To Spain

She was nice to look at--a lean little body and all dressed up in rakish clothes that nobody had ever seen before. Men said she was fast; but she was no girl for rough weather. They sent her out to sea as a noble experiment. A week passed and they didn't hear from her whose name was Rofa, 50-foot schooner, smallest of four small schooners racing from Sandy Hook to Santander, Spain. Her rigging was peculiar--designed by Herreshoff, who learned about sails in Scandinavian fjords. On the morning of the seventh day out, she had covered 800 miles and was making splendid headway, with her mainsail, foresail, forestay sail and jib set and full. Suddenly, a squall hit little Rofa.

Capt. William Roos, of Pelham Manor, N. Y., owner of Rofa, lived to tell what happened: "The squall caught us with terrific force before we could shorten sail. The mainsail was first to go. It broke off with a great crash about 18 feet from the deck. The 50 feet of mast tumbled into the sea, carrying the heavy gear with it.

"Six minutes later, the foremast was split to the deck and carried the foresail and headsail down with it. The boom fell athwart the cabin, crushing it in and while we had a narrow escape, nobody was injured. . . . The snapped masts floating in the water threatened to crash into our side as they were pounded along by the waves.

"Everybody worked like beavers chopping away the gear and freeing the floating masts. Then we set up a low-rigged square sail which steadied the Rofa. The squall lasted 20 minutes and the weather was calmer for the rest of the day. As darkness began falling, we were aware that we had to get some assistance and we discharged six Very rockets. . . ."

An oil tanker, Tuscarora, saw the rockets, rescued the crew of the Rofa -- five men, one woman. The Rofa was towed for half the night; then she broke loose and the waves gobbled her up.

U. S. newspapers made much of the luck of the crew of the Rofa. They said that it was a miracle for another ship to run across her in the middle of the ocean, and that miracles only happen when a woman is skipper. Meanwhile, Mrs. William Roos, 36, experienced and muscular skipper, was telling her rescuers : "I don't want this thing to be made sensational."

The other small schooners in the race --Mohawk, Nina, Pinta -- were nearing the coast of Spain, if the ocean was kind to them. Only Nina had been sighted, early in her voyage, by the Cunarder Aquitania (TIME, July 16). Elihu Root Jr., and Paul Hammond are in command of Nina. Their crew consists of eight young college graduates and undergraduates and a Norwegian cook. Said Mr. Root: "We rather expect to get wet. If the Nina runs into a storm, her crew will have salt water in their clothes, their food, their hair and their couch cushions."

If it had not been for the Rofa incident, the public would scarcely have known that the sporting little schooners were racing. Even the five big schooners -- Atlantic, Azara, Elena, Guinevere, Zodiac -- racing for the King Alfonso Cup, were nearly wiped off U. S. sport pages by Tunney-Heeney, baseball, Olympics.

It was the first trans-Atlantic race since 1905 when the Atlantic, skippered by Capt. Charles Barr, won the Kaiser's Cup by crossing from Sandy Hook to England in 12 days, 4 hrs. 1 min., 19 sec. This year, this same Atlantic, repainted many times and retrimmed, has as skipper the direct descendant of two U. S. Presidents -- Charles Francis Adams, 62, brother of the late historian Henry Adams. Skipper Adams, yachtsmen agree, is the canniest amateur salt alive. He sailed the Resolute in the last defense of the America's Cup against Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock. He is also treasurer of the Corporation of Harvard College and a prosperous Boston lawyer. Once, when he failed to appear at a session of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, a judge sent a man down to the sea to find him. Mr. Adams sent back the following message: "Can't come, Judge, smelt running like thunder."

But the Elena, a newer and smaller ship, was a slight favorite to win the race to Spain. She was skippered by a professional, John Barr, nephew of the great Capt. Charles.

On big Guinevere was the disappointed Duke of Santa Mauro, who had been unable to get the Santa Maria, a Spanish schooner,* ready for the race. His companion, Enrique Careaga, went with the Azara.

Grizzliest of the skippers was Capt. Norman Ross, 58, of the Zodiac. As a child he began to fish off Gloucester, Mass., and still prefers to be known as a fisherman rather than a racing skipper. He owns one of the four schooners in Gloucester that scorn to use motor power.

The schooners and their owners are :

Atlantic (185 feet) -- Gerard B. Lambert of St. Louis (Listerine).

Azara (113 feet) -- Francis E. and George J. Baker of Detroit.

Elena (137 feet)-- William B. Bell/- of Manhattan.

Guinevere (195 feet) -- Edgar Palmer of Manhattan.

Zodiac (126 feet) -- Robert W. and J. Seward Johnson (surgical supplies) of New Brunswick, N. J.

The Atlantic was the first to be sighted off the Azores. At Santander, King Alfonso waited to greet and reward the winner (see P. 14).

*The five schooners in the race are all U. S. owned.

/-His wife and daughter were also on board.