds. No quiet anchorage anywhere on 
the west side of Guadeloupe. I had a slip- 
line to steamer buoy, but this might not be 
permitted if a steamer were arriving. Take 
automobile drive. Sail to Montserrat. 

36 Arrive Montserrat, and sail 

To Nevis, where Hamilton was born, and 
where Nelson was married, the Duke of 
Clarence, who was afterward King Wil- 
liam the Fourth, being his best man. The 
fashionable watering-place of the West In- 
dies, in the days when sugar was king. See 
ruins of great stone hotel; cost $200,000, 
and sold for $200. 

-^J To St. Kitts. Get green peas, melons, best 
sweet potatoes, guinea fowl, etc. 

38 To Eustatius. Much market produce ex- 
ported from this island. 

.39 To Saba; anchor close under cliff, and go up 
steps to town of Bottom, i960 feet. Get 
fresh vegetables here. Sail for St. Croix, 
better known to some yachtsmen by its old 
and fragrant name, Santa Cruz. 

40 Arrive at Fredericksted or at Christiansted, 

33 



Days 

whichever harbor the wind best suits. 
Fredericksted is a fine open roadstead. 
Christiansted is a land-locked harbor, with 
narrow, crooked entrance, and pilot may 
not come out in case of much sea. 

41 Drive across island. Great sugar plantations, 

rich soil, etc. It is said that one third of 
the sugar-cane land belongs to a citizen of 
the United States. 

42 To St. John Island. Visit Coral Bay and 

some other port in the Virgins not visited 
on way south. 

43 To St. Thomas. 

44 At St. Thomas. 

45 To mouth of Culebra harbor, and to San 

Juan, Porto Rico. Many beautiful islands 
seen on the way. 
(Or, on days 42-45 sail from St. Croix to 
Culebra and to San Juan, Porto Rico. Cross 
the island to Ponce. Automobile diligences 
are at present running daily. A railway 
will soon be completed. ) 

46 At San Juan. Grand old forts. Pleasant 

country club, with fine surf bathing. 

47 Sail for the United States direct, or by one 

of the other routes before mentioned. 

34 



Days 

48 Allow a day for some unknown delays.* 
60 Arrive New York; or perhaps sooner if you 
sail direct to Fernandina or Charleston 
from St. Thomas or San Juan. 

^ In case of unexpected delaj^ a day or two may be 
economized by sailing at night. 



35 



NOTES 

OF SOME PARTICULARS TO BE CONSIDERED 

IN PLANNING A SAILING YACHT 

CRUISE IN THE WEST 

INDIES, ETC. 



NOTES 

OF SOME PARTICULARS TO BE CONSIDERED 

IN PLANNING A SAILING YACHT 

CRUISE IN THE WEST 

INDIES, ETC. 

Spars, Sails, Etc. For the benefit of those mem- 
bers of our club who have not done much ocean 
cruising, I may be permitted to mention that as 
yachts have to sail through rough weather in 
going from New York to the West Indies, and 
as strong puffs of wind come down from the 
steep sides of the islands, and as there are, occa- 
sionally, severe squalls, bowsprit, main boom, 
and topmasts should be shortened, and good 
cruising sails should be carried. The mainsail 
ought to be cut high in the clue. Remember that 
new sails will stretch greatly in continuous 
warm, dry weather. A storm trysail should be 
taken. 

Moderate sails should be provided for the cut- 
ter, as with the constant trades this can be used 
much in the harbors. 

39 



A small awning, say about eight feet by four- 
teen feet, to be used on either side of yacht while 
sailing, is very useful. It should be of stout can- 
vas, thoroughly well roped, etc., and lined with 
thin blue canvas. The sky there is commonly 
partly overcast, and there are almost every day 
short, light showers. But the sun often shines 
very strongly for hours at a tirne. 

Anchors, Etc. It is important to have good and 
sufficient ground tackle. Pretty little brass- 
mounted capstans will not be sufficient. Re- 
member that coral often presents foul bottom, 
that many old anchors have been abandoned in 
harbors during the hurricane season, that moor- 
ing buoys for steamers often have heavy chains 
from moorings to the shore, and that your an- 
chor may get caught on these. As the bottom 
often runs down very suddenly, it is sometimes 
necessary to have a line to a tree ashore to keep 
anchor from slipping off the bank. 

Sailing. In sailing over shoals marked three to 
four fathoms, have an experienced man in for- 
ward rigging to look out for coral-heads, etc., 
which may not have been noticed by hydrograph- 
ers some years before. 

Always remember that not only are the winds 
from the eastward, but the current also gener- 
40 



ally runs toward the west, so that to sail from 
San Juan to St. Thomas, or from the Caribbean 
Sea to Barbados, would probably be very slow 
work. 

Many wrecks have occurred on the windward 
sides of the Bahamas and other islands from 
failure to make sufficient allowance for the wes- 
terly current, which sometimes increases sud- 
denly on account of atmospheric changes. 
Supplies. As some yachtsmen are not like Dib- 
din's mariners — 

The sailors, the sailors, 

Whose home is on the seas, 

Who make the wars 

And keep the laws 

And live on yellow peas — 

it is necessary to give considerable attention to 
the subject of supplies. 

Ice is commonly obtainable at most of the 
islands, but some of the factories will not fur- 
nish more than half a ton without notice. At 
some few ports schooners from Maine are some- 
times found, and sell cheaper than the factories. 
We found an ice schooner at St. Thomas. 

Water is said to be good at Barbados, Trini- 
dad, and St. Thomas, and is delivered from 
water-boats with pumps. Water is probably 
41 



good at many other places. (Consult Navy De- 
partment Publication No. 86.) Where water 
is delivered in puncheons, examine each punch- 
eon carefully to see that the water is clear and 
free from the smell of rum, which smell will 
stay long in yacht tanks. I would not take 
water at Antigua or at St. Lucia. 

Vegetables, Fowl, Etc. Chickens are ob- 
tainable at almost all the islands; ducks and 
meat at many. Eggs, milk, fish, and common 
fruits and vegetables are generally obtainable, 
and commonly offered for sale by boats coming 
alongside. Nice green peas, string beans, as- 
paragus, tomatoes, melons, flowers, etc., are sel- 
dom offered by boats or in the markets, but can 
sometimes be obtained from farmers and others 
living a few miles from the ports. It is some- 
times worth while for owners, when driving, to 
make inquiries and to secure these. At St. Kitts, 
Saba, St. Eustatius, etc., there are market gar- 
dens. At Montserrat and at some other islands 
market gardens are being established. Inquire 
at the Botanical Gardens.^ Women are seen in 

^ Charitable efforts are being made to induce poor people 
to raise fine vegetables for sale. At one island, not named 
here, a lady told me that she was much pleased at the suc- 
cess of the little garden belonging to a negro, and that 

42 



some of the islands carrying on their heads fine 
melons and other fruits to sell at the ports to 
the families that they know will buy. West 
Indian watermelons are particularly good, al- 
though they look like green pumpkins. There 
are fine vegetable farms at Nassau, fifteen miles 
or so from the port, and from one of these vege- 
tables are sent in on Tuesdays and Saturdays to 
parties that order them. Inquire of consul. 
Game birds may sometimes be found. Venison 
may be had at Trinidad and St. Croix; turtle 
at Trinidad and at some other islands. 

It is not fair to blame stewards for not al- 
ways getting the best fresh provisions, for usu- 
ally they have not time to look them up. 

At Bermuda I saw the very finest potatoes 
being dug in the fields, while those offered in 
the market were inferior. I asked one woman, 
who tried to sell poor bananas at the yacht 
side, why she did not bring good ones, and she 
said the steamer had taken all the good ones 
the day before. 

At Montserrat I asked at a leading shop for 
new potatoes, and they had only old potatoes, 

upon congratulating him he replied, "Ain't gwine to raise no 
mo' vegetables, cos dey steals 'em. I 's gwine to steal vege- 
tables next year." 

43 



but said they had fine new ones if I would wait 
for them to send two miles into the interior. 
Trying to buy some Spanish onions in the mar- 
ket, I had to wait a long time to have them 
weighed at the public scales, apparently the only 
scales there. 

I mention these details to show that to get the 
best fresh food often requires considerable time 
in the West Indies. 

Naphtha will be largely used. It is not 
lawful cargo for passenger vessels, and cannot 
be obtained at present in English ports among 
the islands. I found it only at Pointe a Pitre 
and Basse Terre, Guadeloupe, and at San 
Juan, Porto Rico. At these places automobiles 
are used, and their use will probably increase. 
I was just too late to buy any naphtha at Pointe 
a Pitre, and could get only twenty gallons at 
Basse Terre. This was furnished by M. Ance- 
lin, who has an automobile for rent, and is try- 
ing to obtain a government subsidy for the es- 
tablishment of automobile diligences. It would 
be well to inquire of M. Ancelin or of the United 
States consul at Pointe a Pitre some time be- 
fore leaving New York, or, better, to have 
naphtha shipped from New York to Pointe a 
Pitre in good time. 

44 



Coal. At most places only soft coal is ob- 
tainable. 
Deck Chairs, Etc. The old-fashioned split- 
bamboo Madeira chairs, with brass hooks for 
back and with leg supports that slide under, are 
the best. They are light, fit the deck with all 
feet, and fold up in small space. Ordinary bam- 
boo arm-chairs, not too large, are also useful. 
But the common steamer chairs get in the way, 
and injure teak and mahogany on deck and in 
chart-room, etc. Often only three of the legs 
touch the deck at the same time. Thus they walk 
about the deck of a sailing yacht at sea. They 
ought to be allowed to get lost overboard unac- 
countably, with Saratoga trunks, the first night 
out. 

Twenty-two years ago, when I was returning 
in the Clytie from Bermuda, a clergyman guest 
went on deck to smoke after dinner, and 
promptly fell over a steamer chair. He sat 
quietly rubbing his shin, until another guest who 
was following him also fell over the steamer 
chair, and made a comment, upon which the 
clergyman said, "Oh! thank you, that was what 
I wanted to say." 

A powerful lamp to hang under boom should 
be provided, also a good deck card-table with 

45 



folding legs. Feet of deck chairs and table 
should have rubber sockets. The deck will be 
much used in the evening in the tropics. 
Quarantine. Be careful to comply with all regu- 
lations. Carry vaccination certificates from 
home, or you may have to submit to examination 
and to vaccination in case a recent mark be not 
found. Have the crew all vaccinated. 

Where there is the least doubt, ask, before 
entering, whether a port is clean, so as to be 
sure that you can get a clean bill of health when 
leaving. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN THE ISLANDS 

The multiplicity of quarantine regulations be- 
tween the islands is annoying to travelers, and 
greatly interferes with trade, etc. 

There appears an intention to put obstacles in 
the way of intercourse. 

Rodney expressly insisted, at the time of the 
Treaty of Versailles, 1783, that Dominica must 
be retained by the English to prevent the French 
islands on either side of it from becoming too 
prosperous and important. 

This isolation has been ruinous to Dominica. 

46 



It is almost without roads or trade, while the 
islands on either side — Martinique and Guade- 
loupe — have good roads and considerable com- 
merce, mostly with France. 

Dominica has fine streams and very fertile 
soil, and is well suited for all kinds of tropical 
produce in the lowlands, and for many other 
crops on the higher levels. The inhabitants 
speak a French patois, and live for the most 
part, as far as I could see, in miserable huts. 
They have many fish in their rivers and off- 
shore fisheries, but cannot sell to Guadeloupe, 
which depends for most of its fish on salt codfish 
brought from the French fisheries at Newfound- 
land. 

How could any State in our Union prosper if 
each county had its own quarantine and customs 
laws, and a lot of officials to enforce them, and 
a currency which was at large discount in the 
next county? 

Almost all the principal islands on the east 
side of the Caribbean Sea have exceedingly rich 
soil, and would be very prosperous if they had 
free trade with the United States and with each 
other. 

The English islands will, I think, soon be 
clamoring for some connection with us, if they 

47 



find we treat Cuba and the Danish islands lib- 
erally. The English Virgins come within about 
one mile of the Danish Virgins. It is already- 
beginning to be understood that Porto Rico is 
improving, and that laborers now get higher 
wages there than in the Leeward and Windward 
Islands, where men for the most part receive 
twenty cents a day, and where women work in 
the fields and on the roads for much less. 

The English are concentrating their forces at 
Castries, St. Lucia, a very important land- 
locked harbor and coaling station, to defend 
which they are spending vast sums on modern 
fortifications, etc. Much of the work about the 
fortifications and almost all the loading and un- 
loading of ships are done by women. The 
women, with slight clothing and bare feet, walk 
on long gang-planks, carrying on their heads 
baskets of the softest coal, the dust from which 
is carried about by the wind. The combination 
of royal mail steamers and ragged female steve- 
dores is not pleasing. 

The British war-ship Sirius anchored near us, 
and in returning our salute played "The Star- 
Spangled Banner," and the senior lieutenant 
came at once on board to bring the commodore's 
compliments, etc. 

48 



Trinidad and Tobago are self-supporting and 
prosperous, but before long the question of dis- 
posing of the English Leeward and Windward 
Islands, excepting St. Lucia, will, I think, be- 
come a prominent one in English politics.^ 

The Federation Act of 1871 effected good in 
some directions, and increased dissatisfaction in 
others. The commission of which Sir Henry 
Norman was president, sent out in 1897, has 
shown the agricultural position. The late con- 
ference on the sugar-bounty question has shown 
the benefits of discussion, and that nations can 
act in a civilized way toward each other, as 
many individual men do. But it is now obvious 
that something further is necessary for the pros- 
perity of the Leeward and Windward Islands, 
to stop annual deficits and to avoid the dangers 
that must arise from popular discontent. 

Access to the markets of the United States 
appears indispensable for real prosperity. Free 
intercourse and trade between themselves would 
help. 

^ "Dominica stands between the two French colonies, show- 
ing, in its internal condition, a lamentable contrast to their 
prosperity. What we have done with it since about 1805 
no one knows, except those who are directly interested, and 
to those the last half century has been disastrous. Some 
people say, restore it to the French, and allow them to raise 

49 



Sea power has long been the great thought of 
English statesmen in their consideration of the 
West Indies. Very astute English governors 
and admirals there have for centuries reported to 
the foreign ojffice on this question. Sir William 
Stapleton, Governor of the Leeward Islands in 
the time of Charles II, wrote in one of his re- 
ports : "He that is master of the sea will go near 
to be the same at land." 

It is now recognized that the ownership of a 
great number of islands does not increase sea 
power. Only very few islands have deep land- 
locked harbors like Castries, where modern ves- 
sels of war can coal. 

it to the level of their own contiguous colonies, but such a 
course could not be advocated in these pages. . . . 

Imports in 1882, £72,326. Exports in 1878, £84,703. 

Imports in 1887, £46,890. Exports in 1887, £48,105." 

"The West Indies," by G. W. Eves, F.R.G.S., member of the 
Royal Colonial Institute. Published under the auspices of 
the Royal Colonial Irstitute, the most important and influ- 
ential association connected with the British colonies. His 
Majesty King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, was 
president, and delivered a lengthy address from the chair 



50 



NOTES 

REGARDING THE BERMUDAS, BARBADOS, 
ANTIGUA, AND THE BAHAMAS 



NOTES 

REGARDING THE BERMUDAS, BARBADOS, 
ANTIGUA, AND THE BAHAMAS 

Bermudas. Very interesting and beautiful islands, 
but there is often strong northerly wind, and 
the seas about Bermuda are usually rough. 

I went there first in 1880, in the C lytic, and 
found a charming and most hospitable place. 
There was so much going on ashore at St. 
George's and at Hamilton, that we saw little of 
the islands. When we left, Governor Laffan 
sent his launch to show us the way out of Ham- 
ilton harbor. Lady Laffan and her family sailed 
with us to the admiralty buoy, where Admiral 
McClintock and Lady McClintock and others 
came on board also for luncheon. Then we 
started for home. But off St. George's, Colo- 
nel Vigors of the XIX (Princess of Wales's 
Own) and Colonel Stokes of the Engineers 
came out in a cutter and said that they had 
the big guns trained to sink us unless we 

53 



came ashore and dined at the Engineers' mess, 
as we had not dined at that mess. So we an- 
chored in St. George's harbor and dined with the 
Engineers, remaining at table until after mid- 
night. There were many more troops at Ber- 
muda in those days than there are now. The 
XIX had the finest mess-plate, etc., I have ever 
seen. I remember that some of the band sang, 
as well as played, during dinner. 

I took an American twenty-foot cat-boat to 
Bermuda on deck of steamer in 1886, and en- 
joyed much the sailing about inner harbor. The 
sailing for yachts in the inner and outer har- 
bors is rather restricted, and is not nearly so 
good as at Nassau for yachts drawing six and 
one half feet or less. 

In sailing south from Bermuda toward St. 
Thomas one may be delayed by doldrums. By 
sailing from Bermuda in a southeasterly direc- 
tion for a couple of days or so, to meet the 
northeast trades, Barbados may commonly be 
reached as soon as, or sooner than, St. Thomas 
could be from Bermuda. 

A supply of selected new potatoes, etc., should 
be got at Bermuda. 
Barbados is an interesting island, densely popu- 
lated, having over one thousand inhabitants per 

54 



square mile — about five times as many as in 
Massachusetts. But it would not be pleasant 
for a yacht inside the dirty little inner harbor, 
and the roadstead is uncomfortable, the waves 
rolling in almost all the time around the south- 
western corner of the island. 

There is a screw dock where vessels of con- 
siderable size are hauled. 

The troops are about to be moved to St. Lucia, 
and Barbados seems to be declining in impor- 
tance, although the whites there claim that this 
island has a distinct advantage in that the ne- 
groes cannot find crown lands there to squat on, 
and so have to work on the sugar plantations. 

The island is well worth seeing, has a fine 
club, pleasant society, and many interesting 
early associations with Massachusetts and Vir- 
ginia. 

Henry Winthrop went there with the first set- 
tlers under Captain Powell in 1626, and wrote 
interesting letters thence to his father, John 
Winthrop, afterward first Governor of Massa- 
chusetts.^ 

The Woodbridge estate was the finest on the 

^Another son, Samuel Winthrop, settled at Antigua, and 
another son, John Winthrop, Jr., founded New London, Con- 
necticut. See "Mass. Historical Coll.," vol. viii, fifth series. 

55 



island. Part of it, "Porter's plantation," still re- 
mains in the possession of a descendant of John 
Woodbridge, who married a daughter of 
Thomas Dudley, second Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, whose son Samuel married Governor 
Winthrop's daughter Mary. The private chapel 
of Dudley Woodbridge, now turned into a swim- 
ming bath, is still shown, close by the house at 
Porter's plantation.^ 

Washington, when about twenty years old, 
visited Barbados. He was then a major in the 
British army in Virginia, and had been official 
surveyor of Culpeper County and had stud- 
ied navigation. While at sea, although very 
seasick, he kept a log-book, and "took with regu- 
larity the daily instrumental observations." He 
also kept a journal, in which he writes as fol- 
lows of arrival off Barbados, November 3, 

"We were greatly alarm'd with the cry of 
Land at 4 a.m. : we quitted our beds with sur- 
prise and found ye land plainly appearing about 
3 leauges distance when by our reckonings we 
shou'd have been near 150 leauges to the Wind- 
ward we to Leeward abt ye distance above men- 

^ See marble tablet in the chapel, and wife's 
tomb in parish church. 

56 



tion'd and had we been but 3 or 4 leauges more 
we shou'd have been out of sight of the Island 
run down the Latitude and probably not have 
discover'd our Error in time to have gain'd the 
land for 3 Weeks or More." ^ 

If Washington had been trained in the New 
York Yacht Club, he might have been able to 
ascertain his position at sea more accurately. 
For the letters he wrote when sending his unsat- 
isfactory slaves to Barbados to be sold and the 
proceeds converted into rum, etc., and the use 
he made of the "best Barbadoes rum," etc., for 
electioneering purposes when he was a candi- 
date for the Virginia House of Burgesses, see 
"The True George Washington," by Paul Lei- 
cester Ford.^ 

^ "The Daily Journal of Major George Washington," pub- 
lished by Joel Munsell's Sons, Albany, New York. 

^ Mr. Ford gives some particulars of Washington's first 
efforts in local politics, and it appears that when he ran for 
burgess in 1757, Washington opposed the liquor interest and 
was defeated, the vote being: Swearingen, 270; Washing- 
ton, 40. The following year the friendly aid of the county 
boss, John Wood, was secured, and the voters enjoyed, at • 
Washington's charge — 

I hhd. & I Barrell of Punch consisting of 
26 gals, best Barbadoes rum 
12 lbs. S. Refd. Sugar 
40 gallons of Rum Punch 

57 



Antigua, capital of the Leeward Islands. Intri- 
cate, shallow harbor. Anchorage far from land- 

10 Bowls of Punch 
285^ gallons of wine 
46 gallons of beer, mostly strong beer 
besides Brandy, Cyder and a "Dinner for Friends," and he 
was elected, the vote being Washington 310, Swearingen 45. 
After the election he wrote to Wood, "My only fear is that 
you spent with too sparing a hand." 

Washington continued to treat the electors liberally and to 
be elected burgess until he took command of the army. 

In 1766 Washington wrote: 

"With this letter comes a negro (Tom) which I beg the 
favor of you to sell in any of the islands you may go to, 
for whatever he will fetch, and bring me in return for him 

One hhd of best molasses 

One ditto of best rum 

One barrel of lymes, if good and cheap 

One pot of tamarinds, containing about 10 lbs. 

Two small ditto of mixed sweetmeats, about S lbs. each. 
And the residue, much or little, in good old spirits. That 
this fellow is both a rogue and a runaway, . . ." 

Another "misbehaving fellow" was shipped off in 1791, 
and was sold for "one pipe and Quarter Cask of wine from 
the West Indies . . ." 

Later, Washington writes to his overseer, "I am sorry that 
so likely a fellow as Matilda's Ben should addict himself 
to such courses as he is pursuing, . . ." and threatens 
that he will "ship him off (as I did Wagoner Jack) for the 
West Indies." 

In considering the question as to the fitness of any people 
for self-government, one ought to study the real conditions 
in our own country at the time of the Revolution. 

58 



ing. Not as interesting as many of the other 
islands. 
The Bahamas. The neighborhood of Nassau is 
a most charming place for winter yachting in 
small yachts not over six and one half feet draft. 

A line of islands extends northeasterly from 
Nassau forty-five miles to the north point of 
Eleuthera, a narrow, fertile island, which runs 
thence southeasterly forty-five miles and then 
south forty miles. These islands protect from 
the northerly and easterly prevailing winds a 
great shallow, crescent-shaped bight, about sixty 
miles long between the east and west ends, and 
fifteen miles wide in the middle. This is also 
protected on the south by nearly dry coral-sand- 
banks, and on the west by shoals. The water 
is mostly two to five fathoms, but there are 
shoals, reefs, and coral-heads. The bottom be- 
ing coral and coral-sand, the colors of the water 
present very beautiful shades of green, and the 
dark coral-heads are easily seen. 

To sail from this bight to Nassau, the chan- 
nel has only one and one fourth fathoms, and 
there is only about the same water in going from 
the bight through the channels to Spanish Wells, 
to Harbor Island, and along the shores of Eleu- 
thera to Exuma Sound, and in the best pro- 

59 



tected parts of numerous harbors in the neigh- 
borhood and in crossing the western part of the 
Great Bahama Bank or coral shelf from the 
Tongue of the Ocean to the Florida Straits. So 
if a yacht draws seven feet, it will often get 
aground or have to wait for tides, etc., or sail 
out into the open ocean. 

I spent nearly two months sailing about these 
waters in February and March, 1901, in my 
small yacht Mermaid, which I built for the pur- 
pose when I had not recovered sufficiently from 
the loss of my leg for a more distant cruise. I 
know of no other place where one can enjoy so 
much pleasant, smooth-water sailing in the win- 
ter as at Nassau. The Mermaid, which I no 
longer own, is, according to yacht measurement, 
forty-six feet load water-line, sixty-six feet four 
inches over all, thirty-one tons, six feet draft, 
but draws nearly six and one half feet when 
fully loaded for a long cruise, with extra stores, 
etc. 

I was less than twenty-five hours sailing from 
opposite the hotel at Miami to Nassau. We had 
a severe norther, and kept in the ship channel, 
for there was too much surf to get through the 
passage on to the Great Bahama Bank at Gun 
Cay, as I had intended to do. Returning from 
60 



Nassau to Miami, we were only twenty-two 
hours actual sailing. We went from Nassau to 
Northwest Channel, forty miles, thence across 
shelf, mostly two fathoms of water, seventy 
miles to Cat Cay^ at Gun Cay Channel, and 
sailed thence to Miami. 

I stopped overnight with a very hospitable 
Englishman whom I had met at Government 
House, Nassau. He owns Cat Cay. All the 
inhabitants, about twenty-five, are in his em- 
ploy, and he has a yacht and was building a 
stone breakwater. 

Gun Cay is only forty-five miles from the 
mouth of Miami Channel. Even a very small 
yacht can go to Nassau from Miami, Florida, by 
anchoring near mouth of Miami harbor until 
there is a favorable day, then sailing to Gun Cay, 
anchoring there overnight, and then sailing over 
western part of shelf (Great Bahama Bank) to 
Northwest Channel, and thence across Tongue 
of the Ocean to Nassau. A pilot had best be 
taken at Miami or at Gun Cay, as the North- 
west Channel is very intricate and not easy to 
find. 

Large yachts at Nassau must anchor in a 
somewhat exposed position, and they seldom get 
^ About twenty miles south of Bemini. 
6i 



their anchors up, except to leave for a distant 
port. Yachts drawing under seven feet find per- 
fectly quiet anchorage. 

March 7, 1901, I sailed what was, I think, the 
first international yacht race in this century. It 
was against the Taormina, belonging to Count 
Colloredo-Mansfeldt, and formerly owned by 
Commander Henn. The course was on the 
ocean off Nassau, ten miles to leeward and re- 
turn. We had a strong wind, and the Mermaid 
beat by eight minutes, without regard to the 
about fourteen minutes' time allowance to which 
she was entitled. The English war-ship Bus- 
sard fired the guns and took charge of the race, 
placing a lieutenant on each yacht. 

I sailed about Exuma Sound and as far as the 
south end of Cat Island. Regarding the much 
discussed question, whether Cat or Watlings is 
the true San Salvador of Columbus, — the first 
land he saw in the New World, — neither island 
appears to agree fully with the description given 
by him. The New York Yacht Club ought to 
settle this question authoritatively. 

There is another historical question regarding 
the Bahamas, about which I am unable to ex- 
press any opinion. I have repeatedly sailed near 
the island of Bemini, but have never landed 
62 



there. Now the sedate and eminent New Eng- 
land historian, Professor Francis Parkman, who 
characterizes my venerated ancestor, the second 
colonial Governor of Massachusetts, as "the 
harsh and narrow Dudley, grown gray in repel- 
lent virtue and grim honesty," says that the ex- 
traordinary beauty of Bernini women is sup- 
posed to explain the story of the Fountain of 
Youth.i 

In coming up the coast, the Mermaid went 
inside the islands from Fernandina to Savannah, 
and inside, through the sounds and canal, from 
Ocracoke Inlet to Hampton Roads, then up the 
Chesapeake Bay and through the short canal into 
the Delaware River, up the river and through the 
Raritan Canal to Perth Amboy, and sailed thence 

^ "Such a man was the veteran Cavalier Juan Ponce de 
Leon. Greedy of honors and of riches, he embarked at 
Porto Rico with three brigantines, bent on schemes of dis- 
covery. But that which gave the chief stimulus to his en- 
terprise was a story, current among the Indians of Cuba 
and Hispaniola, that on the Island of Bemini, said to be one 
of the Bahamas, there was a fountain of such virtue that, 
bathing in its waters, old men resumed their youth. 

"The story has an explanation sufficiently characteristic, 
having been suggested, it is said, by the beauty of the native 
women, which none could resist, and which kindled the fires 
of youth in the veins of age." "The Jesuits in North Amer- 
ica in the Seventeenth Century," by Francis Parkman. 

63 



to New York. A little less than six and one half 
feet draft would have been better for the bar at 
Ocracoke. But it is probable that the govern- 
ment may do considerable dredging in that 
neighborhood soon. 

The sailing about Hampton Roads, Chesa- 
peake Bay, and Delaware River, and the towing 
through canals from the Chesapeake to the Dela- 
ware, and thence to Perth Amboy, makes a 
pleasant cruise for small yachts, say in May, 
before the yachting season opens at New York. 



64 



SAILING REMINISCENCES AND 

YACHTING COMPARED WITH 

OTHER SPORTS 



SAILING REMINISCENCES AND 

YACHTING COMPARED WITH 

OTHER SPORTS 

When I had about completed the foregoing, I 
showed it to the secretary of our club, who has 
made three cruises in the West Indies, and I asked 
him whether the club would care for it, and whe- 
ther he could suggest any alterations. He assured 
me that the club would be glad to have it, and only 
suggested that I add illustrations and more per- 
sonal reminiscences. I will endeavor to comply 
with the latter suggestion, others in whose judg- 
ment I have confidence having also taken the re- 
sponsibility of advising it. 

Now, from a tender age I have longed to be 
wrecked on a desert island. But the nearest I have 
ever come to this was getting aground for a short 
time, in pleasant weather and in sheltered water, 
on the soft coral-sand of the Great Bahama Bank. 

I would be pleased to include an account of a 
West Indian hurricane, but in February, March, 

^1 



and April hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea are ex- 
perienced only by young yachtsmen and by nau- 
tical romancers, and strangely escape the notice of 
all government statisticians. 

Navy Department Publication No. 86, vol. i, 
gives a table showing the relative frequency of 
these storms during the period 1885-1897, in- 
clusive. The totals are as follows : 6 in June, 4 in 
July, 16 in August, 26 in September, 26 in Octo- 
ber, and 10 in November. 

I have, however, seen serious storms in two 
voyages which I made with Captain Samuels in 
the clipper ship Dreadnaught, between New York 
and Liverpool. One of these was the terrible gale 
of October, 1859, when we were in the Irish Chan- 
nel, and not far from the Royal Charter, which 
went down, with the loss of four hundred and 
fifty lives. The Dreadnaught, with her clipper 
bow and laid to under double-reefed new topsails, 
made good weather of it. 

Among the yachting experiences that I remem- 
ber with most pleasure were the Corinthian races 
when I owned the Clytie. The Clytie was seventy- 
eight feet on water-line, and I was allowed a crew 
of fifteen — all amateurs. I used to train them for 
a number of afternoons each year before the 
races began, and the men would get their hands 

68 



and muscles in condition. It was easy, in those 
days, to get amateur crews from among the mem- 
bers of the New York Yacht Club and the Sea- 
wanhaka Yacht Club. 

The races were around the Scotland Lightship, 
and we had some exciting times. 



CRUISING IN A TOURIST STEAMER 

In what I have written regarding the superior 
advantages of a sailing yacht for a visit to the 
West Indies, I do not wish to imply that a trip in 
one of the tourist steamers may not be enjoyable. 

I remember with much pleasure my visit there 
in 1899 in the Paris. We had an interesting party 
on board — among them ex-Secretary ^then Sena- 
tor) John Sherman, who, however, was taken ill at 
San Juan and had to return to Washington in a 
government vessel from Guantanamo, Cuba. Gen- 
eral Grant, who was in command of the forces at 
San Juan, came out in his steam launch and took 
Senator Sherman and my family ashore, and we 
were together much of the day. It was warm and 
showery. The senator took fatiguing walks about 
the forts and the outer fortifications, got wet, took 

69 



a long drive, and sat in a windy place. We re- 
peatedly called his attention to the fact that he 
was exposing himself, but he smiled at this, and it 
was difficult to get him to button his coat when 
driving. He was gay and almost boyish. I re- 
member how he stopped to buy a lot of oranges, 
which he distributed to children in the street. 

A number of eminent members of the American 
bar were also on the Paris, including ex-Chief Jus- 
tice Ide of the Supreme Court of Samoa, John E. 
Parsons, Frederic Coudert, and Francis L. Stetson. 
We had also Mr. O'Donohue, prominent in poli- 
tics up the Hudson, who gave a supper to forty 
guests on St. Patrick's day. The sentiment of the 
evening appeared to be : 

"St. Patrick drove the snakes away, and kept them quite 
remote ; 
But, blessings iver on his sowl, he left the antidote." 

I had the honor to assist at the feast, and told 
them that, while I was not a Knight of St. Patrick, 
I was a member of the St. George Society, which 
I presumed to be much the same thing. 

The next day Mr. O'Donohue complained that 
during the feast a green parrot, which he had 
bought at Martinique, had been killed by two mon- 
keys belonging to gentlemen occupying neighbor- 
ing cabins. 

70 



He knew that both monkeys were engaged in 
the assault, for his green parrot had been war- 
ranted to whip any monkey in the Caribbean Sea. 
He claimed ten thousand dollars damages, and it 
was resolved to have a trial that evening. 

John Doe and Richard Roe, two monkeys, were 
impleaded with their owners. Judge Ide presided, 
and declared that the cause must be tried according 
to Samoan law. Mr. Coudert protested against 
Judge Ide, who, he said, had long lived at Apia, 
and was no doubt related to the defendants. I 
was excused from serving on the jury because I 
had read Darwin. 

Mr. Stetson, for the plaintiff, made a heart-rend- 
ing appeal on behalf of his bereaved client. He 
began, "This morning at early dawn there was 
committed to the deep." The witnesses, except 
one pretty woman, were badgered and treated 
awfully. Mr. Colgate Hoyt testified that he did 
not know very much about green parrots, but that 
he was well acquainted with green things in Wall 
Street, and that a pile of twenty thousand dollars 
in greenbacks was just about the size of this par- 
rot. In cross-examination he accounted for about 
forty-five years of his life, when Mr. Coudert 
asked, "Where were you the other twenty-five 
years?" Mr. Hoyt, commencing to answer, said, 
"Well — " when Mr. Coudert attacked him in the 

71 



most savage manner: "Why do you say, 'Well'? 
Don't you know that truth was supposed to be 
found in the bottom of a well? And here you 
come with falsehood in your heart and perjury on 
your lips," etc. 

Toward the end of the trial, the parrot was pro- 
duced safe and well. This led to a fierce attack by 
Mr. Stetson upon those who had violated the sanc- 
tity of his client's stateroom. 

The jury, of which Mr. Charles Stewart Smith, 
ex-president of the New York Chamber of Com- 
merce, was foreman, brought in a verdict of ten 
thousand dollars in favor of the defendant mon- 
keys, because the language which the parrot had 
used was such as to more than justify their attack. 

The trip on the steamer was enjoyable, but 
yachting is much better, and I have always greatly 
preferred sail yachting to steam. 



THE DOUBLE-HULLED SCHOONER NEREID 

The first yacht I ever owned was the double- 
hulled schooner Nereid, which I built in 1877. 
Some of the old members will remember that that 
freak boat did not prove an unmitigated success in 

72 



the club. Even my dear friend, our then commo- 
dore, Nicholson Kane, appeared unable to appre- 
ciate her charms. 

My father, who was fond of outdoor exercise, 
and who taught me early to ride, shoot, and fish, 
did not like yachting, and after sailing on the 
Nereid from Shelter Island to New London in an 
easterly blow and with the tide running out through 
the Race, told me that the motion of the Nereid 
reminded him of a jackass kicking up its heels, and 
that the heels seemed to strike him in the stomach 
every time. 



YACHTING COMPARED WITH OTHER SPORTS 

That I may not be supposed unduly to exalt the 
pleasures of yachting from want of knowing other 
sports, I may mention that I shot deer and other 
game when I was a boy. In 1863 I hunted buffa- 
loes on the plains, riding alongside them and shoot- 
ing them with a revolver; and I have seen much 
of the best fox-hunting with the Quorn, Pytchley, 
Fernie, Cheshire, North Warwickshire, and other 
celebrated packs during many years. I have been 
at good shoots, and have done much coach-driv- 

7Z 



ing in England. The last time I was there I spent 
about three months visiting, during the hunting 
season, in the country houses of Northamptonshire, 
Leicestershire, etc., including Stanford Hall, Ding- 
ley Hall, Coton House, Hothorpe, Cottesbrook, 
Lubenham, Kilworth, Thornton, etc. 

I admit that for a man who can ride to hounds, 
and has a lot of good hunters, there is no sport 
so good as fox-hunting in England. But if yacht- 
ing be not the very first of sports, it is, I think, 
the next, and far ahead of those behind.^ 

Yachting is the natural sport for those living 
on our Atlantic seaboard. The New York Yacht 
Club has the lead, and has the best and most ac- 
cessible waters for its summer cruise. Let us now 
preempt for winter squadron cruising the neigh- 
boring waters of the eastern Caribbean Sea. 
^ See end of foot-note, page 23. 



74 



YACHTING IN GRECIAN WATERS 



YACHTING IN GRECIAN WATERS 

April, May, and June are the best months. 

It is easy to obtain, through American yacht 
agencies, good EngHsh yachts then in the Mediter- 
ranean, and whose owners want to return home 
overland for the London season. 

A dragoman, to act as interpreter, etc., is neces- 
sary, and can be obtained at Athens. I found it 
useful to have also a Greek boy, whom the drago- 
man engaged, to run into the interior at some of 
the islands to get milk, vegetables, etc. 

All of Greece can easily be visited in a yacht. 
There is no part so distant that one cannot see it by 
leaving the yacht in the morning and returning 
in the evening, and there are harbors everywhere. 
By sailing close to shore and into the beautiful 
little harbors, an entirely different idea of the 
islands is obtained from what one gets from a mail 
steamer. From the steamer the islands look very 
barren, but close inshore many olive trees and a 
great variety of flowers are to be seen, with the 
interesting remains of ancient architecture, etc. It 

77 



is also delightful to bathe in warm, clear water, 
in sight of snow-capped mountains and among 
scenes of undying interest.^ 

I chartered a steam yacht during parts of April 
and May, 1887, but, if one has time, a good sailing 
yacht would, I think, be preferable. We had a 
good sailing breeze almost every day from about 
nine o'clock. 

^ As showing the connection between sport and philosophy, 
we may consider what a different world this would be if 
Socrates and Glaucon had not attended the races at the 
Piraeus. 



78 



YACHTING IN ENGLISH WATERS 



YACHTING IN ENGLISH WATERS 

The most interesting event is Cowes week, early 
in August. I was there August 3 to 9, 1889, and 
I remember that four members of the Royal Squad- 
ron were required to introduce me and three of 
my family at the Castle for that week, which was 
also the week for the great naval review. It is, 
I suppose, still the rule that each member can in- 
troduce only one guest for Cowes week. So Eng- 
lish friends should be notified in advance. 

We went to Cowes in the English yacht Lan- 
cashire Witch, which then belonged to sons of 
my uncle, Daniel James, Esq., of Lancashire. The 
Lancashire Witch was given the position on 
the port bow of the German emperor's yacht when 
this was escorted into the harbor. I remember 
how the German officers, who had been lolling 
about, suddenly struck their heels together and 
stood in a stiff and, in the sea-way, a difficult atti- 
tude so long as His Imperial Majesty remained 
in sight on the port side of the upper deck. 

I remember also how His Majesty Edward VII, 
81 



then Prince of Wales, used to walk around on the 
castle lawn, talking with the ladies at the tea- 
tables, or standing with one foot carelessly resting 
on a railing or on a chair and talking with friends 
in a merry, hearty manner. 

An old American war-ship, the Enterprise^ I 
think, was given the most conspicuous anchor- 
age, immediately in front of the Castle, and made 
a funny contrast to the modern battle-ships. When 
the royalties went on board the yachts, each vessel 
in the harbor fired a gun, and we would see a 
little puff from the Enterprise which seemed to 
say, "Me, too." 

I was surprised to notice how few of the yachts 
ever got up their anchors during Cowes week, 
how very few yachts took any part in the races, 
and how little the owners and guests and the public 
appeared to care about yachting. Such a contrast 
to the interest shown at horse races! We had 
just come from Goodwood, one of the pleasantest 
of all race meetings. The yachts feared to move 
lest they should lose their anchorages and make 
it difficult for guests to find their way on board 
for dinner. In the morning we would get cards 
at the Castle, showing that perhaps thirty or more 
yachts had entered for the Queen's Cup or other 
event. At the start it would be seen that perhaps 

82 



twenty-five of these had scratched, often from be- 
ing dissatisfied with their handicaps. 

A good way to see thoroughly the handhng of 
EngHsh yachts is to go to the Cinque Port race, 
three times around a triangular course, off Dover. 
Royal Thames Yacht Club members have a steam 
tug for the race. There are also plenty of little 
yawls to be hired for the day. 

The vast number of yachts in England is sur- 
prising when we consider how little favorable the 
waters there are for pleasure sailing compared 
with the waters of our Atlantic coast and the east- 
ern part of the Caribbean Sea. 

This makes it evident that we are to have a great 
development of yachting in this country. Before 
many years, yachts of the New York Yacht Club 
may be going through an isthmian canal to cruise 
along our Pacific coast. 



83 



OF THE FUTURE OF THE ISLANDS 

NORTH AND EAST OF THE 

CARIBBEAN SEA 



OF THE FUTURE OF THE ISLANDS 

NORTH AND EAST OF THE 

CARIBBEAN SEA 

The future of these islands, and their probable 
relations to the United States, must engage the 
attention of every thoughtful American visitor. 

Their destiny appears to depend on our coun- 
try. What will be the results for us and for them 
of the closer relations which appear inevitable? 

If the nations that now control them should 
offer most of these islands to us, upon the request 
or with the free consent of the inhabitants, could 
we safely assume the responsibilities involved in 
accepting them? 

Is our form of government suitable for such 
expansion by "benevolent assimilation" of these 
peoples, for the most part inferior to us in civili- 
zation ? 

Consideration of the many island problems we 
already have to solve, and our difficulties regard- 
ing the negro vote, ought, I think, to lead us to 
admire the wisdom of our fathers in establishing 

87 



our Constitution on a home-rule basis, with local 
option regarding local questions, including suf- 
frage. 

Our Constitution originally provided : 

Article I, Section i. All legislative powers herein granted 
shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which 
shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. 
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed 
of members chosen every second year by the people of the 
several States, and the electors in each State shall have the 
qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous 
branch of the State legislature. And it provides that (Sec- 
tion 8) all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States, . . . that (Article IV, Sec- 
tion 3) new States may be admitted by the Congress into 
this Union, . . . and that Congress shall have power to 
dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations re- 
specting the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States. 

On this basis, all the world might unite in one 
great republic, which might include states and ter- 
ritories having limited suffrage, as well as those 
having universal suffrage. Rhode Island was ad- 
mitted with a State Constitution under which only 
eldest sons could vote. There was no attempt to 
exalt equality above liberty. 

But we have permitted the so-called "war power" 
to exalt itself above the Constitution. It has been 
said, with popular applause, "If you hear any one 

88 



prating about the Constitution, spot him — ^he is a 
traitor." 

We call our government Democratic or Repub- 
lican, but it is now clearly Timocratic,^ and well 
on the road through oligarchy toward despotism, 
which we cannot escape unless we heed the lessons 
of history. 

Plato's "Republic" shows how democracy was 
always followed by despotism. Our fathers, keenly 
alive to this supreme danger, established a writ- 

^ The ambitious constitution . . . (We must call it 
Timocracy . . .) We will proceed to examine the am- 
bitious man . . . 

Then pray, Glaucon, how will our state be shaken . . . 

The violence of their mutual contentions would induce 
the two parties to come to an agreement, on the under- 
standing that they should divide and appropriate the land 
and houses, and enslave their formerly free wards, friends, 
and maintainers, from henceforth to be held as an inferior 
tribe and as servants, and apply themselves to war and their 
own protection. 

I believe you have described correctly the passage to 
Timocracy. 

Then will not this Constitution be a kind of mean between 
aristocracy and oligarchy? Assuredly it will. 

. . . Who, then, is the man that answers to this [timo- 
cratic] Constitution . . . what is his character? . . . 
A passion for distinction and command, to which he lays 
claim ... on the ground of deeds of arms and ex- 
ploits congenial to war, devoted as he is to bodily exercise 
and field sports. Socrates, in Plato's "Republic," book viii. 

89 



ten Constitution which they supposed would pre- 
vent the otherwise inevitable sequence. 

Our Constitution clearly limits, defines, and 
separates the functions of each branch of the gov- 
ernment. 

But of late there has grown up among us a gen- 
eral system of government by usurpation. 

Our Presidents usurp the authority of the Sen- 
ate and House by declaring a personal policy and 
using patronage to influence legislative votes. 

Senators usurp the authority of the President 
by insisting that appointments be made for their 
personal political advantage. 

The general government usurps "rights reserved 
to the States respectively or to the people." 

Judges, by injunction, usurp the prerogatives of 
juries, and jurors usurp the authority of judges 
in matters of legal interpretation. 

Our State legislatures usurp authority over local 
affairs of cities and pass sumptuary laws, which 
they know will not be enforced among a free peo- 
ple who can quote the express injunction of the 
New Testament, "Let no man therefore judge you 
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, 
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath" (Col. ii, 
i6), w^hile mayors and policemen usurp a veto 
power regarding certain laws. 

90 



That authority in barbarous times impHed usur- 
pation has been sufficiently pointed out. But usur- 
pation has no place in a civilized constitutional gov- 
ernment. A government fit to govern America 
and outlying islands must be based upon the strict 
interpretation of a constitution. This form of 
government our fathers, under divine guidance, 
established upon the consent of the governed and 
on a mind-your-own-business basis. 

Our Constitution most fully provides for its 
own orderly amendment to meet any possible con- 
tingency. If the people of this country should 
want to change the United States of America to 
the Empire of America and Asia, they have com- 
plete constitutional authority to do so by a consti- 
tutional majority. But the President and Con- 
gress have no right to make the slightest alteration 
in the Constitution without due ratification by three 
fourths of the States in the manner provided by 
Article V. Any attempts to alter the Constitution 
by usurpation are as unnecessary as they are de- 
structive. 

Our country can have abundant peaceful ex- 
pansion in the Caribbean Sea by consenting to 
give there the rights enjoyed by our own Terri- 
tories. But "forcible annexation" by imperial 
methods and pressure, in the interest of selfish 

91 



monopolists and politicians, would prove disas- 
trous, and disastrous most of all in undermining 
our own free institutions. 

Our security and our ability to expand with 
safety depend upon our determination and our 
ability to stop this usurpation and to return to 
strict constitutional methods. We must insist that 
each branch of our government perform only its 
own authorized functions. We must not permit 
presidential or congressional or military usurpa- 
tion to result in "criminal aggression." 

Let us give to all islands and to all countries 
coming in any way under our influence distinct 
assurance that we will not interfere, except to pro- 
tect them from foreign aggression and to enable 
them freely to establish and to maintain free gov- 
ernments of their own choice; that we will not 
annex them except on their own application to be 
admitted to our Union as States or as Territories; 
and that if they be so admitted they shall enjoy 
all the rights belonging to the citizens of our pres- 
ent country. 

This, I think, is our only path of consistency 
and of safety. 

We stand now where Rome stood shortly be- 
fore the Christian era, when it started upon a new 
career of general expansion, which resulted in the 

92 



destruction of its liberties. Permit me to quote 
from one of the most generally accepted text-books 
used in our schools. 

The Roman state was in form and in name a Common- 
wealth or Republic; but in course of time all political 
power had come into the hands of a rich landed aristocracy, 
made up of both "patricians" and "plebeians." The organ 
of this aristocracy was the Senate. ... A seat in the 
Senate rested in theory upon the popular will. . . . 

Opposed to the landed aristocracy was a class of wealthy 
capitalists known as equites. . . . 

The moneyed aristocracy, accordingly, held aloof from 
public life, except where it might aid them to obtain rich 
contracts or to secure . . . the passage of some measure 
that should advance their private interests. . . . 

The poorer class of citizens, the plebs, were wholly influ- 
enced in their votes by their wealthy patrons or by schem- 
ing demagogues. . . . 

Partisans of the nobility were known as Optimates ; those 
opposed to them, as Populares. . . . 

The governing class was wholly incompetent to its task, 
and the only resource against anarchy appears to have been 
that some one man, by craft or force, should get all the 
reins of power into his single hand. . . . 

Caesar had all the qualities — statesmanlike insight, politi- 
cal ambition, and reckless audacity. Allen and Greenough's 
"Caesar," Introduction, p. xiv. 

Many American yachts are sure to be attracted, 
soon, to the Caribbean waters. This will be of 
advantage to the islands, while sea cruising will 
promote among us a healthy taste for real yachts 
as compared with expensive sailing machines. 

93 



LIST OF SOME BOOKS ABOUT 
THE WEST INDIES, ETC. 



LIST OF SOME BOOKS ABOUT 
THE WEST INDIES, ETC. 

Navy Department Publication No. 86, "The Navigation of 
the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea," vol. i. 

"The Cruise of the Montauk," by James McQuade of the 
New York Yacht Club. 

"The West Indies," by G. W. Eves, F.R.G.S. 

"Cuba and Porto Rico, with the other Islands of the West 
Indies," by Robert T. Hill. 

Stark's "Guides," published some by James H. Stark, Bos- 
ton, and some by the Boston Photo-Electrotype Co., Boston, 
six vols, or more. 

"The West Indies," by Amos Kidder Fiske. 

"In the Wake of Columbus," by Frederick A. Ober. 

"Camps in the Caribbees," by Ober. 

"The Story of the West Indies," by Arnold Kennedy. 

"At Last," by Charles Kingsley. 

"Cruising among the Caribbees," by Charles Augustus 
Stoddard. 

"Two Years in the French West Indies," by Lafcadio 
Hearn. 

"The English in the West Indies," by James Anthony 
Froude. 

"Down the Islands," by William Agnew Paton. 

"Puerto Rico," by William Dinwiddie. 

"The Porto Rico of To-Day," by Albert Gardner Rob- 
inson. 

"West India Pickles," by Tolboys. 

97 



"Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coast," by Frank R. 
Stockton. 

"Tom Cringle's Log," by Michael Scott. 

"Cruise of the Midge," by Michael Scott. 

"Equatorial America," by Maturin M. Ballou. 

"Youma," by Lafcadio Hearn. 

"Where Black Rules White," by Hesketh Prichard. 

See also catalogues of New York Yacht Club Library and 
of Navy Department Library. 

In some of these books further lists of books 
will be found. And in the Public Library, Boston, 
there is the Hunt Collection of West Indian books, 
maps, and charts. Local guide-books and books 
of stories relating to the islands are to be found at 
Bermuda, Trinidad, St. Lucia, Nassau, etc. ; among 
them may be mentioned "Sketches of Summer- 
land," by G. J. H. Northcroft, Nassau. 

Those who desire to make any thorough histori- 
cal study regarding the West Indies will, of course, 
consult Sonnenschein and catalogues in the great 
public libraries, and the standard works, including 
Hakluyt. 



98 



PLAN AND RECORD OF CRUISE 
YACHT 

(To be filled in with lead-pencil. ) 



a.oFC. 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 
Cruise. 


Day 
of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


I 












2 












3 












4 












5 












6 












7 












8 












9 












10 












II 












12 












13 












14 












15 












16 













100 



RECORD OF CRUISE 



190 



^7 

Cruise. 


Day 
of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


I 












2 












3 












4 












5 












6 












7 












8 












9 












10 












II 












12 












13 












14 












15 












16 













lOI 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 
Cruise. 


Day 
of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


17 












18 












19 












20 












21 












22 












23 












24 












25 












26 












27 












28 












29 












30 












31 












32 













102 



RECORD OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 

Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


17 












18 












19 












20 












21 












22 












23 












24 












25 












26 












27 












28 












29 












30 












31 












32 













103 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 
Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


33 












34 












35 












36 












37 












38 












39 












40 












41 












42 












43 












44 












45 












46 












47 












48 













104 



RECORD OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 

Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 

Miles. 


33 












34 












35 












36 












37 












38 












39 












40 












41 












42 












43 












44 












45 












46 












47 












48 













105 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



°o7 

Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


49 












50 












51 












52 












53 












54 












55 












56 












57 












58 












59 












60 












61 












62 












63 












64 













106 



RECORD OF CRUISE 



190 



Cruise. 


Day 
of 

Month. 


Day 

of 
Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 

Miles. 


49 












50 












51 












52 












53 












54 












55 












56 












57 












58 












59 












60 












61 












62 












63 








, 




64 













107 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 

Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 

Miles. 


65 












66 












67 












68 












69 












70 












71 












72 












73 












74 












75 












76 












77 












78 












79 












80 













108 



RECORD OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 

Cruise. 


Day 
of 

Month. 


Day 

of 
Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 

Miles. 


65 












66 












67 












68 












69 












70 












71 












72 












n 












74 












75 












76 












77 












78 












19 












80 













109 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



Cruise. 


Day 
of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 

Miles. 


81 












82 












83 












84 












85 












86 












87 












88 












89 












90 












91 












92 












93 












94 












95 












96 













1 10 



KlfiCU 


KD U 


b CKL 


JISE 




190 


Day 

of 
Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 
Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


8i 












82 












83 












84 












85 












86 












87 












88 












89 












90 












91 












92 












93 












94 












95 












96 













Ill 



PLAN OF CRUISE 



190 



°o7 

Cruise. 


Day 

of 

Month. 


Day 

of 

Week. 


SAIL FROM 


SAIL TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


97 












98 










m 


99 












100 












lOI 












102 












103 












104 












105 












106 












107 












108 












109 












no 












III 












112 













112 



RECORD OF CRUISE 



190 



Day 

of 

Cruise. 


Day 

of 
Month. 


Day 

of 
Week. 


SAILED FROM 


SAILED TO 


Sea 
Miles. 


97 












98 












99 












100 












lOI 












102 












103 












104 












105 












106 












107 






) 






108 












109 












110 












III 












112 













113 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abbatoirs, 29 

Acklin, 18 

Address, 9 

Aggression, 92 

Agriculture, 49 

Amateurs, 68 

America, 91 

American interest, 11 

American man-of-war, 82 

American visitors, 87 

American yachts, 93 

Anchorages, 20, 30, 33, 61, 62 

Anchors, 40 

Antigua, 15, 18, 19, 53, 58 

Aristocracy, 89, 93 

Asia, 91 

Athens, 77 

Automobile, 32, 33, 34, 44 

Awning, 40 

B 

Bahama Bank (Great), 60, 

61, 67 
Bahamas (the), 10, 14, 53, 

59 
Barbados, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 

19, 41, S3, 54, 55, 56 



Barbarous times, 91 

Basse Terre, 32, 44 

Bathing, 34 

Beaches, 20 

Benevolent assimilation, 87 

Bemini, 61, 62, 63 

Bermuda, 10, 14, 16, 17, 19, 

43, 53, 54 
Birds, 43 
Boiling lake, 32 
Books, 10, 14, 97 
Boom, 39 

Botanical gardens, 42 
Bottom, 33 
Bowsprit, 39 
Breen's "St. Lucia," 31 
Buffaloes, 73 
Buoy, 33, 40 
Buzzard, 62 

C 
Caesar, 93 
Calm days, 12 
Canals, 15, 30, 63, 64, 83 
Capitalists, 93 
Card-table, 45 
Cariacou, 18, 29 
Caribbean Sea, 9, 11, 12, 15, 

20, 41, 68, 74 



117 



Carib Islands, 9 

Caribs, 32 

Carriages, 23, 32 

Castries, 29, 48 

Cat-boat, 54 

Cat Cay, 61 

Cat Island, 18, 62 

Chairs, 45, 46 

Channel (Northwest), 61 

Charitable efforts, 42 

Charles II, 50 

Charleston, 17, 18, 19, 35 

Charts, 14 

Chateau Belair, 29 

Chesapeake Bay, 62 

Cheshire hunt, 7^ 

Chickens, 42 

Christiansted, 33 

Chronicles (naval), 31 

Cinques Fortes, 83 

Cities, 90 

Clarence (Duke of), 33 

Cliffs, 20 

Climate, 20 

Closer relations, 87 

Clubs, 5, 12, 21, 22, 23, 34, 

55, 62, 67, 69, 74, 83 
Clytie, 10, 45, 53, 68 
Coaching, 7S 
Coal, 29, 30, 45, 48, 50 
Coast, 83 
Colloredo-Mansfeldt (Count), 

62 
Colonial problems, 11, 21 



Colonial system, 11 

Color (of water), 17, 59 

Columbus, 62 

Committee, 5 

Commonwealth, 93 

Companies (S. S.), 15 

Conditions, 11, 12, 46 

Congress (powers of), 88, 91 

Consistency, 92 

Constitution, 88, 90, 91 

Consul, 32 

Contracts, 93 

Coral bay, 34 

Coral heads, 17, 40, 59 

Coral shelf, 60 

Corinthian races, 68 

Coton House, 74 

Cottesbrook, 74 

Coudert (Frederic), 70 

Countries, 92 

Country houses, 74 

Cowes Castle, 81 

Cowes week, 81 

"Criminal aggression," 92 

Crooked Island, 18 

Crown lands, 11, 55 

Cruise, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 

17, 20, 22, 27, 39, 74 
Cruise of Sea Fox, 7, 17 
Cruising, 12, 20, 69 
Crusoe (Robinson), 16, 28 
Cuba, 12, 14, 18, 19, 48, 69 
Culebra, 18 
Current, 16, 17, 40, 41 



118 



D 

Daily news reports, 22 

Damages, 71 

Danger, 89 

Danish Islands, 48 

Darwin (Charles), 71 

Day, 14, IS, 16, 27 

Deck chairs, 45 

De Grasse, 28 

Delaware River, 63 

Delays, 35 

Democratic, 89 

Despotism, 89 

Development of yachting, 83 

Diabloten (Mt.), 32 

Diamond Rock, 31 

Dingley Hall, 74 

Disaster, 9, 21 

Doldrums, 54 

Dominica, 18, 32, 46 

Dragomen, TJ 

Dreadnaught, 68 

Dredging, 64 

Dry-dock, 15 

Dudley (Governor Thomas), 

56, 63 
Dudley, Samuel, 56 
Dugouts, 13 
Duties, 88 

E 

Edward VII, 50, 81 
Eleuthera, 18, 59 
Empire, 91 



England, 20 
English Islands, 47, 48 
English politics, 49 
English Virgin Islands, 
English waters, 10, 79 
English yachts, 77, 83 
Enterprise, 82 
Equality, 88 
Equities, 93 
Eruption, 31 
Eves (G. W.), 50 
Excises, 88 
Excursions, 20 
Exercise, 20, 21 
Expansion, 91, 92 
Experience, 10 
Exploits, 89 
Export tax, 30 
Exuma Island, 18 
Exuma Sound, 59. 62 



Factories, 11 
Farmers, 42 
Farms, 43 
Fathers, 91 
Fernandina, 18, 35, 63 
Fernie hunt, 73 
Fish, 42 

Florida, 14, 18, 19 
Florida Straits, 60 
Flying fish, 13 
Food, 21 



119 



Forcible annexation, 91 

Ford (Paul Leicester), 57 

Fort de France, 28, 31 

Fortifications, 29 

Fort Royal, 31 

Forts, 34 

Fountain of Youth, 63 

Fowl, 42 

Fox hunting, 73 

France, 27, 47 

Fredericksted, 33 

Free trade, 47 

Fruit, 22, 29, 42, 43 

Future of Islands, 20, 87 



Gardens, 42 
German Emperor, 81 
German officers, 81 
Glaucon, 78, 89 
Goodwood, 82 
Government, 87, 90 
Government houses, 21, 29, 

30 
Grande Etang, 29 
Grande Terre, 18, 32 
Grant (General Frederick), 

69 
Great Bahama Bank, 60, 61, 

67 
Grecian waters, 20, 77 
Greece, 10, 77 
Grenada, 13, 16, 18, 28, 29 
Grenadines (The), 29 
Guadeloupe, 18, 32, 33, 47 



Guantanamo, 69 
Gun Cay, 60, 61 

H 

Hamilton, 53 

Hamilton (Alexander), 33 

Hampton Roads, 63 

Harbor Island, 59 

Harbors, 12, 15, 20, 28, 30, 32, 

34, 39, 50, 55 
Hauling, 15, 55 
Havana, 19 
Hayti, 14, 18, 19 
Henn (Commander), 62 
Hispaniola, 63 
History, 89 
Holland, 27 
Horace, 23 
Horses, 22, 29, 30 
Hospitality, 21, 53 
Hotel, 33 
Hothorpe, 74 
Hot Springs, 32 
House of Representatives, 90 
Hoyt (Colgate), 71 
Hunt, 73 
Hunting, 73, 74 
Hurricanes, 12, 67, 68 



Ice, 21, 41 
Ice-plant, 21, 22 
Ide (ex-Chief Justice of Sa- 
moa), 70 
Imperial methods, 91 



120 



Imports, 88 

Inagua, i8 

Inferior races, 87 

Inhabitants, 11, 87 

Institute (Royal Colonial), 50 

Intercourse, 9, 11 

International yacht race, 62 

Island problems, 87 

Islands, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 

27, 34, 48, 49, 59, 62, ^z, 87, 

91, 92 
Isthmian canal, 83 
Itinerary, 19, 27 



Jamaica, 14, 19 

James (Daniel), 81 

Jardin des Plantes, 31 

Josephine, 31 

Journal (Washington's), 56 

Judges, 90 

Jury, 71, 90 

K 

Kane (Commodore Nichol- 
son), 'jz 
Kilworth, 74 
Kingstown, 28, 29 



Labor, 11 
Laborers, 30, 48 
Laffan (Sir Patrick Leo- 
pold), 53 



Lamp, 45 

Lancashire Witch, 81 

Land ownership, 11 

Lands, 11 

Launch, 20, 30, 32 

Laws, 90 

Leeward Islands, 11, 12, 16, 

48, 49 
Legislatures, 90 
Leicestershire, 74 
Les Saints, 18, 28 
Liberty, 88 
Light-ship, 69 
List of books, 97, 98 
Local affairs, 88 
Long Island, 18 
Lubenham, 74 

M 

McClintock, 53 
Mails, 22 

Maintenon (Mme. de), 31 
Man-o'-war Bay, 28 
Marie Galante, 32 
Marine railway, 15 
Market gardens, 42 
Market produce, 33 
Martinique, 9, 18, 28, 31, 47, 

70 
Massachusetts, 55 
Matanzas, 19 
Mayors, 90 
Measurement, 17, 60 
Meat, 42 



121 



Mediterranean, Tj 
Melons, 43 

Men-of-war, 21, 31, 48, 82 
Mermaid, 10, 60, 62, 63 
Messes, 21, 54 
Miami, 60, 61 
Monkeys, 70 
Monopolists, 92 
Mont Diabloten, 32 
Months, 13, 14, 67, 'JT, 78 
Mont Pelee, 31 
Montserrat, 18, 33, 42, 43 
Moorings, 40 
Morne Rouge, 31 
Mosquitos, 30 
Motto, 23 
Mountain, 21 

N 

Naphtha, 32, 44 
Nassau, 18, 19, 43, 59, 61, 62 
Naval chronicles, 31 
Naval station, 28 
Navigation, 13 
Navy, 22 

Navy department publica- 
tions, 13, 42, 68 
Navy reserve, 21 
Negro question, 11 
Nelson (Admiral), 33 
Nereid, 72 
Neuralgia, 21 
Nevis, 18, 33 
Newfoundland, 47 
New London, 73 



News report, 22 

New States, 88 

New Testament, 90 

New York, 14, 19 

New York Yacht Club, 5, 12, 

22, 67, 74 
Norman (Sir Henry), 49 
Northamptonshire, 74 
Northers, 60 

North Warwickshire hunt, TZ 
Northwest Channel, 61 

O 

Ocean cruising, 39, 93 
Ocracoke Inlet, 63 
O'Donohue, 70 
Old yachtsmen, 20, 21 
Oligarchy, 89 
Olive trees, TJ 
Optimates, 93 
Oranges, 29 
Orinoco, 13 
Outside work, 14 



Pacific coast, 83 

Palms, 20 

Paris (S. S.), 69, 70 

Parkman (Francis), 63 

Parrot, 70 

Parsons (John E.), 70 

Patrician, 93 

"Paul et Virginie," 31 

Pelee (Mont), 31 

Perth Amboy, 63 



122 



Pilot, 34 

Piraeus, 78 

Plan of cruise, 11, 12, 13, 15, 

20, 22, 39 
Plantations, 30, 34, 55> S6 
Plato's Republic, 89 
Plebeians, 93 
Plebs, 93 

Plymouth Harbor, 28 
Pointe a Pitre, 32, 44 
Policemen, 90 
Politicians, 92 
Ponce, 34 
Ponce de Leon, 63 

Populares, 93 

Population, 54 

Porter's plantation, 56 

Port of Spain, 17, 28 

Porto Rico, 9, 13, 14, 18, 19, 
34, 48 

Ports, 27, 34 

Portsmouth, 32 

Port Soufriere, 30 

Powell (Captain), 55 

Powers of Congress, 88 

Prating, 89 

President, 90 

Prince of Wales, 82 

Problems, 11 

Publications, 68 

Pytchley hunt, 73 

Q 

Qualifications (for electors), 



Quarantine, 46 
Queen's cup, 82 
Quorn hunt, 73 

R 

Races, 62, 68 
Raritan Canal, 63 
Real yachting, 22 
Reefs, 17 
Relations, 87 
Reminiscences, 20, 67 
Reports, 7, 22 
Republic, 88, 89, 93 
Revolution (the), 58 
Rhode Island, 88 
Rights, 90, 92 
Riviere Salee, 32 

Roads, 20, 32, 47, 48 

Roadstead, 34, 55 

Rodney (Admiral), 28, 46 

Rome, 92, 93 

Royal Charter, 68 

Royal Colonial Institute, 50 

Royal Squadron, 81 

Royal Thames Yacht Club, 83 

Rum, 42, 57, 58 

Rum Island, 18 



Saba, 18, 27, 33, 42 
Sabbath, 90 
Safety, 92 

Sailing (winter), 9, 1 1, 17, 
20, 60 



123 



Sailing machine, 93 

Sailors, 41 

Sails, 39 

St. Croix, 16, 17, 18, 33, 43 

St. Eustatius, 18, 27, 33, 42 

St. George, 28 

St. George's, 53, 54 

St. George Society, 70 

St. John, 18 

St. Kitts, 18, 2.T, 33, 42 

St. Lucia, 18, 21, 29, 30, 31, 55 

St. Martin, 27 

St. Patrick's Day, 70 

St. Pierre, 28, 31, 32 

St. Thomas, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 

27, 34, 35, 41, 54 
St. Vincent, 9, 18, 21, 28, 29 
Samuels (Captain), 68 
San Juan, 18, 19, 34, 35, 41, 

44, 69 
San Salvador, 62 
Santa Cruz, ZZ 
Scarborough, 28 
Scenery, 10, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 

53, 59 
Scotland Light-ship, 69 
Screw dock, 55 
Sea cruising, 39, 93 
Sea Fox, 7, 9, 17 
Sea Fox (cruise of), 7, 17 
Seal of New York Yacht 

Club, 23 
Sea power, 50 
Seat in Senate, 93 
Seawanhaka Yacht Club, 69 



Secretary of New York 

Yacht Club, 67 
Security, 92 
Self-government, 58 
Senate, 90, 93 
Sewers, 29 
Shelter Island, 73 
Sherman (John), 69 
Shoals, 40 

Sixty days' cruise, 15, 16, 27 
Six weeks' cruise, 16 
Slip line, 2)2> 

Smith (Charles Stewart), ^2 
Society, 55, 70 
Socrates, 78, 89 
Soil, 34, 47 
Sounds, 63 
South America, 28 
Spanish Wells, 59 
Spars, 39 

Sports, 67, 'jz, 74, 89 
Squadron cruise, 5, 7, 9, 22, 

74 
Squalls, 39 
Stanford Hall, 74 
Stapleton (Sir William), 50 
States, 88, 92, 93 
Steamers, 15, 16, 69 
Steamship companies, 15 
Steam yachts, 12, 78 
Stetson (Francis L.), 70 
Stewards, 43 
Stokes (Colonel), 53 
Suffrage, 88 
Sugar, 29, 30, Z2,, 34, 55 



124 



Sugar factories, ii, 32 
Sugar question, 11, 49 
Sulphur works, 30 
Summer cruise, 74 
Sumptuary laws, go 
Supper, 70 
Supplies, 41, yy 
Swamps, 30 
Systems of labor, 11 



Taormina, 62 

Tariff question, 11 

Tax, 30 

Telegrams, 22 

Telephone, 29, 30 

Territories, 88, 92 

Thornton, 74 

Timocratic, 89 

Tobago, 14, 16, 17, 28 

Tongue of the Ocean, 60, 61 

Top-masts, 39 

Tourist, 10 

Tourist steamers, 23, 69 

Towing through canals, 64 

Trade, 47 

Trade winds, 12, 20, 40, 54, 

59 
Traitor, 89 

Treaty of Versailles, 46 
Trees, 77 
Trinidad, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17, 21, 

28, 41, 43, 49 



Troops, 54, 55 
Turtle, 43 

U 

United States, 9, 11, 14, 34, 

47, 49, 87 
Usurpation, 90, 92 

V 

Vaccination, 46 
Vale of Tempe, 29 
Vegetables, 22, 33, 42, 43 
Venison, 43 
Veto power, 90 
Vice-commodore, 12 
Vigors (Colonel), 53 
Virginia, 55, 56, 57 
Virgin Islands, 11, 13, 16, 27, 
34 

W 

Wages, 48 
War, 89 

"War power," 88 
Washington, 56, 69 
Washington's journal, 56 
Water, 17, 41, 59 
Waterfall, 33 
Watering place, 33 
Watlings Island, 18, 62 
West Indian cruise, 9, 10 
West Indies, 5, 12, 22, 23, 67, 

69, 97 
William IV, 33 



125 



Winds, 12, 17, 20, 34, 39, 40, 

53 
Windward Islands, 11, 12, 16, 

48, 49 
Windward work, 15, 16 
Winter cruising, 20 
Winter yachting, 11 
Winthrop (Henry), 55 
Winthrop (John), 55, 56 
Winthrop (John, Jr.), 55 
Winthrop (Mary), 56 
Winthrop (Samuel), 55 
Wisdom of our Fathers, 87 
Woman laborers, 48 



Woodbridge (Dudley), 56 
Woodbridge estate, 55 
Woodbridge, John, 56 
World, 88 



Yachting, 11, 22, ^t, 73, 74, 83 
Yacht race (international) , 

62 
Yachts, 9, ID, 12, 77, 78, 83, 93 
Yachtsmen, 21, 68 
Yawls, 83 
Young yachtsmen, 21, 68 



126 



CRUISING IN 

THE CARIBBEAN WITH 

A CAMERA 



LECTURE DELIVERED MAY 7. i9°3. AT THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 

INCLUDING DESCRIPTION OF GLOBULAR NAVAL 

BATTERY INVENTED BY THE AUTHOR 



BY 

ANSON PHELPS STOKES 

FORMERLY VICE-COMMODORE OF THE NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 



NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD & CO. 

1903 



Copyright, 1903, by 
Anson Phelps Stokes 



LECTURE GIVEN AT THE NEW YORK 
YACHT CLUB 

May 7, 1903^ 

At the general meeting, May 15, 1902, 1 addressed 
the Club on the subject of " Cruising in the 
West Indies," etc. 

That was after returning from a three months' 
cruise there in my schooner yacht Sea Fox. 

Needing to avoid cold weather last winter 
and remembering the unequaled advantages for 
winter and early spring cruising afforded by the 
eastern part of the Caribbean Sea, from Porto 
Rico to Trinidad, I determined to take the Sea 
Fox there again. 

I have now returned from a cruise of about 
three months. During this time I have visited 
most of the islands at which I landed last year, 
and also some others, including Hayti, Jamaica, 
and Cuba. 

1 One hundred and forty-six stereopticon views were used in this 
lecture. A few of these views are here represented. 

3 



Before I left New York, January 17th, the 
Chairman of our Lecture Committee called 
and asked that upon my return I would give 
to the Club a lecture on " Cruising in the Carib- 
bean," to be illustrated by a stereopticon, and 
to be one of the course of seven lectures 
which the Committee planned for the present 
season. 

Now, the cruise I had planned for this season, 
if added to last year's cruise, would complete the 
tour of the islands on the north and east of the 
Caribbean Sea. 

Other reasons for consenting to address the 
Club again on the subject of the Caribbean I 
can most easily express by quoting a few lines 
from my last year's address, which was printed 
in my book on " Cruising in the West Indies," 
etc.^ 

" The great variety found in the appearance and condi- 
tion of the inhabitants, the various systems of land-owner- 
ship and labor . . . , the general decay caused by want 
of commercial intercourse with the United States and with 
each other, the different colonial systems of the various 
nations owning the islands, the negro question, — all these 
present an important study for Americans, who are now 
called upon to face colonial problems." 

^Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1902. 

4 



At that time I had seen sad results there of the 
mixture of the two races. Since then I have had 
an opportunity to compare white government in 
Jamaica with colored government in the neigh- 
boring island of Hayti, — a contrast as startling 
as that between St. Pierre as I saw it last year, 
and the dead St. Pierre that I have now visited. 

I think that few in our community know much 
of the interests and beauties surrounding the 
Caribbean Sea. Our war with Spain and the 
terrible disasters at Martinique and St. Vincent 
have called attention to a few islands, but how 
few of our citizens know anything of the charms 
of the Danish and British Virgin Islands, the 
grandeur and beauty of the Leeward and Wind- 
ward Islands, or that there are a hundred islands 
in the Grenadine group alone. Or that on the 
north shore of South America, and beginning 
near Trinidad, and attaining its greatest height 
near Caracas, is what Kingsley, in " Westward 
Ho ! " has called " the mighty northern wall, the 
highest cliff on earth, some nine thousand feet 
of rock parted from the sea by a narrow strip 
of bright green lowland." How few know that, 
three hundred miles farther west, Santa Marta, 
covered with perpetual snow, and in plain view 
from the decks of passing vessels, rises 17,500 
5 



feet, while, farther west and south, Aconcagna is 
23,910 feet high. Mt. Blanc is only 15,800 feet 
above sea level, and is far from the sea. 

The Caribbean is about the same size as the 
Mediterranean, which is a little longer and nar- 
rower. But the Caribbean Sea, on account of 
its location twenty degrees farther south, its re- 
liable trade-winds, freedom from storms during 
February, March, April, etc., is much better 
suited for late winter and early spring yachting. 




Morro Castle, San Juan, Porto Rico. 




Porto Rican children. 



SOUTHERN CRUISE OF THE " SEA FOX " 
IN 1903 

I INTEND this lecture to be a report of my late 
cruise, and I will endeavor now, with the aid of 
the stereopticon,^ to carry you to some of the 
places we visited in the Sea Fox between Janu- 
ary 22, 1903, when we joined the yacht at San 
Juan, Porto Rico, to April 14, when we entered 
the port of Baltimore, Md. Some of the photo- 
graphs taken on the Sea Fox proved defective. 
I have obtained others from dealers. 

San Juan was founded in 151 1, eighteen years 
after the discovery of Porto Rico by Columbus, 
and five years after the conquest by Ponce de 
Leon, whose ashes are still kept in his old castle 
there. 

Morro Castle, the principal fortification, was 
built in 1584. 

We had the advantage of a long postprandial 
talk with Governor Hunt, regarding the affairs 
of the island, 

1 See foot-note, page 3. 

7 



You may be interested in the costumes of some 
of the natives, so soon probably to become our 
fellow-citizens. 

There are beautiful shores and beaches near 
San Juan. 

We sailed from San Juan to the island of Cu- 
lebra, where we found the North Atlantic 
Squadron under Rear- Admiral Higginson, Com- 
mander-in-chief. His flag-ship, the Kearsarge, 
and the other battle-ships, Alabama, Illinois, 
Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas, and Indiana, were 
anchored in the bay on the west side of the island, 
while the Olympia, Admiral Dewey's old ship, 
and now the flag-ship of Rear- Admiral Coghlan, 
and the other war-ships were in the inside har- 
bor, where we anchored, and where we had the 
pleasure of seeing the burgee of the New York 
Yacht Club hoisted on the Olympia in honor of 
our Club. 

We dined on the Kearsarge with Admiral Hig- 
ginson. The bay where his battle-ship squadron 
lay is some distance, by sea, from the inner har- 
bor. • A short canal has been constructed through 
which small boats can now pass between the 
inside and outside anchorages. 

From Culebra we sailed past Sail Rock to St. 
Thomas, or Charlotte Amalie, as this very pic- 
turesque seaport is named. 
8 




St. Thomas (Charlotte Amalie). 




Among the Virgin Islands. 



From St. Thomas we sailed by some small 
islands and then along the north shore of the 
island of St. John, through the sound called 
Virgin's Road, or Sir Francis Drake's Channel, 
between the Danish and the British Virgins, and 
anchored for the night at Virgin Gorda, on the 
southeastern end of this charming sound. The 
view at sunset and in the afterglow was. wonder- 
fully lovely, with its brilliant coloring of sky 
and water seen between the numerous head- 
lands. That view is beyond the powers of the 
stereopticon. 

The Virgins, with their many quiet anchor- 
ages, are sure some time to be appreciated highly 
by yachtsmen. The climate in winter and spring 
is perfect, — not debilitating as Trinidad would 
be for a long stay. 

The next day we sailed near to the island 
of Saba, a great volcanic cone above steep cliffs, 
and arrived the following morning, January 
30th, at Philipsburg, the Dutch port on the 
•island of St. Martin. Its chief export is salt. 
St. Martin contains thirty-eight square miles, 
about half belonging to France and half to 
Holland. 

In driving across the end of one of the great 
salt-ponds, the horse got into too deep water, 
which rose to its back, and we had to release it 
9 



from the buggy. With my artificial leg, I was 
left in rather an awkward position. Some girls, 
however, ran to my assistance, and by their aid 
the buggy was pulled and pushed safely to land. 
I was reminded of Galatea aided by the nymphs 
in her escape from Polyphemus. 

Most unfortunately, I have no photograph of 
my nymphs, but well-known pictures of Gal- 
atea's adventure will sufficiently illustrate the 
situation. 

That afternoon we went in my new ten horse- 
power launch to the town of Marigot, in the 
French part of the island, passing first along 
the shore, then through an intricate coral reef, 
and then through a large lagoon. 

Saturday, January 31st, we sailed first to the 
French island of St. Bartholomew, or St. Barts, 
where we went, in the launch, about the pictur- 
esque little harbor of Gustaf, and then sailed 
to Basse Terre, St. Christopher, commonly 
called St. Kitts, an important port of call for 
many steamers. 

We drove across the island and back, and 
sailed to Nevis, formerly the fashionable wa- 
tering-place of the West Indies in the days when 
sugar was king. 

We saw the old stone hotel which cost 
10 



$200,000 and was sold for $200. We visited 
the old fig-tree church, where Lord Nelson was 
married. William, Duke of Clarence, afterward 
King- William IV, was best man. 

St. Kitts, Nevis, and St. Croix are of great in- 
terest to Americans on account of the early life 
there of Alexander Hamilton. 

We sailed back to St. Kitts, as I had made en- 
gagements at Culebra to lunch this day with 
Captain Emory, on the Indiana, and to entertain 
at dinner Admiral Higginson and captains of 
some of the battle-ships. 

We reached the anchorage just before the 
arrival of the battle-ship squadron, whose ap- 
proach was very impressive. 

The Admiral sent his band of more than a 
dozen pieces to play on the Sea Fox. 

February 3d, we sailed from St. Kitts, saw 
Antigua in the distance, and passed near to 
Rodonda, Montserrat, and Guadeloupe. 

Some Americans pronounce Antigua as if it 
were a word of four syllables : 

"There was a young bride in An-tig-u-a, 
Who said to her spouse, ' What a pig you are ! ' 
He replied, ' O my Queen, 
Is it manners you mean, 
Or do you refer to my fig-u-a? ' " 
II 



The next day we skirted Dominica and Mar- 
tinique. When opposite Mt. Pelee we tacked 
close inshore and sailed along the front of the 
dead city of St. Pierre. We anchored that 
evening at Fort-de-France. 

The views of Mt. Pelee and St. Pierre, and 
the great changes since the year before, were 
most impressive. But I will speak of this later, 
for, on our return from Trinidad, we obtained 
a permit at Fort-de-France, and landed at St. 
Pierre. 

There is a fine statue of Empress Josephine, 
erected in the principal square of Fort-de-France, 
in memory of her birthplace near here. 

This is a portrait of the ex-king of Dahomey 
and two wives, the only royalties now living 
here. He is a prisoner, but has a good house 
and other comforts. 

February 5th, we sailed past St. Lucia. At 
sundown, when near to the Soufriere St. Vin- 
cent, we saw lightnings about the mountain and 
a black cloud on top, and we learned later that 
there was a slight eruption that night. 

We arrived at Kingstown, St. Vincent, about 
noon, February 6th, and, after a drive, sailed 
again, and passing close to some of the Grena- 
dines, reached St. George, Grenada, at 7.30 p.m. 
12 




Ex-king of Dahomey and wives. 



The next day we lunched at the Government 
House, and Lady Llewellyn took us for an in- 
teresting drive overlooking the Vale of Tempe 
and the sea, and among the cocoa plantations. 

The following day we had a launch excursion 
and dined at Government House, and early the 
next morning sailed for Trinidad. 

The fine auxiliary yacht Mohican steamed out 
before us, but when the trade-wind commenced 
to blow we soon passed her, and reached Port 
of Spain, Trinidad, long before her. I mention 
this as a proof that steam is not needed on 
yachts in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea. 

We anchored at 5.30 p.m., when an officer 
from the British flag-ship called on behalf of 
Vice-Admiral Sir Archibald L. Douglas. 

That evening we dined at Government House, 
with Sir Alfred and Lady Maloney, who invited 
us to go the next day on an excursion with the 
British Admiral. We were unable to accept this, 
but visited the flag-ship Ariadne, and Captain 
Browning of the Ariadne called on the Sea Fox. 

One of my guests, Mr. James William Beek- 
man, had, to our great regret, to leave us to re- 
turn to New York. We went to the steamer to 
see him off, and then took a very interesting 
trip in the launch through the canal and among 
13 



the Five Islands and the islands of the Boca, or 
mouth of the Gulf of Paria. These picturesque 
islands, Diego, Casper Grande, and Mono, have 
lovely little harbors and many summer cottages 
belonging to the residents of Port of Spain. 
There are fine views here of the eastern end of 
the Andes. 

The next morning Admiral Douglas called. I 
had planned to go in the yacht up the San Juan 
River, Venezuela, among the mountains near 
the great northern wall of South America. But 
I learned from both British and American ad- 
mirals that it would not be possible to do so, 
because of the excited state of the country. 

RETURN FROM TRINIDAD 

February 14th, at 10 a.m., we began our home- 
ward course, on which we visited many more 
ports than on our way south. 

Our first visit was at St. George, Grenada, 
where we had stopped on our way south. This 
is an ideally romantic place. The town is in two 
parts, connected by a tunnel which runs through 
a cliff on which the old fort stands. 

The north harbor is an open roadstead. 

The south harbor is landlocked. 
14 




St. Geor2;e, Grenada. 




St. George, Grenada. View from Government House. 



We dined and spent the night at Government 
House, from which there are charming views of 
the south harbor and coast, mountains and val- 
leys, and drove into the interior up to Grand 
Etang, a lake in an ancient crater among the 
clouds. 

I took the Governor, Sir Robert B. Llewellyn, 
and his daughters, in the Sea Fox, to the island 
of Cariacou, forty miles distant, and which they 
had not before visited. They spent one night 
on the yacht and returned with us to St. George. 
Cariacou is one of the Grenadines, and has 6500 
inhabitants. 

We went to Lady Llewellyn's ball, for which 
Admiral Douglas had sent H.M. cruiser Retribu- 
tion. Captain Bostwick, of our Club, with his 
wife and their two young children and friends, 
arrived in the Sultana as we were about to leave. 
They were all enjoying their cruise. 

We then sailed among many of the eastern 
Grenadines, past the Soufriere St. Vincent, the 
Soufriere St. Lucia, and the stupendous Pitons, 
to Castries, St. Lucia, which is the Gibraltar 
of the West Indies, and the great West Indian 
coaling-station. The coaling is done by women, 
who carry soft, dusty coal in baskets on their 
heads. 

15 



There are new and very important earthworks, 
also model barracks and hospitals on the north 
shore of the harbor. 

This picture may give valuable hints to our 
Regatta Committee. It is of a race between 
Castries yachts, which passed close to the Sea 
Fox. The yachtsmen had to let go their sheets 
often to keep from upsetting, and to bail the 
little coffins in which they sailed. 



DIAMOND ROCK 

From Castries we sailed for Martinique, one mile 
south of which we passed close to Diamond 
Rock, a very remarkable little island, about 800 
feet square, 574 feet high, and with precipitous 
sides. The rock was formerly rated as a sloop- 
of-war on the books of the British Admiralty. 
In January, 1804, Sir Samuel Hood laid his 
seventy-four gun ship, Centaur, close alongside 
this rock, to the top of which he made fast a 
hawser on which was a traveler. He then 
hauled three long twenty- fours and two eigh- 
teens to the top, and left them in charge of 
Lieutenant Maurice, with one hundred and 
twenty men and boys, with ammunition, pro- 
16 




The Pitons, nearly 3000 feet high. 




Yacht race at Castries. 



visions, and water. The crew built a cistern, 
and for fifteen months this novel sloop-of-war 
did great injury to the French shipping going 
to and from the neighboring harbor, now called 
Fort-de-France, until June i, 1805, when she 
surrendered, for want of powder, to a French 
squadron of two seventy-fours, a corvette, a 
schooner, and eleven gunboats. In this engage- 
ment the stone sloop-of-war. Diamond Rock, 
killed and wounded seventy men and destroyed 
three gunboats, with a loss to herself of two 
killed and one wounded. 

Reading this story as quoted by Kingsley from 
" Naval Chronicles," Vol. XII, p. 206, and pass- 
ing Diamond Rock in 1899, and remembering 
my application made many years before for a 
caveat on a revolving vessel, I was led to invent 
an armored globular battery, for which the 
United States and foreign governments have 
granted me patents. After talking with some 
prominent naval men, I have come to think it 
of sufficient importance to ask the Club to look 
for a moment at photographs of preliminary 
sketches, which will explain my floating fort. 

The fifteen-inch guns are rigidly fixed to the 
globular battery, so far as their aim is concerned. 
The elevation is effected by tilting the whole 
17 



globular battery. This is done by weighted cars 
moving on sectional tracks. The azimuths are 
regulated by four screw-propellers, which re- 
volve the battery horizontally, and have also the 
faculty of moving it slowly from place to place.^ 



THE GREAT DISASTER AT ST. PIERRE 

February 23d, we stopped at Fort-de-France, 
and obtained a permit to land at St. Pierre, which 
we then visited, going ashore and also rowing 
close to the sea-wall and ruins along the whole 
water-front of the dead city. 

This picture shows St. Pierre as it was before 
the eruption of May 8, 1902. 

This picture shows St. Pierre after the un- 
paralleled disaster which in five minutes de- 
stroyed this beautiful and prosperous city and 
thirty thousand inhabitants. 

When I visited St. Pierre in 1902, we went up 
Mt. Pelee as far as Fontaine Chaude, where a 
considerable stream of hot sulphur-water then 
flowed out of the mountain. Fontaine Chaude 
was, in my opinion, the precise point where the 

^ Sketches of Globular Battery, with fuller description, will be found 

at end of this Lecture. 

18 




St. Pierre, before the eruption. 




St. Pierre, after its destruction. 



side of the mountain blew out and destroyed 
St. Pierre. Numerous jets of steam were rising 
from this place when we sailed along the shore 
there this year, on our way south. 



SAILING NORTHWARD FROM ST. PIERRE 

We sailed out of the anchorage at St. Pierre, be- 
tween a most peaceful sunset with wonderful 
afterglow on our left, and the scene of terrible 
desolation on our right. The wind was so light 
that we were kept near to Mt. Pelee longer than 
we liked, for we had learned from an eye-witness 
that at a recent eruption the hot sand had spread 
westward about five miles from shore, turning 
the surface of the sea to steam. 

We passed close to Dominica, but did not 
have time to stop. I visited this island in 1902. 
It is one of the grandest of the Carib Islands. 
The people are miserably poor, almost without 
roads, and, being British, it is cut off from trade 
with the neighboring islands, which are French. 

We sailed past Marie Galante to Pointe-a- 
Pitre, Grande Terre, the eastern one of the twin 
islands called Guadeloupe. A narrow and shal- 
low strait, the Riviere Salee, divides Grande 
19 



Terre from the other or western twin, which is 
of about equal size, but much higher. 

At Pointe-a-Pitre, Consul Ayme dined on 
board, told us about the Mt. Pelee eruption, and 
showed us some interesting stereopticon pictures 
of St. Pierre, Mt. Pelee, etc. 

On my visit in 1902, 1 had found Mr. Ayme a 
man of marked ability and intelligence. As 
he had been promptly on the ground after the 
great eruption, I applied for information to him, 
as a man most competent to give an accurate 
account. 

We sailed along the southeastern coast of 
Guadeloupe, past bright green fields of sugar 
cane, fertile hills, and noble mountains from 
which waterfalls and streams descend to the sea. 
A lovely, laughing land. 

On our left were the Iles-des-Saintes, the 
French naval station. 

Off these islands De Grasse was defeated by 
Rodney, April 12, 1782, — the severest naval 
battle in English history, and a victory that 
England then considered of greater importance 
than the loss of her thirteen North American 
colonies. 

At Basse Terre, Guadeloupe, we obtained a 
supply of naphtha for our launch, and took a 
20 



beautiful drive of about seven miles to Matuba. 
The scenery is truly grand, especially the views 
from two iron bridges crossing deep mountain 
gorges. Matuba lies on the westerly slope of 
the Guadeloupe Soufriere, which had lately 
been discharging ashes, and it was sad to think 
that this lovely district might be destroyed at 
any moment. 

The government of Guadeloupe is controlled 
by blacks and colored people, and it is feared 
that an explosion more serious than a volcanic 
eruption may break out there. 

Our next anchorage was at the British island 
of Montserrat. The people here appear more 
poverty-stricken than at any other island except 
Dominica. 

After stopping again at St. Kitts for water 
and ice, we sailed to St. Eustatius, and, pass- 
ing close under the bold white cliff there, an- 
chored in the harbor of Orange Town, Holland 
owns this island, which was once very pros- 
perous. The remains of great, solid stone 
warehouses are to be seen at the edge of the 
harbor. 

We sailed close by the wonderful cliffs on the 
western side of the Dutch island of Saba. It 
was too rough to land, but the mountains were 

21 



unusually free from clouds. The principal vil- 
lage is called Bottom. It is 960 feet above the 
sea, and is reached only by steep paths and by 
steps cut in the cliff. But it is seen from the 
sea through a narrow gorge. 

We then sailed to Fredericksted, St. Croix, 
drove across the island on a perfect road, passing 
a number of fine-looking sugar-works, to Chris- 
tiansted, where we had luncheon, saw the town 
and the old Baltimore schooner Vigilant, which 
has been employed by the Danish government 
to carry mail, etc., ever since she was captured 
when in the slave trade in 1801. 

We drove back to Fredericksted in the even- 
ing. 

From conversations with a number of people 
of various conditions, it appears that there is 
some reaction from the general desire for an- 
nexation to the United States, which seemed to 
exist when I was in St. Croix the year before. 
It is now expected there that Denmark will do 
much to develop her islands. But it is not easy 
to see how they can prosper without free trade 
with the United States. 

From St. Croix we sailed to Ponce, Porto 
Rico. I found Ponce less interesting than I had 
expected. 

22 



ISLAND OF HAYTI 

March 3d we sailed from Ponce, and the next 
day arrived at Santo Domingo, a remarkable 
sixteenth-century Spanish- American walled city, 
built at the mouth of the Ozama River, — the 
oldest city of European foundation in the new 
world. In 1496 a fort was built on the opposite 
side of the river, which is narrow at this point. 
Columbus was confined there in 1500. That 
fort was destroyed by an earthquake in 1502, 
and this castle was built about 1509. It is the 
most conspicuous object in the city, and the old- 
est castle in America. The first university in 
America was at Santo Domingo. 

The cathedral, built of solid stone, commenced 
in 1 5 12 and finished in 1540, is one of the most 
notable buildings in the western hemisphere. It 
is claimed that the remains of Columbus are in 
the stone coffin under a great monument to him 
in this church. Much evidence — conclusive, I 
think — has been adduced in support of this claim, 
and that it was the remains of Diego Columbus, 
the son of the great discoverer, that were taken 
by mistake to Havana. We found Santo Do- 
mingo most interesting, although vilely dirty. 
23 



Passing the " House of Columbus," which 
belonged not to the discoverer, but to his son 
Diego, who here maintained a splendid vice- 
regal court, we went in the launch about five 
miles up the Ozama, on which there were many 
long dugout canoes. We wished we had time to 
go much farther up this large river, but we 
wanted to see more of the city. We returned 
and drove inside and outside of the walls. On 
all sides children of both sexes without any 
clothing were playing in the dirty streets. The 
appearance of the soldiers was grotesque. There 
were many ruins of once fine buildings, and dis- 
order and decay everywhere. 

We were told that there was a revolution go- 
ing on, and that eight revolutionists had been 
captured the preceding day. One of these revo- 
lutionists we saw and talked with. The govern- 
ment is nominally a free republic, but is prac- 
tically a military despotism. One part of the 
community is pleased at having certain laws 
made, and another part is pleased by the liberal 
non-enforcement of these laws. Politicians in 
our country may suppose that they have invented 
this clever, double-acting scheme. But it is pre- 
cisely the Santo Domingo plan; and the poli- 
ticians there thrive under it so well that the outs 
24 



are constantly getting up revolutions, hoping to 
obtain a chance to construe the laws liberally to 
the profit of themselves and their partizans. 

Santo Domingo has a colored man's govern- 
ment. Hayti, the western part of the island, has 
a black man's government. These two classes 
here, as in some other parts of the Caribbean 
Sea, hate each other. 

In most of the islands, the distinction between 
colored and black people is very sharply drawn. 

We sailed past Jacmel, Hayti, but did not land. 
Jacmel is an open roadstead, and the sea was 
rolling in, as there was a little south in the wind 
that day. Even the mail-steamers seldom anchor 
there. 

The island of Hayti, seen from the south, has 
not the grand and mysterious aspect that I noted 
when sailing along the northern shores in 1899 
and in 1902. The government is, like that of 
Santo Domingo, nominally a free republic, but 
practically a military despotism. In 1867, ac- 
cording to Hesketh Pritchard's book on Hayti, 
the army was composed of 6500 generals, 7000 
regimental officers, and 6500 privates. Ober, 
in 1893, says the nominal strength of the army 
is about 20,000, of which some 14,000 are gen- 
eral, staff, and regimental officers. 
25 



Robert T. Hill, writing in 1898, states that 
of the eleven rulers of Hayti since its freedom, 
only one has escaped being either shot or de- 
ported. 

For accounts showing how civilization has 
retrogressed in Hayti in the last hundred years, 
during which time the negroes have " enjoyed 
self-government," with the particulars of the re- 
lapse of great masses of the people into serpent 
worship, and for accounts of cannibalism, I 
must refer to the book of Sir Sidney St. John, 
who lived for years in Hayti, and to the books of 
F. A. Ober. Ober spent about fifteen years in 
studying the islands and the fortunes of Colum- 
bus, and was the United States Special Com- 
missioner to the West Indies for the Chicago 
Exposition. Writing in 1893, he gives details 
which he claims to be sufficient " to show that 
cannibalism still flourishes in Hayti." This has 
been denied by Haytian authorities. 

JAMAICA 

At 10 p.m., March 7th, we sighted Morant Point 
on the eastern end of Jamaica, and the next day 
arrived at Kingston, after an interesting sail 
along the coast. 

26 




Port Antonio, Jamaica. 




Port Antonio, view of inner harbor from hotel. 



Here we met the Sultana again. Also the 
British flag-ship Ariadne. 

There are many coolies here as at Trinidad. 

We dined at King's House, the residence of 
the Governor, Sir Augustus L. Hemming. His 
Excellency and Lady Hemming, Chief Magis- 
trate and Mrs. Mares-Caux, and Commander 
Eustace of H. M. cruiser Alert, dined next night 
on the Sea Fox. We visited the Ariadne, being 
invited to meet General Shaw. 

My guest, Mr. Robert G. Hone, was now 
obliged, to my great regret, to return to New 
York, and left me at Kingston, March nth. 

The same day I ordered the Sea Fox to sail 
for Montego Bay, on the northwestern coast, 
while I visited other parts of the island by rail. 
I first drove to the old historical plantation of 
Cherry Garden, now owned by the Hon. Chief 
Magistrate Mares-Caux, where I dined and 
spent the night. This was the night before the 
full moon, and the view from Cherry Garden 
House over the country, Kingston, the harbor, 
sea and headlands, was charming. 

The next day I went by rail in four and a 

half hours from Kingston to Port Antonio, the 

headquarters of the United Fruit Company, 

which has absorbed the Boston Fruit Company 

27 



and other fruit companies. It owns a large fleet 
of steamers, many plantations, and the hotel 
here, which stands on a bluff between two 
harbors. 

Port Antonio is one of the most romantic 
places I have ever visited. The full moon shone 
over the palm trees and the harbors with their 
vessels and sail-boats, and it was a fairy scene. 

Immediately in front of the hotel is a small 
island which protects both harbors ; the entrance 
to the principal harbor is very narrow. West- 
ward of this little island there is a fine surf, and 
eastward the sea dashes against black rocks. 
The visitors at the hotel and at the many cot- 
tages adjoining were mostly from New Eng- 
land. There is talk of taking down the present 
cheap buildings and putting up a better hotel 
in their place this year. 

This part of Jamaica faces the northeast trade- 
winds, and has about three times as much rain- 
fall as the southern side of the island. 

The mountain and coast scenery of Jamaica 
is justly celebrated for grandeur and rare 
beauty. 

The tropical foliage of northern and central 
Jamaica is most luxuriant. Fine banana trees 
may be produced by irrigation. But to produce 
28 




.Scene near Port Antonio. 




Washing clothes in Jamaica. 



the best bananas, plenty of showers are neces- 
sary; and they have these here. Many ruined 
sugar estates have been turned into banana 
plantations, or divided among peasant propri- 
etors who raise bananas for sale; and as the 
United States admits bananas free of duty, the 
people of Jamaica, living under well-admin- 
istered laws, and being able to buy land and to 
sell fruit, etc., appear happier than the inhabi- 
tants of the other islands. It is terrible to think 
how much of this prosperity may be destroyed 
by a single line in our next tariff bill. 

Time does not permit me to give instructive 
particulars regarding the remarkable growth of 
this banana trade, which has resulted in great ad- 
vantage to both countries. A few years ago 
bananas were seldom seen in our country, except 
in a few cities. Now this useful fruit is found 
in every village ; meanwhile, the use of American 
goods has greatly increased in Jamaica. When 
a peasant can earn only twenty cents a day as in 
many Carib islands, he is not a large consumer 
of imported goods ; but let his earnings increase 
and he will use American oil, provisions, and 
manufactured goods. 

From Port Antonio I went in four hours by 
rail to Spanish Town, the former capital, and 
29 



the next day, in six hours by rail, to Montpelier, 
which is a rich grazing and fruit and sugar 
country. 

A drive of ten miles from Montpelier brought 
me to Montego Bay, where I found the yacht, 
and sailed at 3.30 o'clock, March i6th, for Cien- 
fuegos, Cuba. 



CONDITIONS IN JAMAICA, HAYTI, AND SANTO 
DOMINGO COMPARED 

The successful government of Jamaica, where 
there are nearly one hundred colored and black 
persons to one white, is a very important study 
for American statesmen. Two and one-half per 
cent, of the people are registered as white, but 
some of these are known to have an admixture 
of black blood. It has been proved there that 
vast numbers of negroes, when led by a few able 
brave and honest whites, can be advanced in 
civilization. The soldiers, policemen, railway 
conductors, guards, and engineers are black or 
colored. The commissioned officers are, of 
course, white. The published histories of the 
Jamaica regiments show how these black troops, 
commanded by white commissioned officers, 
30 



have maintained order and fought bravely for 
England and her colonies in the West Indies 
and in Africa. They are fine-looking, and ap- 
pear proud of their uniform and of their ser- 
vice. There are only about twelve hundred 
white troops on the island, which has a popula- 
tion of more than seven hundred and fifty 
thousand. 

There are many negro owners of very small 
farms. Any man paying $2.50 taxes can vote 
for members of the Legislature, which has lim- 
ited powers. 

Compare the actual conditions in Jamaica with 
those in the neighboring island of Hayti. At 
about the close of the seventeenth century, Hayti 
was the richest colony in the world. A century 
later it contained very many splendid estates, 
noble houses, and a rich and refined society. 
The black Republic of Hayti appears to be going 
back to barbarism. The roads cannot now be 
driven over, and the forests have encroached 
largely on the cultivated land. The most popu- 
lar hero is the black Emperor Dessalines, who, 
in 1804, ordered the massacre of all whites. 

The colored Republic of Santo Domingo 
drove out or killed almost all whites and blacks. 

The government of Jamaica has been able to 
31 



do so much for its people, notwithstanding the 
destruction of the great staple industry of the 
island, causing large losses to the owners of 
great sugar estates. But even sugar appears to 
be looking up, and would be a very profitable 
crop if our country would consent to receive it 
freely in exchange for articles which we could 
sell there to the advantage of our own citizens. 

THE NEGRO QUESTION IN THE UNITED STATES 

If the statesmen of our reconstruction period had 
taken a yachting cruise throughout the Carib- 
bean Sea, they could never have committed the 
terrible mistake, or offense against nature, of at- 
tempting to place a superior race under the 
domination of an inferior one. 
Lincoln said, September, 1859: 

" I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing 
about, in any way, the social and political equality of the 
white and black races ; I am not, nor ever have been, in 
favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualify- 
ing them to hold office, or to intermarry with white peo- 
ple : and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a 
physical difference between the white and black races, 
which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living 
together on terms of social and political equality." 

32 



After the close of the war, after the South had 
laid down its arms and had elected National 
senators and representatives, it was found that 
the dominant party might be unable to maintain 
control of Congress. Then Garfield, in urging 
the passage of the Act of 1867, a bill for the 
extension of suffrage to the colored race in the 
late Confederate States, said: 

"This bill sets out by laying its hands on the rebel gov- 
ernments, and taking the very breath of life out of them ; 
in the next place, it puts the bayonet at the breast of 
every rebel in the South ; in the next place, it leaves in 
the hands of Congress, utterly and absolutely, the work 
of reconstruction." 

The result of this policy is not a pleasant sub- 
ject to discuss. But those who have had oppor- 
tunity to observe the material and social ruin 
wrought in some of these islands by political 
equality and unrestrained intercourse between 
the races, followed by the supremacy of the lower 
race, are bound to bear their testimony, now 
that the question has again come up in our coun- 
try as one of pressing importance. An un- 
known author, quoted by Marcus Aurelius, has 
said, " He who fears to speak freely is a slave." 

The noble work of Booker T. Washington and 
33 



others will prepare many negroes properly to 
exercise political rights and privileges. But 
where negroes are in the majority in communi- 
ties in our country, to encourage them to attempt 
to rule white men, must, I think, prove dis- 
astrous. 

CUBA 

We had light winds most of the way from Jamaica 
to Cuba. One night the calm was so absolute 
that the reflection of stars in the water exceeded 
anything of the kind I had ever seen. 

Early March 19th, we arrived at Cienfuegos, 
a great and perfectly landlocked harbor that 
would hold all the navies of the world. It has 
a deep but narrow and crooked entrance. The 
mountains to the eastward are fine. Westward 
from here the great agricultural country of Cuba 
is mostly flat. 

I sent the 'Sea Fox on to meet me at Havana, 
and went by rail that afternoon to Santa Clara, 
the following day to Matanzas, and the next 
morning to Havana, where I found that friends 
I had expected to meet had had to return home. 

The yacht was nearly four days going from 
Cienfuegos to Havana. Yachtsmen should re- 
34 



member that light winds and calms are to be ex- 
pected on the southwesterly sides of Jamaica and 
Cuba at this time of year. 

The Sea Fox anchored near the wreck of the 
Maine, and near by Commodore Bennett's grand 
yacht Lysistrata, 1943 tons, and Captain Struth- 
ers's plucky little racing schooner Muriel, 72 
tons, were anchored close together. 

I found western Cuba very hot. It was too 
far from the delightful trade-winds we had so 
lately enjoyed. So I was very glad to find my- 
self again on my yacht and with prospect of 
ocean breezes. 

The breezes were light until we were about 
abreast of Miami, Florida, when a strong north- 
erly wind against the Gulf Stream made a bad 
sea, and we had a lot of severe squalls. These 
conditions are not uncommon in that neighbor- 
hood, as I had before experienced. The rough 
weather continued until we reached Nassau, 
where we arrived March 27th, at 7.30 a.m. I 
dined that evening at Government House, and 
the following evening the Governor, Sir Gilbert 
Carter, and his daughter dined on the Sea Fox. 

We sailed from Nassau April ist, and had 
light winds until the night of April 4th, when 
we had a northwest gale. 
35 



Saturday morning, April 4th, we arrived off 
Charleston, where I found still flourishing the 
charming hospitality for which that pleasant 
city has been so long distinguished. 

It was very cold at Charleston. I sent the 
Sea Fox, April 7th, to Fortress Monroe, and 
went there by rail. 

The yacht arrived at Fortress Monroe early 
April 9th. 

We sailed to Norfolk and afterwards up the 
Chesapeake and to Baltimore, where we arrived 
April 14th. I returned by rail to New York 
April 15th, almost exactly three months from 
the time I left here, January 17th. 

The Sea Fox reached New York April 19th, 
having been away four days less than four 
months, during which time she had sailed 8100 
sea miles, measured on straight courses from 
port to port. During the previous season's 
cruise to the Bermudas, Caribbean Sea, etc., she 
sailed 7380 miles. 

This is the Sea Fox in racing trim, when her 
New York Yacht Club measurement is 89 feet 
5 inches water-line, 115 feet all over, 11 feet 
draft. Tonnage, 96.67. 

This is the Sea Fox in cruising trim^ when, 
with stores, etc., on board, she draws nearly 
12>^ feet. 

36 




Sc'ii /'c>x, ill cruising trim. 




Sai Fox, sailing with small awning set. 



Being built of iron, she has to be hauled less 
than half as often as a steel yacht, which is an 
important consideration in building yachts for 
distant cruising. 

This shows our party on the Sea Fox. We 
are under the small awning which we carry 
when sailing. 



CRUISING IN SAILING YACHTS 

I WISH to add that I am as firm as ever in my judg- 
ment regarding the advantages of cruising in 
sailing yachts in distant seas.^ 

What other sport so moderates the mind and 
promotes good-fellowship ? 

An occasional storm is only Nature's coy 
way of alluring by an appearance of resistance. 
What joy there is in contests with her. How, 
at length, she yields and delights to be con- 
quered. How lovely the nights under the 
stars on the gently swelling ocean. How snug 
and comfortable we feel when we get the trysail 
set. 

1 " Sea cruising promotes a healthy taste for real yachts as com- 
pared with expensive sailing machines." — " Cruising in the West 
Indies," etc., by Anson Phelps Stokes, p. 93. See also pages 
20-23, idem. 

37 



The greatest of the Greek tragic poets has 
beautifully associated the sea with mental calm : 

"Mind serene like the calm of the sea." 

That this mental calm is sometimes disturbed 
by seasickness is because of a strange want of 
logical perception. The diurnal revolution of 
the earth carries us at the equator a th©usand 
miles per hour. We move more than a thousand 
miles a minute in our journey around the sun. 

Compared to these rapid movements, the mo- 
tion of the waves is ridiculously small. 

To permit one's self to be excited by such 
small motions is absurd. 



38 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Aconcagua, 6 

Act of 1867, 33 

Alabama, 8 

Alert, 27 

American goods, 29 

American statesmen, 30, 32 

Andes, 14 

Annexation, 22 

Antigua, 11 

Ariadne, 13, 27 

Armored globular battery, 17 

Ayme, Consul, 20 

B 

Baltimore, 7, 36 
Bananas, 28, 29 
Basse Terre, Guadeloupe, 20 
Basse Terre, St. Kitts, 10 
Battery, 17 
Battle, 20 
Battle-ships, 8, il 
Beekman, James William, 13 
Bennett, ex-Commodore, 35 



Bermudas, 36 

Black man's government, 21, 

Black people, 25, 30 
Black Republic, 31 
Black troops, 30 
Boston Fruit Company, 27 
Bostwick, Captain, 15 
Bottom, 22 
British Admiral, 13 
British Admiralty, 16 
Browning, Captain, 13 



Cannibalism, 26 

Canoes, 24 

Caracas, 5 

Cariacou, 15 

Caribbean Sea, 4, 5, 13, 25, 

32, 36 
Carib Islands, 19 
Carter, Sir Gilbert, 35 
Casper Grande, 14 
Castries, 15, 16 



41 



Cathedral, 23 
Centaur, 16 
Charleston, 36 
Charlotte Amalie, 8 
Cherry Garden, 27 
Chesapeake, 36 
Christiansted, 22 
Cienfuegos, Cuba, 30, 34 
Coaling-station, 15 
Cocoa plantations, 13 
Coghlan, Rear-Admiral, 8 
Colonial problems, 4 
Colonial systems, 4 
Colonies, 20, 31 



De Grasse, 20 
Denmark, 22 
Dessalines, 31 
Diamond Rock, 16, 17 
Diego, 14 

Disaster at St. Pierre, 18 
Dominica, 12, 19, 21 
Douglas, Vice-Admiral Sir 
Archibald, 13, 14, 15 



E 



Earthquake, 23 
Emory, Captain, 1 1 



Colored government, 5, 21, England, 20, 31 



25 
Colored people, 21, 25 
Colored Republic, 31 
Columbus, 7, 23, 24, 26 
Columbus, Diego, 23 
Confederate States, 33 
Coolies, 27 

Cruises, 3, 4, 7, 1 5. 32 
Cruising in the Caribbean, 4 



Eruption, 18, 20 
Eustace, Commander, 27 



Five Islands, 14 
Floating fort, 17 
Florida, 35 



Cruising in the West Indies, Fontaine Chaude, 18 



etc., 3 J 4, 37 
Cuba, 3, 30, 34, 35 
Culebra, 8, 11 

D 

Dahomey, ex-king of, 12 
Danish government, 22 



Fort-de-France, 12, 17, 18 
Fortress Monroe, 36 
France, 9 

Fredericksted, St. Croix, 22 
Free trade, 22, 29, 32 
French naval station, 20 
Fruit, 27-30 

42 



Galatea, lo Iles-des-Saintes, 20 

Garfield, 33 Illinois, 8 

Globular battery, 17, 18 Imported goods, 29 

Government, 5, 21, 22, 24, Indiana, 8, 11 



25, 30, 31 
Grand Etang, 15 
Grande Terre, 19, 20 
Grenada, 12-14 
Grenadines, 5, 12, 15 
Guadeloupe, 11, 19, 20, 21 
Guadeloupe Soufriere, 21 
Gulf of Paria, 14 
Gulf Stream, 35 
Gustaf, 10 

H 



Inhabitants, 4, 19, 21, 29 
Intermarriage, 32 
Iowa, 8 

Islands, 3, 4, 5, 9, 14, 19, 22, 
25, 26, 29, 33 



J 
Jacmel, 25 
Jamaica, 3, 5, 26, 29, 30, 31, 

35 
Josephine, Empress, 12 



K 



Hamilton, Alexander, 11 

Havana, 23, 34 

Hayti, 3, 5, 23, 25, 26, 30, 

31 Kearsarge, 8 

Haytian army, 25 King's House, 27 

Hemming, Sir Augustus L., Kingsley, 5, 17 

27 Kingston, 26, 27 

Higginson, Rear-Admiral, 8, Kingstown, St. Vincent, 12 

II 
Hill, Robert J., 26 

Holland, 9, 21 L 

Hone, Robert G., 27 Labor, 4 

Hood, Sir Samuel, 16 Land-ownership, 4 

Hunt, Governor, 7 Laws, 24, 29 

43 



Leeward Islands, 5 
Lincoln, 32 

Llewellyn, Sir Robert B., 15 
Lysisirata, yacht, 35 

M 

Maine, 35 

Maloney, Sir Alfred, 13 
Marcus Aurelius, 33 
Mares-Caux, Chief Magis- 
trate, 27 
Marie Galante, 19 
Marigot, 10 
Martinique, 5, 12, 16 
Massachusetts, 8 
Massacre of whites, 3 1 
Matanzas, 34 
Material ruin, 33 
Matuba, 21 

Maurice, Lieutenant, 16 
Mediterranean, 6 
Military despotism, 24, 25 
Mixture of races, 5 
Mohican, yacht, 13 
Mono, 14 

Montego Bay, 27, 30 
Montpelier, 30 
Montserrat, 11, 21 
Morant Point, 26 
Morro Castle, 7 
Mt. Pelee, 12, 19, 20 
Muriel, yacht, 35 



N 
Naphtha, 20 
Nassau, 35 
Naval battle, 20 
Naval Chronicles, 17 
Naval station, 20 
Negroes, 26, 30, 34 
Negro owners, 31 
Negro question, 4, 30, 32 
Negro self-government, 26 
Nelson, Lord, 11 
Nevis, 10, II 
New England visitors, 28 
New York, 4, 27, 36 
New York Yacht Club, 3, 4, 

8, 15 
Non-enforcement of laws, 24 
Norfolk, 36 

North Atlantic Squadron, 8 
Nymphs, 10 



O 



Ober, F. A., 25, 26 
Olympia, 8 
Orange Town, 21 
Ozama River, 23, 24 



Patents, 17 

Peasant proprietors, 29 

Philipsburg, 9 



44 



Pitons, 15 

Pointe-a-Pitre, 19, 20 
Political equality, 32, 33 
Political rights, 34 
Politicians, 24 
Polyphemus, 10 
Ponce de Leon, 7 
Ponce, Porto Rico, 22, 23 
Population, 31 
Port Antonio, 27, 28 
Port of Spain, 13, 14 
Porto Rico, 3, 7, 22 
Pritchard, Hesketh, 25 
Prosperity, 29 

R 
Race, 16 
Real yachts, ^7 
Reconstruction, 32, ^^ 
Republic, 24, 25, 31 
Retribution, 15 
Revolution, 24 
Riviere Salee, 19 
Roads, 19, 22, 31 
Rodney, Admiral, 20 
Rodonda, 11 
Ruins, 18, 24 



Saba, 9, 21 

Sailing machines, 37 

Sailing yachts, 37 



Sail Rock, 8 

St. Bartholomew, 10 

St. Barts, 10 

St. Christopher, 10 

St. Croix, II, 22 

St. Eustatius, 21 

St. George, Grenada, 12, 14, 

St. John, 9 

St. John, Sir Sidney, 26 

St. Kitts, ID, II, 21 

St. Lucia, 12, 15 

St. Martin, 9 

St. Pierre, 5, 12, 19 

St. Thomas, 8, 9 

St. Vincent, 5, 12 

Salt-ponds, 9 

San Juan, Porto Rico, 7, 8 

San Juan River, Venezuela, 

Santa Clara, 34 

Santa Marta, 5 

Santo Domingo, 23, 30, 31 

Sea Fox, 3, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 

27, 35> 36 

Self-government, 26 

Serpent worship, 26 

Shaw, General, 27 

Sir Francis Drake's Chan- 
nel, 9 

Sloop-of-war, 16, 17 

Social equality, 32 



45 



Social ruin, ^^ 

Soufriere St. Lucia, 15 

Soufriere St. Vincent, 12, 15 

South America, 5, 14 

Spain, 5 

Spanish Town, 29 

Squadron, 11, 17 

Steam yachts, 13 

Storms, 6 

Struthers, Captain, 35 

Suffrage, 31, 33 

Sugar, 10, 30, 32 

Sugar cane, 20 

Sugar plantations, 29, 32 

Sugar works, 22 

Sultana, yacht, 15, 27 

Sunset, 9, 19 



Tariff, 22, 29, 32 
Texas, 8 

Trade-winds, 6, 13, 28, 35 
Trinidad, 3, 5, 9, 13, 27 
Troops, 30, 31 

U 
United Fruit Company, 27 



United States, 4, 17, 22, 29, 

32 
University, 23 



Vale of Tempe, 13 
Valleys, 15 
Venezuela, 14 
Vigilant, 22 
Virgin Gorda, 9 
Virgin Islands, 5, 9 
Virgin's Road, 9 

W 
Washington, Booker T., 33 
West Indies, 3, 4, 10, IS, 26, 

31 
Westward Ho! 5 
White government, 5 
White race, 32 
William IV, 1 1 
Windward Islands, 5 



Yachting, S, 2)^ 
Yachting cruise, 32 
Yachts, 13, 16, 37 
Yachtsmen, 9, 16, 34 



46 



Globular Naval Battery 

Fatented by 

Anson Phelps Stokes 

lOO William Street 

New Tork 

igoj 




I 



GLOBULAR BATTERY 

INVENTED BY 

ANSON PHELPS STOKES 

Numerous attempts have been made to produce 
a floating battery which would prove practically 
impregnable; but these batteries have all pos- 
sessed certain disadvantages which, among other 
objects, it is the purpose of my invention to 
overcome. 

While I was abroad, the United States Patent 
Office granted me Letters Patent for a Spherical 
Floating Battery. 

The following shows the claims allowed: 

Extract from specifications forming part of Letters 
Patent No. 'J24.,'j^6, dated April 'jth, 190^, 
granted to Anson Phelps Stokes. 

" I. In a substantially spherical floating bat- 
tery, the combination with air-ports, and grat- 
3 



ings, in superposed decks, through which fresh 
air from the exterior passes downward into the 
battery, of a smoke-stack located at the center of 
the battery, and a channel around said stack 
open at its top to the exterior through which 
foul air is discharged by the draft created by 
the heat of the stack, substantially as and for 
the purposes set forth. 

" 2. In a substantially spherical floating bat- 
tery, the combination with an upper deck of an- 
nular shape, and inner and outer walls on said 
deck, of one or more armor shields arranged 
overhead extending from the inner to the outer 
wall, substantially as and for the purposes set 
forth. 

" 3. In a substantially spherical floating bat- 
tery, the combination with an exposed upper 
deck of annular shape, and inner and outer walls 
on said deck, of one or more armor shields over- 
head extending from wall to wall and movable 
thereon horizontally, substantially as and for the 
purposes set forth. 

" 4. The combination with a substantially 
spherical floating battery, of one or more guns, 
rigidly mounted near the center thereof, and 
means for elevating or depressing said guns by 
shifting the position of the battery in a vertical 
4 



plane, substantially as and for the purposes set 
forth. 

" 5. The combination, with a floating battery 
of substantially spherical shape, of one or more 
guns rigidly mounted near the center thereof, 
arc-shaped tracks, and counterpoises movable 
horizontally on said tracks, whereby the center 
of gravity of the battery may be shifted to ele- 
vate or depress the muzzles of the guns, sub- 
stantially as and for the purposes set forth." 

Very many newspapers published illustrations 
taken from the drawings shown in patent. Many 
added perspective views, containing features for 
which I was not responsible. Foreign govern- 
ments also granted me patents; and comments 
and prints were published by newspapers abroad. 

Having received requests for further informa- 
tion, I have prepared, with the aid of competent 
naval architects, more finished sketches, show- 
ing a globular battery of 115 feet diameter. 
Batteries as large as this, in order that they may 
not draw too much water, have to be more flat- 
tened at bottom than do smaller ones, which may 
be of many sizes, the smallest being nearly a 
sphere and carrying only one large gun. 

The annexed sketches show the proposed 
7 



globular battery Trident, drawing 36' lo^" 
with a small quantity of coal and without water 
ballast; and drawing 40' when carrying 2150 
tons of coal and water. The battery can be still 
further immersed by additional fixed ballast or 
by filling water ballast tanks. The shipyards at 
New London, Connecticut, have forty feet or 
more of water, right up to the docks. The dis- 
placement of Trident at 40' draft would be 
11,337 tons. The total weight of armor, steel, 
teak, guns, machinery, counterpoises, joiner and 
carpenter work, outfit, equipment, and ballast 
would be about 8787 tons. This leaves a surplus 
of 2550 tons for coal, water, stores, and am- 
munition. This surplus can be increased by fur- 
ther immersion, as the first foot of further im- 
mersion would equal 260 tons displacement. 

The spherical form of most of the battery 
gives great strength and defensive power, larger 
capacity for same weight of structure, and much 
economy in construction, many of the parts be- 
ing mere duplicates of each other. No gun- 
carriage is used to hold the large guns, which 
are rigidly held, so far as aim is concerned, but 
they may have recoil cylinders. 

As the great guns extend across most of the 
vessel, much heavier guns can be carried. The 
8 



annexed sketches show the large guns fifteen- 
inch cahber by sixty-two and one-half feet long, 
but the rigid mounting prevents drooping of the 
end of gun, and no doubt a satisfactory sixteen- 
inch gun of, say, fifty calibers, or a still larger 
gun, would be available. The elevation of these 
large guns is effected by tilting the whole globu- 
lar battery. This is done by moving weighted 
cars on arc-shaped tracks. The azimuths are 
regulated by four screw-propellers. An eigh- 
teen-inch armor belt twenty-nine feet wide ex- 
tends all around the globular battery, perfectly 
protecting the main deck, the berth deck, and 
the hull for ten feet below water-line. The gun- 
deck, upper deck, tower, and barbettes have 
twelve-inch armor. The sides of these decks 
are very sloping, and the tower and barbettes 
small and circular. No vessel afloat has any- 
thing like such protection. Only a globular 
battery could carry such a weight of armor. 

It is not intended that the battery should be 
able to move rapidly from place to place; and 
small engines would be sufficient to work the 
screws or other mechanisms which rotate the 
battery, or move it slowly from place to place, 
and to operate ventilation, ice and electrical 
plants, etc. Thus, there is much saving in the 
II 



weight and space required for machinery, coal, 
etc., so that heavier armor and more stores can 
be carried ; and the Trident, equipped with a con- 
densing plant, could remain abroad or at sea off 
our coast for many months without needing any 
supplies whatever. There is room on board for 
a large force of men, but a small force would be 
sufficient fully to equip her on a war basis, while 
in times of peace she could be maintained at a 
very small expense. 

The Trident has advantages of superposed 
turrets without their weakness. There are no 
turret rollers to break when large guns are dis- 
charged. One such globular battery would 
blockade the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, 
where the strait is only seven and three-quarter 
miles wide, could protect a mouth of a trans- 
continental canal, or could defend seaward or 
threaten almost any large seaport, and could 
safely resist a dozen of the largest battle-ships, 
which cost $7,500,000 apiece.^ For many 



1 "The best battle-ship will be the one that can remain lor^est in 
the stress of action, not the one that can most quickly get into a 
fight or get out of it. " — Admiral O'Neill, Chief of Ordnance Bureau. 
Quoted with approval by Messrs. T. A. Brassey and John Leyland 
in "Naval Annual," 1903. 

Our largest battle-ships, the Connecticut, Louisiana, etc., 16,000 
12 



straits and harbors, globular batteries would 
be much less expensive than costly land forti- 
fications, and more efficient, because so much 
nearer to attacking vessels. 

The roll of the Trident in a gale would be 
very slight. The stability of buoys of a similar 
shape is well known. B}^ the use of additional 
fixed ballast in bottom, the center of gravity can 
be placed farther below the metacenter. 

Iron coal bulkheads and strong iron plates 
under beams above water tanks make practically 
a small vessel inside a larger one. These pro- 
visions, combined with the double cellular con- 
struction above base and also in the coal and 
water ballast tanks, together with the coal, af- 
ford a defense against torpedoes, and a net could 
be arranged to hang around the submerged hull 
and could be armed with small torpedoes to 
destroy attacking torpedoes without affecting 
the Trident. The boilers and machinery are 
particularly well protected. The doors to bar- 
bettes are protected by the armored central 

tons, have ii.4-iiich armor on belt and 6- to 8-inch on side, and 
have no gun heavier than 12.8-inch, and cost $7,500,000 each. 

The largest British battle-ship, King Edward VII, 16,350 tons, 
has 9-inch armor on belt, 8-inch on side, carries 950 tons of coal, 
and has no gun heavier than 12-inch, and cost ^1,426,266 ster- 
ling. 

15 



tower, the doors to which are protected by the 
barbettes. The upper deck and the tops of tower 
and barbettes have three-inch armor. 

If preferred, the guns on upper deck may be 
in turrets instead of in barbettes. Some addi- 
tional guns may be placed on upper deck and on 
gun-deck. Some of the eight-inch or smaller 
guns on gun-deck may be put in barbettes. 

There is large opportunity for torpedo tubes. 

Smaller steam power than that shown would 
be sufficient for coast defense. The purpose of 
the globular battery is coast defense rather than 
foreign conquest. 

Launches and boats may be carried on gun- 
deck under protection of the armor. 

One or tw^o pillars on gun-deck may be moved 
a little or made removable, to facilitate entrance 
of large boats and guns. 

The number of gratings may be increased. 

A sail may be used to keep head to wind when 
at anchor. 

A bilge-keel and a rudder may be added. 

On vertical section the radius of hull above 
water-line may be increased if desired, reducing 
freeboard and increasing positive G. M. and 
making sides more slanting. 

The globular battery may be used also as : 
i6 



Lightship. 

Station for telephone and for marine and 
wireless telegraph. 

Time-ball station. 

Supply depot for medicines, stores, water, 
coal, equipment, etc. 

News depot and post-office. 

Pilot station. 

Station for doctor. 

Station for instrument maker, for adjustment 
of chronometers, compasses, and other instru- 
ments. 

Stationary troop-ship off an unhealthy port. 

Coast wrecking station, etc., etc. 



19 



FLOATING BATTERY " TRIDENT " 



Diameter, iij 



Draught, 40' o" 



SCHEDULE OF WEIGHTS 



Item 


Weight 


in Tons 


Armor 




4750 


Armor backing- 




400 


Guns 




395 


Hull steel 




2300 


Machinery 




250 


Coal 




200 


Fresh water 




150 


Stores 




100 


Outfit 




250 


Equipment 




75 


Carpenters' and joiners' work 


150 


Ammunition 




300 


Counterpoises 




100 


Ballast 




117 


Reserve coal 


I 


1800 


Total displacement 


1.337 




tons 


deep load 



20 



Center of gravity above base at deep load is 
36.15'. Positive G. M. is 1.13'. Draughty 4o'o". 
For light load take out : 

Coal 200 

Water (fresh) 150 

Stores 100 

Ammunition 300 

Equipment (mooring anchor) 25 



775 
11-337 



10,562 
tons light load. 

C. of G. above base at light load is 37.4'. 
Positive G. M. is i.oo'. Draught, 36' 10^^". 
Anson Phelps Stokes. 
Office, 100 William Street, 
New York. 



21 



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