Word: astern
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...public fancy was last week drawn, unexpectedly, to a romantic anachronism in U. S. travel-the oldtime river packet, built like a summer hotel on a flatboat, puffing smoke from tall twin funnels set near the flat round bows, slapping up the river mud with broad paddles set astern. The occasion was a race between the Betsy Ann and the Chris Greene, two packets plying the Ohio between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Captain Chris Greene of the Chris Greene had boasted that his vessel, a steel craft built in 1925, could beat the Betsy Ann "any time." This was nothing short...
...that they had crossed the line. Ten lengths behind, the heavy Harvard crew, too tired to sprint, lumbered up to the bridge, collapsed. Said Yale Coach Leader: "I think the lines of Harvard's varsity boat had a great deal to do with the crew trailing so far astern. I noticed the varsity boat in practice seemed to drag and believe the craft was a handicap of four or five boat lengths in tonight's race...
Coach Brown was close astern in a launch and watched his men closely as they sped down the course. There was very little splashing and the boat rode with remarkable smoothness. A 36 beat was registered at the start, then John Watts '28, University stroke, lowered the beat to 32, maintaining that gait until close to the finish, when he raised it again...
...preposterous, hobgoblin shapes and proportions. Some were small, only eight or nine feet long, with skins no thicker than ordinary linoleum. Their necks were like fire-hose, ending in froggish heads. Their posteriors stuck out like a lizard's, into muscular tails. Their forelegs were futile flippers but astern were haunches like a bull ostrich, for swift, stooped running on webbed and clawed feet. Many of these creatures were vegetarians and some who grew to 18-and 20-foot lengths developed rounded bills, like a giant duck's, to fill their monstrous wrinkled paunches. Certain species, having laid...
...runner, then suddenly it became apparent that the boat carrying the light was about to cross the steamer's bow. The Captain of the City of Rome set up a warning shriek of his whistles. He ordered the helm hard astarboard and the engines full speed astern. It was too late...