Cruise of the Curlew

Nat Blum works in the Manhattan Department of Plant & Structures. His friend Abraham Rosenberg works for Manhattan Terazzo Brass Co. They go sailing at the Bronxonia Yacht Club, at Throg's Neck, N. Y. Last winter Nat Blum and Abraham Rosenberg wondered why they should not borrow their friend David Rosenstein's 49-foot ketch, the Curlew, and enter the annual race of the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, from Montauk Point, L. I., to Hamilton. Cruising Club officials, examining the. boats for seaworthiness, paid special attention to the Curlew but finally decided it would pass. Last fortnight, along with 26 other yawls, ketches, schooners, the Curlew stood from Montauk for Bermuda.

Four days later, all the other boats in the race had been accounted for but no one had seen the Curlew. A Bermuda tug, the Sandboy, made a 70 mile search around Bermuda, found nothing. The U. S. Consul at Bermuda asked the U. S. Coast Guard to start a search. Seven Coast Guard cutters scoured the Atlantic from Montauk to Bermuda. Irving Blum, brother of Nat Blum, and David Rosenstein grew worried. They persuaded New York's Congressman Fiorello La Guardia to have naval tugboats join the hunt. When the tugboats, 100 Coast Guard cutters, the British naval unit at Bermuda, twelve seaplanes and 60 privately owned ships had failed to discover the Curlew, the U. S. Navy Department ordered U. S. S. Akron, world's largest airship, to join the hunt. The Akron flew to Bermuda and back without success, was preparing to make another flight when word came last week that the Curlew had been found by the Coast Guard cutter Marion. She was 80 mi. east of Nantucket, about 112 mi. further from Bermuda than at the start of the race. She was proceeding toward the Bronxonia Yacht Club at 3 m. p. h. The Marion escorted the Curlew into port at Newport, R. I.

Well and chipper, the crew of the Curlew explained their difficulties. Captain Nat Blum, like his sailors, had never been out of sight of land before the race. Navigator Rosenberg had never taken a sight with a sextant and his instrument, a borrowed one, was improperly adjusted. Said Captain Blum: "We got off our course directly the race started and when we tried to put back, the wind shifted. This delayed us ... but we always knew where we were." One of the Curlew's crew, Attorney Benjamin Theeman, returned home by train. The others, after ramming and smashing a Newport wharf, successfully sailed the Curlew home to the Bronxonia Yacht Club.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.