Great feats of Seamanship

[J. Dillon]

John B's story of rudder problems prompted this post.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p3ad8a51478550df2a0ab17275de23b2c/fcf2ab93.jpg

Jury rigged rudder on the great clipper Cutty Sark
What happened

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p02c684e7b0adb7c53a727f41395cc09a/fcf2ab92.jpg

How the skipper fixed it

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p449204fdc371dd986793d79828c8a0ba/fcf2ab91.jpg

From the Log of the Cutty Sark
Basil Lubbock

Any other stories out there your's or others ??

JD

[J. Dillon]

Perhaps this is better on how he rigged it all up
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid42/p69d2c351bf45f4e6443a5ea5801591d8/fcf2a3ca.jpg
JD

[ACB]

When I read your title I immediately thought of Captain Moodie's jury rudder. The passing reference to "the way usually recommended" is interesting! I recall that she was leading the Tea Race at the time of the mishap, and consequently lost to the "Thermopylae"

I think that there was one case of a steamer which lost her propeller in the South Atlantic and replaced it at sea, in the 1900's.

I actually knew someone, Captain James Lough, of the China Navigation Company, who, as Chief Officer, refloated his ship, aground in the Philippines, by slinging a bower anchor between the two boats, made into catamaran with spare spars for the purpose, rowing it into position and arranging a heaving tackle with the insurance wire.

[Ian McColgin]

To boast and keeping with the rudder theme:

We were enduring a miserable late March run in the Rabbi's new boat from Chatham to Hyannis. I had watched but did not check the boat yard guy test the depth sounder against a lead line and tweek it. We got a late start against a nasty westerly and shortly out from Chatham the engin died. I'm a rag and stick guy, no monkey wrench sailor. The Rabbi is a spiritual leader. We also had a pediatrition. No mechanics. So we just sailed and it got late.

If fact it got so late that the pediatrician was worried about getting onto her hospital shift by midnight and the Rabbi was below seasick. We decided to divert into Harwich.

Lots of shoals in there. My preferred approach is to come in with the breakwater light exactly magnetic north. Then when the depth sounder shows that we're shoaling I know that the little depression they call a channel is a bit off to starboard so I can slither that way till the depth becomes acceptable.

The boat, by the way, was a 28' or so O'Day with their 'shoal draft' keel. That means that the seperate skege/rudder is about as deep as the keel.

So in we came with confidence, depth remaining good far closer than I anticipated but maybe, thinks I, the channel has shifted.

Kahbangh in a trough we took the ground with a good hard bump and I immediatly could not turn the wheel at all.

I got the doc to race to the bow with the mission to grab whatever mooring I could hit or, if there was no mooring when we luffed up, to drop anchor.

I kept her straight on a broad reach around the jetty by keeping the main well out and the jib a bit over trimmed. Eased the jib and trimmed the main to bear up behind the breakwater. Spotted a bouy and let the jib fly, trimming the main flat, and we made it, the doc making a heroic grapple with a slime encrusted mooring pendent.

The next day, when the boat was hauled, it was apparant that our grounding had bent the rudder shaft and the rudder was jammed against the hull. By good luck, about amidships.

Before the haul, I tested the depth sounder against my lead. It read 4' more than reality. The guy the day before had adjusted a 2' error in the wrong direction!

Happy to say that the dealer took full responsibility and replaced the rudder at no charge. His mechanic also fixed the wiring harness, which was the problem with the engin failing. That boat is still happily sailing Nantucket Sound.

[J. Dillon]

Good story Ian and some dealer to replace things gratis.

Back in the mid 50's I was sailing as mate on a 90' 50 ton gaff schooner out of City island. NY She had no auxiliary engine. We relied on a just purchased ex 25' pilot boat tied along side when there was no wind. Under sail she was towed.

We sailed up to Block island and then sail leisurely back putting into places like Stonington CT. We had to keep a schedule and be back to City island in a week to take on new passengers.

Well one night we were sailing west before the a 30 kt NE wind . The seas had built up to 8 footers. Our yawl boat kept coming up to our stern and almost kissing the transom. We paid out more line to try to find the right distance to drop her astern. . We even managed to get another line on the yawl boats samsom post. Things looked good for a while as I went below at midnight with the skipper at the wheel. We already put a reef in the main. Passengers sick below.

Next thing I know there's some yelling so I go up on deck to see what the noise is about. The skipper tells me the yawl boat broke loose and what is left of the samson post on the end of the tow line is now on deck aft and lies near the wheel. Somewhere off New Haven there is a yawl boat floating around with no lights. Time about 02:00. Nothing to do but reach across the sound in the area to see if we can spot her. Of course no moon poor viability but no rain. Never saw her till day light. She was floating around about mid sound and no one near her to claim salvage. We sail up to her. The skipper luffs up on the first pass but we had too much way on and too far off. Came around again this time we were just about right and close enough for me to jump aboard. This pass I managed to get over as a pilot boat is designed for boarding under difficult conditions. The rails are set in about 3' from the gunwhale. The sea had abated a bit and down to 6 footers so I still had to time the jump carefully.

Well no mater what I did could not get the engine started. All the slopping around during the night kicked up the bilge water and shorted out the distributor for sure ( no WD 40 then).

Now the problem was to rig up a new method of towing the yawl boat as the samsom post was gone. Using the dock lines tied end to end I rigged up a bridle around the entire boat just under the gunwale. I secured this to whatever handy including the stern bitts, railing etc. Also rigged it with an eye in the bow to receive the towing line. It took about two hours with my head in the water some of the time as the boat rolled. In those days we had no radio. The skipper kept sailing by to check my progress. By this time some of the passengers were on deck to watch the show and help manage the schooner. When all was ready the skipper came by again and tossed me a heaving line with the tow line attached. I had ample time to tie a bowline in the makeshift bridle as the skipper luffed as he made the pass. In fact he lost almost all way and with a few hearty heaves from the "crew "passengers managed to pull up the yawl boat and for me to get back aboard.. Now we could trim sail, pay out the tow line once again and make a course for City island. As the schooner drew away in day light and the yawl boat aft on a plane, we stared to move pretty fast in the still 6' seas and 25 kt wind. I noticed of all things a shiny towing eye built right into the stem about 1' below the water line. If we had seen it sooner none of this would have happened. It really was a pilot boat.

Later that winter the owner of the schooner usually had a reunion party of all passengers from the previous season. One guy took movies of the whole thing at least the day light part. I was quite a jumper in those days. I'd love to see that show again.

JD