Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1896 — TWO SHIPS RACED TO PORT. [ARTICLE]

TWO SHIPS RACED TO PORT.

Close Running Between the Henry Villard and the Kenilworth. “Report me,” signaled Capt Patten, of the American ship Henry Villard. "Report me,” signaled back Capt. Baker, of the American ship Kenilworth. That was on June 14, 2 degrees below the equator. Both ships, owned by Arthur Sewall & Co., of Bath, Me., and consigned to D. B. Dearborn, with cargoes to the American Sugar Refining Company, were voyaging from the Sandwich Islands. The Villard, a three-masted wooden ship of American build, sailed from Hilo on the Island of Hawaii. The Kenilworth, an iron four-master, built on the Clyde, but which was burned in San Francisco harbor five years ago, and secured American registry by the expenditure of a required percentage of her value on repairs in the United States, sailed from Honolulu, 180 miles further distant, the preceding day. They arrived off the bar an hour apart early Friday morning. The Kenilworth, ninety-eight days out, anchored at 3a. in. The Villard anchored at 4 a. m. They had been in company twenty-three days, each doing Its best to comply with the signaled request, and each anxious that the other should not be put to the actual trouble of doing anything of the kind. So it happened that the two captains, after their vessels had been towed up to quarantine, came to the city In the same tug and reported to their agent together.

Capt. Baker was formerly master of the Villard, and Capt. Patten was then his first mate. Capt. Patten is proud of uis ship, but the Kenilworth, he said, is the fastest sailor afloat, and that she did not report him several days before the Vlllard’B arrival was due to the barnacles which befoul a metal-bottom-ed craft much quicker than they do a wooden one. The Kenilworth has not been In dry dock for a year.

Capt. Patten said he lost one day In the light winds getting clear of the land. Then he caught the northeast trade wind, which carried him to the equator in eight days. Then he picked up the southeast trade, which took him to Cook’s Island, where he found westerly winds to the Horn, which he made In forty-five days from starting. It was a strong breeze all the way. Favorable weather continued on the Atlantic to 23 degrees south latitude, when the Villard lay becalmed for several days. She finally took the southeast trade, which helped her to the equator. It was light, and when in 2 degrees south latitude, a sail was espied overhauling her and bringing a wind up with her. It proved to be the Kenilworth, which for a greater part of the voyage had been probably not more than thirty miles away. For the remainder of the voyage the two ships were in sight of each other, but had little to say in the signaling way after the first interchange of courtesies. “There was too much work to do,** said Capt. Patten. “I kept my eye constantly -on the canvas, and saw to it that every stitch was drawing. Neither ship gained much. They Just seesawed, according to the men we had at the wheel. There’s a difference in helmsmen. Sometimes we were four miles apart, then twenty. I struck a little squall just before I came In, and some of the older canvas was split, but beyond that the weather was good. Only once were the royals taken in. The Kenilworth drew ahead of the Villard off Bamegat.** ’•Mine is the same story,” caid Capt Baker. ‘Tt was nip and tuck all the way." The Villard brought 2,500 tons and the Kenilworth 3,027 tons of sugar.— New York Times.