Yachting, Vol. 1
by Sir Edward Sullivan · English · Gutenberg #41971 · 899,869 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Yachting, Vol. 1
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Yachting, Vol. 1
Author: Sir Edward Sullivan
Earl Thomas Brassey Brassey
R. T. Pritchett
C. E. Seth-Smith
Watson. G. L.
Release date: February 2, 2013 [eBook #41971]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41971
Credits: Produced by StevenGibbs, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YACHTING, VOL. 1 ***
[Transcriber's notes: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected,
hyphenation has been standardised, all other inconsistencies are as in
the original. The author's spelling has been maintained.
Missing pages numbers correspond to blank pages or moved
illustrations.
In the formulas, "Power of" are in brackets { } and roots have been
rendered as: square root: [V¯]; cubic root: [3V¯]; fifth root: [5V¯].]
[Illustration: THE JACK OF 1606 A.D.
_St. Andrew of Scotland._
_St. George of England._
_St. Patrick of Ireland._
THE UNION JACK.]
The Badminton Library
of
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
EDITED BY
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G.
ASSISTED BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON
_YACHTING_
I.
YACHTING
BY
SIR EDWARD SULLIVAN, BART.
LORD BRASSEY, K.C.B., C. E. SETH-SMITH, C.B., G. L. WATSON
R. T. PRITCHETT
SIR GEORGE LEACH, K.C.B., Vice-President Y.R.A.
'THALASSA'
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY
E. F. KNIGHT and REV. G. L. BLAKE
[Illustration: Yachts.]
IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. T. PRITCHETT
AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1894
_DEDICATION
TO
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES_
BADMINTON: _May 1885_.
Having received permission to dedicate these volumes, the BADMINTON
LIBRARY of SPORTS and PASTIMES, to HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF
WALES, I do so feeling that I am dedicating them to one of the best
and keenest sportsmen of our time. I can say, from personal
observation, that there is no man who can extricate himself from a
bustling and pushing crowd of horsemen, when a fox breaks covert, more
dexterously and quickly than His Royal Highness; and that when hounds
run hard over a big country, no man can take a line of his own and
live with them better. Also, when the wind has been blowing hard,
often have I seen His Royal Highness knocking over driven grouse and
partridges and high-rocketing pheasants in first-rate workmanlike
style. He is held to be a good yachtsman, and as Commodore of the
Royal Yacht Squadron is looked up to by those who love that pleasant
and exhilarating pastime. His encouragement of racing is well known,
and his attendance at the University, Public School, and other
important Matches testifies to his being, like most English gentlemen,
fond of all manly sports. I consider it a great privilege to be
allowed to dedicate these volumes to so eminent a sportsman as His
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and I do so with sincere feelings
of respect and esteem and loyal devotion.
BEAUFORT.
[Illustration: BADMINTON.]
PREFACE
A few lines only are necessary to explain the object with which these
volumes are put forth. There is no modern encyclopædia to which the
inexperienced man, who seeks guidance in the practice of the various
British Sports and Pastimes, can turn for information. Some books
there are on Hunting, some on Racing, some on Lawn Tennis, some on
Fishing, and so on; but one Library, or succession of volumes, which
treats of the Sports and Pastimes indulged in by Englishmen--and
women--is wanting. The Badminton Library is offered to supply the
want. Of the imperfections which must be found in the execution of
such a design we are conscious. Experts often differ. But this we may
say, that those who are seeking for knowledge on any of the subjects
dealt with will find the results of many years' experience written by
men who are in every case adepts at the Sport or Pastime of which they
write. It is to point the way to success to those who are ignorant of
the sciences they aspire to master, and who have no friend to help or
coach them, that these volumes are written.
* * * * *
To those who have worked hard to place simply and clearly before the
reader that which he will find within, the best thanks of the Editor
are due. That it has been no slight labour to supervise all that has
been written, he must acknowledge; but it has been a labour of love,
and very much lightened by the courtesy of the Publisher, by the
unflinching, indefatigable assistance of the Sub-Editor, and by the
intelligent and able arrangement of each subject by the various
writers, who are so thoroughly masters of the subjects of which they
treat. The reward we all hope to reap is that our work may prove
useful to this and future generations.
THE EDITOR.
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
_By Sir Edward Sullivan, Bart._
II. OCEAN CRUISING 18
_By Lord Brassey, K.C.B._
III. CORINTHIAN DEEP-SEA CRUISING 41
_By C. E. Seth-Smith, C.B. (late commanding London Brigade
Royal Naval Volunteers_)
IV. THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN RACING YACHT 50
_By G. L. Watson._
V. SLIDING KEELS AND CENTREBOARDS 102
_By R. T. Pritchett._
VI. RECOLLECTIONS OF SCHOONER RACING 108
_By Sir George Leach, K.C.B., Vice-President Y.R.A._
VII. THE RACING RULES AND THE RULES OF RATING 146
_By 'Thalassa.'_
VIII. YACHT'S SAILING BOATS 187
_By the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery._
IX. SMALL YACHT RACING ON THE SOLENT 222
_By 'Thalassa.'_
X. FITTING OUT A FIFTY-TONNER TO GO FOREIGN. 295
_By E. F. Knight._
XI. BALTIC CRUISING 308
_By E. F. Knight._
XII. FIVE-TONNERS AND FIVE-RATERS IN THE NORTH 322
_By G. L. Blake._
XIII. YACHT INSURANCE 407
_By G. L. Blake._
INDEX 415
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE FIRST VOLUME
(_Reproduced by J. D. Cooper and Messrs. Walker & Boutall_)
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
ARTIST TO FACE PAGE
UNION JACK _Frontispiece_
'BRITANNIA,' H.R.H. Prince of Wales
_From a photograph by Wm. U. Kirk, of Cowes_ 50
'VARUNA,' 40-RATER
_From a photograph by Adamson, of Rothesay_ 54
'DORA,' 10-TONNER
" 58
'ARROW'--LINES
_G. L. Watson_ 72
'LETHE'--KEEL
_From a photograph_ 78
SALOON OF 'THISTLE'
" 82
'JULLANAR'
_From a photograph by Adamson, of Rothesay_ 88
MIDSHIP SECTIONS
_J. M. Soper, M.I.N.A._ 102
'EGERIA'
_R. T. Pritchett_ 114
'EGERIA' AND 'OIMARA'
" 134
'SEABELLE'
" 138
RACING FLAGS, SCHOONERS, CUTTERS, YAWLS, &c 140
'SAVOURNA,' 5-RATER
_From a photograph by Adamson, of Rothesay_ 244
'THE BABE,' 2-1/2-RATER
_From a photograph by Symonds, of Portsmouth_ 246
'DACIA,' 5-RATER
" 252
SOLENT OWNERS' RACING COLOURS 276
START OF SMALL RATERS ON THE CLYDE
_From a photograph by Adamson, of Rothesay_ 354
'WENONAH,' 2-1/2-RATER
" 360
'RED LANCER,' 5-RATER
" 372
COMMERCIAL CODE OF SIGNALS 394
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
BEFORE THE START (_Vignette_) _Title-page_
VICTORIA CUP, 1893
_R. T. Pritchett_ 1
'SUNBEAM' (R.Y.S), 1874
" 19
'SUNBEAM'--MIDSHIP SECTION
_St. Clare Byrne, of Liverpool_ 24
'SUNBEAM'--LINES
" 29
'CYGNET,' CUTTER, 1846--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_G. L. Watson_ 54
'PROBLEM,' 1852--PROFILE AND DECK PLAN
_Hunt's Magazine_ 55
'VARUNA,' 1892--PROFILE
_G. L. Watson_ 55
VANDERDECKEN'S TONNAGE CHEATER
_Hunt's Magazine_ 56
DOG-LEGGED STERNPOST
_G. L. Watson_ 57
'QUIRAING,' 1877--IMMERSED COUNTER
" 58
'BRITANNIA,' 1893--CUTWATER
" 60
'THISTLE,' 1887--CUTWATER
" 60
DIAGRAM OF LENGTH AND DISPLACEMENT OF 5-TONNERS
_G. L. Watson_ 62
PROFILES OF 5-TONNERS
" 63
SECTIONS SHOWING DECREASE OF BREADTH AND INCREASE OF DEPTH IN
5-TONNERS UNDER 94 AND 1730 RULES
" 63
DIAGRAM OF VARIATION UNDER DIFFERENT RULES
" 64
DIAGRAM SHOWING VARIATION OF DIMENSIONS, &c., WITH YEARS;
40-RATERS; L. AND S.A. RULE.
" 67
PROFILES OF 40-RATERS
" 67
MIDSHIP SECTIONS OF 40-RATERS
" 68
'LEOPARD,' 1807--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_Linn Ratsey, of Cowes_ 72
'MOSQUITO,' 1848--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_T. Waterman_ 75
'LETHE'--MIDSHIP SECTION
_G. L. Watson_ 79
'VALKYRIE'--PROFILE
" 82
'VIGILANT'--PROFILE
" 82
'BRITANNIA' CUTTER--GENERAL ARRANGEMENT PLAN
" 84
S.S. 'MERKARA'--RESISTANCE CURVES
" 87
'JULLANAR,' YAWL, 1875--MIDSHIP SECTION
_E. H. Bentall, Esq._ 89
'JULLANAR,' YAWL--LINES
" 91
'EVOLUTION,' 1880--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
" 92
'METEOR' (LATE 'THISTLE'), 1887--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_G. L. Watson_ 94
'FLORINDA,' YAWL, 1873--LINES
_Camper & Nicholson, of Gosport_ 97
'KRIEMHILDA,' 1872--PROFILE
_Michael Ratsey, of Cowes_ 98
'FLORINDA,' YAWL, 1873--PLANS
_Camper & Nicholson, of Gosport_ 100
'FLORINDA,' YAWL, 1873--MIDSHIP SECTION
" 101
H.M. BRIG 'LADY NELSON,' WITH THREE KEELS, 1797
_R. T. Pritchett_ 102
DIAGRAM OF BOAT WITH ONE CENTREBOARD, 1774
" 103
DIAGRAM OF BOAT WITH THREE SLIDING KEELS, 1789
" 103
DIAGRAMS SHOWING USE OF THREE KEELS IN 'LAYING TO,' 'ON A WIND,'
AND SCUDDING
" 104
'CUMBERLAND,' WITH FIVE SLIDING KEELS
_From a model in possession of Taylor family_ 105
'CUMBERLAND,' SHOWING THE FIVE KEELS DOWN
" 105
H.M. 'TRIAL' CUTTER, 1791--SHEER DRAUGHT
_R. T. Pritchett_ 107
'KESTREL,' SCHOONER, 1839
" 108
'PANTOMIME,' SCHOONER, 1865--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_Michael Ratsey, of Cowes_ 112
'CAMBRIA,' BEATING 'DAUNTLESS' IN 1870
(_From picture at R.T.Y.C._)
_R. T. Pritchett_ 125
'DAUNTLESS,' SCHOONER (N.Y.Y.C.), 1871
" 129
'CETONIA,' SCHOONER, 1873--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_Michael Ratsey, of Cowes_ 142
THE START
_From a photograph by Debenham, of Cowes_ 148
CHART OF THE ROYAL SOUTHAMPTON YACHT CLUB (BRAMBLES AND LEPE
COURSE) 161
DIAGRAM OF SAIL CURVES, 40-RATING CLASS
_'Thalassa'_ 173
WHALES
_R. T. Pritchett_ 189
THE SWOOP OF THE GANNET
" 192
'BLACK PEARL'S' CUTTER--MIDSHIP SECTION
" 200
MAIN SHEET ON IRON HORSE 202
'BLACK PEARL'S' CUTTER--SAIL PLAN
_Richard Perry & Co._ 203
S.S. 'ALINE'S' CUTTER 205
S.S. 'ALINE'S' CUTTER--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_Earl of Pembroke_ 207
'BLACK PEARL'S' CUTTER--LINES
" 209
THE SQUALL IN LOCH SCAVAIG, SKYE
_R. T. Pritchett_ 217
'EXCUSE ME'
" 218
SELF-UNMOORED
" 219
NEVER 'MOON'
" 220
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME
" 221
'COCK-A-WHOOP,' 1889--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_A. E. Payne_ 234
'HUMMING BIRD,' 1889
_A. E. Payne, from a photograph by Symonds_ 236
'QUINQUE,' 5-RATER; LT.-COL. BUCKNILL, R.E.
_From a photograph by Symonds, of Portsmouth_ 242
'THE BABE,' 1890--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_A. E. Payne_ 244
'MOSQUITO,' 1892, WITH ROLL FORESAIL
_J. M. Soper_ 249
'DOREEN,' 1892
_From a photograph by Debenham, of Cowes_ 252
'CYANE,' 1892
_From a private Kodak_ 253
'WINDFALL,' 1891
From a photograph by Adamson, of Rothesay 254
'FAUGH-A-BALLAGH,' 1892--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_A. E. Payne_ 256
DIAGRAMS SHOWING IMPROVEMENTS IN FORE SECTIONS OF 2-1/2 RATERS
_J. M. Soper_ 257
DIAGRAMS SHOWING IMPROVEMENTS IN AFT SECTIONS OF 2-1/2 RATERS
" 258
DESIGN FOR 1-RATER BY J. M. SOPER, 1892
" 260
DESIGN FOR A CENTREBOARD 1-RATER BY J. M. SOPER, 1892
" 262
'WEE WINN,' 1892
_From a photograph by Debenham, of Cowes_ 265
'WEE WINN'--LINES
_J. M. Soper_ 266
'DAISY,' 1892--LINES
" 266
CHART OF THE ROYAL SOUTHAMPTON YACHT CLUB, 'BRAMBLES COURSE' 283
THE DROGUE OFF THE KULLEN HEAD
_R. T. Pritchett_ 308
DANSKE FISHING-BOAT AND ANCHOR
" 311
ROSKILDE FROM THE FIORD
" 313
A DANSKE CRAFT
" 315
A GOOD CRAFT FOR THE BALTIC
" 317
TOWING HEAD TO WIND
" 319
A DROGUE
" 321
CHART OF THE DUBLIN, KINGSTOWN, AND MERSEY COURSE 327
'FREDA'
_R. T. Pritchett_ 336
'CHALLENGE,' 1876
" 339
'MINERVA,' 1888--LINES AND MIDSHIP SECTION
_Fife of Fairlie_ 368
'NATICA,' 1892
_From a photograph by Adamson, of Rothesay_ 374
IN THE CHANNEL
_R. T. Pritchett_ 406
CHAPTER I
[Illustration: Yachts.]
INTRODUCTION
BY SIR EDWARD SULLIVAN, BART.
[Illustration: VICTORIA CUP. 1893.]
It is related that Chrysippus, a cynic, killed himself in order that
he might sooner enjoy the delights of Paradise. Philosophers do queer
things sometimes. Many who are not philosophers kill themselves in
order to avoid the miseries of this world; but, as far as I know, this
is the only case on record of a man killing himself from impatience to
enjoy the pleasures of the next.
Ideas of Paradise are exceedingly various. To the ancients Paradise
meant a _dolce far niente_ in the Elysian Fields; to the North
American Indians it means happy hunting grounds and plenty of fat
buffalo. The Scythians believed in a Paradise of immortal drunkenness
and drinking blood out of the skulls of their enemies, and the
Paradise that to-day influences the belief of one-fourth of the human
race is contained in Chapter X. of the Koran. To Madame de Chevreuse
it meant chatting with her friends in the next world. To one friend of
mine it was galloping for ever over a grass country without gates. To
another it meant driving four horses, with Tim Carter seated at his
side. To some, I believe, Paradise means yachting, and for my own
part, I think a 200-ton schooner, a ten-knot breeze, and a summer sea
hard to beat. Whether yachting approaches one's conception of Paradise
or not, I think there are very few of us who, if they do not suffer
from that hopeless affection the _mal de mer_, do not more or less
enjoy a life on the ocean wave; it is so fresh and life-giving and so
various. 'A home on the stormy deep' we won't say so much about. I
have seen two or three storms at sea, but I have never found them
pleasant; very much the contrary. There is grandeur, if you like, but
there is also terror and horror.
As black as night she turned to white,
And cast against the cloud
A snowy sheet as if each surge
Upturned a sailor's shroud.
This is poetry; but it is true. You look to windward, and you look to
leeward; you look ahead, and you look astern, and you feel that, if
you are not already engulfed, you probably may be in the next minute.
Dr. Johnson said the pleasure of going to sea was getting ashore
again; certainly the pleasure of a storm is getting into smooth water
again.
The ideas of pleasure as connected with yachting vary as much as the
ideas of Paradise; to one it means steaming at full speed from one
port to another; but this becomes monotonous. A friend of mine used to
write a letter at Cowes, address it to himself at Guernsey, and then
steam, hard all, to Guernsey to get his letter. When he got it he
would write to himself at Plymouth, then steam away, hard all again,
to get that, and so on; even in steaming you must have an object of
some kind, you know.
To another dowagering up and down the Solent, lunching on board, and
then hurrying back to dine and sleep ashore are pleasure; to another,
sailing with the wind, or against the wind, or drifting when there is
no wind, is the ideal of yachting. Certainly that is mine. I have
tried both. I have had a steamer and I have had sailing vessels, and
if I lived to the age of the Hyperboreans and owned several gold mines
I should never keep a steamer for pleasure. In sailing, the interest
never flags; the rigging, the sails, the anchors, the cables, the
boats, the decks, all have their separate interest; every puff of
wind, every catspaw, is a source of entertainment, and when the breeze
comes, and, with everything drawing below and aloft, you tear along
ten or twelve knots an hour, the sensation of pleasure is complete--if
you are not sick.
I can never allow that steaming, under any conditions, can give the
same pleasure as sailing--nor a hundredth part of it. If you are in a
hurry, steam by all means--steam, steam, steam, pile on the coal,
blacken sea and sky with your filthy smoke, and get into your port;
but that is the pleasure of locomotion, not of yachting. Even as
regards locomotion, there are occasions when a fine sailing vessel
will go by a steamer as if she were standing still.
Years ago I sailed from Plymouth to Lisbon in four days, and from
Lisbon to Cowes in four days, and passed all the steamers on the way!
_Atque haec olim meminisse juvabit._ These are the happy moments, like
forty minutes across a grass country, that fond memory brings back to
us, and which Time's effacing fingers will never touch. Can steam at
its best afford such delight as this? No; of course not. But,
although this is my opinion of the relative pleasure of sailing and
steaming, it is not by any means the general one; the race of steam
_versus_ canvas has been run, and alas! steam has won easily, hands
down. I say alas! for I think that, from every point of view, yachting
has suffered from the general employment of steam.
One of the objects of the Royal Yacht Squadron, when it was originally
founded, was to encourage seamanship, and, as steam was supposed to
destroy seamanship, steamers were not admitted into the Club; and the
Royal Yacht Squadron was right. Steam does destroy seamanship; a
steamship hand is certainly not half a sailor. Now more than half the
tonnage of the Club is in steamers. I think it is a pity, and they are
such steamers too! 800 tons, 1,000 tons, 1,500 tons. I do not see
where they are to stop; but, I believe that in this, as in most
things, we have run into excess. I cannot believe that the largest
steam yacht afloat, with all the luxury and cost that upholsterers and
cabinet-makers can devise, will ever give a man who is fond of the sea
and seafaring matters a tithe of the gratification that a 100-ton
sailing vessel will afford; one is a floating hotel, the other is a
floating cottage. I prefer the cottage.
The worry of maintaining discipline in a crew of forty or fifty men,
amongst whom there is sure to be one or two black sheep, the smoke,
the smell of oil, the vibration, the noise, even the monotony, destroy
pleasure. Personally, the game seems to me not worth the candle.
Thirty or forty years ago, yachting men with their sixty or hundred
tonners went on year after year, fitting out, and cruising about the
coast, as part of their yearly life. When their vessel was wearing
out, they would sell her, and buy or build another; they seldom parted
with her for any other reason. Now a man builds a floating palace or
hotel at a fabulous cost; but as a general rule in about two years he
wants to sell her and to retire from yachting life.
A sailing vessel and a steamer are different articles; you get
attached to a sailing vessel as you do to anything animate, to your
horse, or your dog; but I defy anyone to get attached to a smoky, oily
steamer. There is an individuality about the sailing vessel; none
about the steamer.
When the seven wise men of Greece delivered the oracular dictum that
there were only two beautiful things in the world, women and roses,
and only two good things, women and wine, they spoke according to
their limited experience--they had never seen the new type of racing
yacht under sail. Of course the perfection of animate beauty is
represented by women, but certainly inanimate nature can show nothing
more beautiful than 'Britannia,' 'Navahoe,' 'Valkyrie,' 'Satanita,'
their sails well filled, the sun shining on them, streaking along
twelve or thirteen knots an hour, apparently without an effort,
scarcely raising a ripple. And then a yacht is so exceedingly feminine
in her ways. One day everything goes right with her--she will not only
do all she is asked to do, but a great deal more than her greatest
admirers ever thought she could do: the next day everything goes wrong
with her--she will not do anything she is asked, and indeed will not
do what her admirers know she can do without an effort.
Some women--I speak it with all respect--bear being 'squeezed' and
'pinched,' they almost seem to like it, at any rate they don't cry
out; whereas others will cry out immediately and vigorously. So will
yachts.
The more you squeeze one vessel, the more you pinch her, the more she
seems to enjoy it. Squeeze another, pinch her into the wind, and she
lies down and calls out at once. The difference between vessels in
this respect is quite funny, and essentially feminine.
Curiously enough, extremes meet; that is to say, if the pendulum of
taste or fashion goes very much over to one side, it is sure to go
over just as far on the other. Sailing yachts of 100, 200, 300 tons
have gone out of fashion, and leviathan steamers of 800, 1,000, 1,500
tons have taken their place; but at the same time that a taste for
immense steamers has driven moderate-sized sailing vessels out of the
field, a taste for small boats, 5-raters, 3-raters, 1/2-raters--I
don't quite understand their rating--has sprung up, and promises
almost to supplant the big steamers themselves.
I believe the increasing popularity of these swallows of the seas--for
turning, wheeling, skimming, doubling, as they do, I can compare them
to nothing else--is a very good omen for yachting; they are expensive
for their size and tonnage, certainly, but, after all, their cost may
be counted in hundreds instead of tens of thousands. They have brought
scientific boat sailing and racing within the reach of hundreds who
cannot afford big racing yachts; and, moreover, the ladies join in
these exciting contests, and of course very often win. In endurance,
and courage, and nerve, and quickness, they are quite the equals of
the other sex; and if they are occasionally a little too pertinacious,
a little too eager to win, and don't always 'go about' exactly when
the rules of the road require, what does it signify? Who grudges them
their little victory?
A flight of these sea swallows skimming over the course at Calshot
Castle, on a fine day with a good working breeze, is one of the
prettiest sights in the world.
Independently of the health-giving and invigorating influences both to
mind and body of a yachting life, it has advantages that in my opinion
raise it above any other sport, if sport it is to be called. There is
neither cruelty nor professionalism in yachting, except when certain
foolish snobs in sheer wantonness shoot the too-confiding gulls that
hover round the sterns of their yachts. There is no professional
element in yachting, I repeat, not even in yacht racing, at least not
enough to speak of, and it is an enormous advantage in its favour that
it brings one into contact with what I believe is without doubt the
best of our working population; for are not the toilers of the sea
workers in the very fullest sense of the word?
Yacht sailors, as a rule, are sober, honest, obliging, good-tempered,
original. During the many years I have yachted, I have had crews from
north, east, west, and south, and I have almost without exception
found them the same. A man must be hard to please indeed, if, after a
three or four months' cruise, he does not part from his crew with
regret, and with a sincere wish that they may meet again.
Amongst yachting skippers, I have come across some of the most
honourable, trustworthy, honest men I have met in any class of life,
men who know their duty, and are always willing and anxious to do it.
The chief peculiarity of all the seafaring class that I have been
brought into contact with is their entire freedom from vulgarity. They
are obliging to the utmost of their power, but never cringing or
vulgar. The winter half of their lives is spent in fishing-boats, or
coasters, or sea voyages where they have to face dangers and hardships
that must be experienced to be realised. As a rule, they are
religious; and their preparations for the Sabbath, their washings and
soapings and brushings, show with what pleasure they welcome its
recurrence. Yacht minstrelsy, with its accordion, its songs of twenty
verses, its never-ending choruses, its pathos, is a thing of itself.
Some day perhaps some Albert Chevalier will make it fashionable. Such
as they are, I know no class of Englishmen superior, if any be equal,
to the sailors who man our yachts. Of course there are sharks, or at
any rate dog-fish, in all waters; but where the good so immensely
outnumber the bad, that man must be a fool indeed who gets into wrong
hands.
To say there is no vulgarity in yachting is not true; there is; but it
is not amongst the men or among the skippers. And, after all, the
vulgarity one sometimes sees amongst yacht-owners does not go for
much; it amuses them and hurts nobody. If the amateur sailor wishes to
be thought more of a sailor than the sailor born, he soon finds out
his mistake, and when he gets into a good club subsides into his
proper position.
To those who are fond of the sea and of yachting, the yacht is the
most 'homey' of residences; everything is cosy, and comfortable, and
within reach; and the sensation of carrying your house and all its
comforts about with you is unique.
The internal economy of a yacht constitutes one of its greatest
charms. Your cook, with only a little stove for which a shore cook
would scarcely find any use, will send you up an excellent dinner
cooked to perfection for any number of guests; and the steward! who
can describe the work of a yacht's steward? I doubt whether Briareus
with his hundred hands could do more than a steward does with two. At
seven in the morning he is ashore for the milk, and the breakfast, and
the letters, and the flowers; he valets half a dozen people, prepares
half a dozen baths, brushes heaven knows how many clothes, gets the
breakfast, makes the beds, cleans the plate, tidies the cabin,
provides luncheon, five-o'clock tea, dinner, is always cheerful,
obliging, painstaking, and more than repaid if occasionally he gets a
_petit mot_ of compliment or congratulation. When he ever sleeps, or
eats, I never can tell; and, far from grumbling at his work, he often
resents the assistance of any shore-going servant.
The introduction of steam launches has added very much to the
pleasures of yachting, and to my mind has greatly lessened the
advantages, if any, that steamers possess over sailing vessels. Every
vessel of 100 tons and over can now carry a steam launch, big or
small, at the davits, or on deck. You _sail_ from port to port, or
loch to loch, in your sailing vessel, and when you have found snug
anchorage, you 'out kettle' and puff away for as long as you like,
enjoying the pleasure of exploring the rivers and creeks and
neighbouring objects of interest. Everywhere this is delightful, at
Plymouth, at Dartmouth, at Falmouth, the Scilly Isles, at St. Malo,
and perhaps especially in Scotland.
To my mind, the West Coast of Scotland is, _par excellence_, the happy
cruising grounds of yachtsmen. I know of none like it--the number and
variety of the lochs, the wild grandeur of some, the soft beauty of
others, the mountains, the rocks, the islands, the solitude, the
forests, the trees.
Oh! the Oak and the Ash, and the bonny Ivy tree,
They flourish best at home in the North Countrie.
The heather, especially the white, the ferns, the mosses, the wild
flowers, the innumerable birds and fish, the occasional seals and
whales, the wildness of the surroundings, all combine to give it a
charm that is indescribable. I have seen on the coast of Skye a whale,
thirty or forty feet long, jump clean out of the water three or four
times, like a salmon. Anchored close under a cliff in Loch Hourn, and
happening to look up, I met the wondering eyes of a hind craning over
the edge of the cliffs, and staring right down on the yacht. Go the
world over, you will nowhere find so much varied beauty, above or
below, on land or sea, as on the West Coast of Scotland.
Nobody can explore or appreciate the beauty of the Scotch lochs
without a 'kettle.' It spoils one's pleasure to keep a boat's crew
pulling for eight or ten hours in a hot sun, and therefore, if you
have no steam launch, many expeditions that promise much interest and
pleasure are abandoned; but with your kettle and a man, or a man and a
boy, you don't care how long you are out or how far you go. This to my
mind is the most enjoyable combination of sails and steam--a
comfortable sailing vessel, schooner or ketch for choice, to carry you
from port to port, and a steam launch for exploration when you get
there.
The accommodation of a sailing vessel is, on a rough calculation,
double the accommodation of a steamer of the same tonnage. The Earl of
Wilton, Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, had a schooner of 200
tons, and after sailing in her many years he decided, as so many
others have done, to give up sailing and take to steam. To obtain
exactly the same accommodation that he had on board his 200-ton
schooner, he had to build a steamer, the 'Palatine,' of 400 tons. Of
course in an iron steamer of 400 tons the height between decks is
very much greater than in a wooden schooner of 200 tons. Also the
cabins are larger, but there are no more of them.
I think many people have erroneous ideas of the cost of yachting.
Yacht _racing_, especially in the modern cutters of 150 or 170 tons,
is very expensive. The wear and tear of spars and gear is incredible.
I believe that in the yachting season of 1893 H.R.H. the Prince of
Wales's vessel the 'Britannia' sprang or carried away three masts; and
some of his competitors were not more lucky. Then racing wages are
very heavy: 10_s._ per man when you lose, and 20_s._ when you win,
with unlimited beef, and beer, &c., mount up when you have a great
many hands, and the new type of racer, with booms 90 feet long,
requires an unlimited number; when you look at these boats racing,
they seem actually swarming with men. In addition to 10_s._ or 20_s._
to each man, the skipper gets 5 per cent. or 10 per cent. of the value
of the prize, or its equivalent.
So that a modern racing yacht with a crew of 30 men may, if
successful, easily knock a hole in 1,000_l._ for racing wages alone,
to say nothing of cost of spars, and sails, and gear, &c. Of course,
in comparison with keeping a pack of hounds, or a deer forest, or a
good grouse moor, or to pheasant preserving on a very large scale, the
expense of yacht racing even at its worst is modest; but still in
these days 1,000_l._ or 1,500_l._ is an item.
But yachting for pleasure, yacht cruising in fact, is _not_ an
expensive amusement. The wages of a 100- to a 200-ton cutter or
schooner will vary from 50_l._ to 100_l._ a month at the outside, and
the wear and tear, if the vessel and gear are in good order, is very
moderate; and undoubtedly the living on board a yacht is infinitely
cheaper than living ashore.
Thirty to forty pounds, or as much as fifty pounds, a week may easily
go in hotel bills if there is a largish party. Half the sum will keep
a 100- or 150-ton yacht going, wages, wear and tear, food, &c.,
included, if you are afloat for three or four months. Certainly for a
party of four or five yachting is cheaper than travelling on the
Continent with a courier and going to first-class hotels. Travelling
on the Continent under the best conditions often becomes a bore; the
carriages are stuffy and dusty, the trains are late, the officials are
uncivil or at least indifferent, the hotels are full, the kitchen is
bad, and you come to the conclusion that you would be better at home.
Now, on board a yacht you are never stuffy or dusty, the accommodation
is always good, everyone about you is always civil, anxious for your
comfort, the kitchen is never bad, and you cannot come to the
conclusion that you would be better at home, for you _are_ at
home--the most cosy and comfortable of homes!
The yachting season of 1893 will always be a memorable one. The
victory of H.I.M. the German Emperor's 'Meteor' for the Queen's Cup at
Cowes; the victorious career of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales's
'Britannia' and the 'Valkyrie'; the series of international contests
between the 'Britannia' and 'Navahoe,' with the unexpected victory of
the latter over the cross-Channel course; and, finally, the gallant
attempt of Lord Dunraven to bring back the cup from America, make a
total of yachting incidents, and indeed surprises, that will last for
a very long time. The victory of the 'Meteor' in the Queen's Cup was a
surprise: it was more than a surprise when the 'Navahoe' beat
'Britannia' to Cherbourg and back in a gale of wind. I don't know that
it was a matter of surprise that the Americans kept the Cup; I think,
indeed, it was almost a foregone conclusion. In yachting, as in
everything else, possession is nine points of the law, and a vessel
sailing in her own waters, with pilots accustomed to the local
currents and atmospheric movements, will always have an advantage.
Whether the 'Vigilant' is a better boat than the 'Valkyrie,' whether
she was better sailed, whether her centreboard had anything to do with
her victory, I cannot say. But there is the result: that the
'Vigilant' won by seven minutes, which, at the rate they were sailing,
means about a mile.
It would appear that the Americans are still slightly ahead of us in
designing yachts for speed, but they are not nearly as far ahead of us
as they were forty years ago. I remember the first time the 'America'
sailed at Cowes in 1851. I could not believe my eyes. It was blowing a
stiff breeze, and whilst all the other schooners were laying over ten
or twelve degrees, she was sailing perfectly upright, and going five
knots to their four. It was a revelation--how does she do it? was in
everybody's mouth. Now we are much more on an equality. The 'Navahoe,'
a beautiful vessel, one of the best, comes to England and is worsted:
the 'Valkyrie,' a beautiful vessel, also one of the best, goes over to
America and is worsted.
The moral I think is 'race at home in your own waters.' I do not
believe much in international contests of any kind, gravely doubting
whether they do much to promote international amity.
It is a familiar sight to see H.R.H. the Prince of Wales taking part
in yacht racing, but 1893 was the first occasion, in an English yacht
race at any rate, that the Kaiser donned his flannels and joined
personally in the contest. I suppose there is no monarch who is so
dosed with ceremony and etiquette as the Emperor of Germany. What a
relief, therefore, it must be to him to put aside the cares of
monarchy for a whole week, and sit for hours in two or three inches of
water, hauling away at the mainsheet as if his life depended on it,
happy as the traditional king, if, when he has gone about, he finds he
has gained six feet on his rival!
But beyond all this--the heartiness, the equality, the good feeling,
the absorbing interest that attends yacht racing and yacht
cruising--there are some very interesting questions that suggest
themselves in connection with the great increase of speed lately
developed by the new type of racing yachts.
There is no doubt whatever that whereas the Pleasure Fleet of England
is progressing and improving every year, and is a subject of
congratulation to everyone concerned with it--designers, builders, and
sailors--the Business Fleet, the Royal Navy, is the very reverse: not
only has it not improved, but it appears to have been going steadily
the wrong road; and instead of being a joy to designers and sailors,
it is confusion to the former, and something very like dismay to the
latter.
In James I.'s time the fleet was not held in very high estimation. It
was said of it that 'first it went to Gravesend, then to Land's End,
and then to No End,' and really that appears to be its condition now.
Whilst yachts are developing all the perfections of the sailing ship,
our ironclads seem to be developing most of the imperfections of the
steamship.
Whilst our yachts can do anything but speak, our ironclads can do
anything but float. Of course this is an exaggeration; but
exaggeration is excusable at times, at least if we are to be guided by
the debates in Parliament. At any rate, it is no exaggeration to say
they are very disappointing. If they go slow, they won't steer. If
they go fast, they won't stop. If they collide in quite a friendly
way, they go down. One sinks in twelve minutes, and the other with
difficulty keeps afloat. In half a gale of wind, if the crew remain on
deck, they are nearly drowned; if they go below, they are nearly
asphyxiated.
They have neither stability nor buoyancy. But this does not apply to
English ironclads alone. French, German, Italian, American, are all
the same. Some of these monsters are fitted with machinery as delicate
and complicated as a watch that strikes the hours, and minutes, and
seconds, tells the months, weeks, and days, the phases of the moon,
&c. &c. Some of them have no fewer than thirty to thirty-five
different engines on board. If the vessel containing all this
wonderful and elaborate machinery never left the Thames or Portsmouth
Harbour, all well and good, very likely the machinery would continue
to work; but to send such a complex arrangement across the Atlantic or
the Bay in winter seems to me contrary to common sense.
The biggest ironclad afloat, a monster of 13,000 tons, in mid ocean
is, after all, only as 'a flea on the mountain'; it is nothing; it is
tossed about, and rolled about, and struck by the seas and washed by
them, just as if it were a pilot boat of 60 tons. It is certain that
the concussion of the sea will throw many of these delicate bits of
machinery out of gear: in the 'Resolution' in a moderate gale the
engine that supplied air below decks broke down; the blow that sank
the unfortunate 'Victoria' threw the steering apparatus out of gear,
so that if she had not gone down she would not have steered; more
recently still the water in the hydraulic steering apparatus in a ship
off Sheerness froze, so that she could not put to sea. If such
accidents can happen in time of peace, when vessels are only
manoeuvring, or going from port to port, what would happen if two
13,000-ton ships rammed each other at full speed? Is it not almost
certain that the whole thirty-five engines would stop work?
We have, I suppose, nearly reached the maximum of speed attainable by
steam; have we nearly reached the maximum attainable by sails? By no
means. When Anacharsis the younger was asked which was the best ship,
he said the ship that had arrived safe in port; but even the ancients
were not always infallible. The 'Resolution' did not prove she was the
best ship by coming into port; on the contrary, she would have proved
herself a much better ship if she had been able to continue her
voyage. What we want in a man-of-war, as far as I understand the
common-sense view of the question, is buoyancy, speed, handiness, and
the power of keeping the seas for long periods.
Racing cutters of 150 to 170 tons are now built to sail at a speed
that two years ago was not dreamt of. Where a short time since the
best of them used to take minutes to go about, they now go about in as
many seconds. The racing vessels of the present day will reach
thirteen or fourteen knots an hour, and sail ten knots on a wind; with
hardly any wind at all they creep along eight knots. They do not
appear to be able to go less than eight knots; double their size, and
their speed would be immensely increased.
Now if thirteen and fourteen knots can be got out of a vessel of 170
tons, and seventeen knots out of one double her size, what speed might
you fairly expect to get out of a racing vessel of 10,000 tons? Rather
a startling suggestion certainly; but, if carefully examined, not
without reason.
We have nothing to guide us as to the probable speed of a racing
vessel of that size. Time allowance becomes lost in the immensity of
the question.
I see no reason why a vessel of 10,000 tons, built entirely for speed,
should not, on several points of sailing, go as fast as any torpedo
boat, certainly much faster than any ironclad. Her speed, reaching in
a strong breeze, would be terrific; and if 'Britannia,' 'Navahoe,'
'Valkyrie,' 'Vigilant,' and vessels of that class can sail ten knots
on a wind, why should not she sail fifteen? She would have to be fore
and aft rigged, with an immense spread of canvas, very high masts, and
very long booms; single sticks would be nowhere; but iron sticks and
iron booms can be built up of any length and any strength, and with
wire rigging I see no limit to size. Such a vessel amply provided with
torpedoes of all descriptions, and all the modern diabolisms for
destroying life, would be so dangerous a customer that no ironclad
would attack her with impunity. Of course there would occasionally be
conditions under which she would be at a disadvantage with ironclads;
but, on the other hand, there are many conditions under which
ironclads, even the best of them, would be under enormous
disadvantages with her. She could circumnavigate the globe without
stopping. I believe her passages would be phenomenal, life on board
would be bright and healthy, she would be seaworthy, able to keep the
seas in all weathers, easily handled, no complicated machinery to fail
you at the moment when you were most dependent on it; and then what a
beauty she would be! Why, a fleet of such vessels would be a sight for
gods and men. We have sailing vessels of 3,000 and 4,000 tons,
four-masted, square-rigged; they are built for carrying, not for
speed, but even they make passages that to the merchant seaman of a
hundred years ago would appear incredible.
I probably shall not live to see the clumsy, unwieldy, complicated,
unseaworthy machines called ironclads cast aside, wondered at by
succeeding generations, as we now wonder at the models of antediluvian
monsters at the Crystal Palace; but that such will be their fate I
have no doubt whatever. For our battleships we have gone back to the
times of knights in armour, when men were so loaded with iron that
where they fell there they remained, on their backs or their stomachs,
till their squires came to put them on their legs again. I am certain
that neither the public, nor the naval authorities of the world,
realise what an ironclad in time of war means--positively they will
never be safe out of near reach of a coaling station. Suppose--and
this is tolerably certain to happen--that when they reach a coaling
station they find no coal, or very possibly find it in the hands of
the enemy. What are they to do? Without coal to steam back again, or
to reach another station, they will be as helpless as any derelict on
the ocean: a balloon without gas, a locomotive without steam, a
100-ton gun without powder, would not be so useless as an ironclad
without coal.
But what has all this to do with yachting? it may be asked. Well, it
is the logical and practical result of the recent development of speed
in sailing vessels. It positively becomes the question whether racing
sails and racing hulls may not, in speed even, give results almost as
satisfactory as steam, and in many other matters results far more
favourable.
Of course the model of the racing yacht would have to be altered for
the vessel of 10,000 tons. Vessels must get their stability from beam
and from the scientific adjustment of weights, not merely from depth
of keel--the Channel would not be deep enough for a vessel that drew
twenty fathoms; but this change of design need not affect their speed
or their stability very much.
In the introduction to the Badminton Library volumes on Yachting, a
great deal might be expected about the national importance of the
pastime as a nursery for sailors, a school for daring, and all that
sort of thing. But I think all this 'jumps to the eyes'; those who run
may read it. I have preferred to treat the question of yachting more
as one of personal pleasure and amusement than of national policy; and
besides, I am sure that I may safely leave the more serious aspects of
the sport to the writers whose names are attached to the volumes.
For myself, after yachting for nearly a quarter of a century, I can
safely say that it has afforded me more unmixed pleasure than any
other sport or amusement I have ever tried. Everything about it has
been a source of delight to me--the vessels, the skippers, the crews,
the cruises. I do not think I have ever felt dull or bored on a yacht,
and even now, in the evening of life, I would willingly contract to
spend my remaining summers on board a 200-ton schooner.
CHAPTER II
OCEAN CRUISING
BY LORD BRASSEY, K.C.B.
I fear that I can scarcely hope to contribute to the present volume of
the admirable Badminton Series anything that is very new or original.
Although my voyages have extended over a long period, and have carried
me into nearly every navigable sea, I have for the most part followed
well-known tracks. The seamanship, as practised in the 'Sunbeam,' has
been in conformity with established rule; the navigation has been that
of the master-ordinary.
It would be hardly fair to fill the pages of a general treatise with
autobiography. As an introduction, however, to the remarks which
follow, my career as a yachtsman may be summarised in the most
condensed form.
VOYAGES
Twelve voyages to the Mediterranean; the furthest points reached being
Constantinople, 1874 and 1878; Cyprus, 1878; Egypt, 1882.
Three circumnavigations of Great Britain.
One circumnavigation of Great Britain and the Shetland Islands, in
1881.
Two circumnavigations of Ireland.
Cruises with the fleets during manoeuvres, in 1885, 1888, and 1889.
Voyages to Norway, in 1856, 1874, and 1885. In the latter year Mr.
Gladstone and his family were honoured and charming guests.
Voyages to Holland, in 1858 and 1863.
Round the World, 1876-77.
India, Straits Settlements, Borneo, Macassar, Australia, Cape of Good
Hope, 1886-87.
England to Calcutta, 1893.
Two voyages to the West Indies, 1883 and 1892, the latter including
visits to the Chesapeake and Washington.
[Illustration: 'Sunbeam,' R.Y.S. (Lord Brassey).]
Canada and the United States, 1872.
The Baltic, 1860.
In 1889 the 'Sunbeam' was lent to Lord Tennyson, for a short cruise in
the Channel. The owner deeply regrets that he was prevented by
Parliamentary duties from taking charge of his vessel with a passenger
so illustrious on board.
The distances covered in the course of the various cruises enumerated
may be approximately given:--
_Distances sailed: compiled from Log Books_
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Year | Knots | Year | Knots | Year | Knots | Year | Knots
+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+
1854 | 150 | 1864 | 1,000 | 1874 | 12,747 | 1884 | 3,087
1855 | 250 | 1865 | 2,626 | 1875 | 4,370 | 1885 | 6,344
1856 | 2,000 | 1866 | 4,400 | 1876 } | 1886 }
1857 | 1,500 | 1867 | 3,000 | 1877 } 37,000 | 1887 } 36,466
1858 | 2,500 | 1868 | 1,000 | 1878 | 9,038 | 1888 | 1,175
1859 | 2,300 | 1869 | 1,900 | 1879 | 5,627 | 1889 | 8,785
1860 | 1,000 | 1870 | 1,400 | 1880 | 5,415 | 1890 | 8,287
1861 | 800 | 1871 | 5,234 | 1881 | 5,435 | 1891 | 1,133
1862 | 3,200 | 1872 | 9,152 | 1882 | 3,345 | 1892 | 11,992
1863 | 900 | 1873 | 2,079 | 1883 | 13,545 | 1893 | 8,500
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Total, 1854-1893, 228,682 knots.
I turn from the voyages to the yachts in which they were performed,
observing that no later possession filled its owner with more pride
than was felt in the smart little 8-tonner which heads the list.
+--------+--------------------+------------+---------+---------------------+
Date | Name of yacht | Rig | Tonnage | --
+--------+--------------------+------------+---------+---------------------+
1854-58 | Spray of the Ocean | Cutter | 8 | --
1853 | Cymba (winner of } | |
| Queen's Cup in } " | 50 { Fife of Fairlie's
| the Mersey, 1857)} | { favourite
1859-60 | Albatross | | 118 | --
1863-71 | Meteor { Auxiliary } |
| { schooner } 164 | --
1871-72 | Muriel | Cutter | 60 { Dan Hatcher's
| | | { favourite
1872 | Eothen | S.S. | 340 |
1874-93 | Sunbeam { Auxiliary } |
| { schooner } 532 | --
1882-83 | Norman | Cutter | 40 | Dan Hatcher
1891 | Lorna | " | 90 { Camper and Nicholson
| | | { (1881)
1892-93 | Zarita | Yawl | 115 { Fife of Fairlie
| | | { (1875)
+--------+--------------------+------------+---------+---------------------+
_Yachts hired_
1885 | Lillah | Cutter | 20 | --
1863 | Eulalie | " | 18 | --
1873 | Livonia | Schooner | 240 | Ratsey (1871)
+--------+--------------------+------------+---------+---------------------+
The variety of craft in the foregoing list naturally affords
opportunity for comparison. I shall be glad if such practical lessons
as I have learned can be of service to my brother yachtsmen. And,
first, as to the class of vessel suitable for ocean cruising. As might
be expected, our home-keeping craft are generally too small for long
voyages. Rajah Brooke did some memorable work in the 'Royalist'
schooner, 45 tons; but a vessel of 400 tons is not too large to keep
the sea and to make a fair passage in all weathers, while giving space
enough for privacy and comfort to the owner, his friends, and the
crew. Such vessels as the truly noble 'St. George,' 871 tons, the
'Valhalla,' 1,400 tons, and Mr. Vanderbilt's 'Valiant,' of 2,350 tons
(Mr. St. Clare Byrne's latest production), cannot be discussed as
examples of a type which can be repeated in ordinary practice.
Yachtsmen have been deterred from going to sufficient tonnage by
considerations of expense. When providing a floating home of possibly
many years, first cost is a less serious question than the annual
outlay in maintaining and working.
A cruise on the eastern seaboard of North America, where the business
of coasting has been brought to the highest perfection, would
materially alter the prevailing view as to the complements necessary
for handling a schooner of the tonnage recommended. The coasting trade
of the United States is carried on in large schooners, rigged with
three to five masts. All the sails are fore and aft. In tacking, a
couple of hands attend the headsheets, and these, with a man at the
wheel, are sufficient to do the work of a watch, even in narrow
channels, working short boards. The anchor is weighed and the large
sails are hoisted by steam-power. The crews of the American
fore-and-aft schooners scarcely exceed the proportion of one man to
every hundred tons of cargo carried. For a three-masted schooner of
400 tons, a crew of twelve working hands would be ample, even where
the requirements of a yacht have to be provided for. In point of
safety, comfort, speed in blowing weather, and general ability to keep
the sea and make passages, the 400-ton schooner would offer most
desirable advantages over schooner yachts of half the tonnage,
although manned with the same number of hands.
It is not within the scope of my present remarks to treat of naval
architecture. The volumes will contain contributions from such able
men as Messrs. G. L. Watson, who designed the 'Britannia' and
'Valkyrie,' and Lewis Herreshoff, whose 'Navahoe' and 'Vigilant' have
recently attracted so much attention. I may, however, say that my
personal experience leads me to admire the American models, in which
broad beam and good sheer are always found. In 1886, I had the
opportunity of seeing the International Race for the America Cup, when
the English cutter 'Galatea' (Lieut. Henn, R.N.), with a sail-area of
7,146 feet, and 81 tons of ballast, sailed against the American sloop
'Puritan,' with 9,000 square feet of sail-area and 48 tons of ballast.
On this occasion, the advantages of great beam, combined with a
shallow middle body and a deep keel, were conspicuously illustrated.
The Americans, while satisfied with their type, do not consider their
sloops as seaworthy as our cutters. The development which seems
desirable in our English building was indicated in a letter addressed
to the 'Times' from Chicago in September 1886:--
Avoiding exaggerations on both sides, we may build up on the
solid keel of an English cutter a hull not widely differing
in form from that of the typical American sloop. It can be
done, and pride and prejudice should not be suffered to bar
the way of improvement. The yachtsmen of a past generation,
led by Mr. Weld of Lulworth, the owner of the famous
'Alarm,' were not slow to learn a lesson from the contests
with the 'America' in 1851. We may improve our cutters, as
we formerly improved our schooners, by adaptations and
modifications, which need not be servile imitations of the
fine sloops our champion vessels have encountered on the
other side of the Atlantic.
After the lapse of seven years, we find ourselves, in 1893, at the
termination of a very remarkable year's yachting. The new
construction has included H.R.H. the Prince of Wales's yacht, the
'Britannia,' with 23 feet beam, Lord Dunraven's 'Valkyrie,' Mr.
Clarke's 'Satanita,' and the Clyde champion 'Calluna,' all conspicuous
for development of beam, combined with the deep, fine keel which is
our English substitute for the American centreboard. These vessels
have proved doughty antagonists of the 'Navahoe,' brought over by that
spirited yacht-owner, Mr. Caryll, to challenge all comers in British
waters.
Thus far as to sailing yachts. Though the fashion of the hour has set
strongly towards steam-propelled vessels, the beautiful white canvas,
and the easy motion when under sail, will long retain their
fascination for all pleasure voyaging. It is pleasant to be free from
the thud of engines, the smell of oil, and the horrors of the
inevitable coaling. Owners who have no love for sailing, and to whom a
yacht is essentially a means of conveyance from port to port and a
floating home, do well to go for steam. The most efficient and
cheapest steam yacht is one in which the masts are reduced to two
signal-poles, on which jib-headed trysails may be set to prevent
rolling. As to tonnage, the remarks already offered on the advantages
of large size apply to steamers even more than to sailing yachts. When
space must be given to machinery, boilers, and bunkers, the tonnage
must be ample to give the required accommodation. The cost of building
and manning, and the horse-power of the engines, do not increase in
proportion to the increase of size. The building of steamers for the
work of tramps has now been brought down to 7_l_. per ton. I would
strongly urge yacht-owners contemplating ocean cruising to build
vessels of not less than 600 tons. Let the fittings be as simple and
inexpensive as possible, but let the tonnage be large enough to secure
a powerful sea-boat, with coal endurance equal to 3,000 knots, at ten
knots, capable of keeping up a fair speed against a stiff head wind,
and habitable and secure in all weathers.
Deck-houses are a great amenity at sea, but the conventional yacht
skipper loves a roomy deck, white as snow, truly a marvel of
scrubbing. Considerations of habitability at sea are totally
disregarded by one who feels no need for an airy place of retirement
for reading and writing. The owner, seeking to make life afloat pass
pleasantly, will consider deck cabins indispensable.
There remains a third and very important type for ocean cruising, that
of the sailing yacht with auxiliary steam-power. The 'Firefly,' owned
by Sir Henry Oglander, the pioneer in this class, suggested to the
present writer a debased imitation in the 'Meteor,' 164 tons. About
the same date somewhat similar vessels were brought out, amongst
others by Lord Dufferin, whose earliest experiences under sail had
been given to the world in 'Letters from High Latitudes.' All will
remember the never-varying announcement by a not too cheering steward,
on calling his owner, in response to the inquiry, 'How is the wind?'
'Dead ahead, my lord, dead ahead!'
[Illustration: 'Sunbeam'--midship section.]
The 'Sunbeam' was launched in 1874; following in her wake, the
'Chazalie,' 1875, 'Czarina,' 1877, and the 'Lancashire Witch,' 1878,
appeared in rapid succession. The 'Lancashire Witch' was bought by the
Admiralty for a surveying vessel, as being especially adapted to the
requirements of that particular service. The 'St. George,' 831 tons,
launched 1890, is an enlargement and improvement on her predecessors
already named. She does credit to her owner, Mr. Wythes; the designer,
Mr. Storey; and the builders, Messrs. Ramage. The 'Sunbeam,' as the
first of this class, has been a great success. She was designed by Mr.
St. Clare Byrne, M.I.N.A., as a composite three-masted topsail-yard
screw schooner, constructed at Birkenhead, and launched in 1874. The
following table gives the leading details:--
Material of hull Iron frame, teak skin
Length of hull 159 feet, over all 170 feet
Beam 27 ft. 6 in.
Depth of hold 13 ft. 9 in.
Displacement in tons 576 tons
Draught 13 ft. 6 in.
Registered tonnage 227 tons
Engines, compound By Laird, of Birkenhead
Horse-power 70 nominal, or 350 indicated
Stowage of coals in bunkers 70 tons
Sail area 9,200 square yards
Weight of port anchor 12 cwt. 2 qr.
" starboard anchor 12 cwt. 1 qr. 6 lbs.
Size of cable on board 1-1/16 inch }
" new cable on shore 1-2/16 " } bower cables
Stowage of water:
Fore tanks 6-1/2 tons }
After tanks 4 " } total, 16 tons
Reserve tanks 5-1/2 " }
Lead ballast 75 tons
Speed in fine weather 9 knots
Average consumption of coal daily 6 tons
_Dimensions of Spars_
+--------------------------------+-------------+-------------------------+
-- | Length | Diam.
+--------------------------------+-------------+-------------------------+
FORE | ft. | in.
Foremast, from deck to masthead | 69-1/2 | --
Below deck | 14-1/2 | --
Total | 84 | 19-1/2
Top and topgallant-mast | 45 | 12
Fore-yard | 50-1/2 | 12
Topsail-yard | 42-1/2 | 9
Topgallant-yard | 33 | 7
Fore-gaff | 29-1/2 | 7
Fore-boom | 33-3/4 | 9
MAIN | |
Mainmast from deck to masthead | 74 | --
Below deck | 14-1/2 | --
Total | 88-1/2 | 19
Main-topmast | 42-2/3 | 9-1/2
Main-gaff | 29-3/4 | 7-1/2
Main-boom | 35-1/4 | 8-3/4
MIZEN | |
Mizenmast from deck to masthead | 78-1/2 | --
Below deck | 7-1/2 | --
Total | 86 | 18-1/2
Mizen-topmast | 43-1/2 | 9-1/2
Mizen-gaff | 33 | 9
Mizen-boom | 52-3/4 | 13-1/2
+--------------------------------+-------------+-------------------------+
Jibboom, length 49 ft. 9 in., diameter 9-1/2 inches
Bowsprit " 21 ft. 9 in. " 17-1/2 inches (outside knighthead)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
It may be interesting to give some general account of the 'Sunbeam's'
performances at sea.
In making the voyage round the world in 1876-77 the total distances
covered were 15,000 knots under sail and 12,800 knots under steam. The
best run under steam alone was 230 knots. The most successful
continuous performance was on the passage from Penang to Galle, when
1,451 knots were steamed in a week, with a daily consumption of 4-1/4
tons of coal. The best runs under sail, from noon to noon, were 298
and 299 knots respectively. The first was on the passage from Honolulu
to Yokohama, sailing along the 16th parallel of north latitude, and
between 163° and 168° 15' east. The second was in the Formosa Channel.
The highest speed ever attained under sail was 15 knots, in a squall
in the North Pacific. On 28 days the distance under sail alone has
exceeded, and often considerably exceeded, 200 knots. The best
consecutive runs under sail only were:--
1. Week ending August 13, South Atlantic, in the south-east trades,
wind abeam, force 5, 1,456 knots.
2. Week ending November 19, South Pacific, south-east trades, wind
aft, force 5, 1,360 knots.
3. Four days, January 15 to 18, North Pacific, north-east trades, wind
on the quarter, force 5 to 9, 1,027 knots. The average speed in this
case was 10.7 knots an hour.
The following were the average speeds of the longer passages:--
+-------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
| |Days at | Total |Distance| Daily |
| ---- | sea |Distance| under |average|
| | | | steam | |
+-------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
| | | miles | miles | miles |
|1. Cape Verdes to Rio | 18 | 3,336 | 689 | 185 |
|2. Valparaiso to Yokohama| 72 | 12,333 | 2,108 | 171 |
|3. Simonosaki to Aden | 37 | 6,93 | 4,577 | 187 |
+-------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
On a later voyage to Australia, the total distance covered was 36,709
knots, 25,808 under sail and 10,901 under steam. The runs under sail
included thirty-nine days over 200 knots, fifteen days over 240, seven
days over 260, and three days over 270. The best day was 282 knots.
Between Port Darwin and the Cape the distance covered was 1,047 knots
under steam, and 5,622 knots under sail. The average speed under steam
and sail was exactly eight knots. In the fortnight, October 13 to 27,
1887, 3,073 knots, giving an average speed of nine knots an hour, were
covered under sail alone, with winds of moderate strength. Balloon
canvas was freely used.
On returning from the voyage just referred to, the boilers of the
'Sunbeam' (which are still at work, after nineteen years' service)
required such extensive repairs that it was recommended to remove them
and to replace with new. Hesitating to take this step, we went through
two seasons under sail alone, the propeller being temporarily removed
and the aperture closed. In 1889 a voyage was accomplished to the
Mediterranean under these conditions. Making the passage from
Portsmouth to Naples, in the month of February, we covered a total
distance of 2,303 miles from port to port in ten days and four hours.
The same good luck with the winds followed us in subsequent passages
to Messina, Zante, Patras, and Brindisi, during which we steadily
maintained the high average of ten knots. On the return voyage down
the Mediterranean, the results were very different. As this novel
experiment in running an auxiliary steam yacht under sail alone may be
of interest, a few further details may be added.
The average rate of speed for the distance sailed through the water
was approximately 6.4 knots. The total number of days at sea was 44.
On 23 days the winds were contrary. On 21 days favourable winds were
experienced. With much contrary wind and frequent calms the distances
made good on the shortest route from port to port averaged 123 miles
per day.
For the total distance of 3,020 miles from Portsmouth to Brindisi,
touching at Naples, Messina, Taormina, Zante, and Patras, with fresh
and favourable breezes, the distances made good on the shortest route
averaged 201 miles per day.
On the passage down the Mediterranean, from Brindisi to Gibraltar,
calling at Palermo and Cagliari, against persistent head winds, and
with 60 hours of calm, the distance made good from port to port was
reduced to 67 miles a day.
Homewards, from Gibraltar, against a fresh Portuguese trade, the
distance made good rose to an average of 122 miles through the water
per day, the average rate of sailing being 6-1/4 knots. From a
position 230 miles nearly due west of Cape St. Vincent to Spithead,
the 'Sunbeam' covered the distance of 990 miles in six days, being for
the most part close-hauled.
+------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+----------+------+
| Total | | | |
|distances|Distances| Time | Fair |
| port to | sailed |under way| winds | Calms
| port | | | |
+------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+----------+------+
| miles | miles |days hrs.| days hrs.| hours
Portsmouth to Naples | 2,200 | 2,303 | 10 4 | 9 0 | 11
Naples to Brindisi (calling } | | | |
at Messina, Taormina, Zante,} 820 | 841 | 5 0 | 4 0 | 16
and Patras) } | | | |
Brindisi to Palermo | 400 | 638 | 5 6 | 0 7 | 13
Palermo to Cagliari | 224 | 353 | 3 19 | -- | 11
Cagliari to Gibraltar | 730 | 1,188 | 10 5 | 2 2 | 37
Gibraltar to Portsmouth | 1,175 | 1,457 | 9 16 | 6 0 | 8
+------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+----------+------+
Total | 5,549 | 6,780 | 44 2 | 21 9 | 96
+------------------------------+---------+---------+---------+----------+------+
In the course of the voyage numerous gales of wind were experienced,
viz.: on February 12, a severe mistral, on the passage from Minorca
towards Naples; March 28, heavy gale from westward off Stromboli;
April 9 and 10, gale from S.W. at the mouth of the Adriatic; April 17,
gale from S., off south coast of Sardinia; April 29 and 30, gale from
W., off Almeria.
On the days of light winds and calms, balloon topmast staysails, a
jib-topsail, and an extra large lower studsail, were found most
valuable in maintaining the rate of sailing.
In ordinary cruising I find that, as a general rule, one-third of the
distance is covered under steam, and that upon the average we make
passages at the rate of 1,000 miles a week. The consumption of coal is
very moderate. For a voyage round the world, of 36,000 miles, the coal
consumed was only 325 tons.
[Illustration: 'Sunbeam,' R.Y.S. Designed by St. Clare Byrne, 1874.]
If I were dealing with the question of rig, with the long experience
gained on the 'Sunbeam,' I should decidedly adopt the barque rig. In
confirmation of this opinion, it may be interesting to note that when
H.M. brig 'Beagle' was under the command of Captain FitzRoy, R.N., for
a lengthened service in the Straits of Magellan and the coasts of
South America, the mizenmast was stuck through the skylight of the
captain's cabin, an arrangement which, while of service to the ship,
was not unnaturally a source of discomfort to the captain. In making
passages in the Trades, with light winds on the quarter and the usual
swell, fore-and-aft sails are constantly lifting, while sails set on
fixed yards keep asleep. They draw better, and there is no chafe. I
have found great advantage from the use of large studding-sails, made
of light duck. This material was highly esteemed when it was first
brought out. In modern practice a combination of silk and hemp
furnishes a greatly superior material for the huge spinnakers, of
4,000 square feet, carried by the 'Navahoe' and 'Valkyrie.' The new
balloon sails can no longer be called canvas. They may more accurately
be described as muslin.
I will not attempt a recital of nautical adventures in the present
chapter; but a few experiences may be briefly described. The worst
passage I ever made was in the 'Eothen,' s.s., 340 tons, in 1872, from
Queenstown to Quebec, touching at St. John's, Newfoundland. On August
14 we put to sea deeply laden, with bunkers full, and 15 tons of coal
in bags on deck. In this condition we had 2 ft. 9 in. of freeboard. On
the second day out we encountered a summer gale. Shortly after it came
on, we shipped a sea, which broke over the bow and filled us up to the
rail. At the same time the engineer put his head above the engine-room
hatch, and announced that, the bearings having become heated, he must
stop the engines. For a short time we were in danger of falling off
into the trough of the sea. It was a great relief when the engines
once more slowly turned ahead. In the mid-Atlantic, we encountered a
cyclone, passing through the calm but ominous centre into a violent
gale from the north-west, which lasted twenty-four hours. We were
battened down and suffered considerable discomfort. Fortunately, no
heavy sea broke on board as we lay to under double-reefed main
storm-trysail, the engines slowly turning ahead. Two days later we
encountered another sharp gale, in which the barometer fell to 29.14°.
Happily it soon passed over. After this third gale we had a change of
wind to the eastward, and, pushing on, with all sail set, we reached
St. John's in thirteen days from Queenstown, with four inches of water
in the tanks, two tons of coal in the bunkers, the decks leaking in
every seam, cabins in utter disarray, and a perfect wreck aloft and on
deck. After leaving St. John's, where we had confidently hoped that
the worst was over, we encountered a hurricane off Cape Race, which
exceeded in violence anything that had been experienced in these
waters for many years. We lay to for three days, and when the storm
abated put into the French island St. Pierre, almost exhausted. It was
an unspeakable relief when we entered the St. Lawrence.
The lesson to be drawn from my voyage in the 'Eothen' is obvious. It
is a great mistake to attempt to cross the stormiest ocean in the
world in a steam yacht of such small size. For ocean steaming much
more tonnage and power are necessary.
The heaviest gale ever experienced by the 'Sunbeam' was off
Flamborough Head, in 1881. I embarked at Middlesbrough on the evening
of October 13, intending to sail for Portsmouth at daybreak on the
following morning; but, finding the wind from the south and the
barometer depressed, our departure was deferred. At 9 A.M. the
barometer had fallen to 28.87°, but as the wind had changed to W.N.W.,
and was off shore from a favourable quarter, I determined to proceed
to sea. We were towed down the Tees, and as we descended the river I
conferred with the pilot as to what we might anticipate from the
remarkable depression in the barometer. He was of opinion that a
severe gale was at hand, that it would blow from the north-west, and
that there was no reason for remaining in port. The tug was
accordingly cast off at the mouth of the Tees, and we made sail.
Foreseeing a storm, topmasts were housed, boats were secured on deck,
and we kept under close-reefed canvas, setting the main and mizen
jib-headed trysails, double-reefed foresail and forestay-sail, and
reefed standing jib. As the day advanced no change took place in the
weather. The wind blew strongly, but not with the force of a gale, and
the sea was comparatively smooth. Meanwhile the barometer continued to
descend rapidly, and at 2 P.M. had fallen to 28.45°. As nothing had
yet occurred to account for this depression, my sailing-master
remarked that it must have been caused by the heavy showers of rain
which had fallen in the course of the morning. I knew from former
experiences that it was not the rain, but the coming storm, that was
indicated by the barometer. It had needed some resolution to quit the
mouth of the Tees in the morning, and at mid-day, when we were off
Whitby, a still greater effort was required to resist the temptation
to make for a harbour. No further incidents occurred until 3 P.M.,
when we were nearing Flamborough Head. Here we were at last overtaken
by the long impending storm. Looking back to the north-west, over the
starboard quarter, we saw that the sea had suddenly been lashed into a
mass of white foam. The hurricane was rushing forward with a velocity
and a force which must have seemed terrible to the fleet of coasting
vessels around us. Before the gale struck the 'Sunbeam' our canvas had
been reduced to main and mizen trysails and reefed standing-jib; but
even with the small spread of sail, and luffed up close to the wind,
our powerful little vessel careened over to the fury of the blast
until the lee-rail completely disappeared under water--an incident
which had never previously occurred during all the extensive voyages
we had undertaken. Such was the force of the wind that a sailing
vessel near us lost all her sails, and our large gig was stove in from
the tremendous pressure of the gunwale against the davits. We took in
the jib and the mizen-trysail, and, with our canvas reduced to a
jib-headed main-trysail, were soon relieved of water on deck. For an
hour and a half we lay-to on the starboard tack, standing in for the
land below Burlington Bay. We were battened down, and felt ourselves
secure from all risks except collision. The fury of the wind so filled
the air with spoon-drift that we could not see a ship's length ahead,
and in such crowded waters a collision was a far from impossible
contingency. At 6 P.M. we thought it prudent to wear, so as to gain an
offing during the night, and gradually drew out of the line of traffic
along the coast. At 9 P.M. the extreme violence of the hurricane had
abated, and we could see, through occasional openings in the mist,
the masthead lights of several steamers standing, like ourselves, off
the land for the night. At midnight the barometer was rising rapidly,
and the wind gradually settled down into a clear hard gale,
accompanied by a heavy sea, running down the coast from the north.
At 6 A.M. we carefully examined the dead reckoning, and, having fixed
on an approximate position, we determined to bear away, steering to
pass in mid-channel between the Outer Dowsing and the Dudgeon, through
a passage about ten miles in width. We were under easy sail; but,
under the main-trysail, double-reefed foresail, staysail,
fore-topsail, and reefed jib, we scudded at the rate of eleven knots.
A constant look-out had been kept from aloft, and at 10 A.M., having
nearly run the distance down from our assumed position when we bore
away to the north end of the Outer Dowsing, I established myself in
the crosstrees until we should succeed in making something. After a
short interval we saw broken water nearly ahead on the port bow. We at
once hauled to the wind, steering to the south-west, and set the
mizen-trysail. The lead showed a depth of three fathoms, and we were
therefore assured that we had been standing too near to the Outer
Dowsing. The indications afforded by the lead were confirmed by
sights, somewhat roughly taken, and by the circumstance of our having
shortly before passed through a fleet of trawlers evidently making for
the Spurn. In less than an hour after we had hauled to the wind we
found ourselves in the track of several steamers. At 3 P.M. we made
the land near Cromer, and at 5.30 we brought up in the Yarmouth Roads,
thankful to have gained a secure shelter from the gale.
In connection with this experience, it may be remarked that, as a
general rule, our pleasure fleet is over-masted. We are advised in
these matters by sailmakers, who look to the Solent and its sheltered
water as the normal condition with which yachtsmen have to deal. When
we venture forth from that smooth and too-much frequented arm of the
sea into open waters, our vessels have to pass a far more severe
ordeal, and they do not always come out of it to our satisfaction.
Many are compelled to stay in harbour when a passage might have been
made in a snugly rigged yacht.
One of the longest gales experienced in the 'Sunbeam' was on the
passage from Nassau to Bermuda, in November 1883. The gale struck us
south of Cape Hatteras, on November 25, in latitude 31.54° N. The
north-east wind gradually subsided, and we pushed on, under steam, for
Bermuda at 7 knots. The head sea increased, but no change took place
in the force or direction of the wind from 8 P.M. on the 25th till 4
A.M. on the 27th. Meanwhile, the barometer had gradually fallen to
29.82°, giving warning for a heavy gale, which commenced at
north-by-east, and ended on November 30, at 4 P.M., with the wind at
north-west. We lay-to on the 27th, under treble-reefed foresail and
double-reefed mainsail, shipping no water, but driving to the
south-east at the rate of at least one knot an hour. On the 28th we
decided to try the 'Sunbeam' under treble-reefed foresail and
mainsail, double-reefed fore-staysail and reefed mizen-trysail. With
this increased spread of canvas we were able to make two knots an hour
on the direct course to Bermuda, and to keep sufficient steerage way
to luff up to an ugly sea. The behaviour of the vessel elicited the
unqualified approval of our most experienced hands. Bad weather
quickly brings out the qualities of seamen. Our four best men relieved
each other at the wheel, and it was due in no small degree to their
skill that, in a gale lasting three days, no heavy sea broke on board.
I need not say that all deck openings were secured, especially at
night, by means of planks and canvas. Our situation might perhaps
excite sympathy, but we had no cause to complain. Meals could not be
served in the usual manner, but by placing every movable thing on the
floor of the cabins and on the lee side, and by fixing ourselves
against supports, or in a recumbent position, we were secured against
any further effects of the force of gravity, and did our best to enjoy
the novelty of the situation. On the 30th the wind veered to the
north-west, and the weather rapidly improved. The sea turned
gradually with the wind, but for many hours we met a heavy swell from
the north-east.
An acquaintance with the law of storms had proved invaluable on this
occasion. There is no situation in which knowledge is more truly
power, none in which, under a due sense of the providential care of
Heaven, it gives a nobler confidence to man, than at sea, amid the
raging of a hurricane. Mr. Emerson has truly said, 'They can conquer
who believe they can. The sailor loses fear as fast as he acquires
command of sails, and spars, and steam. To the sailor's experience,
every new circumstance suggests what he must do. The terrific chances
which make the hours and minutes long to the mere passenger, he whiles
away by incessant application of expedients and repairs. To him a
leak, a hurricane, a waterspout, is so much work, and no more. Courage
is equality to the problem, in affairs, in science, in trade, in
council, or in action. Courage consists in the conviction that the
agents with which you contend are not superior in strength, or
resources, or spirit, to you.'
As a specimen of a dirty night at sea, I give another extract from the
log-book. During our voyage round the world in 1876-77, after leaving
Honolulu for Japan, as we approached Osima, on January 26, we were
struck by a tremendous squall of wind and rain. We at once took in the
flying square-sail, stowed the topgallant-sail and topsail, reefed the
foresail and mizen, and set mainsail. At 6 P.M., the wind still
blowing a moderate gale, the mizen was double-reefed. We pursued our
way through a confused sea, but without shipping any water. All seemed
to be going well, when, at 8 P.M., shortly after I had taken the
wheel, a sudden squall heeled us over to the starboard side, where the
gig was hung from the davits outboard. At the same time a long
mountainous wave, rolling up from the leeward, struck the keel of the
gig and lifted it up, unshipping the fore davit, and causing the boat
to fall into the boiling sea, which threatened at every instant to
dash it to pieces. We at once brought to. A brave fellow jumped into
the boat and secured a tackle to the bows, and the gig was hoisted on
board and secured on deck intact. It was a very seaman-like
achievement. A heavy gale continued during the night, and at 2 A.M.,
on the 27th, we met with another accident. The boatswain, a man of
great skill and experience, was at the wheel, when a steep wave
suddenly engulfed the jibboom, and the 'Sunbeam,' gallantly springing
up, as if to leap over instead of cleaving through the wave, carried
away the spar at the cap. This brought down the topgallant-mast. The
jibboom was a splendid Oregon spar, 54 feet long, projecting 28 feet
beyond the bowsprit. It was rigged with wire rope, and the martingale
was sawn through with the greatest difficulty.
The record of personal experiences must not be further prolonged. To
the writer yachting has been to some extent part of a public life,
mainly devoted to the maritime interests of the country. To conduct
the navigation and pilotage of his vessel seemed fitting and even
necessary, if the voyages undertaken were to be regarded in any sense
as professional. There is something pleasant in any work which affords
the opportunity for encountering and overcoming difficulties. It is
satisfactory to make a headland or a light with precision after a long
run across the ocean, diversified perhaps by a heavy gale. To be able
to thread the channels of the West Coast of Scotland, the Straits of
Magellan, the Eastern Archipelago, the labyrinths of the Malawalle
Channel of North-East Borneo, or the Great Barrier Reef of Australia,
without a pilot is an accomplishment in which an amateur may perhaps
take legitimate pleasure.
To the yachtsman who truly loves the sea, it will never be
satisfactory to remain ignorant of navigation. Practice of the art is
not a relaxation. It demands constant attention, and is an
interruption to regular reading. It may imply a considerable amount of
night-work. On the other hand, the owner who is a navigator can take
his proper place as the commander of his own ship. All that goes on
around him when at sea becomes more interesting. He is better able to
appreciate the professional skill of others. The confidence which
grows with experience cannot be expected in the beginning. The writer
first took charge of navigation in 1866, on a voyage up the Baltic. It
was a chequered experiment. In the Great Belt we ran ashore twice in
one day. In making Stockholm we had to appeal to a Swedish frigate,
which most kindly clewed up her sails, and answered our anxious
enquiries by writing the course on a black-board. On the return voyage
to England we struck the coast some sixty miles north of our
reckoning. Such a history does not repeat itself now.
It is not in books or at the library table that the art of the seaman
can be acquired. Quickness of eye, nerve, promptitude of judgment, are
the indispensable gifts, which must be gained by long and varied
experience at sea. The seamanship required in a gale of wind on the
open ocean, the seamanship displayed in sailing matches in
over-sparred yachts, sailed mainly in smooth waters, and the
seamanship called for in pilotage waters not previously visited, and
especially at night, are different branches of a wide profession.
There is a skill of a very high order in docking an Atlantic liner at
Liverpool. There is a skill of a different but equally high order in
knocking huge ironclads about in fleet-exercising at sea. There is a
skill in bringing the Channel steamers alongside the pier at Dover.
The skill of every description of nautical specialist will never be
combined in one individual. There is some risk that the more careful
the navigator, the less dashing the same man may be as a seaman.
I must not conclude without some reference to the most attractive
cruising grounds. To begin near home, the Seine, the Meuse, the coast
of Holland, the Baltic, the coast of Norway, the grand West Coast of
Scotland, the East Coast of England (a cruising ground too much
neglected by yachtsmen), and the Channel are all favourite haunts of
mine. Going further afield, in my own case nothing was more
satisfactory than a voyage along the East Coast of North America, in
which every river was ascended to the head of the navigation for
sea-going vessels. Certain parts of the Mediterranean offer a perfect
cruising ground for the winter months. Most suitable waters for
yachting are those bounded by the Straits of Gibraltar on the west and
the Balearic Islands on the north-east. Here the mistral of the Gulf
of Lyons is not felt. The Spanish coast offers many places of shelter
and many points of interest. In westerly winds keep to the eastward of
Cape de Gata; in north-easterly winds to the westward. There is
another charming cruising ground between Corsica and the Italian
coast, as far north as Spezia, and south down to Civita Vecchia.
Sicily is admirable for yachting. A weather shore can be always made
upon its beautiful coasts. In the spring or autumn the Archipelago and
eastern side of the Adriatic can be confidently recommended. In the
winter months the West Indies are a most perfect cruising ground. It
will be well to make Barbados the landfall, then run to Trinidad,
proceeding thence to Grenada, and following on from island to island
down to Jamaica. The return voyage should be by Havana, and thence to
a port in the United States, and by an ocean liner home, or by the
Bahamas, Bermuda and the Azores to England. The Pacific, Japan and
Eastern Archipelago will well repay those who can give the time
required for such distant voyages.
Lastly, let no yachtsman speak contemptuously of the Solent. It is no
exaggeration to say that if the splendid natural breakwater of the
Isle of Wight were removed, half the tonnage of yachts under the
British flag would disappear. The Solent offers a sufficient space of
sheltered water for all but the very largest yachts to manoeuvre in
conveniently. Breezes are seldom wanting, and the shores of the Wight
are most pleasing. In this miniature ocean many have formed tastes for
the sea which have led to more ambitious voyages. The estuary of the
Clyde merits equally high praise, but the puffs off Bute are less
gentle than those off the Wight, and the racing partakes of a
hard-weather character, with streaks of calm.
In the preceding observations it has been assumed that I have been
addressing readers who love the sea in all those varying phases which
have given inspiration to some of the finest creations of poetic
genius. The Greeks were lovers of the sea. We have been reminded of
their admirable descriptions by Mr. Froude, in a brilliant passage:--
The days pass, and our ship flies past upon her way.
[Greek: glaukon hyper oidma kyanochroa te kymatôn
rhothia polia thalassas.]
How perfect the description! How exactly in those eight words
Euripides draws the picture of the ocean; the long grey heaving swell,
the darker steel-grey on the shadowed slope of the waves, and the foam
on their breaking crests. Our thoughts flow back as we gaze to the
times long ago, when the earth belonged to other races, as it now
belongs to us. The ocean is the same as it was. Their eyes saw it as
we see it.
Time writes no wrinkle on that azure brow.
Nor is the ocean alone the same. Human nature is still vexed with the
same problems, mocked with the same hopes, wandering after the same
illusions. The sea affected the Greeks as it affects us, and was
equally dear to them. It was a Greek who said: 'The sea washes off all
the ills of men,' the 'stainless one,' as Æschylus called it, the
eternally pure.
The Romans had in Virgil a poet of the sea, who could attune his lyre
to perfect harmony, alike with freshening or subsiding breeze:--
Vela dabant læti et spumas salis ære ruebant.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ferunt ipsa æquora classem,
Æquatæ spirant auræ, datur hora quieti.
The sea has been the favoured theme of our English poets. There has
been none in any language who has excelled our own Byron:--
Oft had he ridden on that wingèd wave,
And loved its roughness for the speed it gave.
For me, the sea was a dream in my earliest years. I have spent upon
its waters some of the brightest, and, alas! some of the saddest of my
days; and now, in the autumn of my life, the unforgotten past, and the
aims and work of the present, are more than ever bound up with the
sea.
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee;
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee--are all with thee.
CHAPTER III
CORINTHIAN DEEP-SEA CRUISING
BY C. E. SETH-SMITH, C.B.[1]
(Late commanding London Brigade Royal Naval Volunteers)
[Footnote 1: I am deeply indebted to Mr. D. W. Marsden, late honorary
secretary of the London Corps Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers, for
his assistance in the compilation of these notes.]
The record of Corinthian sailing would not be complete without some
account of deep-sea voyages in yachts manned by amateur seamen. The
cruises of Corinthian yachtsmen are naturally chiefly confined to the
estuaries of rivers and the seas immediately adjacent, and, as a rule,
are within sight of the coast. Considerations of time and expense are
generally sufficient to impose these limits. That the dangers of the
sea and the difficulty of navigation are no impediments is amply
proved by the records of more extended voyages in craft of all sizes,
made public from time to time. There are, however, certain other
difficulties which, as a rule, stand in the way of Corinthian seamen
extending their experience of the sea still further. For an ocean
voyage of any extent a craft of some size is necessary, and it must be
manned by a crew of considerable number. Amateur yachtsmen are
scattered, and find it difficult to take their cruises together in any
large numbers. The yacht-owner, who wished to man his yacht for an
ocean voyage solely or mainly with Corinthian seamen, would not find
it easy to obtain a sufficient number to make up his complement. A
movement was made some twenty years ago to develop and utilise for the
national defence the seafaring instincts and tastes latent in many of
our young countrymen, and until it was abandoned in 1892[2] provided a
body of men, Corinthian yachtsmen and others possessing seafaring
capacities, and formed an exceptional reservoir on which yacht-owners
could draw who desired to give opportunities of more extended
seafaring to the amateur seaman. The more extended voyages of the
schooner 'Hornet' were undertaken to give a pleasurable holiday to the
members of the corps and to increase their efficiency as Naval
Volunteers. The 'Hornet' was a powerful yacht of 101 tons register and
about 140 tons Thames measurement, she was 85 feet on the water-line
and nearly 20 feet beam, and drew about 10 feet of water in sea-going
trim. She was built at Cowes, and was rigged as a topsail-yard
schooner, carrying in addition to her ordinary fore and aft sails a
square foresail, a fore-topsail and topgallant-sail, and fore-topmast
and lower studding-sails.
[Footnote 2: The late corps of Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers of
London, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow.]
All her gear was fitted as far as possible in man-of-war fashion, and
both on deck and below she was arranged as one of the small
old-fashioned vessels of Her Majesty's service. A wardroom and four
separate sleeping cabins for her officers were arranged aft, and a
very large forecastle gave ample lower deck accommodation for some
thirty-five or forty petty officers and men.
The majority of the 'Hornet's' voyages were restricted by the limited
holidays of her amateur crew, but she was occasionally manned by crews
not tied in such a degree by business engagements, and during the
summers of 1879, 1880 and 1881 sailed round the coast of Ireland,
visited the Cattegat Sound and Danish Islands, Christiania and some
other Norwegian ports, the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and
Gibraltar, and made a short trip down the coast of Morocco. The latter
terminated in an exciting passage home from Lisbon in stormy weather,
during which the Corinthians were for upwards of three weeks out of
sight of land on a strictly limited scale of provisions, hove to in a
gale of wind for some days, and driven into the vicinity of the
Azores. Since the present chapter is concerned solely with Corinthian
yachting on the ocean, nothing need be said about the many short
cruises round and about the English and French coasts and up and down
the Channel, during which the 'Hornet's' ever-varying crew were
gaining some practical knowledge of seamanship and testing their
individual fitness for their voluntary duties.
About the end of June 1879 the 'Hornet' sailed from the Thames, manned
by thirty-five amateurs, Mr. Edward Dodd, who was rated as boatswain,
and the galley staff being the only professional seamen on board. Mr.
Samuel Brooks (recently thrice mayor of Redhill) acted as chief petty
officer, chief quartermaster and occasional watch-keeper, and Mr. R.
T. Pritchett was borne on the books and drew rations as the 'staff
officer,' the guide, philosopher and friend of the whole ship's
company. The weather of the summer of 1879 is notorious, and the
'Hornet's' first ocean cruise was a trying one for her Corinthian
crew, who experienced to the full the miseries of a month at sea in
bad weather. From the day she left Dartmouth in June to her arrival in
the Solent in July her log-book records no single fine day. The
afternoon of Friday, July 17 (the ship having left Queenstown July 16)
is the only day on which 'light airs and sunshine' are entered even
for a few hours.
Nevertheless the crew expressed themselves as thoroughly delighted
with the experiences of their month's cruise. Some account of this
trip appeared in the 'Graphic' of October 18, 1879, with illustrations
by the Staff Officer, of which the principal represented 'stowing the
foresail off the Longships at midnight in a gale, June 30, 1879.' On
this occasion the 'Hornet' was compelled by a heavy gale from the
south-west to force a passage round the Land's End, and make for the
Bristol Channel, running up to the Mumbles. As the author remarks,
such weather on a dark night was a severe trial for the practical
seamanship of gentlemen sailors, but they proved themselves equal to
it, and were afterwards complimented on their efficiency by the
Admiral, Sir William Dowell, on arrival at Queenstown.
The following year--1880--a much longer and most enjoyable cruise of
six weeks was undertaken on which the Captain, Mr. C. E. Seth-Smith,
was assisted by Messrs. A. B. Woodd and E. Graham as lieutenants. The
crew numbered twenty-five all told; Mr. Dodd again acted as boatswain,
and Mr. Brooks as chief petty officer. The 'Hornet' reached Copenhagen
on July 10, and after cruising among the lovely Danish islands for
some days, her officers and crew were hospitably entertained by the
Royal Danish Yacht Club, then holding their annual regatta at
Svendborg. From Denmark she passed to Christiania, and on July 25 the
ship's company landed in Norway and enjoyed a cariole trip of two days
across the country to the Falls of Hönefos. After cruising for two or
three days along the southern coasts and up the Fjords the 'Hornet'
left Norway and returned to England, arriving at Greenhithe on August
4 after a well-managed and most successful expedition. She was the
largest vessel, manned entirely by amateur sailors, that had appeared
in those seas.
The account from which the above particulars are taken appeared in the
'Illustrated London News' for February 12, 1881, and was accompanied
by illustrations from photographs by Mr. Henry Denison Pender, son of
Mr. (now Sir John) Pender, M.P., who was a member of the crew and an
enthusiastic Royal Naval Artillery Volunteer, and whose lamented death
soon after was the occasion of much grief to his many friends.
The following year--1881--a cruise of even more extended scope was
undertaken. The 'Hornet' left Dover on May 20, and proceeded down
Channel to Dartmouth under the command of Mr. C. E. Seth-Smith,
assisted by Mr. A. B. Woodd, Mr. Dodd again acting as boatswain and
Mr. Brooks at his old post. At Dartmouth all hands signed articles. On
Tuesday, May 24, the steam launch and boiler having been got on
board, the 'Hornet' left England for the South at 9 A.M. and lost
sight of the English coast at 11.15 A.M., Prawl Point being her point
of departure. The weather on her passage out was on the whole
favourable, and on Tuesday, May 31, the Burlings, fifty miles west of
Lisbon, was sighted, the ship's run from noon of the 30th to noon of
the 31st having been 218 knots. On June 3, after a period of light
winds and calm, the ship being about 120 miles west of Gibraltar, it
came on to blow from the eastward, and the square fore-topsail was got
in for the first time since leaving Dartmouth. On June 4, the wind
increasing to a whole gale from the east with heavy sea, they stood in
shore to south of Cape Spartel and lay to 'up and down' in Spartel Bay
all night. Next day, the weather moderating, the 'Hornet' stood over
to the Spanish coast and sighted Gibraltar Rock at 6.15 P.M., for
which she stood steadily in; but at midnight, being becalmed, she was
towed in by the gig, and at 2.30 A.M. the anchor was dropped in six
fathoms off the Ragged Staff in Gibraltar Bay, after a passage from
Dartmouth of thirteen days. The interval between June 6 and 11 was
spent at Gibraltar in necessary cleaning and repairs, in exploring the
Rock and its neighbourhood, and in giving and receiving hospitalities;
and at noon on June 11 a start was made for Tangier, where the
'Hornet' arrived at 5 A.M. There she remained until the afternoon of
June 12, when, the sights of the old Moorish town having been seen and
various Oriental purchases made, the anchor was weighed for Cadiz. At
4 A.M. next day Cadiz was sighted, a pilot taken on board, and at 9.30
A.M. the anchor was let go in Cadiz Bay. At Cadiz a halt was made
until June 17, employed by the ship's company in excursions to Seville
and Jerez, and in seeing at Cadiz the procession of Corpus Christi and
a bull-fight, distinguished on this occasion by the bull-ring taking
fire. At 11.30 on the 17th a start was made for Lisbon. From Cadiz to
Cape St. Vincent was a beat to windward, until on the 20th they were
becalmed off the Cape. A breeze springing up in the afternoon, Cape
Epischol was sighted, and at 9 A.M. on the 22nd a pilot was taken on
board for Lisbon, and the 'Hornet' sailed in with a light breeze by
the south channel, and let go her anchor between Belem and Lisbon at 2
P.M.
The voyage home was destined to prove a much less agreeable
experience. Anchor was weighed at 4 P.M. on June 24, wind blowing
strong from the north-east, which continued next day with a heavy sea.
Standing out to sea some fifty miles, the 'Hornet' was put on the port
tack and sighted the Burlings Light at 8.30 P.M., when she was again
put about for sea room. On the 26th the ship was under three-reefed
mainsail, reefed foresail, staysail, and jib, and on the 27th she was
hove to under three-reefed mainsail and reefed foresail to a strong
north-east gale. The 28th, still hove to, the gale blowing furiously,
with tremendous seas, the mainsail and fore-staysail were taken in,
and the ship put under fore-trysail alone. On the 29th the gale
appeared to be moderating, but at 8 A.M. it was found that the
rudder-head had started, the steering-wheel and gear had to be
unshipped, and the tiller shipped, tended constantly by two helmsmen.
A jib-headed trysail was set on the mainsail to ease the steering
gear. On the 30th the mainsail was again set, and, the stores having
been overhauled, everyone was put on rations, which were further
reduced next day. The weakness of the rudder-head rendered the most
careful steering necessary, which, during the rest of the voyage,
threw more work on the experienced hands. On July 3 she was again
close hauled to a strong breeze from the north-east, which continued
all day, the ship being under three-reefed mainsail and reefed
foresail, and so continued through the whole of the 4th; but on the
5th the wind shifted to the north-west and moderated. All available
sail was gradually made, and by noon of that day, the position having
been verified by observation, under square foresail, topsail, and
topmast stun'sails, topgallant-sail, and main topmast skysail, the
course was set for home. Next day the wind again shifted, and all
hands were called in the morning watch to reduce sail. Their
misfortunes had not ended, for on July 8 it was discovered that the
fore-masthead was sprung, and the cap and crosstrees damaged. A
lashing was, however, put round the heel of the fore-topmast, and the
fore-masthead, and all the rigging and gear carefully overhauled and
made good where possible. The rations, also, were still further
reduced. However, on the 9th, having again got sights, the commander
decided to bear up for the Channel, and at 10.30 sighted Ushant. A
fair wind then sprang up, and the ship ran along gaily at an average
of eight knots. On the 10th, and at 5.45 A.M., the English coast near
Plymouth was sighted, the Start at 6.30, Portland at 2 P.M., and the
Wight at 7. At 6 A.M. next day the anchor was dropped in Shanklin Bay,
but permission to land being refused by the Customs authorities, sail
was again set for Ryde, where the 'Hornet' arrived at 7.30 P.M., thus
terminating an eventful cruise. Although its unexpected prolongation
had been rather trying for some of the ship's company, and their
experience had been of a nature to try severely the physique and
capacity of amateur sailors, they seem to have gone through it well.
Several other yachts, among which may be mentioned the 'Titania,'
belonging to the Marquis of Ailsa, the 'Dawn,' to Mr. Klein, and
'Diligent,' to Mr. C. E. Chadwick Healey and Mr. Sydney Hoare, have
been manned by Naval Volunteers.
It now only remains to add a few considerations on the advantages and
disadvantages of Corinthian crews for ocean-going yachts.
First, then, as to expense: the owner does not save anything by
shipping an amateur crew. It is true he pays no wages to his
Corinthian deck hands, but he must be prepared to incur a considerable
outlay in alterations to the internal arrangements of the vessel, to
buy new bedding and mess traps, and to provide a better class of
ship's cooks and a more numerous galley staff. Good temper will not
prevail, nor can discipline be easily maintained, unless Corinthian
Jack is well fed. If, as is sometimes the case, the amateur crew
arrange to cater for themselves, the owner and captain must
occasionally add to the luxuries of the lower deck mess. Some expense
is also unavoidable from the extra wear and tear arising from the want
of skill of novices who have not yet learned to handle sails and gear
with a view to their preservation.
The safety and comfort of one's ship's company, too, is a double
source of anxiety when some or the whole are not seafaring by
profession. For it must not be forgotten even in the finest weather
that there is no such thing as 'playing at sailors' when at sea. The
risk involved is not appreciably increased by manning the vessel with
amateurs, if the officer in command will take certain precautions; and
this view was endorsed by the insurance companies, who in no instance
increased the premium on the 'Hornet.' The owner must insist on
shipping a due proportion of old hands in each crew, and take care to
train them as helmsmen and leadsmen. He should relieve the 'wheel' and
'look-out' as often as practicable. Above all, he should be careful to
shorten sail in good time, and always at dusk, until he can depend
upon his crew. Active and courageous as the amateur seaman invariably
is, he has not the practice aloft of the professional, he cannot
shorten sail so rapidly, nor does his knowledge of the lead of the
ropes enable him to identify them so readily in the dark. The services
of a good professional boatswain, with an enthusiastic love for his
profession and a cheery sympathetic manner as an instructor, are
absolutely essential for the proper working of a Corinthian ship. A
minute and careful observation of the barometer, and constant
verifying of position by reckoning and by observation, are the duties
of the officer rather than the crew. Unless the yacht-owner be an
enthusiastic navigator, delighting in his sextant and mathematical
formulæ as well as a keen sailor-man, he had better not attempt this
exacting if fascinating method of sailing his ship.
On the other hand, the Corinthian crew is a cheery one, well mannered
and enthusiastic, grateful for any instruction which is given them,
and happy in an exceptional and delightful holiday.
As a Corinthian crew is in general more numerous than one composed of
professional sailors, when they have learnt their stations and become
accustomed to the work, the vessel may be handled with that
old-fashioned man-of-war smartness which is so attractive.
In conclusion, the national aquatic instinct, fostered as it is by the
healthy sea-breezy tone prevailing in so much of our boyhood's
literature, can only be cultivated by the majority of us as Corinthian
seamen. Love for shipping and boats is not necessarily love for the
sea and seafaring. Those who take to the sea as a profession are not
always constant in their love. A voyage in a passenger ship, or even a
trip as an honoured guest on board one of the floating batteries of
Her Majesty's Navy, quite satisfies the still keen boyish aspiration.
It is only as one of the crew of a large yacht on a deep-sea voyage
that the amateur can personally experience that 'life at sea' which
has so fascinated his imagination. Though I dare not advise all
yacht-owners to man their ships with their friends, I should hail with
pleasure an opportunity of sailing again with some of my old
shipmates.
CHAPTER IV
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN RACING YACHT
BY G. L. WATSON
Seven years ago the task of describing the form of racing yachts would
have been a much simpler one than it is to-day. Then even the cruising
vessels were more or less under the influence of the old tonnage rule,
or of its later modification, and big and little were pretty much of a
type;--a model of, say, a 'forty,' representing with sufficient
accuracy a 'ninety,' or a 'five,' if we supposed the scale changed;
and the individual yachts in each class, while presenting differences
to the eye of the amateur, were not to be distinguished apart by the
general yachting public, except perhaps by the racing flag.
Under the present length and sail-area rule, the variety of type is
enormous. Broad, narrow, deep, and shallow; boats with centreboards
and boats without; single boats and double boats; plain keel, fin
keel, and bulb keel, have all their representatives, and each has had
its successes. But few of these types could have been successful under
the old tonnage rule, and few of them may be successful under rules
yet to come. Any history, therefore, of the development of the form of
racing yachts would fail did it not take account of, and run parallel
to, the history of the tonnage rule of the time.
[Illustration: 'BRITANNIA'
_R.Y.S. 151-rater. Designed by G. L. Watson, 1893. Winner of R.
Victoria Gold Cup, September 1893._]
Throughout the modern story of yachting the tonnage question has been
the all-absorbing one. Looking back, through the pages of those
sporting papers and periodicals which forty years ago devoted a
meagre portion of their space to yachting, one is struck by the same
feature that shows prominently in the 'Field' or 'Yachtsman' of
to-day. For one letter on any other subject, there are a dozen on the
measurement question, and the writers handled their pens in much the
same energetic way then as now, in abuse of rival theorists; but, more
merciful than the moderns, spared us their elaborate formulæ. These
controversies happily have served the useful purpose of preserving for
the historian of to-day a good many facts which might otherwise have
been lost; for our dear old friend 'Hunt's Magazine,' in his flowery
youth, is fonder of treating us to an 'Ode to the Yachtsman's Bride,'
or a relation of 'How Miss Delany married an Officer,' than to facts
regarding measurement, or time allowances, and these are only to be
picked up incidentally as it were from the correspondence of the
quarrelsome gentlemen aforesaid. It is to be hoped that the yachting
historian of the twentieth century may reap a like benefit from our
controversialists of to-day, and that those mathematicians who now
brandish their tonnage formulæ to the terror of all quietly disposed
yachtsmen will find a reader in the searcher after facts of 1950.
Yachting, then, may be said to have begun with this century; for
although, as is shown elsewhere in these volumes, yachts are mentioned
long before that date, it was hardly until the century opened, or
indeed until after the Crimean War, that yachting as a sport became
fairly established in this country.
The yachts of those days were round-headed things, of about three
beams in length, in most cases innocent of metal ballast, and kept on
their feet by gravel or by iron ore. What little racing there might
have been was confined to scratch matches between the owners, and time
allowance for tonnage was not thought of, though doubtless the tonnage
rule as then used for the merchant shipping of the country was
recognised as a useful measure for the purchase and sale of these
vessels. Racing became commoner; soon more than two yachts came
together to try conclusions, and it was presently discovered by some
astute yachtsman that a good big ship, other things being the same,
was faster than a good little ship, and therefore, where their purses
admitted of it, owners built yachts as large as could be handled.
'Arrow,' 84 tons; 'Lulworth,' 82 tons; 'Alarm,' 193 tons; and
'Louisa,' 180 tons, were the crack cutters on the Solent about
forty-five years ago, and, as may be well understood, little boats had
a very poor chance with these giants, except perhaps in light and
fluky weather. Mr. Holland-Ackers called attention to this fact, and
proposed a table of time allowances between large and smaller yachts
based on the length of the course and the difference of size between
the vessels. The measure of this size was the tonnage, as ascertained
by the then tonnage law of the land, which had been in force since
1794, or rather a slight modification of this rule, adapted to the
peculiar form of yachts. In this, 'the old 94 rule,' as it was called,
only length of keel and breadth were taken into account, the depth
being assumed as half the breadth. Breadth was thus penalised twice
over in the formula, and perhaps the most extraordinary fact in
connection with this rule is, that it was in force for years before it
seems to have occurred to our yacht-builders that a success was to be
made by increasing those dimensions which were untaxed, or only
moderately taxed, and reducing the beam which was taxed twice over.
This is all the more remarkable, as builders of the mercantile marine
seem to have caught this point much earlier, and were building vessels
with enormously increased depth and reduced beam, though it is true
the slowness of these ships did not invite imitation, as the American
clipper ships, built under a fairer tonnage law, were rapidly sailing
them off the seas. Happily, in 1854 the law was changed for the
present method of measurement by internal cubic capacity, and the
genius of our shipbuilders, thus left unfettered, was equal to the
task of regaining our supremacy on the ocean.
But among the yachts the old {L - B × B × (1/2 B)}/94 prevailed, and
gradually builders discovered that, by increasing draft and amount of
ballast, beam could be pared down, and a boat of nominally the same
tonnage made longer and to carry more sail than her predecessor. Lead
ballast was slowly introduced, despite all sorts of adverse prophecies
from old salts that it would strain the ship and would cause her to
plunge so heavily as to go under; and presently, when some unknown
genius first put lead outside, and from a timid hundredweight or two
this increased to tons, the veterans gave the new type up altogether
as past praying for, and left them to their well-merited fate. I have
been unable to get any definite information as to the first
application of outside ballasts, but in 1834 Messrs. Steele built the
'Wave' for Mr. John Cross Buchanan, and on this vessel a metal keel
was fixed. There may, however, have been earlier instances of this in
the South. But Providence was on the side of the heavy lead keels, and
each year yachts got longer, and deeper, and narrower, and had more
and more lead outside, until there was none left inside at all, while
they more and more nearly approached Euclid's definition of a line as
having length but no breadth. _A propos_ of these proportions, a good,
and it may possibly be true, story is told of an enthusiastic
cutter-man on the other side of the Atlantic, who, intensely
prejudiced against the fine broad ships of America, asked a friend
here to buy, and have sent across to him, a typical British 5-ton
cutter, stipulating only that she should be fast, and at least as
narrow as anything of her class. The little craft was safely brought
across and put in the water in New York Bay, and after a trial sail
the owner invited one or two friends to come off for a day's
pleasuring in the new ship, with the object of showing the advantages
of five feet of beam against ten. But, on coming alongside, the first
to get out of the dinghy took hold of the runner, and taking a nice
wide step, so as to get well into the centre of the boat, stepped
clean into the water on the other side.
But long before the advantage of substituting untaxed depth for the
heavily taxed beam was discovered, and about 1850 Mr. Wanhill, of
Poole, introduced the raking sternpost, thus getting, on a given
length of keel, a much longer water-line. But even this device was
used in moderation, 50° to 60° being the utmost rake given, with the
sternpost showing at the water-line, and such vessels as our modern
cutaway fives, tens, twenties, or forties, with the keel a fourth of
their over-all length, were as yet unthought of, though the direct
inducement to build them was far stronger then than now.
[Illustration: 'Cygnet' cutter, 35 tons. Built by Wanhill, of Poole,
in 1846.]
[Illustration: Midship section.]
I may cite an exception to this, however, in a vessel called the
'Problem,' built at Kirkcaldy about 1850 or 1851, and described in
'Hunt's Magazine' of August 1852. The 'Problem' presented a similar
profile to that of our fashionable fives or 2-1/2 of three or four
years back, the stem and sternpost sloping down and meeting in a point
as in the 'Lily,' 2-1/2-rater; 'Natica,' 5-rater; and 'Varuna,'
40-rater. But the vessel was built without any idea of racing, she
having three masts, square-rigged on each mast, and whatever
advantages she may have possessed seem to have escaped the notice of
the regular yacht-builders. A much likelier idea was struck by
'Vanderdecken,' in a letter to 'Bell's Life' in 1852, where he
proposes a 'tonnage cheater,' in which he had got the sternpost pretty
nearly amidships, with the profile resembling in an exact degree that
of our most modern small craft. But though, if properly designed
otherwise, the proposed vessel would have been a certain success, the
jump was too big a one for our yacht-builders, and 'Vanderdecken's'
idea lay on the shelf for many years.
[Illustration: 'VARUNA'
_40-rater (Capt. J. Towers-Clarke). Designed by G. L. Watson, 1892._]
[Illustration: 'Problem,' 1852.]
[Illustration: Deck plan of 'Problem'.]
[Illustration: Profile of the 'Varuna,' 1892.]
The evasion of length by this method, however, raised a terrible storm
of discussion. 'Bell's Life' and 'Hunt's Magazine' were inundated with
indignant letters on the subject, until, in 1854, the Royal London
Yacht Club, followed by the Royal Thames, arranged to measure the
length on deck, subtracting from this length the whole beam, instead
of three-fifths of the beam, so as not to dis-class those vessels with
excessive rake already built. This rule, under the name of the 'Thames
Rule,' became the recognised method of measuring yachts, and, indeed,
still remains the standard measurement for rates for buying, selling,
and hiring.
[Illustration: Vanderdecken's tonnage cheater.]
Slowly at first, but steadily, yachts became longer, narrower, and
deeper; the crack yacht of one year being displaced the next by
something with more length, less beam, and more ballast. Here and
there, it is true, an occasional vessel of exceptional excellence held
her own for a year or two with the newer ones; but what looked for a
little like high water was but the mark of an exceptional wave which
in its turn was covered, and the true flood seen to be a bit away yet.
To check the growing tendency towards length and depth at the expense
of beam, the New Thames Yacht Club, at a meeting on March 12, 1874,
adopted the following rule:--
The length shall be the distance from the fore part of the
main stem to the after part of the main sternpost measured
in a straight line along the deck.
The breadth shall be the distance between the outsides of
the outside planks or wales, measured where that distance is
largest.
The depth shall be the distance between the top of the
covering board and the bottom of the keel at the middle
point of the length.
The product of the length, the breadth, and the depth,
divided by 200, shall be taken as the tonnage of the yacht.
But the influence of this rule was not far-reaching, and confined to
the New Thames Club, and (in a slightly modified form) to the
Queenstown Model Yacht Club; few yachts were built under it, and these
were not conspicuously successful. Nor was the reason of this very far
to seek. The tax on depth induced builders to cut down freeboard, and,
so far as might be, draft, while to make up for this latter deficiency
the amidships draft was carried well forward and aft, and only little
rake given to the post, with the result that the few boats built under
this rule carried an extremely awkward sail-plan, and were abnormally
slow in stays.
The great general effect of the 94, or Thames Rule, has been
described; but among its minor influences may be mentioned the
inducement to have the utmost water-line length on a given deck or
measurement length. One obvious manner of attaining this was by
keeping the sternpost upright or nearly so; while the writer, in a
little cutter called the 'Peg Woffington,' built for himself in 1871,
took a farther advantage of the rule by putting a ram bow on her, thus
getting the water-line even longer than the measurement on deck. An
additional interest attaches to this yacht as being the earliest
sailing yacht, so far as I have been able to ascertain, which had all
her ballast outside.
[Illustration: Dog-legged sternpost.]
In 1873 Mr. James Reid, of Port Glasgow, just then beginning to make
his mark as a yacht designer, devised what was called the 'dog-legged'
sternpost, fitting one in the 10-tonner 'Merle.' This, as will be seen
from the sketch, retained all the advantages of a raked sternpost, and
yet gave as long a water-line length as the length on deck; but the
device had but a short life, as in the spring of 1877 the Yacht
Racing Association, which had been formed the previous year, decreed
that the length should be measured to the fore side of the rudder
stock.
This regulation, made so late in the building season, somewhat
unjustly threw out three yachts built under the existing rule.
Unfortunately, a policy of procrastination seems to have haunted the
Yacht Racing Association since its inception, as in most instances
where the building rules have been changed, these changes have been
decided on so close to the coming season that builders have been
unfairly pushed in the designing and getting ready new vessels.
I would venture to suggest to that body, and this in the interests of
yacht-owners quite as much as of builders, that no rule affecting the
construction of racing yachts should be considered after the end of
October.
[Illustration: Immersed counter of 'Quiraing,' 1877.]
In the fall of 1877, in designing 'Quiraing,' and with the same end in
view, I got the water-line the same length as the length for
measurement by immersing the counter as in the sketch.
[Illustration: 'DORA'
_10-rater, centreboard (R. G. Allan, Esq.) Designed by G. L. Watson,
1891._]
In 1878 the Yacht Racing Association recognised the right of builders
to have the same length on load-water-line as that for which they were
taxed on deck, and that without forcing them into adopting abnormal
shapes, and therefore determined that the length should be measured on
the load-water-line. Though it was at once pointed out that this would
lead to overhang, so strong was prejudice in favour of the
old-fashioned straight stem, that no advantage was taken of this until
the advent of the 10-ton 'Buttercup' in 1880, and in her the outreach
was extremely moderate. Indeed, it was impossible, with the deep,
narrow style of yacht produced by the 94 rule, to use overhang to
excess, this device only becoming objectionable when used in
combination with a flat, shallow section. 'Buttercup' made a most
excellent record; and though this was from causes quite apart from her
clipper stem, yet she marks a stage as being the first cutter to
reintroduce this adornment. 'Buttercup' was the work of an amateur,
Mr. Robert Hewitt, and the following particulars of her may be of
interest:--
_'Buttercup,' launched from yard at Barking, September 1880_
L.W.L. 42 ft. 3 in.
Extreme beam 7 ft. 4 in.
Draught 8 feet
Least freeboard 2 ft. 9 in.
Displacement 22 tons
Lead 14 "
Ship and gear 8 "
Sail-area 2,580 feet
First match, May 9, 1881; sailed 20 starts in 1881, won 15
firsts, 2 seconds; designed, owned, and sailed by Robert
Hewitt, Esq., R.T.Y.C, now commodore.
I may mention that the first design for the 90-ton 'Vanduara' was
drawn with a clipper or out-reaching stem; but I had not the heart to
disfigure the boat (as I then considered I should be doing) by
building her in this fashion. The rising generation of yachtsmen,
however, is entirely reconciled to the clipper bow on a cutter-rigged
yacht, and may eventually (though this seems improbable) look with
complacency on such cutwaters as 'Dora's' or 'Britannia's.'
About this date--1875--builders were becoming more and more impressed
with the value of a low centre of gravity got by outside lead, which,
in combination with increased displacement, allowed of beam being
reduced and length added almost indefinitely. Indeed, Mr. Dixon Kemp,
probably the best authority on the subject in this country, declared
somewhat later that there was no limit to this process of drawing out;
and though I never could quite agree with him on that point, the
beginning of the end was approaching, and yachts, more especially in
the smaller classes, were getting most uncomfortably narrow. The
older men, however, were naturally timid about the introduction of
external ballast, and it was left to 'the boys,' with the happy
audacity and confidence of youth, to design 100-tonners with 70-ton
keels, which, perhaps fortunately, did not get beyond the length of
paper. But fives, tens, and twenties were built with nearly all their
lead outside, and did not from that fact tear themselves asunder. Mr.
James Reid, of Port Glasgow, designer of the beautiful 10-tonner
'Florence' and many other fast boats, closely followed by Mr. John
Inglis, of Pointhouse, and later by the writer, put all or nearly all
of the ballast outside, and the practice in a few years became
general.
[Illustration: 'Britannia,' 1893.
'Thistle,' 1887.
Sketch of cutwaters.]
Length and displacement went merrily on, as will be seen from the
following tables and diagrams:--
_Elements of 5-Tonners (94 and 1730 Rules)_
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Description | Diamond | Vril | Trident| Olga | Doris | Oona
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Length on | 25 ft. | 28 ft. | 32 ft. | 33 ft. | 33 ft. | 34 ft.
load-line | 3 in. | 4 in. | | | 8 in. |
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Breadth | 7 ft. | 6 ft. | 6 ft. | 5 ft. | 5 ft. | 5 ft.
Extreme |2-1/4 in.| 7 in. | |8-3/4 in.| 7 in. | 6 in.
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Draught of | 4 ft. | 5 ft. | 6 ft. | 6 ft. | 7 ft. | 8 ft.
water extreme| 6 in. | 2 in. | 3 in. | 4 in. | |
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Displacement |4.92 tons|7.18 tons|8.9 tons|10.4 tons|12.55 tons|12.5 tons
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Total | 671 | 830 | 912 | 985 | 1,116 |
area of | sq. ft. | sq. ft. | sq. ft.| sq. ft. | |
lower sail | | | | | |
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Designer | W. Baden| G. L. | W. E. | W. E. | G. L. | W. E.
| Powell | Watson | Paton | Paton | Watson | Paton
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
Date when | 1873 | 1876 | 1879 | 1883 | 1885 | 1886
built | | | | | |
+---------------+---------+---------+--------+---------+----------+--------+
[Illustration: Chart.]
[Illustration: Profiles of 5-tonners.]
[Illustration: Sections showing decrease of breadth and increase of
depth in 5-tonners--under 94 and 1730 Rules.]
In the autumn of 1881 it was thought a check might be put on this
development by adopting a rule somewhat easier on beam than the
existing 94 one, and in 1882 it was determined that the tonnage should
be reckoned in accordance with the formula:--
((L + B){2} × B) / 1730
[Illustration: Diagram of variation under different rules.]
The incidence of this rule is clearly enough shown by the diagram,
where the possible dimensions for a 10-, 20-, 30-, and 40-tonner are
plotted under both rules; the two curves crossing at a point where the
vessel is about 5-1/4 beams in length. Below this point the new rule
was easier on beam, and above it more severe; and it was thought that
the extra beam admissible below the five-beam point would have
induced builders to avail themselves of this quality; but beam, as we
learn by the light of later years, was then altogether undervalued,
and length was taken at any price, with the result that the adoption
of extreme proportions was hastened rather than averted, till in 1886
a radical change in the rule was demanded, and in the autumn of that
year a Committee of the Yacht Racing Association, after taking most
exhaustive evidence from the various experts, decided on the adoption
of a rule proposed by Mr. Dixon Kemp, based solely on length (which
was measured on the load-water-line) and on sail-area.
In this rule, breadth, so sorely taxed by the 94 rule, was left
absolutely unfettered; depth as heretofore being also untaxed, so that
infinite scope was left for experiment in the way of beam.
Simultaneously with this change, the use of the centreboard was
permitted; and, as the pessimists declared, the road made clear for
all manner of skimming dishes and consequent caprices. I ventured to
point out at the time the possible dangers of unlimited beam, and
proposed that the rule should be ((L +B) × sail-area) / constant; but
this limitation was held to be unnecessary, as, indeed, it appeared to
be for a year or two. With the exception of the 'Thistle,' built
immediately on the passing of the rule, and built probably more with a
view to American racing than performance in home waters, builders were
somewhat chary of availing themselves of the advantages of beam, and,
in the larger classes at least, successive yachts, though getting
broader, only 'slowly broadened down from precedent to precedent.' To
Mr. Alfred Payne, of Southampton, is due the credit of showing what
could be done with large beam and moderate displacement.
In 1889 he built the 'Humming Bird,' 2-1/2-rater, for Captain Hughes;
this boat was 26 feet on water-line, 7.5 feet beam--that is, 3.46
beams in length--and was extremely successful against other and
narrower boats, notably 'Thief' and 'Queen Mab', of like rating and
designed by the writer.
_Elements of 40-Raters (Length and Sail Area Rule)_
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
| | | | | |Centreboard| |
Description | Mohawk |Deerhound|Creole| Thalia|Varuna| cutter-- | Lais |Vendetta
| | | | | | Queen Mab | |
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
Length on } 61.23 | 58.85 |59 ft.| 59.14 |59 ft.| 59 ft. |59.92 | 59.96
load line } ft. | ft. | 6 in.| ft. | | 8 in. | ft. | ft.
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
Breadth | 14.5 | 13 ft. |13 ft.| 13.9 |14 ft.| 16 ft. | | 17.05
extreme | ft. | 5 in. | 2-1/4| ft. | 7 in.| 4 in. |17 ft.| ft.
| | | in. | | | | |
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
Draught of } 9.5 | 11 ft. |12 ft.| 12 ft.|13 ft.| 10 ft. | |
water } ft. |6-1/2 in.| | 6 in.| 4 in.| 9 in. | -- | --
extreme | | | | | | | |
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
Displacement| 58.8 | 58 tons | 58 | 57 | 55 | 54.8 | -- | --
| tons | | tons | tons | tons | tons | |
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
Designer { C. P. | G. L. |G. L. |W. Fife|G. L. | G. L. |W. Fife| A. E.
{ Clayton| Watson |Watson| jun. |Watson| Watson | jun. | Payne
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
Date when | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 | 1892 | 1892 | 1893 | 1893
built | | | | | | | |
+------------+--------+---------+------+-------+------+-----------+------+--------+
In 1890 'Iverna' was built, of practically the same length as, and
of less beam than, 'Thistle,' and no great advance was made until the
present year (1893) in the adoption of beam in the larger classes; but
the progress in this direction may be easily traced in the 'forty' and
'twenty' rating classes, where the growth of beam and decline in
displacement are very well marked, as the table and diagram show.
[Illustration: Diagram showing variation of dimensions, &c., with
years. 40-raters. L. and S.A. Rule.]
[Illustration: Profiles of 40-raters.]
1893 will be remembered as having produced four notable boats on this
side of the Atlantic, and five in America; and in all nine due
prominence is certainly given to beam, if, indeed, more breadth has
not been taken, in some of these at least, than can be advantageously
used.
The dimensions of these boats, so far as they have been obtainable,
will be of interest.
[Illustration: 'Deerhound,' 1889 'Thalia,' 1891 'Varuna,' 1892 'Queen
Mab,' 1892, C.B.
Midship sections of 40-raters.]
How far under the present rating rule beam may yet be increased with
advantage to speed is still matter for debate and experiment.
Personally I am inclined to think we have pretty nearly approached the
limit. But of this much I am confident, that we have long ago exceeded
the limit where beam improves a yacht as a comfortable sea-going
craft, and that we should have a much more wholesome and useful
vessel for all purposes, except possibly for international racing,
with somewhat less beam and somewhat more displacement.
The diagram given _ante_ may serve to give the reader an idea of the
influence that the various tonnage or rating rules have had on the
proportions and form of yachts.
_British Yachts, 1893_
+-----------+------+-------+-----------+--------+-----+------+
| |Length|Breadth| Y.R.A. |Length | |Y.R.A.|
| Name | on | ext. | sail |over all|Draft|rating|
| |L.W.L.| | area | | | |
+-----------+------+-------+-----------+--------+-----+------+
| | feet | feet |square feet| feet | feet| |
|Satanita | 97.7 | 24.7 | 9,923 | 131.0 | 16.5|161.58|
|Britannia | 87.8 | 23.66 | 10,328 | 121.5 | 15.0|151.13|
|Valkyrie | 86.8 | 22.33 | 10,271 | 117.25 | 16.3|148.58|
|Calluna | 82.0 | 24.3 | 10,305 | -- | 15.0|140.83|
+-----------+------+-------+-----------+--------+-----+------+
_American Yachts, 1893_
+------------------+------+-------+-----------+--------+-----+------+
| |Length|Breadth| Y.R.A. |Length | |Y.R.A.|
| Name | on | ext. | sail |over all|Draft|rating|
| |L.W.L.| | area | | | |
+------------------+------+-------+-----------+--------+-----+------+
| | feet | feet |square feet| feet | feet| |
|Navahoe, C.B. | 86.93| 23.0 | 10,815 | 128 | 13 | 156.7|
|Vigilant, C.B. | 86.19| 26.25 | 12,330 | 124 | 14.0| 178 |
|Colonia, K. | 85.00| 24.00 | -- | 124 | 14.0| -- |
|Jubilee, C.B. and } 84.00| 22.5 | -- | 123 | 16.0| -- |
| Fin } | | | | | |
|Pilgrim, K. | 85.00| 23.0 | -- | 122 | 22.0| -- |
+------------------+------+-------+-----------+--------+-----+------+
But an entirely false impression has been conveyed should it be
understood that the only advance made in yacht designing was due to
more or less ingenious methods of evading the existing measurement
rule; and it will be sufficient if the fact has been impressed, that a
designer is as unlikely to make a successful vessel if he ignores the
measurement under which the yacht is to race as by failing to
recognise those laws of nature which govern the stability of bodies in
water and their resistance in passing through it.
What has to be done by the yacht designer, besides getting the very
utmost out of the tonnage rule, has never been more happily put than
by Lord Dunraven in an article on International Yachting, from which
I venture to quote:--
How most successfully to drive a body through the water by
the means of the motive power of the wind acting upon the
sails, is the question that puzzles men and turns them
grey-headed before Nature should have thinned or whitened
their locks. The designer has not merely to discover the
form of solid body which, at various rates of speed, will
excite the smallest degree of resistance in passing through
the water, for the body is not solid, it is hollow. It must
have buoyancy, and suitable accommodation for all the living
and dead freight on board. It must possess stability, real
and acquired; that is, natural by means of breadth, and
artificial by means of ballast, if the expressions are
allowable. It does not proceed on a level keel or at any
uniform angle, but at angles varying at every moment, and
the contour of the body must be adapted to these various
angles. Neither does the wind exert its force upon it from a
fixed direction, nor propel it through water uniformly
smooth or constantly rough. On the contrary, the propelling
power strikes from various angles on the surface of the
sails; and the sea, as we all know--and some of us to our
cost--has a reprehensible habit of becoming, on the shortest
notice, agitated in the most disagreeable manner.
Every point of sailing suggests an appropriate and different
form of hull. The shape that is well adapted for one kind of
weather is ill adapted for another sort; vessels that move
as by magic in light airs may be of little use in a whole
sail breeze; one that is by no means a flier in smooth water
may be very hard to beat in a sea-way. In short, a vessel
must be light enough to be driven easily by a moderate
breeze, stiff enough to stand up to her canvas in a hard
wind, shallow enough to be docked with ease and to run with
speed. She must have depth enough to hold her up to
windward, breadth enough to give her stability; she should
be long enough to reach well, and short enough to turn well
to windward; low in the water so as not to hold too much
wind, with plenty of freeboard to keep the sea off her
decks. The satisfaction of any one requirement necessitates
something antagonistic to some other requirement equally
clamorous for satisfaction. Your vessel, to be perfect, must
be light, of small displacement, and with the centre of
gravity brought very low; she must also have large
displacement, and the ballast must not be too low, in order
that she may be easy in a sea-way; she must be broad,
narrow, long, short, deep, shallow, tender, stiff. She must
be self-contradictory in every part. A sailing ship is a
bundle of compromises, and the cleverest constructor is he
who, out of a mass of hostile parts, succeeds in creating
the most harmonious whole. It is not strange that designers
pass sleepless nights, and that anything like finality and
perfection of type is impossible to conceive. No wonder that
yacht designing is a pursuit of absorbing interest.
It has been shown, then, how from the three beam yachts of fifty years
ago, the proportions drew out, under the 94 rule, to five, five and a
half, and in some instances six beams in length, the 'Evolution'
reaching even 7.8 beams; and even more rapidly, under the length and
sail-area rule, fell back to something like three again. But the
proportions are about all that remain in common to the clippers of
1845 and 1893 and it will be interesting now to trace how form, mode
of construction and equipment have developed, as well as proportions.
Prior to 1820, what yachts there were afloat seem to have presented
but little individuality of form, and showed, in common with the
faster smugglers and fishing vessels of the day, a round barrel-like
bottom, full round bow and fairly clean run, the buttock lines and
after riband lines being generally fair and easy. These yachts were,
one and all, built of timber, were ballasted with stones or gravel,
the more advanced possibly with ore, while the sails and equipment
were of a piece with the hull, the main rigging being of hemp, and no
attempt being made after flatness in the sails.
The original 'Arrow,' of 84 tons, built somewhere about 1823 by Mr.
Joseph Weld, seems to have been a fairly representative craft of that
time, and raced with considerable success, even against much larger
vessels than herself.
This original 'Arrow' was 61 ft. 9-1/2 in. long by 18 ft. 5-1/4 in.
beam, with a depth of hold of 8 ft. 8 in.--that is, she had a
proportion of length to breadth of 3.35--not very much differing in
proportion from our present cutters of 1893: 'Calluna,' the 40-raters
'Lais' and 'Vendetta,' being about 3.4 and 3.5 beams to length, and
the American 'Vigilant' about 3.32.
[Illustration: Midship section.
'Leopard.' Built by Linn Ratsey, Cowes, Isle of Wight, 1807. These
lines are accurately reproduced from the original by his grandson,
Michael E. Ratsey.]
'Arrow' had the usual round barrel-like bottom, and, so far as can
be learned, a round, short bow, the run being fair and easy, the
small midship section lending itself pleasantly to this.
[Illustration: 'ARROW' CUTTER
_Midship Section_
_113 tons. Length on L.W.L., 79' 2"; beam extreme, 18' 9"; draught
extreme, 11' 6"._
[The original 'ARROW,' 84 tons, was built by Mr Joseph Weld about
1823. In 1846 she was bought by Mr. Thomas Chamberlayne and rebuilt;
but it was not until 1852 that her bow was lengthened and she appeared
as shown above.]]
Racing with the 'Arrow,' but without any very conspicuous success, was
the cutter 'Menai,' designed by that famous sportsman, Mr. T.
Assheton-Smith, and memorable from being the first vessel in which
hollow lines were adopted. But little notice seems to have been taken
of this very radical alteration in form, and although Scott Russell in
1840 elaborated a system of construction, based on hollow lines, and
the famous 'Mosquito,' built in 1848, and 'Tiara,' built by Simons of
Renfrew in 1850, all showed this feature strongly, it was not till the
'America' schooner appeared in 1851 that the old round bow was utterly
condemned, and everyone went more or less crazy on the long hollow
bow.
Meanwhile the original old 'Arrow' was being sailed with fair success
against craft much larger than herself, until in 1827 she was laid
aside by her owner in favour of the first 'Lulworth,' of 130 tons,
known for little else than that she was of the same name as the famous
'Lulworth' of 80 tons, also built by Mr. Weld in 1857.
Meantime, Mr. Weld built the famous 'Alarm' of 193 tons in 1834, and
for a long time this enormous cutter was Queen of the Solent.
But the old 'Arrow' was to begin a second career. Bought in 1846 from
a dealer by Mr. Thomas Chamberlayne for a few pounds, that gentleman
had her replanked and some alterations made in the bow and run, indeed
not very much more than the amidship frame seems to have been
preserved. Anyway the resuscitated vessel appeared again in 1847,
recommencing a career which has certainly been an extraordinary one.
In 1848 'Mosquito' was built and fairly tackled the older ship, but
the 'Arrow' was not yet the boat she now is, or as represented in the
plate, as it was not till 1852, and until after the advent of the
'America,' that she appeared with her present long, hollow bow,
having been pulled out some 17 feet in the winter of 1851, as indeed
was pretty well everything else that aspired to be in the fashion. As
is often the case, the pendulum swung too far the other way; bows were
built on old boats, and new boats were designed with fore bodies,
altogether out-Heroding Herod; and the 'America's' graceful,
well-proportioned and moderately hollow bow was caricatured in some
instances to a ridiculous extent. The 'America' showed also a decided
departure in form of midship section, the bottom being much straighter
than in our British-built craft, and the bilge higher and
quicker--altogether a fine form for stability. The run, though
somewhat short, was very fair, the buttock lines especially (as will
be seen by the plate given in the second volume) showing beautifully
easy curves.
But the lesson hinted at by 'Menai,' reiterated by 'Mosquito' and
'Tiara,' insisted upon by Scott Russell, but only brought home to us
by the American schooner, was not the only one to be gleaned from that
graceful vessel. Previous to her advent, our British-made sails were
most baggy productions, kept decently flat only by drenching the luffs
with water, a process called 'skeating.' This defect could not
altogether be laid at the door of our sailmakers, as they did fairly
well, considering the material they had to work with; but flax canvas
at that date was still made by hand and was little firmer in texture,
if indeed as firm, as the unbleached merchant canvas of the present
day. The 'America's' sails were of machine-spun cotton, and, farther,
were laced to the booms as well as the gaffs and masts, the staysail
also being laced to a boom. These flat sails certainly suited the easy
form of the 'America'; but here again the reaction was too strong, and
it is undoubtedly the fact that for some years afterwards sails were
got too flat, at least, for many of the full-bodied boats that they
were put over, and the want of flow of the older-fashioned
loose-footed sails was sadly missed when there came to be any work off
the wind.
For some years then after 1851 (the year of 'America's' _début_ here),
sails were probably flat enough for the forms they had to drive; and
American sailmakers apparently arrived at this conclusion, as they
first of all gave up lacing the head sails, and later cut those
rounder and rounder, until now American head-sails are cut much fuller
than our own, and their mainsails also somewhat fuller. But while the
'America' was undoubtedly the great epoch-making vessel in yacht
designing, the cutter 'Mosquito' possessed quite as many original
features, and had she only come from abroad instead of being a home
production, would have made a far greater stir than the schooner.
[Illustration: 'Mosquito,' 50 tons, 1848.]
The 'Mosquito' was turned out by the Thames Iron Works Shipbuilding
Company. She was designed by that great original genius, Tom Waterman,
who had already produced many successful merchant steamers and sailing
ships: notably the steamer 'Himalaya,' built originally for the
Peninsular and Oriental Company, but afterwards sold to Her Majesty's
Government for a troopship, and still a gem of the ocean and mother of
the troopers.
[Illustration: Midship section.]
The 'Mosquito,' besides presenting novelties in form, in the way of an
easy and hollow bow, large displacement, well-raked post and deep
heel, also upset all preconceived notions of what was yacht fashion,
by being built of iron. Great was the discussion over this departure;
but, among many prophets of evil, a writer in 'Hunt's Magazine,' in
1854, discussing wood _versus_ iron, predicts that 'the "Mosquito" is
likely to be well and hearty when the present wooden craft have gone
to that "bourne from which no traveller returns."'
This prediction has been exactly fulfilled, as 'Mosquito,' after as long
and brilliant a career as has fallen to any yacht, is now, or was a few
years ago, doing good work as a pilot boat off Barrow-in-Furness.
In 1852, Mr. William Fife, of Fairlie, in Ayrshire, who, with his
father before him, had for some years been turning out fast and
weatherly boats, produced 'Cymba,' a notable cutter. His father had
made Scotch-built yachts, well known by his 'Gleam,' built in 1832,
though only fitted out for racing by Sir Robert Gore Booth in 1837;
but 'Cymba' was a marked improvement on this model, having a far
longer and easier bow, larger displacement, considerable rake of post,
and great drag aft.
The dimensions of 'Cymba' are appended, and it will be seen that she
was just under four beams in length.
_'Cymba', built 1852, by Fife_
Length of keel 52 feet
Length between perpendiculars 59 "
Breadth, extreme 15.3 "
Draft aft 10 "
Forward 5.6 "
Mast from stem 23 "
Length of mast 56 "
Boom 53 "
Bowsprit 32 "
Lead outside 3 tons
Lead in all 23 to 24 tons
Meanwhile in matters of equipment steady progress was being made.
Wire rope was rapidly ousting hemp for all standing rigging.
Sailmaking, in the hands of Messrs. Lapthorn and of Charles Ratsey,
was rapidly becoming a science. Machine-spun and woven flax canvas was
in universal use, even cotton canvas was fitfully tried, and from the
first strongly upheld by Charles Ratsey, of Cowes; but prejudice was
too strong as yet for this material, and flax held the day for many a
year to come. It is gratifying that Mr. Ratsey should have lived to
see his favourite material triumphant, and to have looked, as he might
have done in 1893, at the finest fleet of racing yachts the world has
seen, clothed, from the Prince of Wales's majestic 'Britannia' to the
tiny half-rater, entirely with cotton.
[Illustration: 'LETHE'
_163 tons, showing lead keel and construction. Designed by G. L.
Watson. Built by Fay & Co., 1889._]
A considerable factor in modifying form was the gradual abolition of
shifting ballast; this, though not yet actually illegal, was being
more and more looked upon with disfavour, and as the use of outside
lead increased, it was found that depth was a more than sufficient
substitute for weather ballast, especially as beam was being squeezed
down by the tonnage rule, and a long lever in this direction rendered
impossible.
Timber was still the favourite material for building ('Mosquito,'
'Torpid,' and one or two others being the sole exceptions to this
rule); but about 1860 a new system of construction was tried in which
an iron framework was combined with a wooden skin or planking. This
system came rapidly into vogue on the Clyde, and was adopted by
several firms there in the building of those beautiful creations, the
China clipper ships. The annual race home with the season's teas was
the subject of discussion in the great Clyde shipyards, and I can well
remember the highest ambition of every spirited lad in the drawing
office was to live to design a China clipper. The Suez Canal closed
for ever this avenue to fame.
Among the most successful builders of these ships were Messrs. Robert
Steele & Co., of Greenock, who had, so early as 1807, built yachts for
the Excise and for various Scotch owners. Mr. William Steele of that
firm being an able designer of yachts as well as of ships, it was
natural that this method of construction should be adopted by him in
the building of 'Nyanza,' 'Oimara,' 'Garrion,' and the majestic
'Selene,' to-day one of the handsomest schooners afloat; while many of
that firm's large steam yachts, notably the 'Wanderer,' 850 tons, the
finest auxiliary yacht of her day, were built on this plan.
Dan Hatcher of Southampton carried out this system in building several
vessels, commencing with a schooner, the 'Bella Donna,' of 119 tons,
in 1867; 'Seabird,' 126 tons, 1868; 'Lizzie,' of 20 tons, 1868; then,
in one of his finest craft, 'Muriel,' which he built for Mr. Bridson
in 1869; and in the famous 'Norman' he also adopted this construction.
But, owing to the steel frame being considerably more expensive than
timber, the composite build has never become popular until within the
last few years, when the naturally weak shape of the modern yacht, the
fact of all the lead being outside, and her enormous stability, have
so increased the racking strains on the structure, that a merely
wooden frame cannot be got to hold together without making the weight
of the hull altogether prohibitive; and the composite racing yacht,
for everything except very small vessels, seems likely to push all the
others from the field. As illustrating this method of construction, a
midship section is given of 'Lethe,' 163-ton yawl, and one of the
finest of our cruising yachts. The photograph shows the lead keel, the
heaviest ever cast, and also the method of securing the same to the
bottom of the ship.
Since 'Mosquito' astonished the yachting world in 1848, until to-day
when 'Navahoe' and other American racing yachts have been constructed
of metal, iron and steel yachts have been more or less successful; but
the difficulty of keeping a smooth and perfectly clean bottom is a
considerable source of expense and worry, although the immense
strength of the steel shell, and in a large yacht its lightness, will
always be a set-off to the trouble of the uncoppered bottom.
[Illustration: 'Lethe,' 163 tons. Built for S. C. Watson, Esq.--Midship
section.]
In a lecture on 'Progress in Yachting and Yacht-building,' which I
delivered early in 1881, in a fanciful specification of the yacht for
the season 2000, I required that the plating below water should be of
manganese bronze. Curiously enough, a few years later saw an attempt
to combine the strength of steel and the smoothness, anti-fouling, and
non-corrosive properties of copper, in the building of a torpedo-boat
of this material; while this year the chosen defender of the America
Cup has been plated with a similar bronze on a steel frame, the
builders claiming, and not without reason, that the additional
smoothness of bottom gives her an advantage of five to seven minutes
on a forty-mile course. But such a practice seems hardly likely to
become general for ordinary racing yachts built for men with a normal
depth of pocket, and whilst, as in the old Mississippi steamboat days,
it sometimes paid to burn hams, most of us have to try and get along
with good coal.
I was going to build the topsides, frames, and beams of my ideal
vessel of aluminium, and the other day a small yacht has been built,
on the Continent, of this lightest of metals; but the present cost of
this material, and, as yet, its unreliability, place it, for the
present at least, outside the range of practical material for
yacht-building. There seems more hope for some of the very beautiful
and immensely strong alloys of aluminium, but they too are expensive,
and also heavy. It may be some years before the complete realisation
of my design is accomplished, and platinum is substituted for lead as
ballast, though when syndicates of millionaires start yacht-building
there seems very little limit to extravagance in construction.
In nickel-steel there is promise of a very perfect material. This is
an alloy of the ordinary Siemens-Martin steel with nickel, and called
by the makers Yolla metal. It can be made to comply with all the
ordinary tests applied to ship steel, in the way of ductility under
stress, and at the same time have a breaking strength of 40 tons to
the square inch as against 27 for ordinary steel. This metal was used
by Mr. Fife in 1893 for the frames and beams of the 20-rater 'Dragon'
(third), and although the few pounds of weight saved by no means
accounted for the phenomenal success of this little ship, yet the gain
was all in the right direction.
Wire standing rigging continued to improve in quality, and very
rapidly pushed out the old hemp rigging. From being made at first of
good charcoal iron wire, it is now manufactured of the very highest
class of steel, of such perfect character that the breaking strength
of each wire is equal to 130 tons per square inch.
Used at first for standing rigging only, flexible wire rope takes the
place of Manilla or hemp for the runners, and runner tackles, topping
lifts, bobstay falls, outhauls, topsail and jib-topsail halliards, and
latterly even for throat and peak halliards.
Other details were also perfected. Instead of the heavy and clumsy
windlass, neat and light capstans are arranged of cast steel and gun
metal, made so that the whole thing can be lifted away and stowed
below while racing.
Right- and left-handed screws have superseded the old dead-eyes and
lanyards, although these held their own desperately for many years.
Introduced first in the 10-tonner 'Verve,' in 1877, the chain-plates
were torn up in an extra heavy squall; but this occurred from the
great stability of the boat and the fastening having been
insufficient; the rigging screws, however, were blamed for all the
trouble, and were laid aside for ten years or thereabouts, until
re-introduced in the 5-tonner 'Doris.' Now no racing boat is without
them.
Attention was also given to the lightening of deck fittings,
skylights, companions, and the like, these in the racing vessels being
kept lower and flatter, and the scantling reduced perhaps rather
farther than advisable, as one certainly thinks on getting a stream of
water down the neck from a leaky skylight.
Bulwarks have been reduced so as to save weight and windage, until in
the smaller yachts they have become a mere ledge or foothold, whilst
even in the largest class the rail is less than a foot from the deck.
Below, fittings have been lightened correspondingly. Cedar, yellow
pine, and cretonnes or tapestries stretched on frames or light panels,
take the place of the good solid oak and mahogany framing of the
years gone by. Indeed, in some of the classes under 40-rating, cabin
fittings have been dispensed with altogether; although this is not
altogether a novelty, as the Marquis of Ailsa, in 'Bloodhound' (built
1874), and 'Sleuthhound' (built 1881), had at first no fittings beyond
a seat along each side. 'Thistle' in 1887 was similarly arranged, nor
had 'Valkyrie' or 'Vigilant' much more inside than a coat of paint
when racing for the America Cup; but these last are of course special
cases, where everything was sacrificed so that the uttermost second of
speed should be taken out of the yachts. In cruising yachts the cabins
are infinitely more elegant and comfortable now than formerly. The
good old birdseye maple panelling with rosewood mouldings and gilded
'egg and dart' cornice has given place to tasteful cabinet-work
designed in many cases by high-class artists. The main cabin of the
'Lethe,' designed by Mr. T. L. Watson, F.R.I.B.A., is a good example
of this, and the 'Thistle,' now called 'Meteor,' the property of the
German Emperor, has since been very beautifully fitted up from designs
by the same gentleman, the photographs reproduced here giving but an
indication of the elegance and richness of the interior.
[Illustration: Profile of 'Valkyrie.' Designed by G. L. Watson.]
[Illustration: Profile of 'Vigilant.' Designed by N. Herreshoff.]
One of the happiest combinations of lightness of structure with
taste and comfort is in the Prince of Wales's 'Britannia.' The
fittings throughout are of polished yellow pine and mahogany, with
tapestries and cretonnes above the polished wood dado, the effect
being extremely bright, cosy, and unostentatious.
[Illustration: SALOON OF 'THISTLE' (NOW 'METEOR').]
To return to the story of the evolution of the modern racing yacht, no
striking change in form was made for some little time after
'America's' advent, beyond, of course, the steady lengthening and
deepening of the model. Dan Hatcher, with the 'Glance' in 1855,
entered on the wonderful series of successes which culminated perhaps
in 'Norman,' 1872. These were all reasonably long boats with nice
bows, fine after ends, and of big mid-area and displacement, but
beautifully fair and easy all over, and showing a slight but not
inordinate hollow forward. In 1866 Mr. Fife, of Fairlie, built the
'Fiona,' and though Clyde builders had already turned out successful
yachts, it was 'Fiona' that put the fame of Scotch builders on a solid
footing. This beautiful vessel was a cutter of 80 tons, of great
length in proportion to beam (73 ft. 6 in. × 15 ft. 9 in.) and of
large displacement for those days (108 tons); but she had singularly
long, fair and easy lines, and, sailed in a masterly manner by John
Houston, of Largs, more than held her own with the Solent-built craft.
However, beyond being exceptionally fair and easy, 'Fiona' presented
no striking novelty in form, nor did the big cutters 'Kriemhilda,'
'Vol-au-Vent,' or 'Formosa,' built by M. Ratsey, of Cowes, in 1872,
1875, and 1878 respectively, and it is an outsider and amateur
yacht-builder that we have to thank for the daring departure in form
that was made in 'Jullanar.'
[Illustration: Cutter yacht 'Britannia'--general arrangement plan.]
Prior to 1870 but little was known of the laws governing the
resistance to bodies moving through water. It is true that eighty
years before this, towards the close of last century, Colonel Beaufoy
had made an elaborate series of experiments in towing bodies through
water, beginning first in one of the tanks of his father's brewhouse.
These were elaborated in the Greenland Dock near London, and
included the determination of the resistance of all manner of shapes,
except unhappily shipshape ones, the nearest approach to these being
double wedges, and double wedges with a straight amidship piece
inserted. But while Colonel Beaufoy also made experiments for the
determination of the value of surface friction on planes pulled
through the water, no great importance seems to have been attached to
these by shipbuilders in general, and the subject of surface friction
was more or less lost sight of by them until again brought forward by
Maquorn Rankine, first in a series of papers in the 'Mechanic's
Magazine,' and more elaborately in his 'Shipbuilding, Theoretical and
Practical,' published in 1866. In this Rankine, basing his deductions
on Weisbach's experiments on the flow of water through pipes,
concluded on mathematical principles that the entire resistance at
moderate speeds of a fair and easy formed vessel was due to surface
friction--i.e. the rubbing of the water against the sides and bottom
of the ship. Rankine showed also that at higher speeds the forming of
waves was a material and ever-increasing element in the resistance.
It is fully twenty years ago that the late Mr. William Froude began to
give to the world the results of his experiments on the resistance of
planes of different lengths, coated with various substances and towed
at varying speeds through the water. These experiments were conducted
under the most favourable conditions, and with the nicest regard for
accuracy, and practically confirmed Maquorn Rankine's deductions,
although it was found that Rankine had somewhat overestimated the
value attachable to surface friction, and had also overestimated the
increase in frictional resistance, due to increased speed. Still the
great fact remained that practically the entire resistance to a fairly
formed body, moving through water at moderate speeds, is due to
friction and to friction alone.
Rankine's reasoning, early in the sixties, had been too subtle for
those fathers of shipbuilding at that date engaged in the art. Able,
honest, practical men, most of them could have handled an adze, or
maul, with the best of their workmen, and were more at home fairing a
sheering batten, or directing a launch, than in analysing speed
curves, or investigating strength calculations.
But one or two of the younger and brighter minds in the profession,
more especially those who had the advantage of Rankine's direct
tuition, felt that the old beliefs as to resistance presented such
anomalous and unreconcilable results that they could not be founded on
any true law of nature. John Inglis, jun., then a mere boy, instituted
in Pointhouse Shipyard Rankine's method of estimating the resistance
of ships, and for many years was alone in this mode of investigation.
[Illustration: Resistance curves
Model of S.S. 'Merkara.'
SPEED IN FEET PER MINUTE RESISTANCE IN LBS.]
But with Froude's experiments all doubt on the matter vanished. It was
no longer a question of 'condemned mathematics.' Froude had the happy
knack of writing so that the proverbial schoolboy could understand
him; and the schoolboy could see the value of resistance to motion
through water weighed out as simply and accurately as a pound of
currant bun. These experiments for the determination of the frictional
resistance of water, published in 1874, were supplemented presently by
experiments on models of actual ships, and also by towing a full-size
ship, the 'Greyhound,' her resistance at various speeds being recorded
by means of a dynamometer on board the 'Active,' the vessel towing
her. The results of the experiments on model and ship were set out in
a curve, when it was found, after the necessary corrections were made,
that both curves were of precisely similar character. A basis of
comparison between model and ship was thus established, the measure of
this being set forth in what is known as Froude's law of comparison,
which may thus be stated. The equivalent speed of a ship and the model
it represents will vary as the square root of their lengths. Thus, in
the case of a ship 100 feet long represented by a model 4 feet long,
the equivalent speed of the ship would be five times that of the
model, and at these equivalent speeds would present similar phenomena
connected with resistance as the model does. This fact enormously
increased the knowledge of investigators, and it was belief in it that
gave the writer absolute confidence in carrying out the design of the
'Vanduara,' though he possessed experience in small boats only. Mr.
Froude also split up the several elements of resistance to motion
through the water into their component parts, assigning a value to
each, and showing what was due to surface friction and eddy-making,
and what to wave-making. Scott Russell had already argued for a given
length of fore and after body for any given speed, and this was
recognised by yacht-builders to some extent by their gradually
lengthening out their vessels; but the disadvantages as well as the
advantages of length could only be thoroughly realised on
investigating Froude's experiments. An example is given of such an
experiment in the diagram, which shows the resistance curve of a model
of the 'Merkara,' built by Messrs. Denny Bros., at Dumbarton, where
the several resistances are shown, each in its place. In this diagram
the resistance due to surface friction is indicated by the dotted
line, and the total resistance by the full line. Up to a speed of 250
feet per minute (for the model) the resistance is almost entirely due
to skin friction, but after that the wave-making becomes more and more
serious until at 370 feet per minute the wave-making takes more power
than the surface friction.
While surface friction thus plays a very large part in the resistance
of all vessels, and more especially in that of ocean-going steamers
and ships, which from their large dimensions seldom attain serious
wave-making speeds, yet undue importance may be placed upon friction,
and, in the smaller yachts, especially, surface may be inordinately
cut away. A notable example of this was the 'Thistle,' built in 1889
to compete for the America Cup; here the surface was so cut down that
sufficient lateral plane was not left to hold her to windward, and
although she sailed the water as fast as the American champion, the
'Volunteer,' she drifted bodily to leeward.
A short history of Mr. Froude's discoveries in resistance was
advisable before touching on 'Jullanar,' as this wonderful vessel,
whether the result of intuition or of early and immediate appreciation
of Froude's investigations, was a remarkable example of the modern
theories regarding naval architecture.
The same year that 'Jullanar' was built, I designed my first racing
yacht, the 5-ton 'Clotilde,' but whilst I had the advantage, through
my friend Mr. John Inglis, jun., of specially early access to
Professor Froude's investigations, I cut her away in a somewhat timid
fashion, though sufficient for her at that time to be compared to a
'cart-wheel,' with the accompanying prediction that she might 'run on
land, but would never sail in salt water.'
Meanwhile, with splendid audacity, and with no timid reverence for
precedent, Mr. Bentall built the 'Jullanar.'
An Essex plough and agricultural implement maker, Mr. E. H. Bentall
had but little training in naval architecture, but from boyhood had
been fond of yachting and of yacht modelling. He fancied he could do
something in the way of improving the form of the existing racing
yacht. After cutting several half-models, he got one that pleased him,
and on a piece of his own property adjoining the Blackwater river in
Essex, the famous yawl, afterwards to be known as 'Jullanar,' was laid
down.
[Illustration: 'JULLANAR'
_126 tons. Built by E. H. Bentall, Esq., 1875._]
Great length was taken in proportion to beam, as length means
capacity for speed, and beam in those days was doubly taxed. Draft was
untaxed, and was used boldly to obtain stability and weatherly
qualities; but while such proportions would have been impossible with
the ordinary form of forefoot and sternpost, as the boat would have
been clogged up with wet surface, this was got over by cutting all
deadwood clean away both forward and aft, in such daring fashion as
was not attempted until 'Thistle' was built, years afterward and I
should not have essayed such a form of profile in her had not
'Jullanar's' success given me a precedent. Add to these features the
fact that every line in the vessel was easy and fair, and the only
wonder is that the famous yawl was not even more phenomenally
successful than she was.
[Illustration: 'Jullanar'--midship section.]
Mr. Hunt, publisher of 'Hunt's Yachting Magazine,' has kindly supplied
the following measurements of the 'Jullanar,' which were given to him
by Mr. Bentall himself, when he would not let anyone else have them.
Coming therefore from the fountain-head they are accurate, and should
be preserved as a register of detail.
_'Jullanar'[3] 126 tons, yawl_
ft. in.
Length over all 110 6
Depth of hold 12 0
Length on load-line 99 0
Beam extreme, one sixth of load-line 16 10
" on water-line 16 5
" on deck 16 8
Depth after under load-line 13 6
" at forefoot load-line 1 6
" at midship 13 6
Height of freeboard aft 6 3
" " forward 7 9
" " midships 3 8
Height of freeboard bulwarks 2 0
Rake of sternpost, upright
Distance the greatest transverse section is abaft centre of
vessel at load-line 10 6
Distance of centre of gravity of displacement below water-line 3 4
Length of mainmast 75 0
" deck to hounds 53 0
" masthead 9 6
Diameter at deck 1 4
Length of main-topmast, fid to pin 38 6
" main-boom 56 6
Diameter centre of main-boom 1 0
Length of main-gaff 40 0
" bowsprit outboard 24 6
" gaff topsail-yards, No. 1 63 0
" " " No. 2 46 0
" " " No. 3 22 0
" mizzen-mast 51 6
" deck to hounds 36 0
" mizzen-boom 26 0
" mizzen-yard 35 0
[Footnote 3: _Vide_ 'Arabian Nights,' the 'Princess Jullanar of the
Sea.']
To my mind the genius, daring, and originality of mind of Mr. Bentall
were even more fully displayed in the design of the unsuccessful
'Evolution' than of the successful 'Jullanar.'
[Illustration: 'Jullanar,' yawl, 126 tons, 1875. Designed by E. H.
Bentall, Esq.]
The 'Evolution,' as her name implied, was the logical outcome of the
then tonnage rule, and of the laws of resistance rediscovered, or at
least popularised, by Froude. It seems self-evident now that with a
belief in these laws only one type of boat could be the result; but
Mr. Froude alone had the courage of his opinions, and built the
extraordinary 10-tonner which, if it did nothing else, scared the
authorities into changing the tonnage rule. 'Evolution' was by far the
longest of the 10-tonners, her dimensions being 51 ft. × 6 ft. 6
in.--indeed about the same water-line length as the twenties. To get
moderate wet surface the ends were cut away; but as 'Jullanar' already
represented the utmost that could be done in that direction, while
preserving a fair line of keel, this was cast aside in 'Evolution,'
and the profile was that of a true 'fin' boat. More than this, it was
found after a trial sail or two that she was very deficient in
stability when the lead slab forming the keel was recast in the form
of a bulb on the bottom of the plate, the completed design simply
forming one of our modern bulb fin keels, but of course, owing to the
94 rule, with vastly less beam. 'Evolution' was not a success because
of her insufficient stability, but with the meagre data in possession
of the designer as to the stability of boats of this class, it would
have been marvellous had the difficulty been overcome in a first
trial. To those able to see the beauties in a design, it matters less
whether the ultimate outcome has been successful or not, and while to
'the general' nothing succeeds like success, a few have a kindly
sympathy and hearty admiration for those who have laboured, that _we_
may enjoy the increase. Many of the best and kindest thoughts and
brightest ideas never reach fruition in this world, and so in the
mechanical arts there is often more genius displayed in a failure than
in a success, with this difference, that a mechanical idea seldom
dies, but, 'blossoming in the dust' of one brain, is plucked and worn
by another. 'Evolution' lay dead for fifteen years. She has had a
striking resurrection on both sides of the Atlantic.
[Illustration:
FT
L.W.L. 50.75'
D°. BEAM. 6.395'
EXTR. BEAM. 6.50
DRAUGHT 10.00
'Evolution,' October 12, 1880, 10 tons, Y.R.A. Designed by E. H.
Bentall, Esq.]
In the autumn of 1886, as has been stated, the tonnage rule was
changed to that of rating, the only taxed dimensions being length on
water-line and sail-area. This change, though at once affecting
dimensions, did not materially affect form, though even in the earlier
boats designed under this rule more hollow was given to the sections,
this being of course a necessity, as with the added beam abnormal
displacement would otherwise have been the result. But displacement
was not immediately cut down, and for a given length of
load-water-line yachts had quite as much displacement as formerly;
'Thistle,' 120-rating, and 'Mohawk,' 40-rater, the only two large
yachts built the first year for the new classification, both being
wholesome big-bodied boats, with 130 and 58 tons displacement
respectively. Overhang naturally increased somewhat, as it was
apparent that this could be more usefully adopted with a
shallow-bodied boat than with a narrow one, it being evident that the
natural way of forming the stem and counter was to follow the general
buttock lines of the fore and after body. This overhang on the fairly
deep boats built up till 1890, so far from being objectionable, was a
distinct advantage, as it gave a fine, easy, and at the same time
lifting, bow in a sea, eased the bow riband lines when the boat lay
down and was hard driven reaching, and carried the side fairly out aft
in the long counter.
[Illustration: Midship section
Profile of lines of 'Meteor' (late 'Thistle'). Designed by G. L.
Watson, 1887.]
But beam was now steadily increasing, as untaxed dimensions are apt to
do, while extreme draught also increased, and these two giving ample
stability, displacement was more and more cut down. Length still had
to be got somehow, but length ran up wet surface, and in the 'classes'
for every foot of length a considerable amount of sail-area had to be
given, making, as it were, a direct and indirect tax thereon. With an
ordinary form of profile, the longer yachts would have been clogged up
with wet surface; so profiles first imitated 'Jullanar' and then
'Evolution,' while displacement was cut down to a minimum, to give an
easily driven form, and stability got in another way, by lengthening
the righting lever of the ballast, by giving immense draft of water,
and in the smaller classes concentrating this ballast in the form of a
bulb, as in the altered 'Evolution.' With the shallow body, overhang
has of course increased, the flat section carrying out naturally into
overhangs forward and aft, which almost double the water-line length
of the boat on deck. That such a type of boat sails fast for a given
sail-area and water-line length is beyond dispute, but this exhausts
almost all that can be said in its favour. For 1/2-raters, 1-raters,
and 2-1/2-raters, the type is perhaps suitable enough, as these are
only used as day boats, and extended cruising was never contemplated
in them. But from 5-up to 40-rating the type is nothing like so good
as that of the boats built prior to 1890. Expensive to build,
expensive to handle, without head-room, or indeed room of any kind
inside, they would thrash themselves to pieces in any sea but for the
admirable manner in which they have been put together. A season, or at
most two, sees the end of their success as racers; then they must be
broken up, or sold for a mere song, as they are quite useless for
cruising. So strongly was this felt by the various yacht-builders and
designers, that in the autumn of 1891 they, in response to the
invitation of the Yacht Racing Association, addressed a joint circular
to that body, and, with I think exceptional abnegation of what looked
to be their more immediate interests, pointed out the undesirability
of the present type of yacht, in the following letter:--
Langham Hotel, London: October 6, 1892.
We (C. P. Clayton, William Fife, jun., Charles Nicholson,
Arthur E. Payne, H. W. Ridsdale, Joseph Soper, and G. L.
Watson) have met for the consideration of the questions put
before us in the circular of the Council of the Yacht Racing
Association, dated September 27, 1892.
We have considered that, besides the saving in time to the
Council and to ourselves, it would be more satisfactory for
many reasons to have such a preliminary meeting for
interchange of ideas on the important issues raised in this
circular, and we trust that this course of action will be
approved of by the Council. We may state that we are
practically unanimous in the opinions hereinafter expressed,
the only exception being on the one point of taxing
overhang, Mr. Ridsdale feeling that he could not go with the
majority in this.
We would, then, most respectfully submit to your Council
that as designers of racing yachts we have no desire
whatever to interfere with the present rating rule. It has
the merit of being the existing rule, and is a perfectly
fair one for racing yachts together by, as indeed is any
rule whatsoever, so far as designers are concerned, provided
its conditions are clearly stated beforehand. But as naval
architects, and, if we may be permitted to say so, as
trustees for the yachting public, we think it our duty to
point out any deteriorating tendency in a rule. We cannot
help fearing that the present length and sail-area rule has
such a tendency, and is leading, if it has not already led,
to an unwholesome type of boat.
We take it that the general yachting public require in a
yacht: That she shall be safe in all conditions of wind and
weather; that she shall combine the maximum of room on deck
and below with the minimum of prime cost; and that she shall
be driven as fast as may be with the least expenditure of
labour--i.e. that she shall have a moderate and workable
sail-area. Therefore, as but few men can afford to build for
racing, and for racing only, and as the racer of to-day is
the cruiser of a few years hence, any rating rule should by
its limitations encourage such a wholesome type of vessel.
On the above assumptions we have based our advice, and it is
for your Council, as representing the general body of
yachtsmen, to determine whether these assumptions are
correct or not.
We are all agreed, then, that the present length and
sail-area rule is a most admirable one for the
classification and regulation of time allowance of racing
yachts. But we are also of opinion that the tendency of
this rule is such as to induce a vessel of so large
dimensions, relative to displacement and internal capacity
(i.e. the useful living room on board the ship), that it is
advisable to so alter or modify this rule that a type of
vessel having more body may be evolved.
We suggest that length and sail-area (as being the leading
elements in speed) should be preserved in some form, but
modified so as to make it the interest of builders to
produce a bigger-bodied boat.
The direct method of doing this would be to introduce
displacement or register tonnage in some way as a divisor in
the formula, but we foresee so many difficulties in the
practical working of this that we are not prepared to advise
it.
By taxing breadth and draft or, alternatively, girth, and by
reducing the tax on sail, we think this result may be
arrived at indirectly. As to the precise value that each
element should take in such a formula, we, at this stage,
are not prepared to venture an opinion.
[Illustration: 'Florinda,' yawl, 126 tons. Built by Camper
and Nicholson, 1873.]
The above on the general principles of the rule.
But we also feel that the details of measurement, &c.,
require revision.
_On the hull._--The overhang, at least forward, should be
taxed, as it may be carried to such an extent as to be a
source of danger, but it need not be taxed excessively or to
extinction.
The L.W.L. should be marked forward and aft.
Should girth or draft be used in the formula in centreboard
vessels, some proportion of the drop of board should be
added, and a limit should be placed on the weight of the
board.
In the smaller classes, at least, the crews should be
limited.
[Illustration: 'Kriemhilda,' 106 tons. Built by Ratsey,
1872.]
_On the sails._--The perpendicular of fore triangle should
be measured from top of deck to where the line of luff of
sail would cut mast.
That the question of limiting the relative area of mainsail
to total sail in the various classes be considered.
Mr. Alexander Richardson, of Liverpool, was unable to be present at
this meeting, but this note has been submitted to him, and receives
his endorsation:--
The Council of the Yacht Racing Association, however, took
the view that what the yacht-owning public want in a racing
yacht is speed, and speed at any price, and on the
yacht-builders clearly understanding this they withdrew
their objections as having been made under a
misunderstanding, but asked to be tied down to some extent,
in a letter dated November 8, and in the following words:--
'Our opinions, as expressed in that letter of October 6,
practically remain unaltered; but so far as we are able to
interpret the wishes of yacht-owners, as stated in the
public prints, and more especially as expressed by your
chairman and the majority of your committee, we now take it
that speed, and speed before other good qualities, is what
is to be aimed at.
'We consequently withdraw any suggestions made in that
letter, as having been made under a misapprehension as to
your requirements.
'But while it may be determined to retain a length and
sail-area rule, either in its present or in some slightly
altered form, we would most respectfully suggest that, at
least in the classes above 5-rating (if, indeed, a lower
line should not be drawn), the tendency toward abnormal and
un-shipshape form should be curbed in some way. The main
direction in which we would propose such limitation in form
would be in the outline of longitudinal section, and we
would suggest that this should be bounded by a fair line,
concave, or at least not convex, toward the water-line. That
the sternpost should show, say, a quarter of an inch above
the water-line aft, and the rudder be hung thereon. That
overhang forward and aft should be restricted, as also the
extreme forward position of mast; but as we deem it
undesirable to absolutely prohibit any form, we would simply
propose to tax such variations from this normal one so
heavily as to make their adoption unprofitable.'
The Yacht Racing Association, however, thought it undesirable to limit
form in any way, and beyond the adoption of the proposed method of
measuring the fore triangle, and marking the L.W.L., the rule remained
unaltered.
[Illustration: 'Florinda,' yawl.]
1893 therefore saw new boats in the classes, fast, it is true, in
fresh breezes, but undesirable from anything but a racing point of
view. In the unclassed vessels above 40-rating things were not quite
so bad, as with a practically unlimited sail-area a fair amount of
body was required to carry it. Besides, men who did not mind
spending two or three thousand on a 'machine' hesitated before putting
down ten or twelve. In America, however, where money is spent like
water when the national honour is at stake, 85-foot machines were
built on the off chance of their being successes; but it is gratifying
alike to American and British yachtsmen that the Cup should have been
defended by such a wholesome type of vessel as 'Vigilant' undoubtedly
is.
In a short chapter showing the evolution of the modern racing yacht,
many links in the chain of descent must be left unnoticed. I have had
to leave almost undescribed Dan Hatcher's wonderful fleet, beginning
in 'Glance' and 'Muriel,' and culminating, perhaps, in 'Norman';
Nicholson's famous schooners and yawls ('Florinda' was a standing
miracle for years); Michael Ratsey's equally fine ships; Richardson's
grand cutters and Clayton's clever 'length classers'; the work
accomplished, and still being accomplished, by the famous William
Fifes, besides many others whose labours are more fully recorded in
other parts of these volumes. But I think no one of all that band who
have loved and worked for the sport of yacht racing cares for the type
of ship which has been evolved by their own ingenuity and the present
Y.R.A. rule, and I am convinced that they would thankfully welcome any
legislation which should protect the yachting public against the
present extravagant, costly, and by no means seaworthy type of boat.
[Illustration: 'Florinda'--midship section.]
[Illustration: H.M. brig 'Lady Nelson,'[4] 60 tons (1797), to
Australia. Three keels, 1798, 1800-1-2.]
[Footnote 4: The first ship to discover that Tasmania was an island.]
CHAPTER V
SLIDING KEELS AND CENTREBOARDS
BY R. T. PRITCHETT[5]
[Footnote 5: The Editor desires to express his acknowledgments to Mr.
Pritchett for much energetic service kindly rendered during the
preparation of these volumes.]
[Illustration: MIDSHIP SECTIONS, DATES, AND TONNAGE OF SCHOONERS,
YAWLS, AND CUTTERS.
_Drawn to scale by J. M. Soper, M.I.N.A._]
Centreboards have been so prominently before the yachting world of
late that, endeavouring carefully to avoid the argumentative phases of
the question, it may be well to notice certain points of their history
which may be generally unknown. Centreboards are essentially American
in general adoption. Their origin was the natural outcome of the
shallow coasts and sand-banks of New York Bay and the New Jersey
coast, where wild fowl flock, and the fowler finds happy hunting
grounds. Sportsmen originally sank boxes in the marshes; in the
course of time these developed in length, and became 'scows' or
floating blinds; then the corners forward were rounded off, to
facilitate their being hauled up on a beach or bank. This mobility led
to their passing into deeper water, the scows were developing into
boats, and then came the practical germ of centreboards. To give
stability to the box, a hand board was dropped through a well slot, as
the simplest way of achieving the object, until they reached land or
some other marsh. The board was not hinged or pivoted in any way, and
when no longer required was pulled up and laid on the floor of the
craft, ready for any emergency. These boards were first known as
'dagger boards,' and as they were likely to touch the sand
unexpectedly, they were rounded off at the bottom, curving aft, so
that notice was given, and before the hull touched the ground the boat
could be put about into deeper water. This was the early form of
American centreboard. On this side of the Atlantic, it is to be noted,
our forefathers were not so prejudiced against their introduction as
many are inclined to assume. In 1774 A.D. Lord Percy had a boat built
in Boston, New England, with one long centreboard, and sent over here
in order that he might try the new system in this country. In 1789 a
boat was built at Deptford with three centreboards or sliding keels.
[Illustration: Built in Boston for Lord Percy, 1774, with one
centreboard.]
[Illustration: Built at Deptford, 1789, with three sliding keels.]
The Admiralty in 1790 A.D. had a revenue cutter called the 'Trial,'
built with three sliding keels. The report was most satisfactory, and
a note on their application describes--
Use of fore keel in tacking and laying to.
Use of keels on a wind, raised or depressed according as
necessary to assist helm or gain the wind.
Use of after keel, in wearing or scudding in a gale of wind.
Keels hove up going over shoals or before the wind.
[Illustration: Laying to.]
[Illustration: On a wind.]
[Illustration: Scudding.]
The Admiralty soon after this proceeded to make a bold experiment, and
built a 60-ton brig, the 'Lady Nelson,' with three sliding keels,
designed to perform a voyage of discovery to New South Wales. She was
built in 1797, and began her expedition of 1800-1-2 under the command
of Lieutenant James Grant, R.N., when she first sailed round Tasmania,
at the same time as the 'Flinders's' voyage to Australia. A full
account was published in 1803. The whole report was favourable to the
keels, and H.M. sloop 'Cynthia' was built. Private individuals also
made experiments, and some cargo boats at Teignmouth were fitted with
them for river-work. About this time a very prominent personage in the
yachting world was the Commodore of the Cumberland Sailing Society in
the Thames. Commodore Taylor had a yacht built with five sliding
keels, the illustration here given being his from a
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/41971