s--know him? Yes? A nice young fellow. Ain't she
able-looking?"

She certainly was, and handsome, and Levi went on to tell me about
her. He showed me where she was like and where she differed from the
Lucy Foster, the Fred Withrow, the Nannie O, the Colleen Bawn, and the
others which were then causing trouble in Gloucester with crews
fighting over their good qualities. I did not know a whole lot about
vessels, but having been born in Gloucester and having soaked in the
atmosphere all my life and loving vessels besides, I had a lot of
notions about them. And I liked this last Duncan vessel. By the wind
and in a sea-way, it struck me she would be a wonder. There was
something more than just the fine lines of her. There is that about
vessels. You can take two vessels, model them alike, rig them alike,
handle them alike, and still one will sail rings around the other. And
why is it? I've heard a hundred fishermen at different times say that
and then ask, Why is it? This one was awfully sharp forward, too sharp
some might have said, with little more forefoot than most of the
late-built flyers; but she was deep and had a quarter that I knew
would stand up under her sail. I liked the after-part of her. Racing
machines are all right for a few months or a year or two and in smooth
water, but give me a vessel that can stand up under sail. I thought I
could see where, if they gave her sail enough, especially aft, and a
skipper that would drive her, she might do great things. And
certainly she ought to be a comfort in a blow and bring a fellow
home--and there's a whole lot in that--being in a vessel that you feel
will bring you home again.

I looked over the others, but none of them held me like the Duncan
vessel, and I soon came back to Gloucester and took a walk along the
waterfront.

It was well into March at this time--the third week in March, I
remember--and there was a great business doing along the docks. The
salt bankers were almost ready to leave--twenty-eight or thirty sail
fitting out for the Grand Banks. And then there were the seiners--the
mackerel catchers--seventy or eighty sail of them making ready for the
Southern cruise. All that meant that things would be humming for a
while. So I took a walk along the docks to see it.

Most of the vessels that had been fishing during the winter had been
stripped of their winter sails, and now aboard these they were bending
on the summer suits and slinging up what top spars