Dead Reckoning
by FRANCIS W. HATCH
Responding to a verse in the Atlantic, calling attention to the tide-borne arrival of bottles on Penobscot Bay beaches in the wake of the New York Yacht Club’s cruise, Mr. Alfred Loomis, distinguished maritime authority, comments in Yachting: “It is a matter of common knowledge that on every sailboat of the New York YC fleet there are winch handles and that each and every white-coated steward has been taught to use a winch handle to break the empties.”
DESPITE your manifest, alas
(Stewards, you claim, with practiced wrist
Shatter the New York Yacht Club’s glass),
I reaffirm, I must insist
(Stewards, you claim, with practiced wrist
Shatter the New York Yacht Club’s glass),
I reaffirm, I must insist
News from Eggemoggin Reach
Floats up the bay in glassy trail.
Notifying us on the beach
The New York Yacht Club’s under sail.
Floats up the bay in glassy trail.
Notifying us on the beach
The New York Yacht Club’s under sail.
This bottle ashore, where green tides lap,
Held Scotch (the trademark’s in the pinch),
And here lies Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Unscathed by handle of the winch.
Held Scotch (the trademark’s in the pinch),
And here lies Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Unscathed by handle of the winch.
This squatty vessel held curaçao,
That one, a brandy (rather notable);
With cork replaced, no undertow
Could threaten a hull so taut, so floatable.
That one, a brandy (rather notable);
With cork replaced, no undertow
Could threaten a hull so taut, so floatable.
This dereliction must be due
To shortage, sir, of veteran hands;
Perish the thought an old-school crew,
In passing, would litter our littoral sands.
To shortage, sir, of veteran hands;
Perish the thought an old-school crew,
In passing, would litter our littoral sands.
I charge no lack of etiquette,
I merely confirm the fact released
In Rockland’s Courier Gazette,
“The New York Yacht Club headed east.”
I merely confirm the fact released
In Rockland’s Courier Gazette,
“The New York Yacht Club headed east.”
With vintage wine and vaunted label
The modern yachtsman dining afloat
Never departs his café table,
Thanks to the cellar aboard his boat.
The modern yachtsman dining afloat
Never departs his café table,
Thanks to the cellar aboard his boat.
Autre temps, ah, autre choses
From earlier days, when rule of thumb
For solacing a sailor’s woes
Was rum, and (where required) more rum.
From earlier days, when rule of thumb
For solacing a sailor’s woes
Was rum, and (where required) more rum.
Good capital gains to hardy souls
Who keep afloat the proud “big stickers.”
Come, write in our log on Castine shoals
Haunting reminders of elegant liquors!
Who keep afloat the proud “big stickers.”
Come, write in our log on Castine shoals
Haunting reminders of elegant liquors!