Off Gloucester

Twice the Gloucester fire-whistle had blown five long blasts in the morning, meaning that because the wind was light there would be no race that day. Since the day Gertrude L. Thebaud won the first race (TIME, Oct. 20), the fishing schooners had planned often to race, but accidents, repairs and bad weather put them off. Finally last week came a short, silvered sea and a nor'wester of 20 knots.

Out of Gloucester harbor toward the triangular 36-mi. course swung the two big fishing schooners. Thebaud was ballasted down by the head and rolled like a destroyer. High rode the Bluenose, her forefoot lifting out until it showed her red underbody.

The breeze hit them full at the harbor-mouth. Passing Eastern Point, Bluenose was five lengths ahead, hoisted along by her larger jib topsail. Thebaud pulled up a little after they had rounded the first mark; she was sailing at her best angle, with booms well inboard. Bluenose was still ahead at the third mark, but here Capt. Charley Johnson, sailing Thebaud because Capt. Ben Pine was sick, showed seamanship that baffled Capt. Angus Walters on Bluenose. With a windward tack ahead, Capt. Walters did what any sailor might do--he close-hauled to port. Thebaud came up astern and after trimming sheets stood off to westward.

Thebaud stood into the tide. It was an ebb tide, running strong, but when she turned she had it full on her beam, washing her toward the mark. The seas were lifting her forward, too. The eleven minutes she gained on that leg gave her a ten minute lead that won the race and the series for her: 2-0. And at the Gloucester City Hall, Mayor John Parker gave to the men of Thebaud the new cup Sir Thomas Lipton had put up for the series.

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