IX.

THE ETIQUETTE OF YACHTING. WHAT IS CONSIDERED TO BE “GOOD FORM” IN CRAFT, OWNER AND CREW.

Every yachtsman should be conversant with the etiquette of his calling. If ignorant of the many nice points pertaining to his own personal behavior afloat, or of the proper conduct of his craft at anchor or under way, he may become the subject of a certain amount of ridicule, which is, to say the least, annoying in the extreme. There are many commodores who would rather forgive a man for breaking the majority of the Ten Commandments between dusk and dawn than for committing a breach of nautical etiquette as handed down from the days of the fathers of the sport and added to infinitesimally year by year.

In Great Britain yachting etiquette is modeled largely after that of the Royal Navy, and the same is true in a measure of our own code of yachting manners.

It ought to be unnecessary to urge that a yacht should always be clean and bright as a new pin; her decks white as a hound’s tooth; her brasswork gleaming, and her polished or varnished woodwork with a mirror-like burnish. Her masts should be correctly stayed, her standing rigging set up to the point of rigidity, her running gear hauled taut and snugly coiled down, her flags mast-headed right up to the truck, no “Irish pennants” towing overboard, but everything from truck to keelson ship-shape and Bristol fashion. A yacht kept in good order is a credit to all aboard from owner down to the cook’s mate. Not only is she a credit to those who man her, but also to the club whose burgee she flies. In this respect all yachtsmen, but especially racing yachtsmen, should aim at perfection, and not be satisfied until they make a clear bull’s eye.

The reason for this is that a racing yacht invariably attracts more attention than does one of the purely cruising kind, and any carelessness, however minute, aboard her is generally sure to be magnified to a high degree by the microscopic eye of criticism.

Racing crews should always be clean and smart as paint. Untidiness should never be allowed.

In the matter of guns, Young America, particularly when afloat, is apt to be a trifle too demonstrative. It need hardly be said that the indiscriminate discharge of cannon from a yacht is, like the screeching salute of a steam whistle, opposed to good yachting manners. There are only a few occasions when it is necessary to waste good gunpowder on a yacht. The custom in this country is for all the yachts to salute the flag officer in command of a squadron when he joins the fleet, every boat that carries a gun banging away when the flagship drops anchor. This is a picturesque sight when the fleet is a big one. When the squadron of the New York Yacht Club used to rendezvous at New London for the annual cruise a big crowd of sightseers used to sally forth from the quaint old city to see the flagship join the squadron and receive the salutes. The bang of the big guns from the mighty steam yachts and the diminutive din from the pigmy popguns of tiny but pretentious craft made a rare noise in the harbor, especially when the fleet, as it often did, numbered more than one hundred sail. This saluting of the commodore is considered obligatory, and for the use of yachtsmen who do not care to include a brass cannon in their outfit some ingenious pyrotechnist invented a giant cracker, whose discharge is as earsplitting as that from the biggest yacht cannon ever carried. To hear such a threatening bang emanate from so small a yacht creates something akin to awe! When a squadron or part of a squadron is at anchor in a roadstead the flag officer in command or the senior captain present fires a gun at eight bells in the morning watch making “colors,” the fleet taking the time from the flagship. The same process is gone through at sundown, the fleet at the sound of the gun hauling down the ensign and the club burgee and hoisting the night pennant.

The commodore, when in command of a squadron, when hoisting a signal to get under way or perform any other nautical manœuvre, calls attention to the signal by firing a gun. The yachts, in order to show that the signal has been observed, hoist the answering pennant of the commercial code of signals.

Saluting by means of the gun when yachts meet under way is obsolete, although not forbidden by the code. Craft now content themselves with dipping the ensign, junior captains saluting first.

No firing of guns is permissible on Sunday.

Owners when not aboard should fly a blue rectangular flag from the starboard spreader (the main spreader of a schooner). In order that visitors may not intrude when the owner is at meals, a white rectangular flag is displayed from the spreader as above. A red pennant from the port fore spreader of a schooner or the port spreader of a single-masted craft denotes that the crew are at a meal.

If I may make so bold as to give a hint to a real live commodore, I venture to suggest that he shall try his level best to appoint a fleet-captain of tact, good temper, sound judgment, discretion—in fact, a gentleman as well as a man of the world. I have been on a cruise with a fleet-captain possessing all the sterling attributes above enumerated, and I have also sailed with one his direct opposite. Thus I speak from experience. A fleet-captain may do much to make or mar the pleasure of a cruise.

Single-masted vessels display the private signals of their owners when cruising; when at anchor they fly the club burgee.

In making colors, salutes, etc., the yacht always represents the rank of the owner, whether he is aboard or not.

Yachts in commission should hoist their colors at 8 o’clock A. M., and haul them down at sunset, taking time from the senior officer present.

Before colors in the morning and after colors at sunset, the ensign and distinguishing flags should be shown when entering port, and should be hauled down immediately on coming to anchor.

At all other times yachts should fly a night pennant at the main, from colors at sunset until colors the next morning.

On Decoration Day and occasions of national mourning, the ensign only should be half-masted. On the death of the owner of the yacht, both the club flag and his private signal should be half-masted, but not the ensign. When mourning is ordered for the death of a member of the club, the club flag only should be half-masted. This rule applies to yachts both at anchor and under way.

Flags should always be mast-headed before half-masting them, and should be mast-headed before hauling them down. Saluting with the ensign at half-mast should be done by mast-heading first.

The senior officer present should be in command of the anchorage, should give the time for colors, make and return salutes, visits, etc.

His yacht should remain the station vessel until a senior to him in rank arrives and assumes the command of the anchorage.

Flag officers should always fly their pennants while in commission.

From colors at sunset until sunrise the commodore should show, when on board, two blue lights, perpendicularly, at the stern; when absent, one blue light should be shown. The vice-commodore should show lights as provided for the commodore, substituting red lights instead of blue. Captains, when on board, should show a white light under the main boom; when absent this light should be extinguished.

All salutes should be returned in kind.

Yachts should always salute vessels of the United States Navy by dipping the ensign once.

The commodore, on entering port to join the squadron, should be saluted, on coming to anchor, by the yachts present. On all other occasions the commodore should be saluted, on coming to anchor, by the officer in command.

Junior flag officers should be saluted, on coming to anchor, by the officer in command, unless the latter be a senior in rank, in which case they should salute him.

Captains should, on all occasions, salute the officer in command.

The salute from yachts entering port should be made by dipping the ensign once, or by firing a gun on letting go anchor.

The senior officer, when leaving the anchorage, excepting temporarily, should indicate the transfer of command to the next in rank by firing a gun on getting under way. All other yachts should salute the officer in command.

All visits should be made according to rank.

Yachts, passing one another, should always exchange salutes by dipping the ensign once, juniors saluting first. Steam whistles should never be used to make salutes.

The salute to yachts entering port, entitled to a salute, should be made by dipping the ensign once, or by firing a gun when they let go anchor.

An official salute to a foreign club should be made by firing a gun, with the flag of the foreign club at the fore on schooners and steamers and at the main on single-masted vessels, or, in the absence of such flag, by half-masting the club flag and firing a gun. When the salute has been returned, or a reasonable time for its return allowed, the flag should be hauled down and the club flag hoisted again.

The salute from or to yachts arriving after sunset, or on Sunday, should be made immediately after colors on the following morning.

When a flag officer makes an official visit, a gun should be fired, with his pennant at the fore on schooners and steamers, and at the main on single-masted vessels, while he remains on board.

A yacht, acting as judges’ boat, should not be saluted during a race.

The quarter-deck should always be saluted by lifting the cap on coming on board or from below.

Yachts should report to the commanding officer on joining the squadron, and should obtain his permission before leaving it.

When under way with the squadron, firing guns and signaling should be avoided, except when joining or parting company, or when repeating signals.

When squadrons of different clubs meet at sea, salutes should be exchanged only by the commanding officers.

Salutes from single yachts at sea should only be answered by the flagship.

Single-masted vessels should fly the private signal of the owner when under way with the squadron; when at anchor, the club flag.

When a foreign yacht arrives, the senior officer present should send on board, without regard to rank, a tender of the civilities of the club.

Yachts should salute on entering port in the home waters of a foreign club, where any of its fleet are lying. After the tender of civilities has been made, owners of the entering yachts should visit the officer in command of the anchorage. All other visits should be made according to rank, visits to their equals in rank being made by the owners of the entering yachts.

The time for colors in the home waters of a foreign club should be given with its senior flag officer present.

The term “foreign” should be understood as applying to all clubs outside of the waters of the Gulf of Maine.

Flag officers and the fleet-captain should fly their pennants, and captains their private signals, when in their boats; members, the club flag. After sunset a white light should be shown at the bow.

Passing one another, juniors should salute seniors by raising the cap.

Following are the words of command used in the handling of rowing boats:

_Give Way._—To begin rowing.

_Hold Water._—To stop the boat’s progress by keeping the blades of the oars in the water in a vertical position, and at right angles to the keel.

_In Bow._—To cease pulling the bow oar and to lay it down fore and aft within the boat, the blade forward.

_Let Fall._—To let the oars drop from the vertical to the horizontal, the loom resting in the rowlock, the blade held out of the water and horizontal, the oar itself at right angles to the keel.

_Oars._—To cease rowing, and to maintain the oars in the same position that they are in after executing the order “Let Fall.”

_Ship Oars._—To lift trailing oars out of the water alongside and hold them as described for “Let Fall.”

_Shove Off._—To force the boat away from a vessel’s side or from a wharf or float.

_Stern All._—To row the boat backwards—the opposite to “Give Way.”

_Toss._—To lift the oars out of the water and lay them down within the boat, fore and aft, the blades forward.

_Trail._—To throw trailing oars out of the rowlock and allow them to _trail_ alongside by their lanyards.

_Up Oars._—To raise the oars to the vertical, the blades kept fore and aft—a preface to the order “Let Fall.”

_Way Enough._—To cease rowing, and to lift the oars out of the water and boat them, at the coxswain’s word, “Toss.”

When visiting a yacht at anchor, steer for the starboard gangway. The port gangway is the “back door” of a yacht and is reserved for sailors, stewards, etc.

When boarding a yacht under way, or hove to, go to the lee side, no matter whether port or starboard.

Don’t forget to “salute the quarter-deck” on reaching it by touching your cap in naval style.

As soon as you get aboard pay your respects to the owner. If you don’t see him on deck send your card to him immediately.

A young yachtsman, when about to embark in a boat from a yacht, should go over the side first and should take a modest seat. The owner of the yacht is last to leave and takes the post of honor at the tiller lines.

When disembarking at a landing, returning to the yacht, or going aboard another vessel, the owner leaves the boat first, the modest youngster last.

[Illustration:

Photo by R. B. Burchard.

DEFENDER—STERN. ]