NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Four-masted barques.
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2005 Aug 25, 12:49 -0400
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2005 Aug 25, 12:49 -0400
George, What a fine sight to see. You painted it vividly in my mind. Thanks. Fred On Aug 25, 2005, at 12:39 PM, george huxtable wrote: > On Tuesday, 23 August, at about 10h GMT, on a gorgeous clear morning, > my > wife and I were on a car ferry from Dunkerque nearing Dover, when we > saw a > fine sight. > > Two four-masted barques were in close company, sailing South in a > quartering wind, having passed South Foreland. They hadn't headed > round to > haul their wind, so presumably were not passing down the English > Channel, > but looked as though they were headed across it toward Calais or > Boulogne. > Presumably they had passed through the Downs, inside the Goodwin Sands, > after crossing the Thames estuary. > One was clearly the Russian Kruschenstern, very distinctive with her > painted ports. The other may have been the Russian Sedov.... Both were > flying upper and lower topsails and topgallants, and "Sedov", which > appeared to be overhauling the other, had her immense foresail set. > Both had a spanker set, and many staysails. > > ...The barques in the Channel had the low-slung appearance of > a merchant vessel. That, I think, is what Kruschenstern and Sedov both > originally were, steel-built in Germany for the nitrate trade. > > The ferry passed ahead of the two barques, at a distance of less than a > mile. They were within a cable or two of each other. They made a fine > sight, one I don't ever expect to see again. > > George.