Word: topsails
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Amazed were greybeard fishermen of Hampstead and Wilmington, N. C., last week, by the fatback '"miracle" of nearby Topsail Inlet. The menhaden, or fatback, is a herring-like fish, not usually eaten but valuable for oil and manure. It grows to about 18 inches, feeds on microscopic sea life, breeds near shore in enormous shoals...
...last week, fishermen put out in a small boat into Topsail Inlet, a cove varying in width from 1,300 yards to a mile, surrounded by flat, marshy, wind-raked country. Some distance offshore they came on a school of fatbacks so dense that their boat could make no headway. One fisherman plunged an oar into the writhing mass, and as far down as he could reach felt fish. The boat turned back. An onshore wind drove the fish, alive and dead, onto surrounding beaches, until fishermen estimated $300,000 worth had been killed. A. W. King, 65-year...
...breeze hit them full at the harbor-mouth. Passing Eastern Point, Bluenose was five lengths ahead, hoisted along by her larger jib topsail. Thebaud pulled up a little after they had rounded the first mark; she was sailing at her best angle, with booms well inboard. Bluenose was still ahead at the third mark, but here Capt. Charley Johnson, sailing Thebaud because Capt. Ben Pine was sick, showed seamanship that baffled Capt. Angus Walters on Bluenose. With a windward tack ahead, Capt. Walters did what any sailor might do-he close-hauled to port. Thebaud came up astern and after...
...race practically over at the end of the first leg. On the two remaining legs Shamrock gained but only because Skipper Vanderbilt was taking no chances with his yacht's gear. He was near home on the third leg before he set his spinaker and big balloon jib topsail. Never had the duralumin mast, the winches for every sail, the devices for measuring the strain on the stays proved their efficiency more clearly. Enterprise had swept the series, 4 to 0, winning this final race by more than five minutes...
...east. Both vessels took in their spinnakers for a reach (wind broad abeam). At the halfway mark shirtsleeved Skipper Vanderbilt went wide. Shamrock V, less than three minutes behind, passed close enough to the Thomas F. Moran to pitch a cork aboard. Both boats, breaking out jib, baby jib, topsail and staysail, started on the homeward reach (wind close abeam). From then on the challenger, reputed "ghoster," was no match for the defender. At the 25-mi. mark, Enterprise, her sails taut, her happy crew sprawled along the weather rail, was leading...