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622 Began June 30 1891 Card No.2879
from Library I have read
[most of text on this page obscured by clippings]
SEPTEMBER 5, 1905
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Uses Knowlege of Air and
Water Rivers in Sailing Ship
[photograph of ship and inset portrait]
The Four-Masted Ship Beechbank and Her Scientific Skipper,
Capt. Bremmer
CAPT. BREMMER of the British four-masted bark Beechbank, which arrived
from Antwerp, Belgium, Friday is known as "the luckiest skipper afloat."
His quick passages in every vessel that he has commanded have won him the title.
But the captain attributes his quick trips in sailing ships to something more
than ordinary luck, in which he does not believe. The captain has made a scien-
tific study of ocean currents and has learned to take advantage of every one of
the great rivers of the sea. The study of air currents has also occupied a large
part of the captain's time and during his twenty odd years at sea he has gath-
ered a store of information relative to these two subjects that would make a
weather prophet envious.
"My quick passages," said the captain, "have been attributed to luck, but in
no case can I see where luck entered into the question. During the twenty-five
years that I have been at sea, I have made a careful study of ocean currents and
have used them to aid me in getting from port to port. There are many currents
that will either aid or hinder a ship. It is all in knowing how to avoid those
that hinder and to take advantage of those that will aid the vessel's speed.
Many of the old time skippers that sailed when brute force was considered the
only proper thing at sea, scoff at any suggestion of a current either aiding or
hindering a vessel's speed. But in this scientific age we must keep up with the
times. Even sailing a ship is a scientific art with invariable rules that can be
laid down and learned from a book if necessary.
"Many years ago I realized that the different currents could be utilized if
they were known. With that end in view I set about a systematic course of
study, noting the drift of everything from a nutshell to a derelict and also read-
ing up on what the most eminent scientific authors had written on the subject.
Alexander Von Humboldt and many other scientists made a careful study of cos-
mic phenomena and have investigated to the best of their ability the currents in
the ocean. Although many of them have erred on important points, they have
charted the principal currents with a fair degree of accuracy.
"I do not wish to convey the impression that I am an expert on this subject;
far from it. I have only noted a few of the plainer phenomena encountered at
sea, but from the data gathered I have formed my own theories, and although I
may be wrong, I think that in the main I am correct. At least I have put my
theories to the test in my sailing and every time I have made a quick passage.
"The Beechbank is a four-masted bark and she arrived in Port Townsend
last week after the remarkably rapid run of 132 days from Antwerp. The aver-
age trip for a sailing vessel is about 155 or 160 days."
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A FAMOUS POKER HAND
"I once heard Dan Seymon speak of
some remarkable hands and wonderful
draws he had seen in his experience,
which, by the way, reaches from the
rudest mining camps to the most lux-
urious clubs of Paris and London."
said an old poker player the other
night.
"When I speak about great draws
and hands I refer, of course, to square
games. Nothing is strange in a crook-
ed game, for every man around the
table would hold five aces if you dealt
them to him, and there would be no-
thing remarkable about that, but,
speaking of five aces, I know of five
aces being held in a square game. In
New Orleans, you know, there's big
poker going on every night, and there
are only gentlemen in the game. At
the beginning of the game each man
takes $500 worth of chips. No money
ever passes at the table, and the game
is unlimited. Well, it has a limit--
$5000--but $5000 is about the same as
no limit. They always play with two
decks of cards and while one is dealt
the other is shuffled ready for the other
deal.
About four years ago four gentlemen
were playing in the game. One had a
straight flush pat and another held
three aces. They soon exhausted their
$500 worth of chips, and then their
thousands, until finally the man with
the three aces called for a draw. In
the draw he got two aces, making five
in his hand. He showed his hand
right way, saying there was evidently
a mistake in the deck. The man with
the straight flush claimed the stakes
The two left the decision to the other
gentlemen about the table and the
referees decided the bets off. By a
mistake the extra ace had been shuffled
from one deck to the other.
"Now perhaps it wasn't so remark-
able that one card should get into the
wrong deck, but think of that ace be-
ing next to another ace, and that these
two aces should be dealt to a man who
already held three aces in his hand.
All over the south, that hand is famous.
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RIGHT PAGE
[page cut out of book]
625
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1315.2254 Legends of my Bungalow Trash
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2221
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Coggeshall's Voyages Very good. interesting.
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