Wells High School - Crimson and Gray Yearbook (Southbridge, MA)

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THE CRIMSON AND GRAY The discovery of the screw propeller was a great step in the improvement of the steam boat. It made greater speeds possible and it was not as easily broken as the paddle-wheel. Without the screw, the huge liners of today would be impossible. The present liners have up to sixty thou- sand tons draft, as compared to one or two tons in the earliest vessels. To give an idea of the speed, the earliest route from Egypt to Greece, covering six hundred and ten miles, took six days to travel, or at that rate it would take thirty days to cross the Atlantic, a distance covered by the modern de-luxe liner in five days. In the not far distant future, passenger travel will probably be made by airplane and dirigible, but it will be many years before freight traffic will take to the air. Though the latest inventions have brought to sailing, comfort, luxury and smoothness, the thrill of the. sea must always cling to the old days of adventure before the mast, when wind and wave and the ingenuity of man struggled for the victory. Lynd F. Tillyer, ' 37 SHIPS TO THE WORLD Instrumental in the development of the human race, the ship is outstanding. Man, dating back to the Stone Age, early learned to use this means of transportation and communication. From a log, the earliest stage of a ship, to a massive hulk of steel shaped and fashioned into one of the crack present day liners embodying all the refine- ments and equipment of a modern hotel is the progress made. In between the initial and final stages came the raft, the dugout, the Greek, Roman, and Viking craft manned by oars, and the Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese sailing vessels of the 15th— 18th centuries. Ships have, without doubt, immeasurably hastened the development of the human race. Imagine for a moment the state of despair in the world if it were suddenly deprived of this necessity. International commerce would be annihilated. Civilization would suffer a severe setback, especially in those countries not fully civilized. Poverty and suffering would surely take a sudden leap, more so, in countries dependent on others for most of their food supply. Each country, or countries bordering each other, would have to take measures of becoming self sustaining and sup- porting, of course having to do without many of the articles, products, and conditions to which they were accustomed. Furthermore, and far from improbable, the world would nowhere near approach the stage of devel- opment it has now attained. Also, it is safe to state that we would have no Columbus, no Caesar, no Washington, no North America, no South America, Australia or Africa were it not for the ship and its important role in the events of the world. When one reads a few of the many books relating to ships, it is then, if that person stops for a moment to meditate, that the full real- ization of the ship and its importance to the world dawns upon his understanding. Al- though the development of air travel will tend, finally, to supplant the ship as a major means of transportation, the ship will, never- theless, never become entirely obliterated. Walter Remian ' 35 THE RISE OF A BENCH-WARMER ■V 7ILFRED Gagnon was an end— not much of an end, but still an end on theEasE- borough High School Football Team, the champions of the state. His was an awkward figure especially oh the football field. He measured only five feet five inches in height and tipped the scales at a mere one hundred twenty pounds. It was on account of his face that his teammates dubbed him Apollo. Unluckily this was short- ened to Polly by which hated handle he was forewith hailed. However bad his playing was, he did not lack courage— attempting again and again to stop the plays sent around his end with crushing finesse which left him reeling, bat- tered, and bruised.

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THE NORSE SHIP STRADDLING THE SEAS NAVIGATION-from the beginning of time, it has spelled romance. As early as 3000 B. C. ships were known to the Egyptians. They were propelled by pad- dles first, and later by oars and sails. The oars were manned by perhaps twenty men, slaves who had been captured in battle or had committed some minor crime, not punish- able by death itself, but dooming them to a living death aboard the vessels, chained to benches, cowed by a slave driver, whip in hand, ready to beat them at the slightest provocation. Although the Egyptians were the first to navigate on the seas, the Phoenicians soon followed and surpassed them. They also had the sails and oars manned by slaves, and with these they soon established trade routes all over the Mediterranean. The first long voy- age made by a Phoenician ship was a trip around Africa at the command of Pharaoh Necho, a very ambitious king of Egypt. The Norsemen began using ships in the seventh or eighth century A. D. They made voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and America. The Norse ships were manned by freemen, not slaves as were ships of yore. On the prows of these sturdy crafts were figure-heads of the Norse gods, a tradition that was followed by the English and American ship builders. The Spanish were great navigators. Spain for many years, in fact centuries, held the title of Mistress of the Seas. Columbus sailed Spanish ships, as did many of the great explorers. The stories of the richly laden Spanish galleons are known to everyone. They were heavily armed but were so large and unman- ageable that they were eagerly searched for by pirates. In time of war they were valuable and easily-taken prizes. The slave-propelled galleys were used for three thousand years, but the English buccan- eer (stir your stumps, Cap ' n Kidd) who freed the slaves on all the ships wherever possible, drove them from the seas. The latest development in sailing ships was the clipper, a long, slender ship with huge sail spread. For half a century after the in- troduction of the steamship, it was not even a close race between the scudding clippers and the lumbering steam-boats. Men first began experimenting with steam- boats in the early years of the 16th century. The first of these boats had paddles attached to long rods which were fastened about twenty feet above the decks of the ship. Experiments with this new type of vessel were begun in England on the Thames before Robert Fulton ' s success.

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DECEMBER 1934 Coach Casey, after viewing him in action, kept him on the team. The first game found him installed as a part of the heating sys- tem on the bench. Polly did his job well but not better than the Varsity, which, gain- ing power and confidence in every game, was emulating last year ' s undefeated team. In mid-November Polly became conspicuous for something other than football. He was more than mildly interested in a certain freshman, Pauline Winters. His teammates, hearing of it, subjected him to a good old- fashioned riding which left him blushing with rage and jealousy— jealousy especially, for some of the varsity had announced that she was very good-looking and that they were go- ing to make a break for her. When practice time arrived the next day, he dressed, and, going on the field glimpsed several glimpses of the Varsity backfield, plus two linemen, busily talking to a girl whose clear laugh and animated gestures Polly recognized even at that long distance. It was SHE! Polly ' s jealousy and strength increased tenfold. In scrimmage he crashed the inter- ference with great disregard for his person, hitting the running guard so hard that the latter asked Polly to show a little respect for his gray hairs. Polly also blocked two kicks and so hurried the Varsity passers that not one aerial thrust was successful. After practice this gained a few words of praise for him from Coach Casey. That night at a blackboard talk, the coach said, Men, we ' ve lost four players because of quarterly marks. We have only two games left. Tomorrow ' s with Broadwood is the im- portant one. A victory for us means that we practically clinch the state championship. We ' ve got to win! Gagnon! You ' re starting at left end in place of Trainor who is ineligi- ble. His voice droned on naming the other starting players. The miniature bowl in which the Eastbrook team played was a sea of waving banners the next afternoon. The sun shone down benev- olently from a cloudless, blue sky on ten thousand students and old grads. Meanwhile, after preliminary practice, Polly, sitting nervously on the bench, only half hearing the coach ' s instructions, caught sight of the foot- ball-mad crowd and turned away shuddering. Polly was frightened and sick before this, his first starting game. Hampton, an all-state teammate, grinned at him sardonically, Not scared, are you Polly? he asked. Then de- liberately bating him, Guess who I ' ve got a date with to-night? Shut up, snapped Billy so savagely that Hampton shied back. Only asbestos could have cooled Polly off as he awaited the kick- off on the field. He had forgotten his fear, the crowd, and everything except his anger. At the opening whistle Polly ran down the field like a streak and tackled the enemy ball- carrier so hard that he knocked him back three feet. Two shots at Polly ' s side of the line decided the offensive team to kick. Billy waited tensely on the scrimmage line, watch- ing the ball. When it was snapped back, he charged in ferociously and, leaping, crashed into the ball and then into the punter with such force that both sprawled on the ground. Polly bounded quickly to his feet, and, cover- ing the ball, was buried by a mob of players. It was Eastborough ' s ball on their opponents ' thirty-yard line! Hike! Hike! An off-tackle smash! Polly hit the opposing tackle with all his strength; the wingbacks did the same and the tackle was driven completely out of the play! A gain of ten yards! A short pass with Polly on the receiving end! Hampton was so hurried by the enemy ends that he threw wildly! Polly leaped up, caught it in one hand and spun, twisted, and slashed his way toward the goal line with an opponent hold- ing on! Touchdown! The try for the point with the crowd roaring! Kick-formation called with Hampton back! Plunk! Leather hit leather to send the ball twirling over the crossbar! 7 to o in favor of Eastborough . . . Neither side scored again in the first quarter as Polly showed clearly that he was the best player on the field.