The New York Times New York, New York 03 Aug 1890, Sun • Page 9

FUN WITH SAIL AND PADDLE

PEC0NIC BAY TO BE FULL OF CANOES FOR A FORTNIGHT.
PREPARATIONS THAT THE AMERICAN CANOE ASSOCIATION IS MAKING FOR ITS TENTH ANNUAL MEET.

A canoe meet, to which all previous event of the kind will stand in splendor about as the Koh-i-noor stands to its Alaskan Imitators, to the rapidly approaching tenth annual convention of the American Canoe Association, which begins at Jessop's neck, in Peconic Bay, next Friday morning. The meet is to cover two weeks, and almost every day of that time will have its programme of racing and sailing and every night its quota of camp fun. About 150 canoeists, members of club ranged along the Eastern coast from Canada to Florida, have sent in word of their iIntention to attend the meet and it is believed that fully as many more will drop in on the camp In the course of the fortnight.

The paddlers have chosen a delightful spot for their meet. Jessop's Neck, which only a thin trip of sand running out from the mainland keeps from being Jessop's Island, makes the entrance to Peconic Bay, and lies due west of Shelter Island about half way between Greenport and Sag Harbor. It is about two miles long, and bears upon its granite foundation a sloping plateau of thick green turf dotted with clumps of spreading beach, cedars, and stately oak trees. The beach runs along both sides of the neck as smooth and as firm as on an asphalt walk, and from it the plateau bluffs arise to height of from five to fifty feet.

It is a narrow beach, as the water here, although salt, has a rise and fall of less than two feet snd consequently the tents can be pitched on the turf so close to the water that all one has to do is to invite his ease in his canvas house and watch everything going on in the bay at his feet. The place is surrounded with picturesque spots, and while the Summer boarder has not yet taken possession of the inner bay, be (or she) can be found in hundred by the young canoeist of gregarious instinct on Shelter Island and at the quaint old villages along the north and south shores.

The meets of the association have been held upon fresh water since 1880, when thirty canoes formed the association, in the Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the St Lawrence regions, and the camp-site committee, Messrs. K. B. Burchardof this city, Paul Butler of Lowell. Mass., and Everett Masten of Yonkers, appointed in November last, determined therefore to give the boys an outing on salt water this year. Two famous canoeists, C. M. Shedd of the Springfield Canoe Club and tbe Hon. Poulteney Bigelow, had both written of the beauties of Peconic Bay for a meet and the committee, after a visit there, agreed with these gentlemen that no better place could be found. They accordingly leased the Jessop's Neck property and laid out a capital camp site.

The change from the lakes to the coast is a welcome one to the paddlers, and to a number of them salt-water canoeing will be a delightful novelty. The camp site is fixed on the extreme end of the peninsula, where the plateau is highest and widest and the picture that will be presented there when the white tents are all in position and the bunting of the clubs isset a-flytng will be a striking one indeed. The ground is hard and dry, the drainage ta perfect, there is plenty of clear well water, and there will be no bother of cooking as there was in the old days, when every man had to take his turn at making "flapjacks" with what might be mildly termed indifferent results. The committee has secured the services of a New York hotel steward to cater for the meet snd he will take care that the food and the service are as good as at his hotel. Those who want to have the fun of amateur cookery will be abetted in their desperate resolve by a well-stocked camp store.

The men are not to have all the fun of the convention, for a number of ladies are to go down also and paddle their own canoes. A camp has been laid out for them beyond the main camp, and Mrs Lafayette W. Seavey has kindly agreed to chaperon the party. Their tent will have raised board floors, and will contain rugs and looking glasses, but in all other respects they will have to rough it just like their husbands and brothers.

Many canoeist are enthuslastic photographers, and for their use a dark room with all the necessary appliances has been set up snd stock of "developers", "dry plates", and the like have been arranged for, to be sold at cost A special steamer has been chartered to take down the boast and "duffle" of the sailors, and their owner will be able to travel down Long Island with the comfortable knowledge that their canoes are having plenty of room and skillful care instead of being at the tender mercy of the baggage smasher.

The races for the meet will include the annual trophy sailing race for the huge silver bowl that ta the association's sailing standard, and which the winner holds only until somebody gets it away from him at s subsequent meet; the unlimited sailing race, in which nearly everybody starts, and which affords, perhaps,. the prettiest sight of the fortnight; the trophy paddling race, which is under the same conditions as the sailing race and the combination race, in which the contestants must sail and paddle alternate half miles over a triangular three-mile course.

The points scored in the trophy and combination events go to make up the canoeists' racing records, and the three leader receive "practical" flags that are to a modern canoeist as the scalp of the enemy wa to his Indian predecessor. The minor races include the "man overboard" and sailing upset event; the hurry-skurry race, in which the men have to run 100 yards on the beach, swim lOO yards to their canoes, and paddle half a mile to the finish ; the tug-of-war, in which canoes manned with four to eight paddlers apiece and hitched together with long ropes fight to see which shall pull the other over the line, and the tournament which is a revival of an ancient pastime of the Venetian gondolier. In this last avent two men work each boat one paddling in the stern snd the other standing in the bow with a cushioned lance ready to do his best to keep his own position and to knock his opponent into the water.

The novelty of the meet will be a war canoe race. in which the Toronto and Yonkers Club, the Red Dragon Club of Philadelphia, the Kwo-ne-she Club of Trenton, and the Mohican of Albany will take part. These canoes are built on the old Indian war canoe model, are from 25 to 35 feet in length, and can accommodate twenty to thirty paddlers. They can be forced along at a tremendous pace, and the race, outside of its novelty, should be one of the most exciting of the meet.

There will be several evening processions, when the canoes will be trimmed with Chinese lanterns and paddled about in the lead of a skillful manoeuvrer through a maze of brilliant evolutions over the water of the bay. Fireworks will be set off from the beach and from the moving canoes, and the sight will be one that everybody in the neighboring watering places who can secure a boat for the occasion will witness. Then there will be minstrel shows, concerts, highly dramatic entertainment, mock trials, and "kasoo" musicales, and possibly the crowning event of last year' tun. an amateur circus, will be repeated.

The canoe clubs that will be represented at the meet include the New York, Knickerbocker, Brooklyn, Yonkers, Mohican, Rochester, Deowaineta, Ianthe, Arlington, Red Dragon, Pittsburg, Hartford, Vesper, Springfield, Puritan, Pequot Shuh-shuh-gah. New Bedford, Amsterdam, Buffalo, Kwo-ns-she, Bayonne, Ompoge, Jabberwock, Peterborough, Toronto, Ottawa, Galt, Lake St. Louis, the Royal Military College, and the Brockvllle. Among the record men there will be R. B. Burchard and William Wlllard Howard of the New York Club, Lafayette W. Seavey, Commodore of the Knickerbockers; Reginald S. Blake, the holder of the New York Canoe Club's International cup: M. V. Brokaw of Brooklyn, the only canoeist that ever secured 10O points in the three annual meet races; Reade W. Bailey of Pittsburg, L. O. Jones of the Hartford Club, who will bring his famous cruising naphtha yawl, the Etcetera; Paul Butler of Lowell, whose canoe is said to be the best appointed in the country; Dr. H. E. Rice of Springfield, Ford Jones of Brockvllle, Canada, the present sailing champion; Alexander Torrance, and George C. Forrest the canoe gymnast.

The Times Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 10 Aug 1890, Sun • Page 13

Long Island Sound, which within a few weeks past has again and again been the rendezvous of the fleets of the prominent yacht clubs of the United States, the Eastern, the Seawanhaka, the Atlantic, the New York, the Quaker City and others, is yet again around Jessup's Neck already dotted with the liliputian sails of the fleet canoes of the American Association. For the first time in the history of this organization the sound has been selected as the ground for the national summer "meet" of its canoes. A party of Philadelphia canoeists, members of the Red Dragon Club, started a few days ago for New York by way of the upper Delaware and the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and others will go by rail. The other canoe club of this city, the Philadelphia, will doubtless also be represented both by members and boats. The meeting commenced the day before yesterday and will last for two weeks. Jessup's Neck is apeninsnla two miles long and less than a quarter of a mile wide in its broadest part, pointing towards Shelter Island and marking the eastern end of Little Peconic Bay. It is about midway between the townsof Greenport and Sag Harbor, being about six miles distant from each by water, the end of the neck is a long curved sand bar, which gradually rises and widens into a plateau bordered by cedar aud oak groves. Covered with the white tents and waving various colored pennants of the different canoe clubs, it will make a striking scene visible for miles around. The camp, however, is only an incidental and most of the time will be spent by the various club members and most pleasure derived from the water. Each year there are a certain number of fixtures in the way of races to be sailed off; races in which there is a great deal of informality as far as the announcement of competing boats and the time of race are concerned. Owing, doubtless, to the distant and scattered points from which the canoe men gather, neither the time nor the entries are published beforehand. After the camp has gotten well started entries are invited for the first race, and then for the next, and so on.

The American Canoe Assoc

The time of the races depends much upon the weather. Having two weeks of breeze from which to choose, the association's executive committees have grown captious upon the subject of weather. The fixtures are designed to suit all tastes, ranging from trophy sailing to upset and hurry - scurry races. This year the officers have been led to expect the largest "meet" by far ever held by the association, aud the races probably will be orrespondlngly exciting. Among those which will be sailed are classes 1, 2, 3and 4, paddling; classes A, B, and C, sailing; trophy sailing, trophy paddling, open paddling, tandem, classes A and B; tandem, open upset paddling, upset sailing, novice sailing, hurry - scurry, unlimited sailing. The word unlimited in the last - named race refers to the sail area. In the hurrv - scurry race the contestants are all obliged to beach their canoes on the shore and are then arranged in line some distance from the water. At a given word they must rush to the beach, launch the canoes, paddle out to a stake - boat and return. The upset races are peculiar and amusing. In the npset sailing race the competitors are all obliged at a given signal during the race to capsize their boats so that the sail lies upon the water. They then right them in the best way they can and continue the race. In the other case the rules require all the canoes, upon the same signal, to be turned completely over. Thevowuers have then to right them and crawl in some way.

It is also expected that there will be at this "meet," what is rather an innovation, a war canoe race. These war canoes are generally owned by the clubs and not by the individual members. They are nearly thirty - five fret long and about four feet and a half broad at the centre. Some of them will hold eighteen paddlers, nine using their blades on each side. Such a race is strictly a club race, eighteen or a lesser number of one club being pitted against an equal number of another. The tandem races probably explain themselves. They are races in paddling canoes, two men composing each crew. In driving the boats through the water the paddles are not used always on opposite sides of the crafts, as might be expected. The natural way one might think would be for the forward man to thrust his blade in the water and take a stroke on the starboard side, white at the same time his mate takes a stroke on the port side. (It is of course, remembered that two - bladed paddles are generally used.) Instead of this method being adopted, both men bend first to port and strike the water simultaneously with their paddles on that side; then both sway in the other direction and take a stroke on the starboard side. The movement nearly corresponds to the action of a horse when pacing, in which the two feet on the right side strike together and also the two feet on the left side, as distinguished from the trotting gait,in which a foot on tbe right side strikes the ground simultaneously with a foot on the left side. This method of propelling a canoe in a tandem paddling race throws the boat over from side to side to a considerable extent. It does not, however, have the effect, as a layman might think, of causing the canoes to take a zigzag course. Where that is the result it is called "snaking" and the boat is considered defective. A very amusing part of the programme will be what is known as the tournament and gymnastics. Among the events of the tournament are the "punching duel." Long lances of bamboo are provided and fitted with large pads at one end. Two contestants face each other at the distance of a few feet, each standing erect in his own canoe, while a comrade kneeling manages tbe craft with a paddle. At a given signal the battle begins and each of the standing combatants pokes at the other with his lance till one succeeds in punching his man over. As soon as either loses his balance and falls flat in his canoe the paddler is bound by the rules of the tournament to capsize the craft and the contest is over. Another event is the tng - of - war. Track athletes will readily understand just what this means. Two canoes, with crews of equal strength, are placed opposite each other and connected by a strong rope or cord, which has a knot half - way between the boats. The positions of the crafts are shifted until the knot is exactly opposite the nose of the judges' stationary boat. Then the word is given and both crews, each paddling in a different direction, try their best to drag the other through the water. Just as in a tng - of - war on land, a certain length of time is assigned for the contest, three or five minutes, and whichever crew has gained most ground in that time is declared the winner.

Few people will appreciate the immense undertaking that is involved in these annual meets of the American Canoe Association. The present organization was started early in the eighties, probably about 1883, and was arranged after the plan of the British Canoe and British Yacht Associations. It antedates the League of American Wheelmen, which is another enormous aud very complex body. The bicycle riders, it is said, were led to establish the organization from observing the good effects issuing out of the American Canoe Association's plan. Prior to this year there have been ten meets. The first, in 1880, was a convention of canoeists at Crosbyside Park, Lake George. In 1881 and 1882 meets were held on Lorna Island, Lake George. In 1883 the influence of the Canadian members of the association threw the weight of opinion in favorof Stony Lake, Ontario, as a ground for the "meet." In 1884, 1885 and 1886 Gundslove Island, Thousand Isles, St. Lawrence River, was the rendezvous. In 1887 the clubs gathered at Bow Arrow Point, Lake Champlain, and the next year coming still a little further south, pitched their white tents on Long Island in Lake George. Last year the ground chosen was again the Thousand Isles, Sugar Island being the camping point. With this summer the members of the association have determined to try meeting and having their races in salt water. There is evidence that the "meet " already entered upon will be much the largest and in some respects the most interesting in the history of the association, tne committee on camp site arrangements, however, upon themseives to warn the members that the success of the present meet, now well assured, has been attained through so much expense and after so many unusual difficulties, incident to locating on salt water, that it may be some years before the experiment will be repeated. Indeed, it is thought by some active canoemen that the present style of American Canoe Association "meet" will have to be given up altogether. Until quite lately "meets" were held in the backwoods, where each member who attended brought his own equipments, did his own cooking and was his own purveyor and caterer. Some of the members, however, while desirous of attending the meets, were unused to roughing it and proposed that the "meets" should be brought out of the woods to some easily accessible civilized spot, and quartered in airy, floored tents at any rate, and that regular caterers should be employed to attend to the food supply and cooking. This experiment has been tried several times and bas been found to devolve enormous labor on the different "meet" committees.

This year the arrangements for relieving the individual member of all labor and supplying him, for a money consideration, with about everything he wants are more elaborate than usual. The committee prefer for the canoeists to bring their own tents, but promise to order tents for those wishing them up to the limit of the supply of New York city and other neighboring places. Tent floors and floats they undertake to build at cost, returning the lumber afterwards to the dealer. Tent floors are 'costing $3 to $5 each and floats $1.50 per canoe, four or five canoes going to each float. The committee requested members attending to bring fireworks, though announcing that they wonld be sold at the camp at New York prices. The earlier labors of the committee of arrangements were the superintending the erection of a dock 400 feet long for the landing of steamers, tbe digging and bricking in to the depth of twenty - five feet of two wells, the building of a substantial kitchen, with ice - house and provision house beneath it, and the construction of a camp store house. Mr. Arthur Bane, who has been the steward of the Rossmore Hotel and the Sinclair House, of New York, and of the Prospect House, at Shelter Island, and who is now the steward of a Fifth Avenue club, has been engaged to cater for the camp. Ranges, ovens, broilers, steam tables, etc., are to be set up and bricked in; and a regular hotel outfit with hot aud cold water supply, etc, provided by a well - known hotel supply house, will be at demand. Two regular cooks, a pastry cook and a butcher have been taken to Jessup's Neck from New York, and good meals are promised, served upon clean linen and hot plates. All this is offered at the rate ot $1 per day for two weeks. Under the direction of Mr. E. W. Brown a complete signal code has been arranged, and coming events will be constantly made known by signal flags prominently displayed at headquarters. For the convenience of amateur photographers a photographic dark room, with necessary accessories, will be set up, and different developers, dry plates, etc., can be obtained at cost Dealers in canoeing outfits are also to be allowed space to display and sell their goods. Lastly, it has been announced that particular pains have been taken to have perfect sanitary arrangementsb.

The American Canoe Association is an association of associations. In its peculiar organization, however, the subordinate societies are known as divisions. There are in all some seven hundred members. The largest division is the Atlantic. This has over two hundred members, hailing from various points of a region extending from Staten Island to Washington and from Trenton, N. J., to Jeanesville, Pa. The Central Division, with nearly as many members, draws its canoeists from much the largest territory of all the branches. It has clubs in California, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and Bermuda. Unfortunately there is a split among Western canoemen, and those who are dissatisfied with the American Canoe Association are members of what is known as the Western Canoe Association. This meets annually at Ballast Island. The Eastern division has about one hundred and fifty members, who come principally from New England.

The Northern division has a membership of a little over a hundred. It is chiefly made up of Canadian canoe enthusiasts. The Canadians have no canoe association of their own, but have preferred to be incorporated as a separate division of the American Canoe Association and to attend its annual races. The venturesome young ladies who have learned to paddle their own canoes at Bar Harbor, Narragansett and other summer resorts, are only a very few of the trained paddlers of the female sex to be found throughout this country and Canada. It has not been an uncommon thing for men and their wives to go on cruises together, and there are ladies who in a canoe would put many men to shame, either at paddling or sailing. The American Canoe Association has recognized this fact by electing a number of ladies as honorary members. among these are Mrs. N. L. Bishop. Toms River, N. J.; Mrs. W. L. Allen, Garden City, N. Y.; Mrs. Will Brooks, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. Kirk Munroe, New York; Mrs. H. L. Willoughby, Newport; Mrs. George L. Parmele, Hartford, Conn.; Mrs. L. W. Seavey and Miss Florcnce Seavey, New York; Mrs. F. A. Nickerson, Springfield, Mass.; Miss Madeline Palmer, Albany, N. Y.; Mrs. J. Ten - Eyck Burr, Cazenovia, N. Y.; Mrs. Charles Eddy, West New Brighton, N. Y.; Miss Marion Vaux, New York; Miss Ledyard and Miss M. Ledyard, Cazenovia, N. Y.; Mrs. Frederick G. Mather, New York; Mrs. John S. Wardwell, Rome, N. Y., and Miss Bessie Woolworth, Albany, N. Y. The gentlemen who have been made honorary members are few. John Macgregor, East Blackheath, England, Warington Baden - Powell, London, England; Charles G. Y. King. Liverpool, England; E. B. Tredwen, Kingston - on - Thames, England; Walter Stewart, London, England, and Francesco Gargiulo, Italy, are the only foreigners who have attained that distinction. There is but a solitary honorary gentleman member in this country, viz., Mr. N. H. Bishop, Toms River, N. J.

It will be easily seen that the handling of this great composite body, and more especially the attempt to house it comfortably for two weeks of a summer on what was only a barren stretch of sand; to arrange the erecting of a town of white canvas with club names over its doors instead of house numbers; to offer it excellent meals on white linen and hot plates, and to supply it with hot and cold water, firework stands and stores of canoe outfitters, is a task which may well frighten any set of officers or committees.

At the annual meets for several years English canoemen have competed in some of the races, and In this respect this year's meet is likely to be no exception. Several crack canoes from Great Britain are expected to take part. From the results of previous races of the same kind it seems hardly likely that the Englishmen will succeed in winning, but the races In which they participate may be closer than they have been hitherto. When competitors from across the water were first attracted to the American Canoe Association's meets, the American contestants were not in the least troubled by them, but the lines of the English canoes have steadily improved and gradually they have sailed closer races with the champions of this country.

With the breaking up of the meet on August 22 many of the members will start for their homes in their canoes. For many a day, probably, their miniature sails will be sighted stealing northward, southward, eastward, westward through tideless and tideful rivers, across lakes and bays, and in solitary instances along the open coast of the Atlantic, for some of our Philadelphia canoeists have been dauntless enough and their canoes sufficiently staunch to dare the squalls and buffeting of the ocean out of sight of land. These cruisers who will venture home in their own crafts will have scores of exciting adventures on the Delaware, the Hudson, the Thames, or the St. Lawrence, all of which will be excitedly rehearsed at home, but very few of which will ever reach the public press.

Apropos of such experiences, I must tell of the adventure that befell a Philadelphian, a member of the Red Dragon Club, not long ago while running down the New Jersey coast in his canoe. At a point some distance above Sea Isle City the companion who was accompanying him chose to take the inside course, While the other preferred to risk the trip outside. The gentleman I am speaking of was caught soon after parting with his friend by a severe storm, which blew him out to sea. It became dark and he could not see the shore. Noticing a bright light on his left, however, he sailed steadily for it. He reached it to find that he was at the twelve fathom lightship, twenty five miles out from Sea Isle City. Declining the offers of the lightship people to help him over night he took the points of the compass and started in a westerly direction. Before the lightship had been left very far behind he regretted declining the invitation to put up there. Sleep gradually began to master him, although be fought hard against it. At last he could stand the feeling no longer, and lashing the sheet and the rudder fast he lay down iu the bottom of the canoe. When he awoke his boat lay off Sea Isle City almost within a stone's throw of the shore. If the wind had veered or had risen he might have been aroused only to find himself drowning.

The representatives of the Red Dragon Club, of this city, who have taken their canoes along, expect to reach home about September 1. They are H. M. Kreamer in the Valosca, D. M. Bond in the Thetis and F. W. Noyes in the Kio Loe. On their way up they cruised from New York the entire length of the sound, some ninety miles, to the camp. They expect to ship the boats back to Port Jervis by way of New York, and from the former point to cruise up to the city through the Delaware river. Commodore C. B. Haag and Messrs. H. E. McCormick, W. H. Baker, W. E. Rothcry and F. R. Haviland will also probably represent the club at Jessup's Neck.

The father of canoeing around Philadelphia is said to be Woodward Norgrave, who first took to the sport in about 1879. He was shortly joined by R, C. R. Binder and afterwards by George Comly. These three, together with a few more congenial spirits, formed in 1883 the Keystone Canoe Club, of Philadelphia. A few years later H. M. Kreamer, D. M. Bond, William and Sanford Northrop and Alexander Amois became interested in canoeing and organized the Red Dragon Canoe Club, of Camden. In December, 1888, these two clubs amalgamated under the name of the Red Dragon Canoe Club, of Philadelphia, aud elected their first commodore, C. B. Haag, with headquarters at Coopers Point, Camden, lhis organization has grown and prospered nntil they now number some thirty members. All A. C. A. and Division meets are attended by some representatives of this club. At the A. C. A. meeting in 1888 Dr. LaMotte won distinction and a silk banner and at the Atlantic Division races in 1889 Messrs. Kreamer, Bond and Noyes did some very good work in capturing prizes and obtaining the highest average of any of the other representatives.

The club had a fine fleet of canoes, some of them very fast and two of which they were particularly proud - the Lassie, which beat the English Nautilus and Pearl in 1886, and the Ramona, which captured the A. C. A. trophy in 1888. Other fast ones were the Nacoochee, a "Guenn " model, which did good service in 1885, and the Cigarette and Io, two modeled after Panl Butler's Fly. These, with the exception of the Nacoochee, were destroyed by fire on the night of December 10 last. This was especially disastrous, owing to the fact that the club would have in a few days moved into new and more commodious quarters.

On January 1, 1890, the members met and made arrangements for refurnishing the new house and rebuilding the fleet They now have twenty canoes, one war canoe, one yacht, one sloop and one naptha launch. The St. Lawrence River Skiff, Canoe and Steam Launch Company, of Clayton, New York, built most of the boats, and a few were made by Wignall and other Philadelphia builders. Among the new boats are the Osceola, Kie Loe. May Fly, L'te, Valesca, Rambler. Cuckoo, Enid, Eonade and Thetis. It is a disputed point whether Commodore Haas's Osceola or Noyes' Kie Loe is the fastest canoe in the club today.

The Red Dragons take an active part in camping and cruising. Every year's meet of the Delaware canoeists at Delanco is a howling success in racing and general hilarity.

The St Lawrence, Hudson, Passaic, Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, Chesapeake and Delaware bays and Long Island Sound have all been cruised by Norgrave, Kreamer, Bond. Noyes, McCormick, Underwood, Dr. La Motte and others.

Dr. Fink last year cruised from Philadelphia to Atlantic City and back. On his return he was reported lost, but turned up two days later all right.

Captain Norgrave is now cruising the lower Delaware and bay in the Picnic. The officers and members are as follows: Commodore, C. B. Haag; vice commodore, H. M. Kreamer; captain, Woodward Norgrave; purser, F. W. Noyes; quartermaster, B. E. Fortiner; bugler, D. M. Bond; surgeon, H. La Motte, M. D.; correspondent, H. E. Mc Cormick; Alexander Amois, W. H. Baker, James Bond, E. C. R. Binder, F. H. Bendig, A. P. Childs, A. Fennimore, R. Q. Fleishman, George D. Gideon, F. R. Haviland, J. B. Long, J. Potter, W. E. Rothery, W. H. Smith, Dr. C. R. Tuttle, Dr. U. S. G. Fink, F. W. Wright, Don McCormick, Sanford Northrop, William Northrop, Weston Underwood aud Arthur La Motto.

The only other organization of the kind in this city is the Philadelphia Canoe Club. This claims to be the oldest club. It was at first a simple union of a few gentlemen who were in the habit of camping out and took pleasure in canoeing. It was organized on March 13, 1883, in the office of Our Continent, and in 1889 was incorporated. The original club house was located at Wilkin's Slip, near the Shackamaxon ferry, Camden. From there it was moved in May, 1887, to quarters at the foot of Second street, Camden, near to the Red Dragon's house. They both were burned out, the Philadelphia Canoe Club losing some eighteen boats, besides camping aud cruising outfits, racing sails, etc.

The club consists of fourteen active, eleven associate and two honorary members, The officers are S. H. Kirkpatrick, commodore; F. Westcott, M. D., purser; J. A. Inglis, secretary, and Francis Thibalt quartermaster. At present the Philadelphia Canoe Club's temporary quarters are at Riverton, where a few of the members live. The fire, which did not leave a single canoe whole, was a very severe blow to the organization. It has survived it nevertheless, and is gradually accumulating a fleet of new boats. Seven of these, all paddling canoes, have just come from the builder. The new crafts number about ten in all, two of which have been designed by a member of the club. One of the newest of the Red Dragon's canoes, also, the Kie Loe, was designed by a member, Harry McCormick. Its lines, particularly those at the bow, are said to resemble those of the Volunteer. It has already proved itself a fast boat and much is expected from it. It is uncertain just how many of the Philadelphia Club will attend the American Canoe Association's meet None go there direct from the city.

A party of about half a dozen of the members have just returned from an extended cruising trip through Lake George.

Both the Philadelphia clubs hold annual regattas, the Red Dragon several of them. When the Quaker City Yacht Club, several years ago, held open contests on the Delaware river, the canoes took part in certain races and won rather more than their proper share of the prizes.

The flags of the American Canoe Association and of the two local clubs agree in being V - shaped, the V numbering eighteen inches in length and twelve in breadth. The colors of the A. C. A. are red aud white; those the Philadelphia Club are blue and white while the Red Dragon Club unfurls its namesake coiled upon a white ground.0

Excerpt from a description of the 1890 meet at Jessup's Neck on Long Island describing each club's campsite:

The Sun New York, New York 17 Aug 1890, Sun  •  Page 9

....In point of brilliancy of design, artistic and original ideas the palm must be given to the Red Dragon Club of Philadelphia and the Puritan Club of Boston, these two clubs are located side by side. The Red Dragon flag is one that would attract attention anywhere. It is triangular as are all the canoe flags. It is blue at the point with a white keystone surrounded by a blue border at the larger end. Within the white keystone is a huge and ferocious red dragon. In his front paws are grasped the double canoe paddle. The ground has been cleared at the base of the flag pole and by means of sea shells and pebbles of various colors a dragon, more ferocious in appearance than the one on the flag, has been designed by the artist of the club and a warning sign has been hung up with the following injunction: "Don't feed and don't poke the dragon" ....