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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Man on the Ocean, by R.M. Ballantyne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Man on the Ocean
+       A Book about Boats and Ships
+
+Author: R.M. Ballantyne
+
+Illustrator: R. Richardson
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21749]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN ON THE OCEAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+MAN ON THE OCEAN, A BOOK ABOUT BOATS AND SHIPS, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+TREATS OF SHIPS IN GENERAL.
+
+There is, perhaps, no contrivance in the wide world more wonderful than
+a ship--a full-rigged, well-manned, gigantic ship!
+
+Those who regard familiar objects in art and nature as mere matters of
+course, and do not trouble themselves to wander out of the beaten track
+of everyday thought, may not at first feel the force or admit the truth
+of this statement.  Let such folk endeavour to shake themselves
+vigorously out of this beaten track of everyday thought.  Let them knit
+their brows and clench their teeth, and gaze steadfastly into the fire,
+or up at the sky, and try to realise what is involved in the idea of--a
+ship.
+
+What would the men of old have said, if you had told them that you
+intended to take yonder large wooden house, launch it upon the sea, and
+proceed in it out of sight of land for a few days?  "Poor fellow," they
+would have replied, "you are mad!"  Ah! many a wise philosopher has been
+deemed mad, not only by men of old, but by men of modern days.  This
+"mad" idea has long since been fulfilled; for what is a ship but a
+wooden house made to float upon the sea, and sail with its inmates
+hither and thither, at the will of the guiding spirit, over a trackless
+unstable ocean for months together?  It is a self-sustaining movable
+hotel upon the sea.  It is an oasis in the desert of waters, so
+skilfully contrived as to be capable of advancing against wind and tide,
+and of outliving the wildest storms--the bitterest fury of winds and
+waves.  It is the residence of a community, whose country for the time
+being is the ocean; or, as in the case of the _Great Eastern_ steamship,
+it is a _town_ with some thousands of inhabitants launched upon the
+deep.
+
+Ships are, as it were, the electric sparks of the world, by means of
+which the superabundance of different countries is carried forth to
+fill, reciprocally, the voids in each.  They are not only the media of
+intercourse between the various families of the human race, whereby our
+shores are enriched with the produce of other lands, but they are the
+bearers of inestimable treasures of knowledge from clime to clime, and
+of gospel light to the uttermost ends of the earth.
+
+But for ships, we should never have heard of the wonders of the coral
+isles and the beauties of the golden South, or the phenomena and
+tempests of the icy North.  But for ships, the stirring adventures and
+perils of Magellan, Drake, Cook, etcetera, had never been encountered;
+and even the far-famed Robinson Crusoe himself had never gladdened, and
+saddened, and romantically maddened the heart of youth with his escapes,
+his fights, his parrots, and his philosophy, as he now does, and as he
+will continue to do till the end of time.
+
+Some account, then, of ships and boats, with anecdotes illustrative of
+the perils to which they are frequently exposed, cannot fail, we think,
+to prove interesting to all, especially to boys, for whose particular
+edification we now write.  Boys, of all creatures in this world, are
+passionately fond of boats and ships; they make them of every shape and
+size, with every sort of tool, and hack and cut their fingers in the
+operation, as we know from early personal experience.  They sail them,
+and wet their garments in so doing, to the well-known sorrow of all
+right-minded mammas.  They lose them, too, and break their hearts,
+almost, at the calamity.  They make little ones when they are little,
+and big ones when they grow big; and when they grow bigger they not
+unfrequently forsake the toy for the reality, embark in some noble
+craft, and wed the stormy sea.
+
+A word in your ear, reader, at this point.  Do not think that because
+you fall in love with a _ship_ you will naturally and necessarily fall
+in love with the _sea_!  Some do, and some don't: with those who do, it
+is well; with those who don't, and yet go to sea, it is remarkably ill.
+Think _philosophically_ about "going to sea," my lads.  Try honestly to
+resist your own inclination _as long as possible_, and only go if you
+find that _you can't help it_!  In such a case you will probably find
+that you are cut out for it--not otherwise.  We love the sea with a true
+and deep affection, and often have we tossed upon her foam-topped waves;
+but we don't wish to be a sailor--by no manner of means!
+
+And now, boys, come along, and we will conduct you as pleasantly and
+profitably as we can from a ship's cradle, through all her stormy
+existence, to her grave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE EARLIEST DAYS OF WATER-TRAVELLING.
+
+Once upon a time there were no ships.  Men did not know the meaning of
+the word; they did not want them; and, for many, many centuries the
+sea-gulls had the ocean all to themselves.  But _boats_ are of very
+ancient date.  Doubtless the _first_ boats must have been constructed by
+the _first_ men who dwelt on the earth.  They consisted, probably--for
+we are now in the land of conjecture--of stumps of fallen trees, or
+bundles of rushes, seated astride of which the immediate descendants of
+our first parents ferried themselves over small lakes and across rivers.
+
+Wet feet are not agreeable under any circumstances.  We can conceive
+that prolonged voyages performed in this fashion--say several hundred
+yards or a mile--rendered those primitive mariners so uncomfortable,
+that they resolved to improve their condition; and, after much earnest
+thought, hit upon the plan of fastening several logs together by means
+of twigs, and thus they formed _rafts_.
+
+As time progressed, and men began to display wisdom in making tools of
+stone and in the moulding of metal, we can imagine that they soon
+bethought themselves of flattening the surface of their rafts; and then,
+finding them unwieldy and difficult to manage, no doubt, they hit upon
+the idea of hollowing out the logs.  Adzes were probably not invented at
+that time, so they betook themselves to the element of fire--which is at
+the present day used by savage nations for the same purpose--and burned
+out the insides of their logs.  Thus _canoes_ sprang into being.
+
+But such canoes were clumsy and heavy, besides being liable to split;
+men therefore bethought themselves of constructing a light framework of
+wood, which they covered with bark or skin.  Then artificers in iron
+invented saws; logs were ripped up; planks were formed; pitch oozed
+ready to hand from the trees; with grass, perchance, they caulked the
+seams;--and soon the first _boat_ floated on the water--clumsy and
+tub-like, no doubt, but serviceable withal--and youths of a hundred
+years old, and full-grown men of two or three hundred, capered and
+shouted on the shore with delight at the great invention; while
+venerable patriarchs, of seven or eight hundred summers, gazed in
+wonder, with almost prophetic solemnity, and exclaimed that they had
+never before seen the like of _that_ in all the course of their long,
+long lives!
+
+Those times are old now--so old that men can scarcely get their minds to
+realise how old they are; nevertheless, the craft that were used then
+are used even now, and that not only among the savages of distant lands,
+but by men living at our very doors.
+
+The _coracle_, a basket-boat of the most primitive description, is still
+occasionally met with in South Wales.  It is neither more nor less than
+a large wicker basket covered with a hide, and is tub-shaped, and clumsy
+to a degree.  When the Romans invaded Britain, this species of boat was
+in common use.  Like the canoe of the North American Indian, it is
+easily upset, and we should think must be rather unmanageable; but as we
+are not likely ever again to be reduced to it in this country, we can
+afford to regard its faults with indifference.
+
+From little boats to big boats there is but a step; and no doubt rivers
+were soon navigated, and new countries explored, while those who lived
+near the sea-coast dared even to launch their boats upon the ocean; but
+they "hugged the shore," undoubtedly, and seldom ventured to proceed at
+night unless the stars shone brightly in the sky.
+
+Years rolled on, and dwellers on the sea-coast became more and more
+venturous in their voyages along the shore.  It behoved them to have
+larger boats, or barges, with numerous rowers, who would naturally carry
+weapons with them to guard themselves from foes.  War-galleys sprang
+into being.  Strong winds sometimes carried these off-shore, and out of
+sight of land.  Ah, reader! who can conceive the feelings of the first
+mariners who saw the solid land sink on the horizon, and beheld nothing
+substantial in all the waste of waters, save their own tiny bark that
+reeled beneath them on the heaving billows?  Perchance these first
+adventurers on the deep found their way back to land, and afterwards
+tried the bold experiment of steering by the stars.  Perhaps not; but at
+length it did come about that ships were built, and men were found bold
+enough to put to sea in them for days and weeks together.
+
+The ark is the first ship of which we have any authentic account.  We
+now leave the region of conjecture; for the ark was built by Noah under
+the immediate direction of the Almighty, and we have a minute account of
+it in the Bible.
+
+More than two thousand three hundred years before our Lord and Saviour
+Jesus Christ came to earth, man's wickedness had attained to such a
+height that God resolved to destroy the inhabitants of the world by a
+deluge.  But, in the midst of wrath, God remembered mercy.  He spared
+Noah and his family, and saved them from destruction by placing them in
+the ark along with pairs of the lower animals.
+
+Every reader of the Bible knows the story of the deluge; but everyone
+may not be aware that traditions of this deluge are found in every part
+of the earth.  East, west, north, and south--civilised and savage--all
+men tell us of a great flood which once covered the world, and from
+which only one family was saved, in a boat, or a canoe, or an ark.
+
+What the barbarous and savage nations know dimly from tradition, we know
+certainly and fully from the inspired Word of God.  The ark was built;
+the flood came; Noah with his family and two of every living creature
+entered into it; and for months the first ship floated on a sea whose
+shoreless waves flowed round and round the world.
+
+What the ark's form was we cannot precisely tell; but we know its
+dimensions pretty accurately.
+
+Although it was not intended for voyaging, the ark must necessarily have
+been a perfect model of a vessel, meant to float upon the waters.  To
+some extent, too, it must have been fitted to ride upon turbulent
+billows; for it "went upon the face of the waters" for upwards of seven
+months, and before it rested finally on the top of Mount Ararat, "God
+made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged."  In regard
+to its size, the most interesting way to consider it, perhaps, will be
+to compare it with the _Great Eastern_, the largest ship that has yet
+been built by man.  Assuming a cubit to be about 18 inches, the length
+of the ark was about 450 feet, its breadth about 75 feet, and its depth
+about 45 feet.
+
+The _Great Eastern's_ length is 680 feet, its breadth 83 feet, and its
+depth from deck to keel 60 feet.
+
+The ark was built of gopher-wood, which is thought by some to be pine,
+by others cedar.  It consisted of three stories, and had a window and a
+door, and was pitched within and without.  But it had neither masts nor
+rudder; and it is evident that, although it was man's refuge, the ark
+was not designed to be managed by man, for after Noah and his family had
+entered in, God took on himself the guidance and preservation of their
+vessel.  Thus our Saviour--of whom the ark was a type--specially guides
+and protects those who flee to him for refuge.
+
+But although we have noticed the ark as being the first ship, we cannot
+with propriety place it in the front of the history of navigation.
+After the flood the ark seems to have been soon forgotten, or at least
+imperfectly remembered, and men reverted to their little canoes and
+clumsy boats, which sufficed for all their limited wants.  It was not
+until about a thousand years later in the world's history that men built
+ships of considerable size, and ventured on prolonged _coasting_-
+voyages, for the purposes of discovery and commerce.  Navigation had
+been practised, and the art of ship-building had made very considerable
+progress, long before men dared to lose sight of the shore and venture
+out upon the mysterious bosom of the great unknown sea.
+
+To the ancients the Mediterranean was the ocean; and among its bays, and
+creeks, and islands, maritime enterprise sprang into being and rose into
+celebrity.  Among the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and Hebrews, we find
+the earliest traces of navigation and commerce.  The first of these
+nations, occupying the narrow slip of land between Mount Lebanon and the
+Mediterranean, rose into fame as mariners between the years 1700 and
+1100 before Christ--the renowned city of Sidon being their great
+sea-port, whence their ships put forth to trade with Cyprus and Rhodes,
+Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, Gaul, and Spain.  Little is known of the state
+of trade in those days, or of the form or size of ancient vessels.
+Homer tells us, in his account of the Trojan War, that the Phoenicians
+supplied the combatants with many articles of luxury; and from Scripture
+we learn that the same enterprising navigators brought gold to Solomon
+from Ophir in the year 1000 B.C.
+
+A short time previous to this the Phoenicians ventured to pass through
+the Strait of Gibraltar, and for the first time beheld the great
+Atlantic Ocean.  Proceeding along the coast of Spain, they founded
+Cadiz; and, not long after, creeping down the western coast of Africa,
+established colonies there.  But their grandest feat was achieved about
+600 years B.C., when they sailed down the Red Sea and the eastern coast
+of Africa, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, sailed up the western coast,
+and returned home by the Strait of Gibraltar.  Bartholomew Diaz must
+hide his diminished head before this fact; for, although he gets all the
+credit, the Phoenicians of old "doubled the Cape" at least twenty
+centuries before him!
+
+That long voyages were made by the men of old, before authentic history
+began, seems highly probable.  The expedition of the _Argonauts_ to
+Colchis in the year 1250 B.C., in search of the "Golden Fleece," is the
+first ancient voyage that lays claim to authenticity.  What the Golden
+Fleece was is uncertain; some think it was a term used to symbolise the
+mines of precious metals near the Black Sea.  Whatever it was, the
+_Argonauts_ went in search of it: whether or not they found it is
+unrecorded in history.  Jason, son of the King of Thessaly, was the
+leader of this expedition, which consisted of one ship and fifty men.  A
+man named _Argus_ built the ship, which from him was named the Argo,
+hence the name of _Argonauts_.
+
+In treating of ancient vessels, we may as well proceed on the principle
+suggested by a sagacious child, who, when his mother was about to tell
+him a story, usually begged of her to "bedin at the bedinning."  We
+shall begin at the beginning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+RAFTS AND CANOES.
+
+Rafts, as we have already remarked, must undoubtedly have been the
+beginning of navigation.  But they have not, like many other species of
+ancient craft, been altogether superseded by modern inventions.  True,
+we do not nowadays carry on war on rafts, but we still carry on trade
+with them in many parts of the world.  How the rafts of ancient times
+were formed we cannot tell precisely, though we can easily guess; but
+one thing we know, and that is, that the first improvement made in such
+craft was the thrusting of a few thick planks down into the water, to
+the depth of three or four feet, between the logs which composed the
+raft.  These acted the part of a keel, and, by pressing against the
+water _side-ways_ when a _side_ wind blew, prevented the raft from
+making much of what is called _leeway_--that is, drifting in the
+direction in which the wind happened to be blowing.  Some sorts of Dutch
+vessels use lee-boards for this purpose at the present time.
+
+The rafts now in use on the great rivers of America are exceedingly
+curious in many respects.  One peculiarity of many of them is that they
+float _themselves_, not goods, to market--the pine logs of which they
+are constructed being the marketable commodity.  Some of these
+"lumber-rafts," as they are called, are of great size; and as their
+navigators have often to spend many weeks on them, slowly floating down
+the rivers, they build huts or little cottages on them, cook their
+provisions on board, and, in short, spend night and day in their
+temporary floating-homes as comfortably as if they were on the land.
+
+When these rafts approach a waterfall or a rapid, they unfasten the
+lashings and allow several logs tied together to run down at a time.
+After the rapid is passed, the loose logs are collected together, the
+raft is reconstructed, and the voyage down to the sea continued.  Of
+course, huts are built only on rafts which navigate the largest rivers,
+and are not thus liable to be taken to pieces.
+
+When the logs reach the sea, they are shipped to various parts of the
+world where timber is scarce.  Large quantities are imported into Great
+Britain from Canada and other parts of America.
+
+A bold thing has occasionally been done.  Instead of shipping the logs
+in vessels, enterprising and ingenious men built them into a _solid
+ship_, leaving a small space to serve as a cabin and a hold for
+provisions; then, erecting masts, they hoisted sail, and in this
+singular craft crossed the Atlantic.  On arriving at port they broke up
+their raft-ship and sold it.
+
+The immense size of the rafts which are floated down some of the great
+rivers of the world may be gathered from the following engraving, which
+represents a raft on the Dwina, one of the great rivers of Russia.
+
+Rafts, however, have not been confined to the purposes of traffic.  They
+have frequently been the means of saving the lives of shipwrecked
+mariners; but too often they have been the means only of prolonging the
+wretched existence of those who have ultimately perished at sea.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Turning now from the consideration of rafts, we shall describe canoes.
+
+Canoes must, we think, have been invented after rafts.  They were
+formed, as we have said, out of logs, of bark and of skins stretched
+upon frames of wood.  Of ancient canoes we can say little.  But it is
+probable that they were similar in most respects to the canoes used by
+savage nations at the present time; for man, in his lowest or most
+savage condition, is necessarily the same now that he was in ancient
+times.  We shall, therefore, take a glance at the canoes of savage
+nations now existing, and thus shall form a good idea, we doubt not, of
+what canoes were in days of old.
+
+Simplest among them all, perhaps, are the canoes of the North American
+Indians.  These are built of thin laths and ribs of wood, and are
+covered with the bark of the birch-tree.  The sheets of bark are not a
+quarter of an inch thick.  Several sheets are used in the covering of
+one canoe.  They are sewed together with the long pliant roots of the
+pine, and the seams are rendered tight with gum procured from the same
+tree.  So light are these canoes, that two men can carry on their
+shoulders one capable of holding eight or ten men, with their
+provisions, etcetera, for a voyage of many months.  They are of various
+sizes--from the hunting canoe which holds one Indian, to the largest
+canoe that carries fourteen.  They are propelled by short paddles
+instead of oars.
+
+Many and terrible are the risks run by _voyageurs_ who travel through
+the lakes and rivers of North America in these canoes.
+
+The following anecdote is related of a narrow escape made by some
+fur-traders while descending one of the rivers in the backwoods of the
+Hudson Bay Territory:--One fine evening in autumn, a north-canoe was
+gliding swiftly down one of the noble bends in the river referred to.
+New, beautiful, and ever-changing scenes were being constantly opened up
+to the view of the _voyageurs_, whose plaintive and beautiful
+canoe-songs were rolling over the waters.  Suddenly the song ceased as
+the distant roar of a waterfall struck their ears, and the steersmen--
+for there are usually two, one in the bow and one in the stern--prepared
+to land and "_make a portage_,"--that is, carry the canoe and lading
+past the falls by land, and re-launch and re-load in the smooth water
+below.
+
+The approach to the landing-place at the head of the fall was somewhat
+difficult, owing to a point of rock which projected into the stream in
+the direction of the fall, and round which point it was necessary to
+steer with some dexterity, in order to avoid being drawn into the strong
+current.  The fearless guides, however, had often passed the place in
+former years in safety, and accordingly dashed at the point with
+reckless indifference, their paddles flinging a circle of spray over
+their heads as they changed from side to side with graceful but vigorous
+rapidity.  The swift stream carried them quickly round the point of
+danger, and they had almost reached the quiet eddy near the
+landing-place when the stem of the canoe was caught by the current,
+which instantly whirled it out from the shore and carried it down stream
+like an arrow.  Another moment, and the gushing water dragged them to
+the verge of the fall, which thundered and foamed among frightful chasms
+and rocks many feet below.  It was the work of a moment.  The stern of
+the canoe almost overhung the abyss, and the voyageurs plied their
+paddles with the desperation of men who felt that their lives depended
+on the exertions of the next awful minute.  For a few seconds the canoe
+remained stationary, and seemed to tremble on the brink of destruction--
+the strength of the water and the power of the men being almost equally
+balanced--then, inch by inch, it began slowly to ascend the stream.  The
+danger was past!  A few nervous strokes, and the canoe shot out of the
+current like an arrow, and floated in safety in the still water below
+the point.
+
+The whole thing, from beginning to end, occurred in a few seconds; but
+who can describe or comprehend the tumultuous gush of feeling aroused
+during those brief moments in the bosoms of the _voyageurs_?  The
+sudden, electric change from tranquil safety to the verge of what
+appeared certain destruction--and then, deliverance!  It was one of
+those thrilling incidents which frequently occur to those who thread the
+wildernesses of this world, and is little thought of by them beyond the
+moment of danger; yet it was one of those solemn seasons, more or less
+numerous in the history of all men, when the Almighty speaks to his
+careless creatures in a voice that cannot be mistaken, however much it
+may be slighted; awakening them, with a rough grasp, to behold the
+slender cord that suspends them over the abyss of eternity.
+
+The canoes used by the Eskimos who inhabit the Polar Regions are made of
+a light framework of wood, which is covered entirely over with
+seal-skin--a round hole being left in the centre, in which the Eskimo
+sits.  Round this hole there is a loose piece of skin, which is drawn up
+by the man and fastened round his waist.  The machine is thus completely
+water-tight.  No waves can dash into, although they can sweep over it;
+and if by chance it should upset, the Eskimo can turn it and himself up
+into the proper position by one dexterous sweep of his long,
+double-bladed paddle.  The paddle, which varies from ten to fifteen
+feet, is simply a pole with a blade at each end.  It is grasped in the
+centre, and each end dipped alternately on either side of the _kayak_,
+as this canoe is called.  Eskimo kayaks are first-rate sea-boats.  They
+can face almost any sort of weather.  They are extremely light, and are
+propelled by the natives very swiftly.  In these frail canoes the
+natives of the Polar Regions pursue seals and whales, and even venture
+to attack the walrus in his native element.  The kayak is used
+exclusively by the men.  The oomiak, or women's canoe, is of much larger
+and clumsier construction, somewhat like a boat.  It is open above, and
+can hold a large family of women and children.  Like the kayak, it is a
+framework of wood covered with seal-skin, and is propelled by means of
+short paddles of the spoon form.
+
+The famous "Rob Roy" canoe, which is now so much in vogue among boys and
+young men of aquatic tendency, is constructed and managed on precisely
+the same principles with the Eskimo kayak; the only difference between
+the two being that the "Rob Roy" canoe is made of thin wood instead of
+skin, and is altogether a more elegant vessel.  An account of it will be
+found in our chapter on "Boats."  The South Sea islanders also use a
+canoe which they propel with a double-bladed paddle similar to that of
+the Eskimos.  They are wonderfully expert and fearless in the management
+of this canoe, as may be seen from the annexed woodcut.
+
+In order to show that the paddle of the canoe is more natural to man
+than the oar, we present a picture of the canoe used by the Indians of
+the Amazon in South America.  Here we see thar the savages of the south,
+like their brethren of the north, sit with their faces to the bow and
+urge their bark forward by neans of short paddles, without using the
+gunwale as a fulcrum.  The oar is decidedly a more modern and a more
+scientific instrument than the paddle, but the latter is better suited
+to some kinds of navigation than the former.
+
+Very different indeed from the light canoes just described are the
+canoes of the South Sea islanders.  Some are large, and some are small;
+some long, some short; a few elegant, a few clumsy; and one or two
+peculiarly remarkable.  Most of them are narrow, and liable to upset; in
+order to prevent which catastrophe the natives have ingeniously, though
+clumsily, contrived a sort of "_outrigger_," or plank, which they attach
+to the side of the canoe to keep it upright.  They also fasten two
+canoes together to steady them.
+
+One of these _double canoes_ is thus described by Cheever in his "Island
+World of the Pacific:"--"A double canoe is composed of two single ones
+of the same size placed parallel to each other, three or four feet
+apart, and secured in their places by four or five pieces of wood,
+curved just in the shape of a bit-stock.  These are lashed to both
+canoes with the strongest cinet, made of cocoa-nut fibre, so as to make
+the two almost as much one as same of the double ferry-boats that ply
+between Brooklyn and New York.  A flattened arch is thus made by the
+bow-like cross-pieces over the space between the canoes, upon which a
+board or a couple of stout poles laid lengthwise constitute an elevated
+platform for passengers and freight, while those who paddle and steer
+sit in the bodies of the canoes at the sides.  A slender mast, which may
+be unstepped in a minute, rises from about the centre of this platform,
+to give support to a very simple sail, now universally made of white
+cotton cloth, but formerly of mats."
+
+The double canoes belonging to the chiefs of the South Sea islanders are
+the largest,--some of them being nearly seventy feet long, yet they are
+each only about two feet wide and three or four feet deep.  The sterns
+are remarkably high--fifteen or eighteen feet above the water.
+
+The war canoes are also large and compactly built; the stern being low
+and covered, so as to afford shelter from stones and darts.  A rude
+imitation of a head or some grotesque figure is usually carved on the
+stern; while the stem is elevated, curved like the neck of a swan, and
+terminates frequently in the carved figure of a bird's head.  These
+canoes are capable of holding fifty warriors.  Captain Cook describes
+some as being one hundred and eight feet long.  All of them, whether
+single or double, mercantile or war canoes, are propelled by paddles,
+the men sitting with their faces in the direction in which they are
+going.
+
+As may be supposed, these canoes are often upset in rough weather; but
+as the South Sea islanders are expert swimmers, they generally manage to
+right their canoes and scramble into them again.  Their only fear on
+such occasions is being attacked by sharks.  Ellis, in his interesting
+book, "Polynesian Researches," relates an instance of this kind of
+attack which was made upon a number of chiefs and people--about
+thirty-two--who were passing from one island to another in a large
+double canoe:--"They were overtaken by a tempest, the violence of which
+tore their canoes from the horizontal spars by which they were united.
+It was in vain for them to endeavour to place them upright again, or to
+empty out the water, for they could not prevent their incessant
+overturning.  As their only resource, they collected the scattered spars
+and boards, and constructed a raft, on which they hoped they might drift
+to land.  The weight of the whole number who were collected on the raft
+was so great as to sink it so far below the surface that they stood
+above their knees in water.  They made very little progress, and soon
+became exhausted by fatigue and hunger.  In this condition they were
+attacked by a number of sharks.  Destitute of a knife or any other
+weapon of defence, they fell an easy prey to these rapacious monsters.
+One after another was seized and devoured, or carried away by them, and
+the survivors, who with dreadful anguish beheld their companions thus
+destroyed, saw the number of their assailants apparently increasing, as
+each body was carried off until only two or three remained.
+
+"The raft, thus lightened of its load, rose to the surface of the water,
+and placed them beyond the reach of the voracious jaws of their
+relentless destroyers.  The tide and current soon carried them to the
+shore, where they landed to tell the melancholy fate of their
+fellow-voyagers."
+
+Captain Cook refers to the canoes of New Zealand thus:--
+
+"The ingenuity of these people appears in nothing more than in their
+canoes.  They are long and narrow, and in shape very much resemble a New
+England whale-boat.  The larger sort seem to be built chiefly for war,
+and will carry from forty to eighty or a hundred armed men.  We measured
+one which lay ashore at Tolaga; she was sixty-eight and a half feet
+long, five feet broad, and three and a half feet deep.  The bottom was
+sharp, with straight sides like a wedge, and consisted of three lengths,
+hollowed out to about two inches, or one inch and a half thick, and well
+fastened together with strong plaiting.  Each side consisted of one
+entire plank, sixty-three feet long, ten or twelve inches broad, and
+about one inch and a quarter thick; and these were fitted and lashed to
+the bottom part with great dexterity and strength.
+
+"A considerable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to
+which they were securely lashed on each side, as a strengthening to the
+boat.  The ornament at the head projected five or six feet beyond the
+body, and was about four and a half feet high.  The ornament at the
+stern was fixed upon that end as the stern-post of a ship is upon her
+keel, and was about fourteen feet high, two broad, and one inch and a
+half thick.  They both consisted of boards of carved work, of which the
+design was much better than the execution.  All their canoes, except a
+few at Opoorage or Mercury Bay, which were of one piece, and hollowed by
+fire, are built after this plan, and few are less than twenty feet long.
+Some of the smaller sort have outriggers; and sometimes two are joined
+together, but this is not common.
+
+"The carving upon the stern and head ornaments of the inferior boats,
+which seemed to be intended wholly for fishing, consists of the figure
+of a man, with the face as ugly as can be conceived, and a monstrous
+tongue thrust out of the mouth, with the white shells of sea-ears stuck
+in for eyes.  But the canoes of the superior kind, which seem to be
+their men-of-war, are magnificently adorned with openwork, and covered
+with loose fringes of black feathers, which had a most elegant
+appearance.  The gunwale boards were also frequently carved in a
+grotesque taste, and adorned with tufts of white feathers placed upon
+black ground.  The paddles are small and neatly made.  The blade is of
+an oval shape, or rather of a shape resembling a large leaf, pointed at
+the bottom, broadest in the middle, and gradually losing itself in the
+shaft, the whole length being about six feet.  By the help of these oars
+they push on their boats with amazing velocity."
+
+Mr Ellis, to whose book reference has already been made, and who
+visited the South Sea Islands nearly half a century later than Cook,
+tells us that the _single canoes_ used by some of the islanders are far
+safer than the _double canoes_ for long voyages, as the latter are apt
+to be torn asunder during a storm, and then they cannot be prevented
+from constantly upsetting.
+
+Single canoes are not so easily separated from their outrigger.
+Nevertheless they are sometimes upset in rough seas; but the natives
+don't much mind this.  When a canoe is upset and fills, the natives, who
+learn to swim like ducks almost as soon as they can walk, seize hold of
+one end of the canoe, which they press down so as to elevate the other
+end above the sea, by which means a great part of the water runs out;
+they then suddenly loose their hold, and the canoe falls back on the
+water, emptied in some degree of its contents.  Swimming along by the
+side of it, they bale out the rest, and climbing into it, pursue their
+voyage.
+
+Europeans, however, are not so indifferent to being overturned as are
+the savages.  On one occasion Mr Ellis, accompanied by three ladies,
+Mrs Orsmond, Mrs Barff, and his wife, with her two children and one or
+two natives, were crossing a harbour in the island of Huahine.  A female
+servant was sitting in the forepart of the canoe with Mr Ellis's little
+girl in her arms.  His infant boy was at its mother's breast; and a
+native, with a long light pole, was paddling or pushing the canoe along,
+when a small buhoe, with a native youth sitting in it, darted out from
+behind a bush that hung over the water, and before they could turn or
+the youth could stop his canoe, it ran across the outrigger.  This in an
+instant went down, the canoe was turned bottom upwards, and the whole
+party precipitated into the sea.
+
+The sun had set soon after they started from the opposite side, and the
+twilight being very short, the shades of evening had already thickened
+round them, which prevented the natives on shore from seeing their
+situation.  The native woman, being quite at home in the water, held the
+little girl up with one hand, and swam with the other towards the shore,
+aiding at the same time Mrs Orsmond, who had caught hold of her long
+hair, which floated on the water behind her.  Mrs Barff, on rising to
+the surface, caught hold of the outrigger of the canoe that had
+occasioned the disaster, and calling out loudly for help, informed the
+people on shore of their danger, and speedily brought them to their
+assistance.  Mrs Orsmond's husband, happening to be at hand at the
+time, rushed down to the beach and plunged at once into the water.  His
+wife, on seeing him, quitted her, hold of the native woman, and grasping
+her husband, would certainly have drowned both him and herself had not
+the natives sprung in and rescued them.
+
+Mahinevahine, the queen of the island, leaped into the sea and rescued
+Mrs Barff; Mr Ellis caught hold of the canoe, and supported his wife
+and their infant until assistance came.  Thus they were all saved.
+
+The South Sea islanders, of whose canoes we have been writing, are--some
+of them at least--the fiercest savages on the face of the earth.  They
+wear little or no clothing, and practise cannibalism--that is,
+_man-eating_--from choice.  They actually prefer human flesh to any
+other.  Of this we are informed on most unquestionable authority.
+
+Doubtless the canoes which we have described are much the same now as
+they were a thousand years ago; so that, by visiting those parts of the
+earth where the natives are still savage, we may, as it were, leap
+backward into ancient times, and behold with our own eyes the state of
+marine architecture as it existed when our own forefathers were savages,
+and paddled about the Thames and the Clyde on logs, and rafts, and
+wicker-work canoes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+ANCIENT SHIPS AND NAVIGATORS.
+
+Everything must have a beginning, and, however right and proper things
+may appear to those who begin them, they generally wear a strange,
+sometimes absurd, aspect to those who behold them after the lapse of
+many centuries.
+
+When we think of the trim-built ships and yachts that now cover the
+ocean far and wide, we can scarce believe it possible that men really
+began the practice of navigation, and first put to sea, in such
+grotesque vessels as that represented on page 55.
+
+In a former chapter reference has been made to the rise of commerce and
+maritime enterprise, to the fleets and feats of the Phoenicians,
+Egyptians, and Hebrews in the Mediterranean, where commerce and
+navigation first began to grow vigorous.  We shall now consider the
+peculiar structure of the ships and boats in which their maritime
+operations were carried on.
+
+_Boats_, as we have said, must have succeeded rafts and canoes, and big
+boats soon followed in the wake of little ones.  Gradually, as men's
+wants increased, the magnitude of their boats also increased, until they
+came to deserve the title of little ships.  These enormous boats, or
+little ships, were propelled by means of oars of immense size; and, in
+order to advance with anything like speed, the oars and rowers had to be
+multiplied, until they became very numerous.
+
+In our own day we seldom see a boat requiring more than eight or ten
+oars.  In ancient times boats and ships required sometimes as many as
+four hundred oars to propel them.
+
+The forms of the ancient ships were curious and exceedingly picturesque,
+owing to the ornamentation with which their outlines were broken, and
+the high elevation of their bows and sterns.
+
+We have no very authentic details of the minutiae of the form or size of
+ancient ships, but antiquarians have collected a vast amount of
+desultory information, which, when put together, enables us to form a
+pretty good idea of the manner of working them, while ancient coins and
+sculptures have given us a notion of their general aspect.  No doubt
+many of these records are grotesque enough, nevertheless they must be
+correct in the main particulars.
+
+Homer, who lived 1000 B.C., gives, in his "Odyssey," an account of
+ship-building in his time, to which antiquarians attach much importance,
+as showing the ideas then prevalent in reference to geography, and the
+point at which the art of ship-building had then arrived.  Of course due
+allowance must be made for Homer's tendency to indulge in hyperbole.
+
+Ulysses, king of Ithaca, and deemed on of the wisest Greeks who went to
+Troy, having been wrecked upon an island, is furnished by the nymph
+Calypso with the means of building a ship,--that hero being determined
+to seek again his native shore and return to his home and his faithful
+spouse Penelope.
+
+  "Forth issuing thus, she gave him first to wield
+  A weighty axe, with truest temper steeled,
+  And double-edged; the handle smooth and plain,
+  Wrought of the clouded olive's easy grain;
+  And next, a wedge to drive with sweepy sway;
+  Then to the neighbouring forest led the way.
+  On the lone island's utmost verge there stood
+  Of poplars, pines, and firs, a lofty wood,
+  Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire,
+  Scorched by the sun, or seared by heavenly fire
+  (Already dried).  These pointing out to view,
+  The nymph just showed him, and with tears withdrew.
+
+  "Now toils the hero; trees on trees o'erthrown
+  Fall crackling round, and the forests groan;
+  Sudden, full twenty on the plain are strewed,
+  And lopped and lightened of their branchy load.
+  At equal angles these disposed to join,
+  He smoothed and squared them by the rule and line.
+  (The wimbles for the work Calypso found),
+  With those he pierced them and with clinchers bound.
+  Long and capacious as a shipwright forms
+  Some bark's broad bottom to outride the storms,
+  So large he built the raft; then ribbed it strong
+  From space to space, and nailed the planks along.
+  These formed the sides; the deck he fashioned last;
+  Then o'er the vessel raised the taper mast,
+  With crossing sail-yards dancing in the wind:
+  And to the helm the guiding rudder joined
+  (With yielding osiers fenced to break the force
+  Of surging waves, and steer the steady course).
+  Thy loom, Calypso, for the future sails
+  Supplied the cloth, capacious of the gales.
+  With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship,
+  And, rolled on levers, launched her on the deep."
+
+The ships of the ancient Greeks and Romans were divided into various
+classes, according to the number of "ranks" or "banks," that is, _rows_,
+of oars.  _Monoremes_ contained one bank of oars; _biremes_, two banks;
+_triremes_, three; _quadriremes_, four; _quinqueremes_, five; and so on.
+But the two latter were seldom used, being unwieldy, and the oars in
+the upper rank almost unmanageable from their great length and weight.
+
+Ptolemy Philopator of Egypt is said to have built a gigantic ship with
+no less than forty tiers of oars, one above the other!  She was managed
+by 4000 men, besides whom there were 2850 combatants; she had four
+rudders and a double prow.  Her stern was decorated with splendid
+paintings of ferocious and fantastic animals; her oars protruded through
+masses of foliage; and her hold was filled with grain!
+
+That this account is exaggerated and fanciful is abundantly evident; but
+it is highly probable that Ptolemy did construct one ship, if not more,
+of uncommon size.
+
+The sails used in these ships were usually square; and when there was
+more than one mast, that nearest the stern was the largest.  The rigging
+was of the simplest description, consisting sometimes of only two ropes
+from the mast to the bow and stern.  There was usually a deck at the bow
+and stern, but never in the centre of the vessel.  Steering was managed
+by means of a huge broad oar, sometimes a couple, at the stern.  A
+formidable "beak" was affixed to the fore-part of the ships of war, with
+which the crew charged the enemy.  The vessels were painted black, with
+red ornaments on the bows; to which latter Homer is supposed to refer
+when he writes of red-cheeked ships.
+
+Ships built by the Greeks and Romans for war were sharper and more
+elegant than those used in commerce; the latter being round bottomed,
+and broad, in order to contain cargo.
+
+The Corinthians were the first to introduce _triremes_ into their navy
+(about 700 years B.C.), and they were also the first who had any navy of
+importance.  The Athenians soon began to emulate them, and ere long
+constructed a large fleet of vessels both for war and commerce.  That
+these ancient ships were light compared with ours, is proved by the fact
+that when the Greeks landed to commence the siege of Troy they _drew up
+their ships on the shore_.  We are also told that ancient mariners, when
+they came to a long narrow promontory of land, were sometimes wont to
+land, draw their ships bodily across the narrowest part of the isthmus,
+and launch them on the other side.
+
+Moreover, they had a salutary dread of what sailors term "blue water"--
+that is, the deep, distant sea--and never ventured out of sight of land.
+They had no compass to direct them, and in their coasting voyages of
+discovery they were guided, if blown out to sea, by the stars.
+
+The sails were made of linen in Homer's time; subsequently sail-cloth
+was made of hemp, rushes, and leather.  Sails were sometimes dyed of
+various colours and with curious patterns.  Huge ropes were fastened
+round the ships to bind them more firmly together, and the bulwarks were
+elevated beyond the frame of the vessels by wicker-work covered with
+skins.
+
+Stones were used for anchors, and sometimes crates of small stones or
+sand; but these were not long of being superseded by iron anchors with
+teeth or flukes.
+
+The Romans were not at first so strong in naval power as their
+neighbours, but in order to keep pace with them they were ultimately
+compelled to devote more attention to their navies.  About 260 B.C. they
+raised a large fleet to carry on the war with Carthage.  A Carthaginian
+quinquereme which happened to be wrecked on their coast was taken
+possession of by the Romans, used as a model, and one hundred and thirty
+ships constructed from it.  These ships were all built, it is said, in
+six days; but this appears almost incredible.  We must not, however,
+judge the power of the ancients by the standard of present times.  It is
+well known that labour was cheap then, and we have recorded in history
+the completion of great works in marvellously short time, by the mere
+force of myriads of workmen.
+
+The Romans not only succeeded in raising a considerable navy, but they
+proved themselves ingenious in the contrivance of novelties in their
+war-galleys.  They erected towers on the decks, from the top of which
+their warriors fought as from the walls of a fortress.  They also placed
+small cages or baskets on the top of their masts, in which a few men
+were placed to throw javelins down on the decks of the enemy; a practice
+which is still carried out in principle at the present day, men being
+placed in the "tops" of the masts of our men-of-war, whence they fire
+down on the enemy.  It was a bullet from the "top" of one of the masts
+of the enemy that laid low our greatest naval hero, Lord Nelson.
+
+From this time the Romans maintained a powerful navy.  They crippled the
+maritime power of their African foes, and built a number of ships with
+six and even ten ranks of oars.  The Romans became exceedingly fond of
+representations of sea-fights, and Julius Caesar dug a lake in the
+Campus Martius specially for these exhibitions.  They were not by any
+means sham fights.  The unfortunates who manned the ships on these
+occasions were captives or criminals, who fought as the gladiators did--
+to the death--until one side was exterminated or spared by imperial
+clemency.  In one of these battles no fewer than a hundred ships and
+nineteen thousand combatants were engaged!
+
+Such were the people who invaded Britain in the year 55 B.C. under
+Julius Caesar, and such the vessels from which they landed upon our
+shores to give battle to the then savage natives of our country.
+
+It is a curious fact that the crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth
+centuries were the chief cause of the advancement of navigation after
+the opening of the Christian era.  During the first five hundred years
+after the birth of our Lord, nothing worthy of notice in the way of
+maritime enterprise or discovery occurred.
+
+But about this time an event took place which caused the foundation of
+one of the most remarkable maritime cities in the world.  In the year
+476 Italy was invaded by the barbarians.  One tribe, the Veneti, who
+dwelt upon the north-eastern shores of the Adriatic, escaped the
+invaders by fleeing for shelter to the marshes and sandy islets at the
+head of the gulf, whither their enemies could not follow by land, owing
+to the swampy nature of the ground, nor by sea, on account of the
+shallowness of the waters.  The Veneti took to fishing, then to making
+salt, and finally to mercantile enterprises.  They began to build, too,
+on those sandy isles, and soon their cities covered ninety islands, many
+of which were connected by bridges.  And thus arose the far-famed city
+of the waters--"Beautiful Venice, the bride of the sea."
+
+Soon the Venetians, and their neighbours the Genoese, monopolised the
+commerce of the Mediterranean.
+
+The crusades now began, and for two centuries the Christian warred
+against the Turk in the name of Him who, they seem to have forgotten, if
+indeed the mass of them ever knew, is styled the Prince of Peace.  One
+of the results of these crusades was that the Europeans engaged acquired
+a taste for Eastern luxuries, and the fleets of Venice and Genoa, Pisa
+and Florence, ere long crowded the Mediterranean, laden with jewels,
+silks, perfumes, spices, and such costly merchandise.  The Normans, the
+Danes, and the Dutch also began to take active part in the naval
+enterprise thus fostered, and the navy of France was created under the
+auspices of Philip Augustus.
+
+The result of all this was that there was a great moving, and, to some
+extent, commingling of the nations.  The knowledge of arts and
+manufactures was interchanged, and of necessity the knowledge of various
+languages spread.  The West began constantly to demand the products of
+the East, wealth began to increase, and the sum of human knowledge to
+extend.
+
+Shortly after this era of opening commercial prosperity in the
+Mediterranean, the hardy Northmen performed deeds on the deep which
+outrival those of the great Columbus himself, and were undertaken many
+centuries before his day.
+
+The Angles, the Saxons, and the Northmen inhabited the borders of the
+Baltic, the shores of the German Ocean, and the coasts of Norway.  Like
+the nations on the shores of the Mediterranean, they too became famous
+navigators; but, unlike them, war and piracy were their chief objects of
+pursuit.  Commerce was secondary.
+
+In vessels resembling that of which the above is a representation, those
+nations went forth to plunder the dwellers in more favoured climes, and
+to establish the Anglo-Saxon dominion in England; and their celebrated
+King Alfred became the founder of the naval power of Britain, which was
+destined in future ages to rule the seas.
+
+It was the Northmen who, in huge open boats, pushed off without chart or
+compass (for neither existed at that time) into the tempestuous northern
+seas, and, in the year 863, discovered the island of Iceland; in 983,
+the coast of Greenland; and, a few years later, those parts of the
+American coast now called Long Island, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Nova
+Scotia, and Newfoundland.  It is true they did not go forth with the
+scientific and commercial views of Columbus; neither did they give to
+the civilised world the benefit of their knowledge of those lands.  But
+although their purpose was simply selfish, we cannot withhold our
+admiration of the bold, daring spirit displayed by those early
+navigators, under circumstances of the greatest possible disadvantage--
+with undecked or half-decked boats, meagre supplies, no scientific
+knowledge or appliances, and the stars their only guide over the
+trackless waste of waters.
+
+In the course of time, one or two adventurous travellers pushed into
+Asia, and men began to ascertain that the world was not the
+insignificant disc, or cylinder, or ball they had deemed it.  Perhaps
+one of the chief among those adventurous travellers was Marco Polo, a
+Venetian, who lived in the latter part of the thirteenth century.  He
+made known the central and eastern portions of Asia, Japan, the islands
+of the Indian Archipelago, part of the continent of Africa, and the
+island of Madagascar, and is considered the founder of the modern
+geography of Asia.
+
+The adventures of this wonderful man were truly surprising, and although
+he undoubtedly exaggerated to some extent in his account of what he had
+seen, his narrations are for the most part truthful.  He and his
+companions were absent on their voyages and travels twenty-one years.
+
+Marco Polo died; but the knowledge of the East opened up by him, his
+adventures and his wealth, remained behind to stir up the energies of
+European nations.  Yet there is no saying how long the world would have
+groped on in this twilight of knowledge, and mariners would have
+continued to "hug the shore" as in days gone by, had not an event
+occurred which at once revolutionised the science of navigation, and
+formed a new era in the history of mankind.  This was the invention of
+the mariner's compass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE MARINER'S COMPASS--PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES.
+
+"What _is_ the compass?" every philosophical youth of inquiring
+disposition will naturally ask.  We do not say that all youths will make
+this inquiry.  Many there are who will at once say, "Oh, I know!  It's a
+needle with a card on the top of it--sometimes a needle with a card
+under it--which always points to the north, and shows sailors how to
+steer their ships."
+
+Very well explained indeed, my self-sufficient friend; but you have not
+answered the question.  You have told us what a compass is like, and one
+of the uses to which it is applied; but you have not yet told what it
+_is_.  A man who had never heard of a compass might exclaim, "What! a
+needle!  Is it a darning needle, or a knitting needle, or a
+drawing-through needle?  And which end points to the north--the eye or
+the point?  And if you lay it on the table the wrong end to the north,
+will it turn round of its own accord?"
+
+You laugh, perhaps, and explain; but it would have been better to have
+explained correctly at first.  Thus:--
+
+The mariner's compass is a small, flat bar of magnetised steel, which,
+when balanced on a pivot, turns one of its ends persistently towards the
+north pole--the other, of course, towards the south pole; and it does
+this in consequence of its being magnetised.  A card is fixed above,
+sometimes below, this bar of steel (which is called the needle), whereon
+are marked the cardinal points--north, south, east, and west--with their
+subdivisions or intermediate points, by means of which the true
+direction of any point can be ascertained.
+
+"Aha!" you exclaim, "Mr Author, but you yourself have omitted part of
+the explanation.  _Why_ is it that the magnetising of the needle causes
+it to turn to the north?"
+
+I answer humbly, "I cannot tell;" but, further, I assert confidently,
+"Neither can anybody else."  The fact is known, and we see its result;
+but the reason why magnetised steel or iron should have this tendency,
+this polarity, is one of the mysteries which man has not yet been able
+to penetrate, and probably never will.
+
+Having explained the nature of the compass, as far as explanation is
+possible, we present our reader with a picture of one.
+
+It will be seen that there are four large points--N, S, E, and W--the
+cardinal points above referred to, and that these are subdivided by
+twelve smaller points, with one little black triangular point between
+each, and a multitude of smaller points round the outer circle.  To give
+these points their correct names is called "boxing the compass,"--a
+lesson which all seamen can trip off their tongues like A, B, C, and
+which most boys could learn in a few hours.
+
+For the sake of those who are anxious to acquire the knowledge, we give
+the following explanation: Let us begin with north.  The large point
+midway between N and E (to the right) is _north-east_.  The
+corresponding point midway between N and W (to the left) is
+_north-west_.  A glance will show that the corresponding points towards
+the south are respectively _south-east_ and _south-west_ (usually
+written S.E. and S.W., as the two former points are written N.E. and
+N.W.).  Now, to read off the compass with this amount of knowledge is
+very simple.  Thus: _North_, _north-east_, _east_, _south-east_,
+_south_, _south-west_, _west_, _north-west_, _north_.  But be it
+observed that, in the language of the sea, the _th_ is thrown overboard,
+except when the words north and south occur alone.  When conjoined with
+other points they are pronounced thus: nor'-east, sou'-east; and so on.
+
+To come now to the smaller subdivisions, it will suffice to take a
+quarter of the circle.  The point midway between N.E. and N. is
+"nor'-nor'-east" (N.N.E.), and the corresponding one between N.E. and E.
+is "east nor'-east" (E.N.E.).  These points are again subdivided by
+little black points which are thus named:--The first, next the N., is
+"north by east" (N. by E.); the corresponding one next the E. is "east
+by north" (E. by N.).  The second _black_ point from N. is "nor'-east by
+north" (N.E. by N.), and the corresponding one--namely, the second black
+point from east--is "nor'-east by east" (N.E. by E.).  Thus, in reading
+off the compass, we say--beginning at north and proceeding to east--
+North: north by east; nor'-nor'-east; nor'-east by north; nor'-east;
+nor'-east by east; east nor'-east; east by north; east;--and so on with
+the other quarters of the circle.
+
+So much for "boxing the compass."  The manner in which it is used on
+board ship, and the various instruments employed in connection with it
+in the working of a vessel at sea, will be explained shortly; but first
+let us glance at the history of the compass.
+
+It is a matter of great uncertainty when, where, and by whom the
+mariner's compass was invented.  Flavio Gioia, a Neapolitan captain or
+pilot, who lived about the beginning of the fourteenth century, was
+generally recognised throughout Europe as the inventor of this useful
+instrument; but time and research have thrown new light on this subject.
+Probably the Neapolitan pilot was the first who brought the compass
+into general notice in Europe; but long before 1303 (the year in which
+it was said to have been invented) the use of the magnetic needle was
+known to the Chinese.
+
+_Loadstone_, that mineral which has the mysterious power of attracting
+iron, and also of imparting to iron its own attractive power, was known
+to the Chinese before the year 121, in which year a famous Chinese
+dictionary was completed, wherein the word _magnet_ is defined as "the
+name of a stone which gives direction to a needle."  This proves not
+only that they knew the attractive properties of the loadstone, and its
+power of imparting these properties to metal, but also that they were
+aware of the polarity of a magnetised needle.  Another Chinese
+dictionary, published between the third and fourth centuries, speaks of
+ships being guided in their course to the south by means of the magnet;
+and in a medical work published in China in 1112, mention is made of the
+_variation_ of the needle, showing that the Chinese had not only used
+the needle as a guide at sea, but had observed this one of its
+well-known peculiarities--namely, the tendency of the needle to point in
+a _very slight degree_ away from the true north.
+
+In the thirteenth century, too, we find mention made of the needle by a
+poet and by two other writers; so that whatever Flavio Gioia may have
+done (and it is probable he did much) in the way of pushing the compass
+into notice in Europe, he cannot be said to be the inventor of it.  That
+honour doubtless belongs to the Chinese.  Be this as it may, the compass
+was invented; and in the fourteenth century it began that revolution in
+maritime affairs to which we have alluded.
+
+The first compasses were curiously formed.  The Chinese used a
+magnetised needle, which they placed in a bit of rush or pith, which was
+floated in a basin of water, and thus allowed to move freely and turn
+towards the poles.  They also made needles in the form of iron fish.  An
+Arabian author of the thirteenth century thus writes:--"I heard it said
+that the captains in the Indian seas substitute for the needle and reed
+a hollow iron fish magnetised, so that, when placed in the water, it
+points to the north with its head and to the south with its tail.  The
+reason that the iron fish does not sink, is that metallic bodies, even
+the heaviest, float when hollow and when they displace a quantity of
+water greater than their own weight."
+
+The use of the compass at sea is so simple, that, after what has been
+said, it scarcely requires explanation.  When a ship sets sail for any
+port, she knows, first of all, the position of the port from which she
+sets sail, as well as that to which she is bound.  A straight line drawn
+from the one to the other is her true course, supposing that there is
+deep, unobstructed water all the way; and if the compass be placed upon
+that line, the point of the compass through which it passes is the point
+by which she ought to steer.  Suppose that her course ran through the
+east point of the compass: the ship's head would at once be turned in
+that direction, and she would continue her voyage with the needle of the
+compass pointing straight _across_ the deck, and the east and west
+points straight _along_ it.
+
+But various causes arise in the actual practice of navigation to prevent
+a ship keeping her true course.  Winds may be contrary, and currents may
+drive her either to the one side or the other of it; while land--
+promontories, islands, and shallows--compel her to deviate from the
+direct line.  A vessel also makes what is called "leeway;" which means
+that, when the wind blows on her side, she not only advances forward,
+but also slides through the water sidewise.  Thus, in the course of a
+day, she may get a considerable distance off her true course--in sea
+parlance, "make a good deal of leeway."
+
+To perform the voyage correctly and safely in the face of these
+obstacles and hindrances is the aim and end of navigation; and the
+manner of proceeding is as follows:--
+
+The hour is carefully noted on setting sail, and from that moment, night
+and day, to the end of the voyage, certain observations are made and
+entered in the ship's journal, called the log.  Every hour the rate at
+which the ship is going is ascertained and carefully noted.  The point
+of the compass towards which the ship is to be steered is given by the
+captain or officer in command to the steersman, who stands at the wheel
+with a compass always before him in a box called the "_binnacle_."  The
+course is never changed except by distinct orders from those in command;
+and when it is changed, the hour when the change is made and the new
+course to be steered are carefully noted down.  Thus, at the end of the
+day, or at any other time if desired, the position of the ship can be
+ascertained by her course being drawn upon a chart of the ocean over
+which she is sailing,--correct charts, or maps, being provided by the
+captain before starting.
+
+The estimate thus made is, however, not absolutely correct.  It is
+called the "_dead-reckoning_," and is only an approximation to the
+truth, because allowance has to be made for leeway, which can only be
+guessed at.  Allowance has also to be made for variations in the rate of
+sailing in each hour, for the winds do not always blow with exactly the
+same force during any hour of the day.  On the contrary, they may vary
+several times within an hour, both in force and in direction.  Those
+variations have to be watched and allowed for; but such allowance may be
+erroneous in a greater or less degree.  Currents, too, may have exerted
+an unseen influence on the ship, thus rendering the calculation still
+less correct.  Nevertheless, dead-reckoning is often the only guide the
+sailor has to depend upon for days at a time, when storms and cloudy
+skies prevent him from ascertaining his true position by other means, of
+which we shall speak presently.
+
+Of course, in the early days of navigation there were no charts of the
+ocean.  The navigator knew not whither he was hurrying over the wild
+waste of waters; but by observing the relative position of some of the
+fixed stars to his course while sailing out to sea, he could form a
+rough idea of the proper course to steer in order to return to the port
+whence he had started.
+
+The compass, then, shows the sailor the course he has been going, and
+the _log_ (of which more presently) enables him to ascertain the rate at
+which he has proceeded; while his chronometers, or time-keepers, tell
+him the _time_ during which the course and rate of sailing have been
+kept up.  And many a long cruise on the unknown deep has been
+successfully accomplished in days of old by bold seamen, with this
+method of dead-reckoning; and many a mariner at the present day depends
+almost entirely on it, while _all_ are, during thick, stormy weather,
+dependent on it for days and sometimes weeks together.
+
+The _log_, to which we have referred, is the instrument by which is
+determined the rate at which a ship is progressing.  It is a very simple
+contrivance: a triangular piece of wood about the size of a large
+saucer, with a piece of stout cord fastened to each corner, the ends of
+the cords being tied together, so that when held up, the "log," as it is
+called, resembles one of a pair of scales.  One of the cords, however,
+is only temporarily attached to its corner by means of a peg, which when
+violently pulled comes out.  One edge of the triangle is loaded with
+lead.  The whole machine is fastened to the "log-line,"--a stout cord
+many fathoms long, which is wound on a large reel.
+
+"Heaving the log," as we have said, takes place every hour.  One sailor
+stands by with a sand-glass which runs exactly half a minute.  Another
+holds the wooden reel; and a third heaves the log overboard, and "pays
+out" line as fast as he can make the reel spin.  The instant it is
+thrown the first sailor turns the sand-glass.  The log, being loaded on
+one side, floats perpendicularly in the water, remaining stationary of
+course; while the man who hove it watches sundry knots on the line as
+they pass over the stern of the ship, each knot representing a mile of
+rate of speed in the hour.  As the last grain of sand drops to the
+bottom of the glass the first sailor gives a sharp signal, and the
+second clutches and checks the line, examines the knot nearest his hand,
+and thus knows at once how many knots or miles the ship is sailing at
+that time.  The sudden stoppage of the line jerks the peg, before
+referred to, out of the log, thereby allowing the other two fixed cords
+to drag it flat and unresisting over the surface of the sea, when the
+line is reeled up and put by.  The flight of another hour calls for a
+repetition of the heaving of the log.
+
+As scientific knowledge advanced, instruments of peculiar and more
+complicated form were devised to enable navigators to ascertain more
+correctly their position on the surface of the sea; but they did not,
+and never will, supersede the method by dead-reckoning--for this reason,
+that the latter can be practised at all times, while the former are
+useless unless the sun, moon, or stars be visible, which in some
+latitudes they are not for many days and weeks, when clouds and fogs
+shroud the bright sky from view.
+
+The _Quadrant_ is the chief of those instruments.  It is represented on
+next page.  To give a succinct account of this would take up more space
+than we can spare.  It may suffice the general reader to say that by
+observing the exact position of the sun at noon, or of the moon or a
+star, in relation to the horizon, the precise _latitude_ of a ship--that
+is, her distance north or south of the equator--is ascertained.  The
+method of "taking an observation" is complicated, and difficult to
+explain and understand.  We refer those who are curious on the point to
+treatises on navigation.
+
+_Chronometers_ are exceedingly delicate and perfect time-keepers, or
+watches, which are very carefully set at the commencement of a voyage.
+Thus the _time_ at the _meridian_ whence a vessel starts is kept up
+during the voyage.  By means of an observation of the sun with the
+quadrant, or sextant (a somewhat similar instrument), the true time at
+any particular point in the voyage may be ascertained.  A _difference_
+is found to exist between the time at the spot where the observation is
+taken, and the time of the chronometer.  A calculation founded on this
+difference gives the ship's _longitude_--that is, her distance east or
+west of the meridian that passes through Greenwich.  That meridian is an
+imaginary line drawn round the world longitudinally, and passing through
+the north and south poles, as the equator is a line passing round it
+latitudinally.
+
+When a ship's latitude and longitude have been ascertained, and a line
+drawn through the first parallel to the equator, and another line
+through the second parallel to the first meridian, the point where these
+two lines intersect is the _exact_ position of the ship upon the sea.
+
+The size and form of ships having gradually improved, the compass and
+other scientific appliances having been discovered, cannon also and
+gunpowder having been invented, seamen became more courageous and
+venturesome; and at last the Portuguese nation began that career of
+maritime enterprise which won for it the admiration of the world.
+
+About the beginning of the fourteenth century (1330), the Canary
+Islands, lying off the west coast of Africa, were re-discovered by the
+accident of a French ship being blown off the coast in a storm, and
+finding shelter amongst them.  This group had been known to the ancients
+under the name of the Fortunate Islands, but had been forgotten for more
+than a thousand years.  During the course of the century the Spaniards
+plucked up courage to make discoveries and settlements upon them,
+although by so doing they were compelled to undergo that much-dreaded
+ordeal--sailing _out of sight_ of their once fondly "hugged" land!
+
+In the beginning of the next century arose a prince, Don Henry, son of
+John the First of Portugal, whose anxiety to promote discovery, and to
+find a passage by sea round the coast of Africa to India, induced him to
+send out many expeditions, all of which accomplished something, and many
+of which added very extensively to the geographical knowledge of the
+world at that time.  Navigators, sent out by him from time to time,
+discovered the Madeira Islands; sailed along the western coast of Africa
+a considerable distance; ascertained the presence of gold-dust among the
+savages on the Gulf of Guinea; discovered the Azores, besides numerous
+other islands and lands; crossed the equator, and approached to within
+about eighteen hundred miles of the south-most cape of Africa.
+
+The discovery of gold-dust stirred up the energies of the Portuguese in
+a remarkable degree, and caused them cheerfully to undertake ventures
+which, without that inducement, they would probably never have
+undertaken at all.  Moreover, they had now learned to quail less at the
+idea of losing sight of land; and towards the end of the fifteenth
+century (1486), Bartholomew Diaz, an officer of the household of John
+the Second, achieved the grand object which had long been ardently
+desired by the Portuguese--he doubled the great southern cape of Africa,
+which King John named the "Cape of Good Hope," although Diaz had named
+it the "Cape of Tempests."  The circumstance is thus alluded to by a
+poet of that period--
+
+  "At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape,
+  And from her raging tempests named the Cape.
+  `Thou southmost point,' the joyful king exclaimed,
+  `_Cape of Good Hope_ be thou for ever named!'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+BOATS, MODEL-BOAT MAKING, ETCETERA.
+
+Leaving the subject of ancient ships and navigation, we shall now turn
+our attention to the more recent doings of man on the ocean, and, before
+entering into the details of ships and ship-building, devote a little
+time and space to the consideration of boats.
+
+There are great varieties of boats--as regards shape, size, material,
+and use--so that it is not easy to decide on which we shall first fix
+our attention.  There are large and small, long and short boats; flat,
+round, sharp, and bluff ones,--some clumsy, others elegant.  Certain
+boats are built for carrying cargo, others for purposes of war.  Some
+are meant for sailing, some for rowing; and while many kinds are devoted
+to business, others are intended solely for pleasure.  Before we refer
+to any of these, perhaps our young readers will not object to be told
+how to construct:--
+
+A MODEL BOAT.
+
+We need scarcely say that it is not expedient for a boy to attempt to
+build a model boat in the same manner as a regular boat-builder
+constructs one for actual service.  It would be undertaking an
+unnecessary amount of labour to lay a keel and form ribs and nail on
+planks in the orthodox fashion, because, for all practical purposes, a
+boat cut out of a solid block of wood is quite as useful, and much more
+easily made.
+
+The first thing you have to do, my young boat-builder, then, is to go
+and visit a harbour or beach where varieties of boats are to be found,
+and, having settled in your mind which of them you intend to copy, make
+a careful drawing, in outline, of its form in four different positions.
+First, a side view, as in Figure 1.  Then the stern, with the swelling
+sides of the boat visible, as in Figure 2.  The bow, as in Figure 3; and
+a bird's-eye view, as in Figure 4.  The last drawing can be made by
+mounting on some neighbouring eminence, such as a bank or a larger boat,
+or, if that is impossible, by getting upon the stern of the boat itself,
+and thus looking down on it.  These four drawings will be of great
+service in enabling you to shape your model correctly; for as you
+proceed with the carving you can, by holding the model up in the same
+position with any of the drawings, ascertain whether you are progressing
+properly; and if you get the correct form of your boat in these four
+positions, you will be almost certain to make a good boat.  If, on the
+other hand, you go to work without drawings, the probability is that
+your boat will be lopsided, which will prevent it from floating evenly;
+or crooked, which will tend to check its speed in sailing, besides being
+clumsy and not "ship-shape," as the sailors have it.
+
+Figure 1 will keep you right in regard to relative length and depth;
+Figure 2 in regard to shape of stern and bulge of the sides; Figure 3
+secures correct form of the bow; and Figure 4 enables you to proportion
+the breadth to the length.
+
+The next thing to be done is to procure a block of fir-wood, with as few
+knots in it as possible, and straight in the grain.  The size is a
+matter of choice--any size from a foot to eighteen inches will do very
+well for a model boat.  Before beginning to carve this, it should be
+planed quite smooth and even on all sides, and the ends cut perfectly
+square, to permit of the requisite pencil-drawings being made on it.
+
+The tools required are a small tenon-saw, a chisel, two or three gouges
+of different sizes, a spoke-shave, and a file with one side flat and the
+other round.  A rough rasp-file and a pair of compasses will also be
+found useful.  All of these ought to be exceedingly sharp.  The gouges
+and the spoke-shave will be found the most useful of these implements.
+
+Begin by drawing a straight line with pencil down the exact centre of
+what will be the deck; continue it down the part that will be the stern;
+then carry it along the bottom of the block, where the keel will be, and
+up the front part, or bow.  If this line has been correctly drawn, the
+end of it will exactly meet the place where you began to draw it.  On
+the correctness of this line much will depend; therefore it is necessary
+to be careful and precise in finding out the centre of each surface of
+the block with the compasses.  Next, draw a line on each side of this
+centre line (as in the accompanying diagram), which will give the
+thickness of the keel and stern-post.  Then on the upper surface of the
+block draw the form of the boat to correspond with the bird's-eye view
+(Figure 4, on page 82) already referred to.  Then draw _one-half_ of the
+stern on a piece of thin card-board, and when satisfied that it is
+correct cut it out with scissors; apply it to the model, first on one
+side, and then on the other side of the stern-post.  By thus using a
+pattern of only one-half of the stern, exact uniformity of the two sides
+is secured.  Treat the bow in the same way.  Of course the pattern of
+the bow will at first be drawn on the _flat_ surface of the block, and
+it will represent not the actual bow, but the thickest part of the hull,
+as seen in the position of Figure 3, on page 82.  After this, turn the
+side of the block, and draw the form represented in Figure 1, page 82,
+thereon, and mark _on the keel_ the point where the stem and keel join,
+and also where the stern and keel join.  This is necessary, because in
+carving the sides of the boat these lines will be among the first to be
+cut away.  The next proceeding is to cut away at the sides and bottom of
+the block until, looking at it in the proper positions, the bow
+resembles Figure 3, and the stern Figure 2, above referred to.  This
+will be done chiefly with the gouge, the chisel and spoke-shave being
+reserved for finishing.  Then saw off the parts of the bow and stern
+that will give the requisite slope to these parts, being guided by the
+marks made on the keel.  In cutting away the upper parts of the bow and
+stern, be guided by the curved lines on the deck; and in forming the
+lower parts of the same portions, keep your eye on your drawing, which
+is represented by Figure 1.
+
+It is advisable to finish one side of the boat first, so that, by
+measurement and comparison, the other side may be made exactly similar.
+Those who wish to be very particular on this point may secure almost
+exact uniformity of the two sides by cutting out several moulds (three
+will be sufficient) in card-board.  These moulds must be cut so as to
+fit three marked points on the _finished_ side, as represented by three
+dotted lines on Figure 1; and then the unfinished side must be cut so as
+to fit the moulds at the corresponding points.  If the two sides are
+quite equal at these three points, it is almost impossible to go far
+wrong in cutting away the wood between them--the eye will be a
+sufficient guide for the rest.
+
+The accompanying diagram shows the three moulds referred to, one of them
+being _nearly_ applied to the finished part of the hull to which it
+belongs.  Thus--(a) represents the unfinished side of the boat; (b) the
+finished side; (c) is the mould or card cut to correspond with the
+widest part of the finished side, near the centre of the boat; (d) is
+the mould for the part near the bow; (e) for that near the stern.  These
+drawings are roughly given, to indicate the plan on which you should
+proceed.  The exact forms will depend on your own taste or fancy, as
+formed by the variously-shaped boats you have studied.  And it may be
+remarked here, that all we have said in regard to the cutting out of
+model boats applies equally to model ships.
+
+The outside of your boat having been finished, the bow having been
+fashioned somewhat like that represented in the accompanying cut, and
+the stern having been shaped like that shown in the illustration given
+below, the next thing to be done is to hollow out the hull.  Care must
+be taken in doing this not to cut away too much wood from one part, or
+to leave too much at another; a little more than half an inch of
+thickness may be left everywhere.  Next, fix in the thwarts, or seats,
+as in the foregoing cut, attach a leaden keel, and the boat is
+completed.
+
+The keel may be formed by running melted lead into a groove cut in a
+piece of wood, or, better still, into a groove made in nearly dry clay.
+By driving four or five nails (well greased) into the groove before
+pouring in the melted lead, holes may be formed in the keel by simply
+withdrawing the nails after it is cold.
+
+A mast and sail, however, are still wanted.  The best kind of sail is
+the lug, which is an elongated square sail--shown in the accompanying
+illustration.
+
+Most of our fishing-boats are provided with lug-sails, and on this
+account are styled luggers.  These boats are of all sizes, some of them
+being fifty tons burden, and carrying crews of seven or ten men each.  A
+picture of a lugger is given on the next page.
+
+Great numbers of fishing-boats may be seen at Great Yarmouth, and all
+along the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk.  They are employed in the
+herring-fishery, and use nets, which are let down in deep water, corks
+floating the upper edges of the nets, and the lower edges being sunk by
+leads, so that they remain in the water perpendicularly like walls, and
+intercept the shoals of herring when they chance to pass.  Thousands of
+these glittering silvery fish get entangled in the meshes during night.
+Then the nets are drawn up, and the fish taken out and thrown into a
+"well," whence they are removed as quickly as possible, and salted and
+packed in lockers; while the nets are let down again into the sea.
+These boats remain out usually a week at a time.  Most of them return to
+port on Saturday, in order to spend Sunday as a day of rest.  Some,
+however--regardless of the fact that He who gives them the fish with
+such liberal hand, also gave them the command, "Remember the sabbath
+day"--continue to prosecute the fishing on that day.  But many a good
+man among the fishermen has borne testimony to the fact that these do
+not gain additional wealth by their act of disobedience; while they lose
+in the matter of nets (which suffer from want of frequent drying) and in
+the matter of health (which cannot be maintained so well without a
+weekly day of rest), while there can be no doubt that they lose the
+inestimable blessing of a good conscience.  So true is it that godliness
+is profitable for the life which now is as well as for that which is to
+come.
+
+A model boat should be rigged with only one mast and lug-sail, or with
+two masts and sails at the most.  Three are unnecessary and cumbrous.
+Each sail should be fixed to a yard, which should be hoisted or hauled
+down by means of a block or pulley fastened near the top of the mast.
+The positions of these yards and the form of the sails may be more
+easily understood by a glance at our woodcut than by reading many pages
+of description.
+
+Sprit-sails are sometimes used in boats.  These are fore-and-aft sails,
+which are kept distended by a sprit instead of a yard.  The sprit is a
+long pole, one end of which is fixed to the lowest _innermost_ corner,
+near the mast, and the other end extending to the highest _outermost_
+corner; thus it lies diagonally across the sail.  It is convenient when
+a boat "tacks," or "goes about"--in other words, when it goes round
+frequently, and sails, now leaning on one side, and, at the next tack,
+on the other side.  In this case the sprit requires little shifting or
+attention.  But it is dangerous in squally weather, because, although
+the sheet or line which holds the lower and _outer_ end of a sail may be
+let go for the sake of safety, the upper part remains spread to the wind
+because of the sprit.
+
+The best rig of all for a model boat, and indeed for a pleasure-boat, is
+that which comprises a main-sail, in form like that of a sloop or a
+cutter, omitting the boom, or lower yard, and a triangular fore-sail
+extending from near the mast to the bow of the boat or to the end of the
+bowsprit--somewhat like a sloop's jib.  Both of the sails referred to
+may be seen at the part of this book which treats of sloops and cutters;
+and they are the same in form, with but slight modification, when
+applied to boats.
+
+Racing-boats are long, low, narrow, and light.  Some are so narrow as to
+require iron rowlocks extending a considerable distance beyond the sides
+of the boat for the oars to rest in.  Many of these light craft may be
+seen on the Thames and Clyde, and other rivers throughout the kingdom.
+The larger sort do not require what we may call the outrigger rowlocks.
+
+The "Rob Roy" canoe has, of late years, come much into fashion as a
+racing and pleasure boat.  Whatever the advantages of this craft may be,
+it has this disadvantage, that it can hold only one person; so that it
+may be styled an unsocial craft, the company of one or more friends
+being impossible, unless, indeed, one or more canoes travel in company.
+
+This species of canoe became celebrated some years ago, in consequence
+of an interesting and adventurous voyage of a thousand miles through
+Germany, Switzerland, and France, and, subsequently, through part of
+Norway and Sweden, made by Mr Macgregor in a craft of this kind, to
+which he gave the name of "Rob Roy."  Since the craft became popular,
+numerous and important improvements have been made in the construction
+of its hull and several parts, but its distinctive features remain
+unaltered.  The "Rob Roy" canoe is, in fact, almost identical with the
+Eskimo kayak, except in regard to the material of which it is made--the
+former being composed wholly of wood, the latter of a framework of wood
+covered with skin.  There is the same long, low, fish-like form, the
+same deck, almost on a level with the water, the same hole in the centre
+for the admission of the man, the same apron to keep out water, and the
+same long, double-bladed paddle, which is dipped on each side
+alternately.  The "Rob Roy" has, however, the addition of a small mast,
+a lug-sail, and a jib.  It has also a back-board, to support the back of
+the canoeman; the paddle, too, is somewhat shorter than that of the
+Eskimo canoe; and the whole affair is smarter, and more in accordance
+with the tastes and habits of the civilised men who use it.
+
+In his various voyages, which we might almost style journeys, the
+originator of the "Rob Roy" canoe proved conclusively that there were
+few earthly objects which could form a barrier to his progress.  When
+his canoe could not carry him, he carried it!  Waterfalls could not stop
+him, because he landed below them, and carried his canoe and small
+amount of baggage to the smooth water above the falls.  In this he
+followed the example of the fur-traders and Indians of North America,
+who travel over any number of miles of wilderness in this manner.
+Shallows could not stop him, because his little bark drew only a few
+inches of water.  Turbulent water could not swamp him, because the waves
+washed harmlessly over his smooth deck, and circled innocently round his
+protective apron.  Even long stretches of dry land could not stop him,
+because barrows, or carts, or railways could transport his canoe hither
+and thither with perfect ease to any distance; so that when the waters
+of one river failed him, those of the next nearest were easily made
+available.  In conclusion, it may be said that the "Rob Roy" canoe is a
+most useful and pleasant craft for boys and young men, especially at
+those watering-places which have no harbour or pier, and where, in
+consequence of the flatness of the beach, boats cannot easily be used.
+
+It would be an almost endless as well as unprofitable task to go over
+the names and characteristics of all our various kinds of boats in
+detail.
+
+Of heavy-sterned and clumsy river craft, we have an innumerable fleet.
+
+There are also _Torbay Trawlers_, which are cutters of from twenty to
+fifty tons; and the herring-boats of Scotland; and cobbles, which are
+broad, bluff, little boats; and barges, which are broad, bluff, large
+ones; and skiffs, and scows, and many others.
+
+In foreign lands many curious boats are to be met with.  The most
+graceful of them, perhaps, are those which carry lateen sails--enormous
+triangular sails, of which kind each boat usually carries only one.
+
+_India-rubber boats_ there are, which can be inflated with a pair of
+bellows, and, when full, can support half-a-dozen men or more, while,
+when empty, they can be rolled up and carried on the back of one man, or
+in a barrow.  One boat of this kind we once saw and paddled in.  It was
+made in the form of a cloak, and could be carried quite easily on one's
+shoulders.  When inflated, it formed a sort of oval canoe, which was
+quite capable of supporting one person.  We speak from experience,
+having tried it some years ago on the Serpentine, and found it to be
+extremely buoyant, but a little given to spin round at each stroke of
+the paddle, owing to its circular shape and want of cut-water or keel.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Of all the boats that swim, the lifeboat is certainly one of the most
+interesting; perhaps it is not too much to add that it is also one of
+the most useful.  But this boat deserves a chapter to itself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+LIFEBOATS AND LIGHTSHIPS.
+
+When our noble Lifeboat Institution was in its infancy, a deed was
+performed by a young woman which at once illustrates the extreme danger
+to which those who attempt to rescue the shipwrecked must expose
+themselves, and the great need there was, thirty years ago, for some
+better provision than existed at that time for the defence of our
+extensive sea-board against the dire consequences of storm and wreck.
+It is not, we think, inappropriate to begin our chapter on lifeboats
+with a brief account of the heroic deed of:--
+
+GRACE DARLING.
+
+There are not many women who, like Joan of Arc, put forth their hands to
+the work peculiarly belonging to the male sex, and achieve for
+themselves undying fame.  And among these there are very few indeed who,
+in thus quitting their natural sphere and assuming masculine duties,
+retain their feminine modesty and gentleness.
+
+Such a one, however, was Grace Darling.  She did not, indeed, altogether
+quit her station and follow a course peculiar to the male sex; but she
+did once seize the oar and launch fearlessly upon the raging sea, and
+perform a deed which strong and daring men might have been proud of--
+which drew forth the wondering admiration of her country, and has
+rendered her name indissolubly connected with the annals of heroic
+daring in the saving of human life from vessels wrecked upon our
+rock-bound shores.
+
+Grace Darling was born in November 1815, at Bamborough, on the
+Northumberland coast.  Her father was keeper of the lighthouse on the
+Longstone, one of the Farne Islands lying off that coast; and here, on a
+mere bit of rock surrounded by the ocean, and often by the howling
+tempests and the foaming breakers of that dangerous spot, our heroine
+spent the greater part of her life, cut off almost totally from the joys
+and pursuits of the busy world.  She and her mother managed the domestic
+economy of the lighthouse on the little islet, while her father trimmed
+the lantern that sent a blaze of friendly light to warn mariners off
+that dangerous coast.
+
+In personal appearance Grace Darling is described as having been fair
+and comely, with a gentle, modest expression of countenance; about the
+middle size; and with nothing in the least degree masculine about her.
+She had reached her twenty-second year when the wreck took place in
+connection with which her name has become famous.
+
+The Farne Islands are peculiarly dangerous.  The sea rushes with
+tremendous force between the smaller islands, and, despite the warning
+light, wrecks occasionally take place among them.  In days of old, when
+men had neither heart nor head to erect lighthouses for the protection
+of their fellows, many a noble ship must have been dashed to pieces
+there, and many an awful shriek must have mingled with the hoarse roar
+of the surf round these rent and weatherworn rocks.
+
+A gentleman who visited the Longstone rock in 1838, describes it thus:--
+
+"It was, like the rest of these desolate isles, all of dark whinstone,
+cracked in every direction, and worn with the action of winds, waves,
+and tempests since the world began.  Over the greater part of it was not
+a blade of grass, nor a grain of earth; it was bare and iron-like stone,
+crusted, round all the coast as far as high-water mark, with limpet and
+still smaller shells.  We ascended wrinkled hills of black stone, and
+descended into worn and dismal dells of the same; into some of which,
+where the tide got entrance, it came pouring and roaring in raging
+whiteness, and churning the loose fragments of whinstone into round
+pebbles, and piling them up in deep crevices with seaweeds, like great
+round ropes and heaps of fucus.  Over our heads screamed hundreds of
+hovering birds, the gull mingling its hideous laughter most wildly."
+
+One wild and stormy night in September 1838--such a night as induces
+those on land to draw closer round the fire, and offer up, perchance, a
+silent prayer for those who are at sea--a steamer was battling, at
+disadvantage with the billows, off Saint Abb's Head.  She was the
+_Forfarshire_, a steamer of three hundred tons, under command of Mr
+John Humble; and had started from Hull for Dundee with a valuable cargo,
+a crew of twenty-one men, and forty-one passengers.
+
+It was a fearful night.  The storm raged furiously, and would have tried
+the qualities of even a stout vessel; but this one was in very bad
+repair, and her boilers were in such a state that the engines soon
+became entirely useless, and at last they ceased to work.  We cannot
+conceive the danger of a steamer left thus comparatively helpless in a
+furious storm and dark night off a dangerous coast.
+
+In a short time the vessel became quite unmanageable, and drifted with
+the direction of the tide, no one knew whither.  Soon the terrible cry
+arose, "Breakers to leeward," and immediately after the Farne lights
+became visible.  A despairing attempt was now made by the captain to run
+the ship between the islands and the mainland; but in this he failed,
+and about three o'clock she struck heavily on a rock bow foremost.
+
+The scene of consternation that followed is indescribable.  Immediately
+one of the boats was lowered, and with a freight of terror-stricken
+people pushed off, but not before one or two persons had fallen into the
+sea and perished in their vain attempts to get into it.  This party in
+the boat, nine in number, survived the storm of that awful night, and
+were picked up the following morning by a Montrose sloop.  Of those left
+in the ill-fated ship some remained in the after-part; a few stationed
+themselves near the bow, thinking it the safest spot.  The captain stood
+helpless, his wife clinging to him, while several other females gave
+vent to their agony of despair in fearful cries.
+
+Meanwhile the waves dashed the vessel again and again on the rock, and
+at last a larger billow than the rest lifted her up and let her fall
+down upon its sharp edge.  The effect was tremendous and instantaneous;
+the vessel was literally broken in two pieces, and the after-part, with
+the greater number of the passengers in the cabin, was swept away
+through the Fifa Gut, a tremendous current which is considered dangerous
+even in good weather.  Among those who thus perished were the captain
+and his wife.  The forepart of the steamer, with the few who had happily
+taken refuge upon it, remained fast on the rock.  Here eight or nine of
+the passengers and crew clung to the windlass, and a woman named Sarah
+Dawson, with her two little children, lay huddled together in a corner
+of the fore-cabin, exposed to the fury of winds and waves all the
+remainder of that dreadful night.  For hours each returning wave carried
+a thrill of terror to their hearts; for the shattered wreck reeled
+before every shock, and it seemed as if it would certainly be swept away
+into the churning foam before daybreak.
+
+But daylight came at last, and the survivors on the wreck began to sweep
+the dim horizon with straining eyeballs as a faint hope at last began to
+arise in their bosoms.  Nor were these trembling hopes doomed to
+disappointment.  At the eleventh hour God in his mercy sent
+deliverance. Through the glimmering dawn and the driving spray the
+lighthouse-keeper's daughter from the lonely watch-tower descried the
+wreck, which was about a mile distant from the Longstone.  From the
+mainland, too, they were observed; and crowds of people lined the shore
+and gazed upon the distant speck, to which, by the aid of telescopes,
+the survivors were seen clinging with the tenacity of despair.
+
+But no boat could live in that raging sea, which still lashed madly
+against the riven rocks, although the violence of the storm had begun to
+abate.  An offer of 5 pounds by the steward of Bamborough Castle failed
+to tempt a crew of men to launch their boat.  One daring heart and
+willing hand was there, however.  Grace Darling, fired with an intense
+desire to save the perishing ones, urged her father to launch their
+little boat.  At first he held back.  There was no one at the lighthouse
+except himself, his wife, and his daughter.  What could such a crew do
+in a little open boat in so wild a sea?  He knew the extreme peril they
+should encounter better than his daughter, and very naturally hesitated
+to run so great a risk.  For, besides the danger of swamping, and the
+comparatively weak arm of an inexperienced woman at the oar, the passage
+from the Longstone to the wreck could only be accomplished with the
+ebb-tide; so that unless the exhausted survivors should prove to be able
+to lend their aid, they could not pull back again to the lighthouse.
+
+But the earnest importunities of the heroic girl were not to be
+resisted.  Her father at last consented, and the little boat pushed off
+with the man and the young woman for its crew.  It may be imagined with
+what a thrill of joy and hope the people on the wreck beheld the boat
+dancing an the crested waves towards them; and how great must have been
+the surprise that mingled with their other feelings on observing that
+one of the rowers was a woman!
+
+They gained the rock in safety; but here their danger was increased
+ten-fold, and it was only by the exertion of great muscular power,
+coupled with resolute courage, that they prevented the boat being dashed
+to pieces against the rock.
+
+One by one the sufferers were got into the boat.  Sarah Dawson was found
+lying in the fore-cabin with a spark of life still trembling in her
+bosom, and she still clasped her two little ones in her arms, but the
+spirits of both had fled to Him who gave them.  With great difficulty
+the boat was rowed back to the Longstone, and the rescued crew landed in
+safety.  Here, owing to the violence of the sea, they were detained for
+nearly three days, along with a boat's crew which had put off to their
+relief from North Sunderland; and it required some ingenuity to
+accommodate so large a party within the narrow limits of a lighthouse.
+Grace gave up her bed to poor Mrs Dawson; most of the others rested as
+they best could upon the floor.
+
+The romantic circumstances of this rescue, the isolated position of the
+girl, her youth and modesty, and the self-devoting heroism displayed
+upon this occasion, thrilled through the length and breadth of the
+country like an electric shock, and the name of Grace Darling became for
+the time as well known as that of the greatest in the land, while the
+lonely lighthouse on the Longstone became a point of attraction to
+thousands of warm admirers, among whom were many of the rich and the
+noble.  Letters and gifts flowed in upon Grace Darling continually.  The
+public seemed unable to do enough to testify their regard.  The Duke of
+Northumberland invited her over to Alnwick Castle, and presented her
+with a gold watch.  A public subscription, to the amount of 700 pounds,
+was raised for her.  The Humane Society presented her with a handsome
+silver tea-pot and a vote of thanks for her courage and humanity.
+Portraits of her were sold in the print-shops all over the land; and the
+enthusiasm, which at first was the natural impulse of admiration for one
+who had performed a noble and heroic deed, at last rose to a species of
+mania, in the heat of which not a few absurdities were perpetrated.
+
+Among others, several of the proprietors of the metropolitan theatres
+offered her a large sum nightly on condition that she would appear on
+the stage, merely to sit in a boat during the performance of a piece
+illustrative of the incident of which she was the heroine!  As might
+have been expected of one whose spirit was truly noble, she promptly
+declined all such offers.  God seems to have put his arm tenderly round
+Grace Darling, and afforded her special strength to resist the severe
+temptations to which she was exposed.
+
+All proposals to better her condition were rejected, and she returned to
+her home on the island rock, where she remained with her father and
+mother till within a few months of her death.  The fell destroyer, alas!
+claimed her while yet in the bloom of womanhood.  She died of
+consumption on the 20th of October 1842, leaving an example of
+self-devoting courage in the hour of danger, and self-denying heroism in
+the hour of temptation, that may well be admired and imitated by those
+whose duty it is to man the lifeboat and launch to the rescue on the
+stormy waves, in all time to come.
+
+LIFEBOATS.
+
+A lifeboat--that is to say, the lifeboat of the present time--differs
+from all other boats in four particulars.  It is _almost_
+indestructible; it is insubmergible; it is self-righting; it is
+self-emptying.  In other words, it can hardly be destroyed; it cannot be
+sunk; it rights itself if upset; it empties itself if filled.
+
+The first of these qualities is due to the unusual strength of the
+lifeboat, not only in reference to the excellence of the materials with
+which it is made, but also to the manner in which the planks are laid
+on.  These cross one another in a diagonal manner, which cannot be
+easily described or explained to ordinary readers; but it is sufficient
+to say that the method has the effect of binding the entire boat
+together in a way that renders it much stronger than any other species
+of craft.  The second quality--that of insubmergibility--is due to
+air-chambers fixed round the sides of the boat, under the seats, and at
+the bow and stern.  These air-cases are sufficiently buoyant to float
+the boat even if she were filled to overflowing with water and crowded
+to her utmost capacity with human beings.  In short, to use an
+expression which may appear paradoxical, she can carry more than she can
+hold--has floating power sufficient to support more than can be got into
+her.  The third--her self-righting quality--is also due to air-chambers,
+in connection with a heavy keel.  There are two large and prominent
+air-cases in the lifeboat--one in the bow, the other in the stern.
+These rise considerably above the gunwale, insomuch that when the boat
+is turned upside-down it rests upon them as upon two pivots.  Of course
+it cannot remain stationary on them for a moment, but must necessarily
+fall over to the one side or the other.  This is the first motion in
+self-righting; then the heavy keel comes into play, and pulls the boat
+quite round.  Being full of water, the lifeboat would be comparatively
+useless but for its fourth quality--that of self-emptying.  This is
+accomplished by means of six large holes which run through the floor and
+bottom of the boat.  The floor referred to is air-tight, and is so
+placed that when fully manned and loaded with passengers it is a _very
+little above the level of the sea_.  On this fact the acting of the
+principle depends.  Between the floor and the bottom of the boat--a
+space of upwards of a foot in depth--there is some light ballast of cork
+or of wood, and some parts of the space are left empty.  The six holes
+above-mentioned are tubes of six inches in diameter, which extend from
+the floor through the bottom of the boat.  Now, it is one of nature's
+laws that water must find its level.  For instance, take any boat and
+bore large holes in its bottom, and suppose it to be supported in its
+_ordinary_ floating position, so that it cannot sink even though water
+runs freely into it through the holes.  Then fill it suddenly quite full
+of water.  Of course the water inside will be considerably above the
+level of the water outside, but it will continue to run out at the holes
+until it is exactly on a level with the water outside.  Now, water
+poured into a lifeboat acts exactly in the same way; but when it has
+reached the level of the water outside _it has also reached the floor_,
+so that there is no more water to run out.
+
+Such are the principal qualities of the splendid lifeboat now used on
+our coasts, and of which it may be said that it has reached a state of
+almost absolute perfection.
+
+The accompanying sections of the lifeboat exhibit the position of the
+air-cases and discharging tubes.  In Figure 1 the _shaded_ parts give a
+side view of the air-cases.  The line A A indicates the deck or floor,
+which lies a _little_ above the level of the water when the boat is
+loaded; B B is the water-tight space containing ballast; C C C are three
+of the six discharging holes or tubes; the dotted line D D shows the
+level of the sea.  Figure 2 gives a bird's-eye view of the boat.  The
+shaded parts indicate the air-cases; and the position of the six
+discharging tubes is more clearly shown than in Figure 1.  There are
+three covered openings in the floor, which permit of a free circulation
+of air when the boat is not in use, and in one of these is a small pump
+to clear the ballast-space of leakage.  It will be observed that the
+boat draws little water; in fact, there is much more of her above than
+below water, and she is dependent for stability on her great breadth of
+beam and her heavy keel.
+
+These four qualities in the lifeboat are illustrated every year by many
+thrilling incidents of wreck and rescue.  Let us glance at a few of
+these.  First, then, as to the _almost_ indestructible quality.  Take
+the following evidence:--
+
+On a terrible night in the year 1857 a Portuguese brig struck on the
+Goodwin Sands, not far from the lightship that marks the northern
+extremity of those fatal shoals.  A shot was fired, and a rocket sent up
+from the lightship as a signal to the men on shore that a vessel had got
+upon the sands.  No second signal was needed.  Anxious eyes had been on
+the watch that night.  Instantly the Ramsgate men jumped into their
+lifeboat, which lay alongside the pier.  It was deadly work that had to
+be done,--the gale was one of the fiercest of the season,--nevertheless
+the gallant men were so eager to get into the boat that it was
+overmanned, and the last two who jumped in were obliged to go ashore.  A
+small but powerful steamer is kept to attend upon this boat.  In a few
+minutes it took her in tow and made for the mouth of the harbour.
+
+They staggered out right in the teeth of tide and tempest, and ploughed
+their way through a heavy cross-sea that swept again and again over
+them, until they reached the edge of the Goodwins.  Here the steamer
+cast off the boat, and waited for her, while she dashed into the surf
+and bore the brunt of the battle alone.
+
+With difficulty the brig was found in the darkness.  The lifeboat cast
+anchor when within about forty fathoms, and veered down under her lee.
+At first they were in hopes of getting the vessel off, and hours were
+spent in vain endeavours to do this.  But the storm increased in fury;
+the brig began to break up; she rolled from side to side, and the yards
+swung wildly in the air.  A blow from one of these yards would have
+stove the boat in, so the Portuguese crew--twelve men and a boy--were
+taken from the wreck, and the boatmen endeavoured to push off.  All this
+time the boat had been floating in a basin worked in the sand by the
+motion of the wreck; but the tide had been falling, and when they tried
+to pull up to their anchor the boat struck heavily on the edge of this
+basin.  The men worked to get off the shoals as only those can work
+whose lives depend on their efforts.  They succeeded in getting afloat
+for a moment, but again struck and remained fast.  Meanwhile the brig
+was lifted by each wave and let fall with a thundering crash; her
+timbers began to snap like pipe-stems, and as she worked nearer and
+nearer, it became evident that destruction was not far off.  The heavy
+seas caused by the increasing storm flew over the lifeboat, so that
+those in her could only hold on to the thwarts for their lives.  At last
+the brig came so near that there was a stir among the men; they were
+preparing for the last struggle--some of them intending to leap into the
+rigging of the wreck and take their chance; but the coxswain shouted,
+"Stick to the boat, boys! stick to the boat!" and the men obeyed.
+
+At that moment the boat lifted a little on the surf, and grounded again.
+New hope was infused by this.
+
+The men pulled at the hawser, and shoved might and main with the oars.
+They succeeded in getting out of immediate danger, but still could not
+pull up to the anchor in teeth of wind and tide.  The coxswain then saw
+plainly that there was but one resource left--to cut the cable and drive
+right across the Goodwin Sands.  But there was not yet sufficient water
+on the Sands to float them over; so they held on, intending to ride at
+anchor until the tide, which had turned, should rise.  Very soon,
+however, the anchor began to drag.  This compelled them to hoist sail,
+cut the cable sooner than they had intended, and attempt to beat off the
+Sands.  It was in vain.  A moment more, and they struck with tremendous
+force.  A breaker came rolling towards them, filled the boat, caught her
+up like a plaything on its crest, and, hurling her a few yards onwards,
+let her fall again with a shock that well-nigh tore every man out of
+her.  Each successive breaker treated her in this way.
+
+Those who dwell by the sea-shore know well the familiar ripples that
+mark the sands when the tide is out.  On the Goodwins these ripples are
+gigantic steps, to be measured by feet, not by inches.  From one to
+another of these banks this splendid boat was thrown.  Each roaring surf
+caught it by the bow or stern, and, whirling it right round, sent it
+crashing on the next ledge.  The Portuguese sailors appeared to give up
+all hope, and clung to the thwarts in silent despair; but the crew--
+eighteen in number--did not lose heart altogether.  They knew their boat
+well, had often gone out to battle in her, and hoped that they might yet
+be saved if she should only escape striking on the pieces of old wrecks
+with which the Sands were strewn.
+
+Thus, literally, yard by yard, with a succession of shocks that would
+have knocked any ordinary boat to pieces, did that lifeboat drive during
+_two_ hours over _two_ miles of the Goodwin Sands.  At last they drove
+into deep water; the sails were set; and soon after, through God's
+mercy, they landed the rescued crew in safety in Ramsgate Harbour.
+
+What further evidence need we that the lifeboat is almost, if not
+altogether, indestructible?
+
+That the lifeboat is insubmergible has been proved to some extent by the
+foregoing incident.  No better instance could be adduced to prove the
+buoyancy of the life boat than that of the Tynemouth boat, named the
+Constance, at the wreck of the _Stanley_, in the year 1864.  In this
+case, while the boat was nearing the wreck, a billow broke over the bow
+of the _Stanley_, and falling into the Constance, absolutely overwhelmed
+her.  Referring to this, the coxswain of the lifeboat says: "The sea
+fell over the bows of the Stanley and buried the lifeboat.  Every oar
+was broken at the gunwale of the boat, and the outer ends swept away.
+The men made a grasp for the spare oars; three were gone--two only
+remained."  Now, it is to be observed that the coxswain here speaks of
+the boat as being _buried, sunk_ by the waves, and _immediately_, as he
+says, "the men made a grasp for the spare oars."  The sinking and
+leaping to the surface seem to have been the work almost of the same
+moment.  And this is indeed the case; for when the force that sinks a
+lifeboat is removed, she rises that instant to the surface like a cork.
+
+In order to prove the value of the self-righting quality, and the
+superiority of those lifeboats which possess it over those which are
+destitute of it, we will briefly cite three cases--the last of which
+will also prove the value of the self-emptying quality.
+
+On the 4th of January 1857, the Point of Ayr lifeboat, when under sail
+in a gale, upset at a distance from land.  The accident was seen from
+the shore; but no help could be rendered, and the whole boat's crew--
+thirteen in number--were drowned.  Now, this was deemed a good lifeboat,
+but it was not a self-righting one; and two of her crew were seen
+clinging to the keel for twenty minutes, by which time they became
+exhausted and were washed off.
+
+Take another case of a non-self-righting boat.  In February 1858 the
+Southwold lifeboat, a large sailing-boat, and esteemed one of the finest
+in the kingdom, went out at the quarterly period of exercise in rough
+weather, and was running before a heavy sea with all sail set when she
+suddenly ran on the top of a wave, broached to, and upset.  The crew in
+this case were fortunately near the land, had on their cork belts, and
+were dragged ashore, though with difficulty; but three amateurs, who
+were without belts, perished.
+
+These two cases occurred in the day-time.
+
+The third case happened at night--on a very dark stormy night in October
+1858.  A wreck had been seen about three miles off Dungeness, and the
+lifeboat at that place--a small self-righting and self-emptying one
+belonging to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution--put off, with
+eight stout men of the coast-guard for a crew.  On reaching the wreck,
+soon after midnight, it was found that the crew had deserted her; the
+lifeboat therefore returned towards the shore.  On nearing it she got
+into a channel between two shoals, where she was caught up and struck by
+three heavy seas in succession.  The coxswain lost command of the
+rudder; she was carried away before the sea, broached to, and upset,
+throwing her crew out of her.  Immediately she righted herself, cleared
+herself of water, and the anchor, having fallen out, brought her up.
+The crew, meanwhile, having on cork belts, floated, regained the boat,
+clambered into it by means of the life-lines hung round her sides, cut
+the cable, and returned to shore in safety.
+
+So much for the nature and capabilities of our lifeboats.  We cannot
+afford space to say more in regard to them than that they are the means,
+under God, of saving many hundreds of human lives every year on the
+coasts of the United Kingdom, besides a large amount of shipping and
+property, which, but for them, would inevitably be lost.  The noble
+Institution which manages them was founded in 1824, and is supported
+entirely by voluntary contributions.
+
+Along with the lifeboat we may appropriately describe here another
+species of vessel, which, if it does not directly rescue lives, at all
+events prevents disaster by giving timely warning of danger.  We refer
+to:--
+
+LIGHTSHIPS.
+
+These floating beacons are anchored in the immediate vicinity of the
+numerous sand-banks which lie off the mouths of some of the principal
+ports of the kingdom, especially in England, and on other parts of our
+shores.  There are numerous floating lights around our coasts, marking
+shoals on which lighthouses could not easily be erected.  Their
+importance to shipping is inconceivably great.  The accompanying
+illustration shows a vessel passing the lightship at the Nore.  The
+impossibility of shipping getting safely into or out of the port of
+London without the guiding aid of lightships, as well as of buoys and
+beacons, may be made clear by a simple statement of the names of some of
+the obstructions which lie in the mouth of the Thames.  There are the
+_Knock_ Shoals, the East and West _Barrows_, the _John_, the _Sunk_, the
+_Girdler_, and the _Long_ Sands, all lying like so many ground sharks
+waiting to arrest and swallow up passing vessels, which, unfortunately,
+they too often accomplish despite the numerous precautions taken to rob
+them of their prey.  Most people know the appearance of buoys, but we
+dare say few have seen a buoy or beacon resembling the one in our
+engraving, which is a sort of cage, fastened to a buoy, with a bell
+inside that rings by the action of the waves.  It must have been
+something of this sort that was used at the famous "Bell Rock" in days
+of yore.
+
+Lightships are usually clumsy-looking, red-painted vessels, having one
+strong mast amidships, with a ball at the top, about six feet in
+diameter, made of light laths.  This ball is a very conspicuous object,
+and clearly indicates a lightship to the passing vessel during the day.
+At night a huge lantern traverses on, and is hoisted to nearly the top
+of, the same mast.  It is lighted by a number of argand lamps with
+powerful reflectors.  Some lightships have two masts, and some three,
+with a ball and a lantern on each.  Some of these lanterns contain
+fixed, others revolving lights--these differences being for the purpose
+of indicating to seamen the particular light which they happen to be
+passing.
+
+Thus, the Goodwin Sands, which are upwards of ten miles in length, are
+marked by three lightships.  The one on the north has three masts and
+three _fixed_ lights.  The one on the south has two masts and two
+_fixed_ lights.  The one that lies between the two--off Ramsgate, and
+named the Gull--has one mast and one _revolving_ light.
+
+The crew of a lightship consists of about nine or ten men, each of whom
+does duty for two months on board, and one month on shore, taking their
+turn by rotation; so that the number of men always on board is about
+seven.  While on shore, they attend to the buoys, anchors, chain-cables,
+and other stores of the Trinity House, which has charge of all the
+lights, buoys, and beacons in England.  They also assist in laying down
+new buoys and sinkers, and removing old ones, etcetera.
+
+Lightships run considerable risk, for besides being exposed at all times
+to all the storms that rage on our shores, they are sometimes run into
+by ships in foggy weather.
+
+The _Gull_ lightship, above referred to, occupies a peculiar and
+interesting position.  Being in the very centre of all the shipping
+which passes through the Downs, she has frequent narrow escapes, and has
+several times been damaged by collisions.  The marvel is that,
+considering her position, she does not oftener "come to grief."  She
+also signals for the Ramsgate lifeboat, by means of guns and rockets,
+when a ship is observed by her crew to have got upon the dreaded Goodwin
+Sands.
+
+We had the pleasure of spending a week on board of the _Gull_ lightship
+not long ago, and one night witnessed a very stirring scene of calling
+out the lifeboat.  We shall conclude this subject by quoting the
+following letter, which we wrote at the time, giving a detailed account
+of it.
+
+                                               RAMSGATE, MARCH 26, 1870.
+The eye-witness of a battle from an unusual point of view may, without
+presumption, believe that he has something interesting to tell.  I
+therefore send you an account of what I saw in the _Gull_ lightship, off
+the Goodwin Sands, on the night of Thursday last, when the _Germania_,
+of Bremen, was wrecked on the South-Sand-Head.  Having been an
+inhabitant of the _Gull_ lightship for a week, and cut off from
+communication with the shore for several days, I have been unable to
+write sooner.
+
+Our never-ending warfare with the storm is well known.  Here is one
+specimen of the manner in which it is carried on.
+
+A little before midnight on Thursday last (the 24th), while I was
+rolling uneasily in my "bunk," contending with sleep and sea-sickness,
+and moralising on the madness of those who choose "the sea" for a
+profession, I was roused--and sickness instantly cured--by the watch on
+deck suddenly shouting down the hatchway to the mate, "_South-Sand-Head_
+light is firing, sir, and sending up rockets."  The mate sprang from his
+"bunk," and was on the cabin floor before the sentence was well
+finished.  I followed suit, and pulled on coat, nether garments, and
+shoes, as if my life depended on my own speed.  There was unusual need
+for clothing, for the night was bitterly cold.  A coat of ice had formed
+even on the salt-water spray which had blown into the boats.  On gaining
+the deck, we found the two men on duty actively at work, the one loading
+the lee gun, the other adjusting a rocket to its stick.  A few hurried
+questions from the mate elicited all that it was needful to know.  The
+flash of a gun from the _South-Sand-Head_ lightship, about six miles
+distant, had been seen, followed by a rocket, indicating that a vessel
+had got upon the fatal Goodwins.  While the men spoke, I saw the bright
+flash of another gun, but heard no report, owing to the gale carrying
+the sound to leeward.  A rocket followed, and at the same moment we
+observed the light of the vessel in distress just on the southern tail
+of the Sands.  By this time our gun was charged, and the rocket in
+position.  "Look alive, Jack! get the poker," cried the mate, as he
+primed the gun.  Jack dived down the companion hatch, and in another
+moment returned with a red-hot poker, which the mate had thrust into the
+cabin fire at the first alarm.  Jack applied it in quick succession to
+the gun and the rocket.  A blinding flash and deafening crash were
+followed by the whiz of the rocket as it sprang with a magnificent curve
+far away into the surrounding darkness.  This was our answer to the
+_South-Sand-Head_ light, which, having fired three guns and three
+rockets to attract our attention, now ceased firing.  It was also our
+note of warning to the look-out on the pier of Ramsgate Harbour.
+"That's a beauty," said our mate, referring to the rocket; "get up
+another, Jack; sponge her well out.  Jacobs, we'll give 'em another shot
+in a few minutes."  Loud and clear were both our signals; but four and a
+half miles of distance and a fresh gale neutralised their influence.
+The look-out did not see them.  In less than five minutes the gun and
+rocket were fired again.  Still no answering signal came from Ramsgate.
+"Load the weather gun," said the mate.  Jacobs obeyed; and I sought
+shelter under the lee of the weather bulwarks, for the wind appeared to
+be composed of pen-knives and needles.  Our third gun thundered forth,
+and shook the lightship from stem to stern; but the rocket struck the
+rigging, and made a low, wavering flight.  Another was therefore sent
+up; but it had scarcely cut its bright line across the sky, when we
+observed the answering signal--a rocket from Ramsgate Pier.
+
+"That's all right now, sir; our work is done," said the mate, as he went
+below, and, divesting himself of his outer garments, quietly turned in;
+while the watch, having sponged out and re-covered the gun, resumed
+their active perambulation of the deck.  I confess that I felt somewhat
+disappointed at this sudden termination of the noise and excitement.  I
+was told that the Ramsgate lifeboat could not well be out in less than
+an hour.  It seemed to my excited spirit a terrible thing that human
+lives should be kept so long in jeopardy; and, of course, I began to
+think, "Is it not possible to prevent this delay?"  But excited spirits
+are not always the best judges of such matters, although they have an
+irresistible tendency to judge.  There was nothing for it, however, but
+patience; so I turned in, "all standing," as sailors have it, with
+orders that I should be called when the lights of the tug should come in
+sight.  It seemed but a few minutes after, when the voice of the watch
+was again heard shouting hastily, "Lifeboat close alongside, sir.
+Didn't see it till this moment.  She carries no lights."  I bounced out,
+and, minus coat, hat, and shoes, scrambled on deck, just in time to see
+the _Broadstairs_ lifeboat rush past us before the gale.  She was close
+under our stern, and rendered spectrally visible by the light of our
+lantern.  "What are you firing for?" shouted the coxswain of the boat.
+"Ship on the sands, bearing south," replied Jack at the full pitch of
+his stentorian voice.  The boat did not pause.  It passed with a
+magnificent rush into darkness.  The reply had been heard; and the
+lifeboat shot straight as an arrow to the rescue.  We often hear and
+read of such scenes, but vision is necessary to enable one to realise
+the full import of all that goes on.  A strange thrill ran through me as
+I saw the familiar blue and white boat leaping over the foaming billows.
+Often had I seen it in model, and in quiescence in its boat-house--
+ponderous and ungainly; but now I saw it, for the first time, endued
+with life.  So, I fancy, warriors might speak of our heavy cavalry as we
+see them in barracks, and as _they_ saw them at Alma.  Again all was
+silent and unexciting on board of the _Gull_.  I went shivering below,
+with exalted notions of the courage and endurance of lifeboat men.  Soon
+after, the watch once more shouted, "Tug's in sight, sir;" and once
+again the mate and I went on deck.  On this occasion, the tug _Aid_ had
+made a mistake.  Some one on shore had reported that the guns and
+rockets had been seen flashing from the _Gull_ and _North-Sand-Head_
+lightships; whereas the report should have been, from the _Gull_ and
+_South-Sand-Head_ vessels.  The single word was all-important.  It
+involved an unnecessary run of about twelve miles, and an hour and a
+half's loss of time.  But we mention this merely as a fact, not as a
+complaint.  Accidents will happen.  The Ramsgate lifeboat service is
+admirably regulated, and for once that an error of this kind can be
+pointed out, we can point to dozens--ay, hundreds--of cases in which the
+steamer and lifeboat have gone straight as the crow flies to the rescue,
+and have done good service on occasions when all other lifeboats would
+have failed, so great is the value of steam in such matters.  On this
+occasion, however, the tug appeared late on the scene, and hailed us.
+When the true state of the case was ascertained, the course was directed
+aright, and full steam let on.  The Ramsgate lifeboat, _Bradford_, was
+in tow far astern.  As she passed us the brief questions and answers
+were repeated for the benefit of the coxswain of the boat.  I observed
+that every man in the boat lay flat on the thwarts except the coxswain.
+No wonder.  It is not an easy matter to sit up in a gale of wind, with
+freezing spray, and sometimes green seas, sweeping over one.  They were,
+doubtless, wide awake, and listening; but, as far as vision went, that
+boat was manned with ten oilskin coats and sou'-westers.  A few seconds
+took them out of sight; and thus, as far as the _Gull_ lightship was
+concerned, the drama ended.  There was no possibility of our
+ascertaining more, at least during that night; for whatever might be the
+result of these efforts, the floating lights had no chance of hearing of
+them until the next visit of their tender.  I was therefore obliged to
+turn in once more, at three a.m.  Next forenoon we saw the wreck, bottom
+up, high on the Goodwin Sands.
+
+On Friday morning, the _Alert_--tender to the lightships of this
+district, under command of the Trinity Superintendent, Captain Vaile--
+came off to us, and we learned the name of the vessel, that she was a
+total wreck, and that the crew, seven men, had taken to their boat, and
+succeeded in reaching the _South-Sand-Head_ lightship, whence they were
+almost immediately after taken by the Deal lifeboat, and safely landed
+at Deal.
+
+It is to be carefully observed here that, although in this case much
+energy was expended unnecessarily, it does not follow that it is often
+so expended.  Often--too often--all the force of lifeboat service on
+this coast is insufficient to meet the demands on it.  The crews of the
+various boats in the vicinity of the Goodwin Sands are frequently called
+out more than once in a night; and they are sometimes out all night,
+visiting various wrecks in succession.  In all this work the value of
+the steam-tug is very conspicuous.  For it can tow its boat again and
+again to windward, and renew the effort to save life in cases where,
+unaided, lifeboats would be compelled to give in.  Embarking in the
+_Alert_, I sailed round the wreck at low water, and observed that the
+Deal luggers were swarming round her like flies; the crews stripping her
+bottom of copper, and saving her stores, while, apparently, hundreds of
+men were busy upon her deck dismantling her shattered hull.
+
+This, after all, is but an insignificant episode of wreck on the
+Goodwins.  Many wrecks there are every year much more worthy of record;
+but this is sufficient to give a general idea of the manner in which our
+great war with the storm is conducted--the promptitude with which relief
+is rendered, and the energy with which our brave seamen are ready to
+imperil their lives almost every night, all round the coast, and all the
+year round.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+DOCKS AND SHIPBUILDING.
+
+Having in the previous chapters treated of the subjects of ancient
+navigation and ships, and given some account of the boats of the present
+time, we now proceed to write about modern ships.  In doing so, let us
+turn our attention first to:--
+
+THE DOCKYARD.
+
+If we were a maker of riddles, we would ask our reader, "Why is a ship
+like a human being?" and having added, "D'ye give it up?" would reply,
+"Because it commences life in a cradle;" but not being a fabricator of
+riddles, we _don't_ ask our reader that question.  We merely draw his
+attention to the fact that ships, like men, have not only an infancy,
+but also have cradles--of which more hereafter.
+
+Let us enter one of those naval nurseries--the dockyard--where ships may
+be seen commencing their career.  What a scene it is!  What sawing and
+thumping, and filing, and grinding, and clinching, and hammering,
+without intermission, from morn till noon, and from noon till dewy eve!
+What a Babel of sounds and chaos of indescribable material!
+
+That little boy whom you observe standing under the shadow of yonder
+hull--his hands in his pockets (of course), his mouth open (probably),
+and his eyes gazing up fixedly at the workmen, who cluster like bees on
+the ribs and timbers of yonder infant ship has stood there for more than
+an hour, and he will stand there, or thereabout, for many hours to come;
+for it happens to be a holiday with him, and he dotes on harbours and
+dockyards.  His whole being is wrapped up in them.
+
+And this is natural enough.  Most boys delight to gaze on
+incomprehensible and stupendous works.  Let us--you and I, reader--
+follow this urchin's example, keeping our mouths shut, however, save
+when we mean to speak, and our eyes open.
+
+There are ships here of every shape and size--from the little
+coasting-vessel to the great East Indiaman, which, in its unfinished
+condition, looks like the skeleton of some dire megatherium of the
+antediluvian world.  Some of these infant ships have an enormous shed
+over them to protect them from the weather; others are destitute of such
+protection: for ships, like men, it would seem, are liable to
+vicissitudes of fortune.  While the "great ones" of the dockyard world
+are comfortably housed, the small ones are not unfrequently exposed to
+the fitful buffeting of the rude elements even from their birth.
+
+There are ships here, too, in every state of progression.  There, just
+beside you, is a "little one" that was born yesterday.  The keel has
+just been laid on the blocks; and it will take many a long day of
+clinching and sawing and hammering ere that infant assumes the bristling
+appearance of an antediluvian skeleton.  Yonder is the hull of a ship
+almost completed.  It is a gigantic infant, and has the aspect of a very
+thriving child.  It evidently has a robust constitution and a sturdy
+frame.  Perhaps we may re-visit the dockyard to-morrow, and see this
+vessel launched.
+
+Besides these two, there are ships with their ribs partially up, and
+ships with their planking partially on; and in a more distant part of
+the yard there are one or two old ships hauled up, high and dry, to have
+their bottoms repaired and their seams re-pitched, after many a rough
+and bravely-fought battle with the ocean waves.
+
+Now that we have gazed our fill at the general aspect of the dockyard,
+let us descend a little more to particulars.  We shall first tell of
+the:--
+
+NATURE AND USE OF DOCKS.
+
+There are two kinds of docks--dry and wet.  A dry-dock is usually
+constructed with gates, to admit or shut out the tide.  When a ship
+arrives from a long voyage, and needs repair to the lower part of her
+hull, she must be got out of the water somehow or other.
+
+This object is frequently attained in regard to small vessels by simply
+running them gently on the flat sand or mud beach of a bay or harbour,
+so that, when the tide retires, they shall be left dry.  But it would be
+dangerous as well as inconvenient to do this with large ships, therefore
+dry-docks have been constructed for this purpose.  They are so built
+that when the tide is full the dry-docks are also full.  When thus full
+of water, the gates of a dry-dock are opened, and the large ship is
+dragged slowly in, after which the gates are shut.  The tide then
+retires, leaving it in this basin of water.  The ship is then propped up
+on all sides with timbers, in such a way that she stands upright, "upon
+an even keel," and thus, the pressure on her hull being equally
+distributed, she is not damaged.  Then the water is let out by means of
+sluices in the gates, or it is pumped out, and the ship left dry.  When
+the tide returns, the gates and sluices are all shut, and its entrance
+into the dock prevented, until such time as the ship is repaired, when
+water is let slowly in.  As the vessel floats, the props and supports
+fall away, the gates of her hospital are opened, and off she goes again,
+in all the vigour of recruited health, to wing her way over the billows
+of the great deep.
+
+A wet-dock is somewhat similar to a dry-dock, the chief difference being
+that ships while in it are kept floating in water.
+
+Docks are not only used, however, for repairing and building ships.
+They are also used for loading and unloading them; and as ships are
+entering and departing from them almost constantly, the busy, bustling,
+active scene they present is always agreeable.
+
+The principal docks in the United Kingdom are as follows:--
+
+DOCKS ON THE THAMES--namely, East and West India Docks, London Docks,
+Saint Katherine's Docks, Commercial Docks, Victoria Docks.
+
+SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS.
+
+LIVERPOOL AND BRISTOL DOCKS.
+
+HULL DOCKS.
+
+GLASGOW DOCKS.
+
+DUNDEE DOCKS.
+
+LEITH DOCKS.
+
+BIRKENHEAD DOCKS.
+
+So much for docks in passing.  Let us now turn our attention to the
+process of:--
+
+BUILDING A SHIP.
+
+As we think it highly improbable that any of our readers intend to
+become either ship-carpenters or ship-architects, we will not worry them
+with technical explanations.  To give an easily understood and general
+idea of the manner of building a ship is all we shall attempt.  The
+names of those parts only that are frequently or occasionally referred
+to in general literature shall be given.
+
+The term _ship_ is employed in two significations.  In familiar language
+it denotes any large or small vessel that navigates the ocean with
+sails.  In nautical language it refers solely to a vessel having three
+masts, each consisting of a lower-mast, a top-mast, and a
+top-gallant-mast.  At present we use the term _ship_ in the familiar
+sense.
+
+Elaborate and complicated drawings having been prepared, the shipbuilder
+begins his work.
+
+The _keel_ is the first part of a ship that is laid.  It is the beam
+which runs along the bottom of a boat or ship from one end to the other.
+In large ships the keel consists of several pieces joined together.
+Its uses are, to cause the ship to preserve a direct course in its
+passage through the water; to check the leeway which every vessel has a
+tendency to make; and to moderate the rolling motion.  The keel is also
+the ground-work, or foundation, on which the whole superstructure is
+reared, and is, therefore, immensely strong and solid.  The best wood
+for keels is teak, as it is not liable to split.
+
+Having laid the keel firmly on a bed of wooden blocks, in such a
+position that the ship when finished may slide into the water stern
+foremost, the shipbuilder proceeds next to erect the stem and stern
+posts.
+
+The _stem-post_ rises from the _front_ end of the keel, not quite
+perpendicularly from it, but sloping a little outwards.  It is formed of
+one or more pieces of wood, according to the size of the ship; but no
+matter how many pieces may be used, it is always a uniform single beam
+in appearance.  To this the ends of the planks of the ship are
+afterwards fastened.  Its outer edge is called the _cut-water_, and the
+part of the ship around it is named the _bow_.
+
+The _stern-post_ rises from the opposite end of the keel, and also
+slopes a little outwards.  To it are fastened the ends of the planking
+and the framework of the stern part of the ship.  To it also is attached
+that little but most important part of a vessel, the _rudder_.  The
+rudder, or helm, is a small piece of timber extending along the back of
+the stern-post, and hung movably upon it by means of what may be called
+large iron hooks-and-eyes.  By means of the rudder the mariner guides
+the ship in whatever direction he pleases.  The contrast between the
+insignificant size of the rudder and its immense importance is very
+striking.  Its power over the ship is thus referred to in
+Scripture,--"Behold also the ships, which, though they be so great, and
+are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small
+helm, whithersoever the governor listeth."  The rudder is moved from
+side to side by a huge handle or lever on deck, called the _tiller_; but
+as in large ships the rudder is difficult to move by so simple a
+contrivance, several ropes or chains and pulleys are attached to it, and
+connected with the drum of a _wheel_, at which the steersman stands.  In
+the largest ships two, and in rough weather four men are often stationed
+at the wheel.
+
+The _ribs_ of the ship next rise to view.  These are curved wooden
+beams, which rise on each side of the keel, and are bolted firmly to it.
+They serve the same purpose to a ship that bones do to the human
+frame--they support and give strength to it as well as form.
+
+The _planks_ follow the ribs.  These are broad, and vary in thickness
+from two to four inches.  They form the outer skin of the ship, and are
+fastened to the ribs, keel, stem-post, and stern-post by means of
+innumerable pins of wood or iron, called _tree-nails_.  The spaces
+between the planks are caulked--that is, _stuffed_ with oakum; which
+substance is simply the untwisted tow of old and tarry ropes.  A
+figure-head of some ornamental kind having been placed on the top and
+front of the stem-post, just above the cutwater, and a flat, ornamental
+stern, with windows in it to light the cabin, the hull of our ship is
+complete.  But the interior arrangements have yet to be described,
+although, of course, they have been progressing at the same time with
+the rest.
+
+The _beams_ of a ship are massive wooden timbers, which extend across
+from side to side in a series of tiers.  They serve the purpose of
+binding the sides together, of preventing them from collapsing, and of
+supporting the decks, as well as of giving compactness and great
+strength to the whole structure.
+
+The _decks_ are simply plank floors nailed to the beams, and serve very
+much the same purposes as the floors of a house.  They also help to
+strengthen the ship longitudinally.  All ships have at least one
+complete deck; most have two, with a half-deck at the stern, called the
+_quarter-deck_, and another at the bow, called the _forecastle_.  But
+the decks of large ships are still more numerous.  Those of a first-rate
+man-of-war are as follows--we begin with the lowest, which is
+considerably under the surface of the sea:--
+
+The Orlop-deck, the Gun-deck, the Middle-deck, the Upper-deck, the
+Quarter-deck, and the Poop--the latter deck being the highest deck of
+all, a very small one, at the stern.
+
+Thus a man-of-war is a floating house with six stories--the poop being
+the garret, and the orlop-deck the cellars.  The upper decks are lighted
+by sky-lights; those farther down by port-holes (or gun-holes) and
+windows; the lowest of all by candles or lamps, daylight being for ever
+banished from those gloomy submarine regions!
+
+The _bulwarks_ rise above the upper-deck, all round the ship, and serve
+the purposes of protecting the upper-deck from the waves, and supporting
+the _belaying-pins_, to which the ropes are fastened.  In ships of war
+the top of the bulwarks forms a sort of trough all round the ship, in
+which the hammocks (the swinging-beds) of the men are stowed away every
+morning.  This trough is termed the _hammock-nettings_, and the hammocks
+are placed there to be well aired.  In action the bulwarks serve to
+protect the crew from musketry.
+
+The _wheel_, which has been already referred to, stands usually at the
+stern of the ship, on the quarter-deck; but it is sometimes placed on an
+elevated platform amid-ships, so that the steersman may see more clearly
+where he is going.
+
+The _binnacle_ stands directly in front of the wheel.  It is a species
+of box, firmly fixed to the deck, in which is placed the compass.  It is
+completely covered in, having a glass window, through which the man at
+the wheel can observe the course he is steering.
+
+The _capstan_ stands on the main-deck, sometimes near the centre of the
+vessel, at other times near the bow or the stern.  It is a massive block
+of timber moving on a pivot, which is turned round by wooden levers,
+called capstan bars, or _hand-spikes_, and is used for any purpose that
+requires great _tractive_ power--the drawing in of the cable, for
+instance, or warping the ship; which means that a rope is fixed on
+shore, or by an anchor to the bottom of the sea, and the other end of it
+is coiled round the capstan, so that when the capstan is forced round by
+the handspikes, the rope coils on to it, and the ship is slowly dragged
+forward.
+
+The _windlass_ is simply a horizontal, instead of a perpendicular
+capstan.  Its sole purpose is for heaving up the anchor, and it is
+placed close to the bow of the ship.
+
+The _galley_, or cooking-house, is usually near to the windlass, in the
+front part of the vessel.  Here the cook reigns supreme; but this
+nautical kitchen is wonderfully small.  It is just big enough to hold
+the fireplace and "coppers," with a small shelf, on which the cook
+(always a man, and often a negro) performs the duties of his office.
+
+The various decks below are partitioned off by means of plank walls,
+which are called _bulk-heads_, into a variety of berths and apartments;
+and the greater part of the centre of the vessel (in merchantmen) is
+called the _hold_, and is reserved for cargo.
+
+The _hull_ of the ship being finished, now gets a coat of tar all over
+it, which preserves the wood from the action of the weather, and helps
+to render the seams water-tight.  Some vessels are sheathed from the
+keel to a short way above their water-line with thin sheets of copper,
+to preserve them more effectually from tear and wear, and especially to
+defend them against those barnacles and marine insects that would
+otherwise fasten to them.
+
+Being now ready to be launched from her cradle into the sea--her future
+home--we will proceed in our next chapter to describe the process of
+launching.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE LAUNCH, ETCETERA.
+
+Ships begin life with a retrograde movement; they imitate the crabs: in
+other words, they are launched stern foremost.  Whether great or small,
+long or short, whether clothed in patrician copper or smeared with
+plebeian tar, they all start on their first voyage with their
+stern-posts acting the part of cut-water, and, also, without masts or
+sails.  These necessary adjuncts, and a host of others, are added after
+they have been clasped to the bosom of their native sea.  One notable
+exception there is to this rule, the launch of the far-famed _Great
+Eastern_, which monster of the deep was forced into her element
+_sidewise_, of which a full account will be found in another part of
+this volume.
+
+The _cradles_ on which ships are launched are wooden frameworks, so
+constructed as to slide down an inclined plane, called the _ways_,
+bearing their burdens along with them into the water.  When a ship is
+ready for launching, the _shores_, or supports, that have kept her so
+long in position are knocked away one by one, until the entire weight of
+the ship rests on the cradle.  The _ways_ are then well greased, and it
+only remains to knock away one or two remaining checks to allow the
+vessel to seek her future home by means of her own weight.
+
+But before this last act is done, a day must be fixed for the launch;
+friends of the owners must be invited to go on board during this her
+first voyage; a fair maiden must be asked to go through the ceremony of
+giving the ship her name; and paragraphs must go the round of the
+newspapers.  As the hour draws near, crowds of human beings, young and
+old, male and female, must hurry to the spot to witness the great event,
+and hundreds of little boys must beg leave from school (if they can); in
+short, a great stir must be made, and a great day must dawn, before the
+last shores are knocked away, and the noble structure be permitted to
+rush down that inclined plane, and for the first time cleave the waves.
+
+And now, having shown how the launching of our ship is accomplished, let
+us turn to consider the next step towards completion; for there is yet
+much to be done ere she is able to brave the tempest.
+
+RIGGING A SHIP.
+
+Although fitting-in the lower-masts of a ship cannot well be deemed a
+part of the rigging, we will nevertheless describe the operation here.
+
+As the lower-masts of a large ship are from five to six feet in
+circumference, it is manifest that some powerful mechanical contrivance
+is required to raise them over the bulwarks, and put them in an upright
+position, into their appointed places.  Such contrivances, in the form
+of enormous cranes, are fixed in some of the larger docks; but the most
+useful method is to have the masts put in by means of:
+
+_The Shear Hulk_.  This is a strongly built hull of a ship, moored in a
+part of a river or harbour that will afford depth of water to float
+vessels of any size alongside.  It has one stout mast, with two immense
+beams attached to it near the deck, and sloping outwards over the
+bulwarks in such a way that their ends overhang the deck of the vessel
+into which masts are to be placed.  These sloping beams are prevented
+from falling overboard altogether, and their slope is regulated, by
+blocks and tackles from the mast of the hulk.  By means of this
+contrivance, which is just a gigantic floating crane, the ponderous
+lower-masts of large ships are raised and lowered into their places.
+
+When these are fixed, the rigging of the ship commences.  The method of
+putting it up cannot prove interesting to general readers; not even to
+boys, for when they take to rigging model ships, they do not require the
+mechanical contrivances that are necessary in rigging large vessels.
+But all readers of sea stories and nautical history will find it of the
+utmost advantage to their clear understanding of what they read, to have
+a general idea of the names and uses of the principal parts of a ship's
+rigging.
+
+We shall, therefore, devote a small space to the explanation of this
+subject.  And, first, let us examine the _Masts_.
+
+These vary in size, form, and number in different ships, but in all they
+serve the same purpose--to support the sails.  Lower masts of large
+vessels are never formed out of one tree.  They are found to be stronger
+when built up of several pieces, which are fastened together by strong
+iron hoops.  Masts sometimes consist of three distinct parts.  The
+_lower_-mast, _top_-mast, and _top-gallant_-mast.  In most large ships
+there are three masts, each having three parts.  The centre mast, being
+the largest, is the _main-mast_; the front one, which is next in size,
+is the _fore-mast_; and the one next the stern, the smallest, is called
+the _mizzen_.
+
+Although we have spoken of _lower-masts_ for the sake of clearness, the
+name is never used.  The name of the mast itself designates the lower
+part of it.  To name the masts in order, we have the Fore-mast.
+Main-mast.  Mizzen-mast.  Fore-top-mast.  Main-top-mast.
+Mizzen-top-mast.  Fore-topgallant-mast.  Main-topgallant-mast.
+Mizzen-topgallant-mast.
+
+The parts of the different masts are connected and secured by means of
+_cross-trees_ and _caps_, which are named after the mast and part of the
+mast to which they belong.  Thus we have the _fore-top_, the
+_fore-top-mast cross-trees_, the _main-top_, and _main-top-mast
+cross-trees_, etcetera.  Observe, particularly, that the _fore-top_,
+_main-top_, and _mizzen-top_, are the platforms, or cross-trees, at the
+tops of the _lower_-masts, and not--as might well be supposed by
+landsmen--the extreme tops of these masts.  The button-like objects on
+the summits of the masts are called the _trucks_; which, besides forming
+a sort of finish to them, are fitted with small _pulleys_, through which
+_signal-halyards_, or cords for hoisting the flags, are rove.
+
+In first-rate men-of-war the _tops_ are so large that a number of men
+can be stationed on them.  Besides their other purposes, they are very
+frequently used as a place of punishment for the midshipmen, or
+"middies" (the boy officers), who are often sent there to air
+themselves, and profit, if they can, by calm reflection in exalted
+solitude.
+
+_Shrouds_ and _stays_ are the thick ropes that keep the masts firmly in
+position.  They form part of what is termed the "standing gear" of a
+ship--in other words, the ropes that are fixtures--to distinguish them
+from the "running gear"--those movable ropes, by means of which the
+sails, boats, flags, etcetera, are hoisted.  Nearly all the ropes of a
+ship are named after the mast, or yard, or sail with which they are
+connected.  Thus we have the _main shrouds_, the _main-top-mast
+shrouds_, and the _main-topgallant shrouds_; the _main back-stay_, the
+_main-topgallant back-stay_, and so on--those of the other masts being
+similarly named, with the exception of the first word, which, of course,
+indicates the particular mast referred to.  The shrouds rise from the
+_chains_, which are a series of blocks called "dead eyes," fixed to the
+sides of the ship.  To these the shrouds are fixed, and also to the
+masts near the tops; they serve the purpose of preventing the masts from
+falling _sideways_.  Backstays prevent them from falling _forward_, and
+_forestays_ prevent them from falling _backward_, or "aft."  Besides
+this, shrouds have little cross ropes called _ratlines_ attached to
+them, by means of which rope-ladders the sailors ascend and descend the
+rigging to _furl_, that is, tie up, or _unfurl_, that is, to untie or
+shake out, the sails.
+
+Our cut represents a sailor-boy ascending the mizzen-top-mast shrouds.
+He grasps the _shrouds_, and stands on the _ratlines_.
+
+_Yards_ are the heavy wooden cross-poles or beams to which the sails are
+attached.
+
+_Reef-points_ are the little ropes which may be observed hanging in
+successive rows on all sails, by means of which _parts_ of the sails are
+gathered in and tied round the yards, thus reducing their size in stormy
+weather.  Hence such nautical expressions as "taking in a reef," or a
+"double reef," and "close reefing,"--which last implies that a sail is
+to be reduced to its smallest possible dimensions.  The only further
+reduction possible would be folding it up altogether, close to the yard,
+which would be called "furling" it, and which would render it altogether
+ineffective.  In order to furl or reef sails, the men have to ascend the
+masts, and _lay-out_ upon the yards.  It is very dangerous work in
+stormy weather.  Many a poor fellow, while reefing sails in a dark
+tempestuous night, has been blown from the yard into the sea, and never
+heard of more.  All the yards of a ship, except the three largest, can
+be hoisted and lowered by means of _halyards_.  The top-gallant masts
+can also be lowered, but the lower-masts, of course, are fixtures.
+
+The _bowsprit_ of a ship is a mast which projects out horizontally, or
+at an angle, from the bow.  It is sometimes in two or three pieces,
+sometimes only in one.  To it are attached the _jib-sail_ and the
+_flying-jib_, besides a variety of ropes and stays which are connected
+with and support the fore-mast.
+
+The _cat heads_ are two short beams which project from the bows on
+either side, and support the ship's anchors.
+
+_Miscellaneous_.--The openings in the decks are called _hatches_; the
+stair-cases which descend to the cabins are called _companions_.  The
+pulleys by which sails, etcetera, are hoisted, are named _blocks_.
+_Braces_ are the ropes by which sails are fixed tightly in any position.
+Hauling a rope _taut_, means hauling it tight.  The _weather_ side of a
+ship means the side which happens to be presented to the wind; the _lee_
+side, that which is away from the wind, and, therefore, sheltered.  The
+_starboard_ side means the right side, the _larboard_ signifies the
+left; but as the two words resemble each other, the word _port_ is
+always used for larboard to prevent mistakes in shouting orders.
+_Heaving the lead_ is the act of throwing a heavy leaden plummet, with a
+line attached, into the sea to ascertain its depth.  It is thrown from
+the _chains_ as far as possible ahead of the ship, so that it may reach
+the bottom and be perpendicularly beneath the man who heaves it when the
+ship comes up to the spot where it entered the water.  A peculiar and
+musical cry is given forth by the heaver of the lead each time he throws
+it.  The forecastle is the habitat of the ordinary sailors, and is
+usually in nautical parlance termed the _foge-s'l_.
+
+Most of what we have just described applies more or less to every ship;
+but this will be seen in future chapters.  Meanwhile, we would seriously
+recommend all those who have found this chapter a dry one to turn back
+to the heading entitled "Rigging a Ship," and from that point read it
+all over again with earnest attention.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+COASTING VESSELS.
+
+The coasting-trade of the British Islands is replete with danger, yet it
+is carried on with the utmost vigour; and there are always plenty of
+"hands," as seamen are called when spoken of in connection with ships,
+to man the vessels.  The traffic in which they are engaged is the
+transporting of the goods peculiar to one part of our island, to another
+part where they are in demand.
+
+In describing these vessels, we shall begin with the smallest.
+
+SLOOPS.
+
+Like all other vessels, sloops vary in size, but none of them attain to
+great magnitude.  As a class, they are the smallest decked vessels we
+have.  From 40 to 100 tons burden is a very common size.  A sloop of 40
+tons burden is what we ordinarily call a _little_ ship, and one of 100
+tons is by no means a big one.  The hull of such a vessel being intended
+exclusively to carry cargo, very little space is allowed for the crew.
+The cabins of the smaller-sized sloops are seldom high enough to permit
+of an ordinary man standing erect.  They are usually capable of
+affording accommodation to two in the cabin, and three or four in the
+forecastle,--and such accommodation is by no means ample.  The class to
+which vessels belong is determined chiefly by the number of their masts
+and by the arrangement and the form of their sails.
+
+The distinctive peculiarity of the sloop is, that it has but one mast;
+and its rig is, nautically speaking, _fore-and-aft_--that is to say, the
+sails are spread with their surfaces parallel to the sides of the
+vessel, _not_ stretched upon yards _across_ the vessel.  The term
+"fore-and-aft" is derived from the _forward_ part and the _after_ part
+of the ship.  _Fore-and-aft_ sails, then, are such as are spread upon
+yards which point fore and aft, not across the ship.  We conceive this
+elaborate explanation to be necessary for some readers, and, therefore,
+don't apologise for making it.  A ship whose sails are spread across the
+hull is said to be _square-rigged_.  Sometimes, however, a sloop carries
+one and even two square sails.
+
+The masts, yards, and sails of a sloop are as follows:--As has been
+already said, one of the distinctive peculiarities of a sloop is, that
+it has only _one_ mast.  This mast is sometimes formed of one _stick_,
+sometimes of two; the second, or top-mast, being fastened to the top of
+the lower mast by _cross-trees_ and _cap_, in such a way that it may be
+hoisted or lowered at pleasure.  A sloop has usually four sails,--a
+mainsail, fore-sail, gaff, and jib.  The _main-sail_ is behind the lower
+mast.  It reaches from within a few feet of the deck to the top of the
+lower mast, and spreads out upon two yards towards the stern or after
+part of the ship, over which it projects a few feet.  The lower yard of
+the main-sail is called the boom, and the upper the main-sail yard.
+This is by far the largest sail in the sloop.  Above it is spread the
+_gaff_, which is comparatively a small sail, and is used when the wind
+is not very strong.  The _fore-sail_ is a triangular sheet, which
+traverses on the _fore-stay_; that is, the strong rope which runs from
+the lower mast-head to the bow, or front part of the sloop.  On the
+bowsprit is stretched the _jib_, another triangular sail, which reaches
+nearly to the top of the lower mast.  The only sail that rises above the
+lower mast is the gaff.  In stormy weather this sail is always taken
+down.  If the wind increases to a gale, the jib is lowered and lashed to
+the bowsprit.
+
+Should the gale increase, a reef is taken in the main-sail.  One, two,
+three, and sometimes four reefs are taken in, according to the violence
+of the storm; when the last reef is taken in, the sloop is under
+_close-reefed_ main-sail.  Increased violence in the storm necessitates
+the taking in of the main-sail and _lying-to_ under the fore-sail, or a
+part of it.  Lying-to is putting the sloop's head to the wind, and
+placing the helm in such a position that it tends to turn the vessel in
+one direction, while the gale acting on the fore-sail tends to force it
+in another, and thus it remains stationary between the two opposing
+forces.  Many vessels thus _lie-to_, and ride out the severest storm.
+Sometimes, however, a dreadful hurricane arises, and compels vessels to
+take in all sails and "_scud under_ _bare poles_"--that is, _drive
+before_ the wind without any sails at all; and it is at such seasons
+that man is forced to feel his utter helplessness, and his absolute
+dependence on the Almighty.  Of course, there are slight variations in
+the rig of sloops--some have a _square-sail_, and some have a
+_flying-jib_; but these are not distinctive sails, and they are seldom
+used in small craft.
+
+Doubtless, those of our readers who have dwelt on the sea-coast must
+have observed that boats and vessels frequently sail in precisely
+opposite directions, although acted upon by the same wind.  This
+apparent paradox may be explained thus:--
+
+Suppose a vessel with the bow and stern sharp and precisely alike, so
+that it might sail backwards or forwards with equal facility.  Suppose,
+also, that it has two masts exactly the same in all respects--one near
+the bow, the other near the stern.  Suppose, further, a square sail
+stretched between the two masts quite flat; and remember that this would
+be a _fore-and-aft_ sail--namely, one extending along the length, not
+across the breadth of the vessel.
+
+Well, now, were a breeze to blow straight against the side of such a
+vessel, it would either blow it over, flat on its side, or urge it
+slowly _sideways_ over the water, after the fashion of a crab.  Now
+remove one of these masts--say the stern one--and erect it close to the
+lee-side of the vessel (that is, away from the windward-side), still
+keeping the sail extended.  The immediate effect would be that the sail
+would no longer present itself _flatly_ against the wind, but
+diagonally.  The wind, therefore, after dashing against it would slide
+violently off in the direction of the mast that had been removed, that
+is, towards the stern.  In doing so it would, of course, give the vessel
+a shove in the opposite direction; on the very same principle that a
+boy, when he jumps violently off a chair, not only sends his body in one
+direction, but sends the chair in the opposite direction.  So, when the
+wind jumps off the sail towards the stern, it sends the ship in the
+opposite direction--namely, forward.  Reverse this; bring back the mast
+you removed to its old place in the centre of the deck, and shift the
+_front_ mast near to the lee-bulwarks.  The wind will now slide off the
+sail towards the _bow_, and force our vessel in the opposite direction--
+namely, backward; so that, with the same side wind, two ships may sail
+in exactly opposite directions.
+
+By means of the rudder, and placing the sails in various positions, so
+as to cause them to press against the masts in a particular manner,
+vessels can be made to sail not only with a side wind, but with a breeze
+blowing a good deal _against_ them--in nautical phraseology, they can be
+made to sail "close to the wind."  In short, they can sail in every
+direction, except directly in the "teeth" of the wind.  Some ships sail
+closer to the wind than others; their powers in this respect depending
+very much on the cut of their sails and the form of their hulls.
+
+The _Lighter_ is a small, rough, clumsy species of coasting-vessel,
+usually of the sloop rig.  It is used for discharging cargoes of large
+vessels in harbours, and off coasts where the depth of water is not
+great.  Lighters are usually picturesque-looking craft with dingy sails,
+and they seldom carry top-sails of any kind.  Being seldom decked, they
+are more properly huge boats than little ships.  But lighters are not
+classed according to their rig,--they may be of any rig, though that of
+the sloop is most commonly adopted.
+
+THE CUTTER.
+
+This species of vessel is similar, in nearly all respects, to the sloop;
+the only difference being that it is better and more elegantly built.
+Gentlemen's pleasure yachts are frequently cutters; but yachts may be of
+any form or rig--that is, they may belong to any _class_ of vessels
+without changing their name of _yacht_.  Cutter-yachts are much more
+elegantly moulded and rigged than the sloops that we have just
+described.  They are _clipper-built_--that is, the hull is smoothly and
+sharply shaped; the cut-water, in particular, is like a knife, and the
+bow wedge-like.  In short, although similar in general outline, a
+cutter-yacht bears the same relation to a trading-sloop that a racer
+does to a cart-horse.  Their sails, also, are larger in proportion, and
+they are fast-sailing vessels; but, on this very account, they are not
+such good _sea-boats_ as their clumsy brethren, whose bluff or rounded
+bows rise on the waves, while the sharp vessels cut through them, and
+often deluge the decks with spray.
+
+In our engraving we have several cutter-rigged yachts sailing with a
+light _side_ wind, with main-sail, gaff, fore-sail, and jib set.
+
+THE SCHOONER.
+
+This is the most elegant and, for small craft, the most manageable
+vessel that floats.  Its proportions are more agreeable to the eye than
+those of any other species of craft, and its rig is in favour with
+owners of yachts,--especially with those whose yachts are large.  The
+schooner's distinctive peculiarities are, that it carries two masts,
+which usually "_rake aft_," or lean back a good deal; and its rig is
+chiefly fore-and-aft, like the sloop.  Of the two masts, the _after_ one
+is the _main-mast_.  The other is termed the _fore-mast_.  The sails of
+a schooner are--the _main-sail_ and the _gaff_, on the main-mast; the
+_fore-sail_, _fore-top-sail_, and _fore-top-gallant-sail_ (the two last
+being square sails), on the foremast.  In front of the fore-mast are the
+_staysail_, the _jib_, and the _flying-jib_; these last are triangular
+sails.  If a schooner were cut in two in the middle, cross-wise, the
+front portion would be in all respects a sloop with a square top-sail;
+the stern part would also be a sloop, minus the bowsprit and the
+triangular sails _before_ the mast.  Schooners sometimes carry a large
+square-sail, which is spread when the wind is "dead aft."  They are much
+used in the coasting-trade; and one of their great advantages is that
+they can be worked with fewer "hands" than sloops of the same size.
+
+THE BRIG.
+
+Advancing step by step in our investigation of the peculiar rig and
+build of ships, we come to the _brig_.  This species of craft is
+usually, but not necessarily, larger than those that have been
+described; it is generally built on a larger scale than the schooner,
+and often approaches in magnitude to the full-sized, three-masted ship.
+
+The distinctive features of the brig are, that it has _two_ masts, both
+of which are _square-rigged_.  It is a particularly serviceable species
+of craft, and, when of large size, is much used in foreign trade.
+
+The advantage of the square-rig over the fore-and-aft rig is, that the
+sails, being smaller and more numerous, are more easily managed, and
+require fewer men or "hands" to work them.  Thus, as we increase the
+size of our vessel, the more necessity is there that it should be
+square-rigged.  The huge main-sail of the sloop and schooner could not
+be applied to large vessels; so that when men came to construct ships of
+several hundred tons burden, they were compelled to increase the
+_number_ of masts and sails, and diminish the size of them; hence,
+probably, brigs were devised _after_ schooners.  The main-mast of a brig
+is the aft one.
+
+The sails are named after the masts to which they are fastened,--namely,
+the _main-sail_; above that the _main-top-sail_; above that the
+_main-top-gallant-sail_; and sometimes a very small sail, named the
+_royal_, is spread above all.  Behind the main-sail there is a small
+fore-and-aft sail similar to the main-sail of a schooner, which is
+called the _boom-main-sail_.  On the fore-mast is a similar sail, which
+is called the _try-sail_.  Attached to the respective yards of
+square-rigged ships there are smaller poles or arms, which can be pushed
+out at pleasure, and the yard lengthened, in order to receive an
+additional little sailor wing on each side.  These wings are called
+_studding-sails_ or _stun-sails_, and are used only when the wind is
+fair and light.  They are named after the sails to which they
+are fastened; thus there are the _main-stun-sails_, the
+_main-top-stun-sails_, and the _main-top-gallant-stun-sails_, etcetera.
+The fore-mast of a brig is smaller than the main-mast.  It carries a
+_fore-sail_, _fore-top-sail_, _fore-top-gallant-sail_, and _fore-royal_.
+Between it and the bowsprit are the _fore-stay-sail_, _jib_, and
+_flying-jib_.  The three last sails are nearly similar in _all_ vessels.
+All the yards, etcetera, are hoisted and shifted, and held in their
+position, by a complicated arrangement of cordage, which in the mass is
+called the running-rigging, in contradistinction to the
+standing-rigging, which, as we have said, is _fixed_, and keeps the
+masts, etcetera, immovably in position.  Yet every rope, in what seems
+to a landsman's eye a bewildering mass of confusion, has its distinctive
+name and specific purpose.
+
+Brigs and schooners, being light and handy craft, are generally used by
+pirates and smugglers in the prosecution of their lawless pursuits, and
+many a deed of bloodshed and horror has been done on board such craft by
+those miscreants.
+
+THE BRIGANTINE.
+
+The rig of this vessel is a mixture of that of the sloop and brig.  The
+brigantine is _square_-rigged on the fore-mast, and sloop-rigged on its
+after or mizzen mast.  Of its two masts, the front one is the larger,
+and, therefore, is the main-mast.  In short, a brigantine is a mixed
+vessel, being a brig forward and a sloop aft.
+
+Such are our coasting-vessels; but it must be borne in mind that ships
+of their _class_ are not confined to the coast.  When built very large
+they are intended for the deep ocean trade, and many schooners approach
+in size to full-rigged "ships."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+VESSELS OF LARGE SIZE.
+
+We now come to speak of ships of large size, which spread an imposing
+cloud of canvas to the breeze, and set sail on voyages which sometimes
+involve the circumnavigation of the globe.
+
+THE BARQUE.
+
+This vessel is next in size larger than the brig.  It does not follow,
+however, that its being larger constitutes it a barque.  Some brigs are
+larger than barques, but _generally_ the barque is the larger vessel.
+The difference between a barque and a brig is that the former has
+_three_ masts, the two front ones being square-rigged, and the mizzen
+being fore-and-aft rigged.  The centre mast is the main one.  The
+rigging of a barque's two front masts is almost exactly similar to the
+rigging of a brig, that of the mizzen is similar to a sloop.  If you
+were to put a fore-and-aft rigged _mizzen-mast_ into the after part of a
+brig, that would convert it into a barque.
+
+The term _clipper_ simply denotes that peculiar sharpness of build and
+trimness of rig which insure the greatest amount of speed, and does not
+specify any particular class.  There are clipper sloops, clipper yachts,
+clipper ships, etcetera.  A clipper barque, therefore, is merely a
+fast-sailing barque.
+
+The peculiar characteristics of the clipper build are, knife-like
+sharpness of the cut-water and bow, and exceeding correctness of cut in
+the sails, so that these may be drawn as tight and _flat_ as possible.
+Too much bulge in a sail is a disadvantage in the way of sailing.
+Indeed, flatness is so important a desideratum, that experimentalists
+have more than once applied sails made of _thin planks of wood_ to their
+clippers; but we do not know that this has turned out to be much of an
+improvement.  The masts of all clippers, except those of the sloop or
+cutter rig, generally rake aft a good deal--that is, they lean
+backwards; a position which is supposed to tend to increase speed.
+Merchant vessels are seldom of the clipper build, because the sharpness
+of this peculiar formation diminishes the available space for cargo very
+much.
+
+THE SHIP.
+
+The largest class of vessel that floats upon the sea is the _full-rigged
+ship_, the distinctive peculiarity of which is, that its three masts are
+_all_ square-rigged together, with the addition of one or two
+fore-and-aft sails.
+
+As the fore and main masts of a "ship" are exactly similar to those of a
+barque, which have been already described, we shall content ourself with
+remarking that the _mizzen-mast_ is similar in nearly all respects to
+the other two, except that it is smaller.  The sails upon it are--the
+_spanker_ (a fore-and-aft sail projecting over the quarter-deck), the
+_mizzen-top-sail_ and _mizzen-top-gallant-sail_, both of which are
+square sails.  Above all these a "ship" sometimes puts up small
+square-sails called the _royals_; and, above these, _sky-sails_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+WOODEN AND IRON WALLS.
+
+The birth of the British Navy may be said to have taken place in the
+reign of King Alfred.  That great and good king, whose wisdom and
+foresight were only equalled by his valour, had a fleet of upwards of
+one hundred ships.  With these he fought the Danes to the death, not
+always successfully, not always even holding his own; for the Danes at
+this early period of their history were a hardy race of sea-warriors,
+not less skilful than courageous.  But to King Alfred, with his beaked,
+oared war-ships, is undoubtedly due the merit of having laid the
+foundation of England's maritime ascendency.
+
+England under the Normans does not seem to have greatly desired to excel
+in maritime enterprise, but it was otherwise during the Plantagenet
+period.  Henry the Second possessed a most formidable fleet, numbering
+some five hundred vessels of war.  During the reign of his successor a
+novel artifice in naval warfare was resorted to by the English which
+merits notice.  The English admiral caused a number of barrels of
+unslaked lime to be placed in his ships.  Having brought his fleet to
+windward of the enemy--the French--he ordered water to be poured on the
+lime.  This of course raised a great and dense smoke, which, being blown
+by the wind into the very faces of the French, prevented the latter from
+seeing on what quarter they were being attacked.  A panic arose, and
+spread, among the French vessels, and the victory fell easily to the
+English.
+
+The navy of Edward the Third numbered eleven hundred ships when he
+undertook the invasion of France.  But the great majority of these were
+not properly men-of-war--in fact, there were only five fully equipped
+warships; the rest were for the most part merchant vessels converted
+into fighting ships and transports for the time being.  The navy of King
+Philip of France, though numerically weaker, far surpassed that of the
+English king in point of equipment.  Of the four hundred ships of which
+it consisted, no fewer than one hundred had, been built purposely for
+war, according to the best principles of naval architecture then known.
+Bows, catapults, javelins, and weapons of a like description were the
+engines of offence used on both sides, and with these much havoc was
+wrought at close quarters.  The English were victorious, notwithstanding
+the more scientific equipment of their foes.  The French ships were
+boarded, and the flower of King Philip's naval force must that day have
+perished.
+
+Henry the Seventh did much for the improvement of the English navy.  It
+was during his reign that the _Great Harry_ was built, which was really
+the first large ship built directly for the Royal Navy.  Hitherto the
+vessels employed by England for national defence or offence had been
+supplied by certain maritime towns; but the _Great Harry_ was the
+property of the people.  She was built in 1488, and had port-holes for
+cannon in the lower deck, being the first vessel thus constructed.  The
+_Great Harry_ was subsequently far surpassed by another of King Henry's
+ships, the _Grace de Dieu_, which was no less than one thousand tons
+burden, and carried seven hundred men and one hundred and twenty-two
+guns, (some writers mention only eighty guns) the largest of which were
+but eighteen-pounders.  The _Grace de Dieu_ was a four-masted vessel,
+and was built in 1515.
+
+An epoch in England's maritime history, which was in some respects the
+most brilliant and momentous, now falls to be mentioned; a period when
+England's name became a synonym on the seas for everything that was most
+intrepid and successful in maritime enterprise; an era of daring
+adventure and splendid achievement, which at length established England
+as the first naval power among the nations of Europe.
+
+Not without long and fierce struggle, however, was this supremacy won.
+The French, Spanish, and Dutch each and all in turn disputed England's
+claim to the sovereignty of the seas.  It is unnecessary to repeat here
+the oft-told tale of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, nor yet the
+almost as familiar story of our frequent naval encounters with the Dutch
+in the days of Admiral Blake and the great Dutch Admiral Van Tromp.
+Long and desperate those conflicts were, and nothing but indomitable
+courage and stubborn perseverance could have secured the victory for the
+English ships, for in almost every instance our foes were numerically
+the stronger.
+
+In the thrice famous days of Nelson, it was still our "wooden walls"
+which carried the flag of England on from triumph to triumph.  At the
+battle of Trafalgar the _Victory_ and the French ship the _Redoubtable_
+were brought up close alongside of each other, and in this position
+poured volley after volley upon each other's bulwarks, until water had
+to be thrown over the ships' sides to prevent them igniting.  The
+_Victory_ was a grand ship in her time, yet she was not more than two
+thousand tons burden, and her guns were but one hundred and two in
+number.
+
+But at last the day arrived when it became manifest that the glory of
+our "wooden walls" had set.  In the prime of his intellectual and
+physical strength, the Emperor Louis Napoleon was a man of active and
+subtle brain, and it was to his ingenious invention that the first
+ironclad ship of war owed its birth.  Floating batteries protected with
+iron plates were first employed during the Crimean War.  It was becoming
+manifest that the great strides which were being made in the manufacture
+of cannon must necessitate an improved system of defensive armour for
+ships of war.  No wooden vessel that could be constructed could be proof
+against the new guns that were now coming rapidly into use.
+
+The French, as has been just indicated, were the first in the field with
+the new style of war-ships.  _La Gloire_ was built, and was quickly
+followed by our own _Warrior_.  The frame of _La Gloire_ was constructed
+of wood, but covered with an iron plating four and a half inches in
+thickness.  The _Warrior_ was built on an iron frame, and her
+armour-plating is of the same thickness as that of _La Gloire_; the
+lining is of solid teak eighteen inches thick, which is again backed by
+an inner coating of iron.  The length of the _Warrior_ is three hundred
+and eighty feet, but only about two-thirds of this is iron-plated.
+
+At this time--the early days of ironclads--the heaviest shot that could
+be thrown by any gun was a sixty-eight pounder.  Guns of this calibre
+the _Warrior_ and her class were proof against.  But the guns increased
+rapidly in size and power, and the thickness of the armour with which
+the ships were protected had to be increased in proportion.  The class
+of war-vessels which succeeded the _Warrior_ were entirely cased with
+iron plates, whose thickness has from time to time been increased.
+Since the first ironclad was built, then, a contest--for only such it
+can be called--has been going on between the cannon-maker and the
+ship-builder, the one striving to construct a gun which shall pierce the
+thickest armour which the ship can carry, the other adding inch upon
+inch to his armour plates, to the end that they may be shot-proof; and
+this contest may be said to be going on at this hour.
+
+Will there ever be the same romance about the warships of the present
+day,--what those of the future will be like we do not care to
+speculate,--and the old "wooden walls" whose prowess on the high seas
+founded England's maritime glory?  Will a Dibdin ever arise to sing a
+_Devastation_ or a _Glatton_?  Can a _Devastation_ or a _Glatton_ ever
+inspire poetic thoughts and images?  One would say that the singer must
+be endowed in no ordinary degree with the sacred fire whom such a theme
+as a modern ironclad turret-ship should move to lyric utterance.  It has
+been said that all the romance of the road died out with the old
+coaching days; and certainly a locomotive engine, with its long black
+train of practical-looking cars, makes hardly so picturesque a feature
+in the landscape as one of the old stage-coaches with its red-coated
+driver, horn-blowing guard, and team of mettled greys; but a railway
+train is an embodiment of poetry compared with a turret-ship.  But if it
+be true that poetry and romance must more and more cease to be
+associated with our navy, we must just accept the fact, for nothing is
+more certain than that, whatever the warships of the future _may_ be, we
+can never again return to the days of the old wooden ships.
+
+Several opposing difficulties have now to be met in the construction of
+ironclads.  Invulnerability as regards the enemy's guns, protection to
+the men on board, speed, and the quality of being easily managed at
+sea,--all these points have to be carefully considered; and the
+difficulty is that one quality wars against another.  A ship might be
+built which was proof against any guns that could be devised, and then
+might be found utterly unmanageable and unsafe at sea.  A balance of
+qualities has therefore to be struck, and this perfect equipoise has by
+no means been as yet attained.  Every year--we might say every month--
+witnesses the birth of some new type of armour-plated war-ship, built in
+every case at an enormous cost.  The new sea-monster looks formidable
+enough in all conscience; but the question that arises the instant she
+quits the dock is, Is she sea-worthy?  And with the fate of the
+_Captain_ and the _Vanguard_ in our memories, the question may well
+arise.  The story of modern war-ships has, up to this, been one of
+mingled success and failure.  Does not the epigram on our war-ships--our
+"sub-marine fleet"--owe its point and sting, in a measure, to its truth?
+
+Of the various types of modern war-vessels, the most formidable yet
+devised are undoubtedly the _steam-rams_ and _turret-ships_.  The
+steam-ram is armed with a strong steel beak, with which it charges an
+enemy in much the same way as the war-galleys of ancient times charged a
+foe, or as a sword-fish attacks its adversary.  The turret-ship carries
+one or more shot-proof circular turrets, in which one or more guns are
+worked by the crew, the guns being capable of being turned and pointed
+in any direction.  Both turret-ships and steam-rams are, of course, iron
+plated.
+
+Vessels of this description were first employed by the Americans in the
+great civil war.  The careers of the _Merrimac_ and _Monitor_ may be
+said to have become a part of American national history.  The _Merrimac_
+was the first iron-plated steam-ram.  She was originally a wooden
+frigate; was cut down, coated with iron, and furnished with a ram.  In
+her famous encounter with the _Congress_ and the _Cumberland_, two
+wooden frigates of the Federals, she steamed alongside the former,
+delivered a raking fire, and then, turning upon the _Cumberland_,
+attacked that vessel with her ram.  Of the _Cumberland_ she made quick
+work; for having torn a gaping rent in her side, she poured a damaging
+fire into the gap, hanging on by the sharp iron beak with which
+steam-rams are furnished.
+
+Then withdrawing to a short distance, she again charged her adversary,
+and delivered a second terrible fire, until the _Cumberland_ finally
+sank.  The Merrimac then turned her attention to the _Congress_, whose
+fate she sealed in about half an hour.  The first shot caused fearful
+destruction, killing every man at one of the guns, blowing away the
+bulk-heads, strewing the deck with a carnage too horrible to dwell upon,
+and finally setting the ship on fire.  The _Congress_ at last struck her
+colours, but during the night she blew up.
+
+This formidable vessel had subsequently to haul down her colours before
+the _Monitor_--in a figurative sense, that is, for she did not actually
+surrender, but retreated after a contest of some hours.  In this notable
+struggle the _Merrimac_ sustained much damage, without succeeding in
+inflicting on her enemy anything like the same amount of injury; in
+fact, the _Monitor_ came out of the action scathless.
+
+The changes that are taking place in the construction of war-ships are
+so various and so rapid, that we cannot attempt to do more here than
+take note of a few of the principal; and even what are mentioned as
+novelties now, before these pages appear may have ceased to be
+novelties.
+
+Iron is now employed in almost every part of a war-ship, the masts
+themselves being in many cases of iron--hollow tubes through which the
+running rigging may be let down when there is danger of its being
+damaged by the enemy's fire.  The majority of modern ironclads are built
+in compartments, with this advantage that, if damage is sustained in one
+part of the vessel, and the water rush in through the gap made by shot
+or any other cause, the ship will still float until the water can be let
+out again.
+
+The American ironclad turret-ship _Monitor_ has given her name to a
+whole class of vessels built within recent years for the English navy;
+but in many respects our vessels are superior to their American
+prototype.  All these ships--which are characterised by low free-boards
+and absence of masts and sails--fight their guns from turrets.  They are
+sometimes known as "coast-defence ships," from the circumstance that
+they were constructed mainly for home service.
+
+Of these "English monitors," four--the _Cyclops_, _Gorgon_, _Hecate_,
+and _Hydra_--are built on identically similar principles.  In appearance
+they may be best compared to a raft with a battery on top of it, from
+which fortress or battery rise various funnels and a flag-staff.  The
+deck is but three feet and a half above the level of the sea.  While the
+ships are in port the deck is roofed in with an awning and railed round;
+but both awning and railing are removed when the vessels put to sea.
+
+The battery or fortress is in the centre of the ship, and fills up about
+one-third of her length and three-fourths of her breadth.  The
+surrounding deck is flush, its surface being broken only by the
+skylights, which are three in number.  The skylights allow but a scant
+and dim light to penetrate to the officers' and seamen's quarters below;
+but even this is wanting in time of action, when a shot-proof shield
+takes the place of the glass windows.
+
+The deck of the dass of war-ships we are describing is composed of
+twin-layers of iron plating half an inch each in thickness, supported on
+iron beams, and of two layers of solid teak lining four inches thick.
+The sides of the ships are protected by iron plating of eight-inch
+thickness amidships, which is an inch more of iron than the armour
+possessed by the majority of our masted sea-going ironclads, many of
+which are twice or thrice the size of the _Cyclops_ and her
+sister-ships.  It will thus be seen that these turret-ships are
+practically stronger in defensive equipment than any other class of
+ironclad cruisers.
+
+The battery of these vessels is surrounded by a breastwork six feet in
+height, plated with nine-inch armour.  Entrance is gained to the turrets
+themselves from inside this breastwork.  In the centre of the turret
+there are two cylinders, the one fitting over the other in a manner
+which keeps the whole steady even in rough weather.  Small steam-engines
+placed inside the breastwork serve to turn the turrets, which, however,
+can also be worked by manual labour should necessity demand it.
+
+The ports present a striking contrast to those in the old wooden ships,
+by reason of their greatly diminished size.  They just admit of the
+muzzle of the gun peeping through, and no more, being oval in shape, and
+about three feet in diameter lengthways.  There can be little doubt that
+these small ports are an advantage, since they must afford greater
+protection to the gunners during action.  When it is desired to alter
+the direction of the guns, the change is not effected by moving them in
+the ports, but by revolving the turret itself.  Should it ever happen in
+action that the free movement of the turret should become impeded from
+some cause, then the only means of changing the direction of the guns
+would be to turn the whole ship.
+
+The turrets are armed with two twenty-five ton guns, carrying four
+hundred pound shot.  The deck being flush, as has been mentioned, the
+guns can be fired straight ahead and astern, and command all sides.
+Less than one minute is needed to revolve the whole turret.  This class
+of ships is believed to be able to keep up a constant steady fire
+whether in chase or in retreat.
+
+Abaft the funnel in these ships there is an upright oval tube rising
+some seventeen feet above the level of the main deck, plated with iron.
+The upper plate is pierced with several small horizontal slits, from
+which the tube has received the name of the "conning-house," for through
+these openings the captain can "con" or note whatever is going on
+outside, without himself being exposed to danger.  This circular box
+just allows the captain to turn himself about in; and here must he stand
+in time of action, directing and governing the whole conduct of his ship
+by mechanical telegraphs.
+
+Of the many curious and remarkable features in these ships, one of the
+most remarkable is the extensive use made of machinery for every
+purpose.  Engines revolve the turrets, raise the ashes from the
+engine-rooms, turn the capstans, work the rudders;--engines do
+everything.
+
+Three monitors similar to those just described were built for the
+defence of several of our colonies.  The colony of Victoria, we believe,
+purchased their ironclad, the _Cerberus_, from the home Government; at
+any rate, the people maintain her at their own cost.  Before the
+_Cerberus_ could make the voyage out to Melbourne, her sides had to be
+built up with thin iron plating for nearly her whole length.  In the
+same way the _Cyclops_ and her companion-ships might be made fit to face
+any sea or weather.
+
+It may occur to the reader to ask, Why not have sea-going masted vessels
+at once?  To which it may be answered, first, that the masted ships must
+inevitably draw more water than those of which the _Cyclops_ and
+_Hecate_ are types.  Turret-ships like the _Monarch_, or broadside-ships
+like the _Hercules_ and _Sultan_, draw about twenty-five feet of water;
+the smaller ships only sixteen, while at the same time they are more
+heavily armoured.  Thus the latter, if close pressed by an enemy's
+sea-going ironclads--the only class from which they have much to fear--
+could take shelter up a river out of their reach.  In action near the
+land these monitors, moreover, could be handled with greater ease.
+
+Secondly, from their much smaller size, the coast-defence ships are
+built at a much less cost--an important consideration in days when a
+first-class ironclad costs about as much as a small fleet of bygone
+days.  The vessels we have been describing are of rather more than two
+thousand tons burden, as compared with the five thousand tons of the
+larger sea-going ships; and, speaking roughly, the expense of
+construction is proportionate to the tonnage.
+
+The _Glatton_ turret-ship has several characteristics in which it
+differs from the above class of monitors.  It has but a single turret,
+and its guns throw six hundred pound shot, carrying three miles and a
+half.  Her water-draught is about six feet more than that of the
+_Cyclops_ and _Hecate_, and her armour-plates three inches thicker.
+Though she carries fewer guns, the _Glatton_ is a much more powerful
+vessel than the other monitors.  (Note: The above description of English
+monitors is adapted and abridged from an article in Chambers's Journal.)
+
+We shall now briefly describe the _Devastation_, one of the largest and
+most powerful of all our ironclads.  The _Devastation_ in her after-part
+rises but four feet and a half above the water; but to meet bad weather
+she is furnished with an armour-plated half-raised forecastle, so that
+forward she is nine feet out of the water.  The free-board amidships is
+still higher, being at this point level with the platform on which the
+two turrets are placed.  In the centre of the ship rises a circular iron
+erection, on the top of which is the hurricane-deck.  Through this
+structure runs a passage, in which are situated the entrances to the
+hatchways and to the hurricane-deck overhead.
+
+From the hurricane-deck rise the ship's two funnels; and here also are
+the captain's fighting box, already alluded to in describing the
+coast-defence ships, the fire-proof shield for protecting the steering
+gear, and the boats.  In a gale the hurricane-deck is the only safe
+place in ships of this kind--the only place where one would not get
+speedily washed overboard.  As for the below part of the ship, it is
+there almost impossible to breathe, even when air has been pumped in
+from above, which is the only means of ventilating this portion of the
+vessel.
+
+The _Devastation_ carries two guns in each of her turrets, placed side
+by side, each weighing thirty-five tons.  The turrets, directly the guns
+have been fired, can be wheeled rapidly round, thus turning the exposed
+parts away from the enemy.
+
+Ships such as the _Devastation_, the _Thunderer_, and the _Fury_ do not,
+at first sight, strike one as particularly well adapted for rough
+weather, to put it in the mildest phrase.  Nevertheless, the
+_Devastation_ has been fairly well tested in this way, having
+encountered some pretty rough weather, and, it is affirmed, behaved
+satisfactorily.  The great danger about all ships of this class is that
+they may not rise to the seas, but that the waves, breaking over them,
+may press them down and founder them.  The _Thunderer_ has been known to
+have her forecastle, which is somewhat lower than that of the
+_Devastation_, completely submerged, and this, too, when no very high
+sea was running.  These ships are designed, not for home service and
+coast defence merely, but for general action in mid-ocean.
+
+To attempt to describe even a single specimen of each type of modern
+war-ships would to a certainty weary the reader, for to any but an
+expert there would inevitably be a sense of repetition in the perusal of
+such a narrative.  But in order to place before our readers something
+like an approximate idea, at any rate, of the present state of our navy,
+we shall examine briefly one other first-class ironclad, the
+_Inflexible_, which may be regarded as a leading example of ironclad
+ships, and, at the time of writing, as one of the highest achievements
+of modern naval architecture.
+
+The _Inflexible_ is the vast size of 11,400 tons burden, her horse-power
+being 8000.  The length is 320 feet, her armour-plating from 16 to 24
+inches thick, with an inner lining of wood from 17 to 25 inches in
+thickness.  She is divided into 135 compartments, and her engines are
+placed at such a distance from each other that should one be disabled
+from any cause the other would still be in working order.
+
+The chief characteristic of the _Inflexible_ is the position of the
+turrets.  The majority of ships of this description have their turrets
+in the middle line, from which it results that only one half of their
+guns can be directed on an enemy, whether ahead or astern.  The
+_Inflexible_ has her turrets on each side--the fore-turret on the
+port-side, the after-turret on the starboard.  She can thus use the
+whole of her guns against an enemy _at the same time_, whether it be
+ahead or astern.
+
+It will be seen that the thickness of the armour-plating with which the
+_Inflexible_ is protected is enormous; and yet this thickness of iron
+has been pierced.  The question, then, that immediately suggests itself
+is, _Can_ a vessel be constructed to carry much heavier armour-plating
+than this?  A recent writer in the _Times_ declares not.  "So far as the
+exigencies of the navy are concerned," he says, "the limit of weight
+seems to have already been reached, for the simple reason that the
+buoyancy of our ironclads cannot with safety be further diminished by
+the burden of heavier armour and armaments."
+
+The following very graphic description of the interior of a turret-ship
+was written by an eye-witness of the scene described.  It is an extract
+from a narrative supplied to the author of "The Sea: its Stirring Story
+of Adventure and Peril," from which we take it.  The vessel described
+was the _Miantonoma_, an American ironclad turret-ship.
+
+"You ascend again through a trap-door, and find yourself in a circular
+room, some twelve feet in diameter, padded from top to bottom like the
+interior of a carriage.  By your side is a huge mass of iron.  You are
+inside the turret.  A glimmering lamp sheds its feeble light on the
+moving forms around you, and from below comes the faint whispering of
+the men, until the trap is shut and you are again in utter silence.
+
+"`_Prepare_!'  The gunner's mate stands on your toes, and tells you to
+lean forward and thrust your tongue out of your mouth.  You hear the
+creaking of machinery.  It is a moment of intense suspense.  Gradually a
+glimmer of light--an inch--a flood!  The shield passes from the opening;
+the gun runs out.  A flash, a roar--a mad reeling of the senses, and
+crimson clouds flitting before your eyes--a horrible pain in your ears,
+a sense of oppression on your chest, and the knowledge that you are not
+on your feet--a whispering of voices blending with the concert in your
+ears--a darkness before your eyes--and you feel yourself plump up
+against the padding, whither you have been thrown by the violence of the
+concussion.
+
+"Before you have recovered sufficiently to note the effects I have
+endeavoured to describe, the shield is again in its place and the gun
+ready for reloading.  They tell you that the best part of the sound has
+escaped through the port-hole, otherwise there would be no standing it,
+and our gunner's mate whispers in your ears, `It's all werry well, but
+they bu'sts out bleeding from the chest and ears after the fourth
+discharge, and has to be taken below.'  You have had enough of it too,
+and are glad that they don't ask you to witness another shot fired."
+
+It must be stated that since the _Miantonoma_ was built a new and
+improved principle of turret-firing has been introduced.  Electricity is
+now employed in discharging the guns, and there is thus no necessity for
+anyone being in the turret, which is of course a great advantage.
+
+At the close of the civil war, America possessed a fine fleet of
+monitors, of which scarcely any now remain.  For the time they seemed
+all but impregnable to shot and shell; but they were built by contract,
+of unseasoned wood, and in the course of ten or twelve years yielded to
+natural decay.  But the _Brooklyn_ and the _Ohio_, both fine examples of
+naval architecture, still survive to maintain, in so far as two ships
+can, America's maritime prestige.
+
+A chapter treating of ironclads would, we think, be incomplete without
+allusion made to the loss of the _Captain_, whose terrible fate in 1870
+has caused a mournful interest to be attached to that vessel.
+
+The _Captain_ was 320 feet in length and 53 feet broad.  Her
+armour-plating reached to five feet below the water-line.  Opposite the
+turrets her plating was eight inches in thickness and seven inches in
+other parts.  The ship was furnished with two screws, placed side by
+side.  The screws were available for steering, and thus the vessel could
+be governed without the rudder.  The _Captain_ was fully rigged, and
+could carry a large spread of canvas.
+
+The special characteristic of the ship was her revolving turrets.  Each
+turret was 27 feet in diameter on the outside and 22 feet 6 inches on
+the inside.  The walls of the turrets were therefore 2 feet 3 inches
+thick; and one half of this thickness was composed of iron.  The turrets
+were revolved by separate engines, but they could also be turned, if
+occasion required, by hand-labour.  Two Armstrong twenty-five ton guns,
+throwing six hundred pound shot, were placed in each turret.  The ship
+was built after designs by Captain Coles--the architect also of the
+_Monarch_.
+
+On her first sea-voyage the _Captain_ showed, apparently, such excellent
+sea-going qualities that her architect and the contractors, the Messrs.
+Laird, were quite satisfied as to her safety in mid-ocean.  In the
+autumn of 1870 she accompanied the fleet on a cruise; and on the 6th of
+September, shortly after midnight, foundered off Cape Finisterre.  The
+whole crew were lost, with the exception of nineteen men, and among
+those who perished was Captain Coles himself, Captain Burgoyne, the
+commander of the ship, and a son of the then First Lord of the
+Admiralty--Mr Childers.  It is unnecessary to recall to the memory of
+the adult among my readers the deep feeling of pity and gloom spread by
+this awful disaster throughout Great Britain.
+
+The night on which the _Captain_ foundered was no doubt a somewhat rough
+one, with squalls and a heavy sea on; but it was not merely the force of
+the storm which overwhelmed the vessel.
+
+Mr James May, a surviving gunner of the ill-fated ship, gave a
+sufficiently clear account of the foundering of the vessel.  Soon after
+midnight he was awakened from sleep by a noise and a feeling that the
+ship was uneasy.  Rising, and taking with him a lamp, he proceeded to
+the after-turret to see if the guns were all right.  Everything was
+secure enough there; but he had hardly finished his examination when he
+felt the vessel heel steadily over, a heavy sea struck her on the
+weather-port, the water rushed into the turret, and May presently found
+himself in the water.
+
+He swam to the pinnace, which he perceived floating bottom upwards, and
+there he was presently joined by Captain Burgoyne and several others of
+the crew.  Then he beheld the vessel turn over and go down, stern first;
+the whole catastrophe being over in a few minutes.  The launch was
+drifting a few yards off, and May called out to his comrades, "Jump,
+men! it is our last chance."  May with three others succeeded in
+reaching the boat, in which fifteen of the remainder of the crew also
+found a refuge.  It is uncertain whether poor Captain Burgoyne remained
+in the pinnace or failed to reach the launch.
+
+The nineteen survivors, after a hard row of twelve hours, without food
+or drink, landed at Cape Finisterre, where they were hospitably received
+and cared for by the people.  A court-martial was held in due course to
+investigate the cause of the disaster.  Into the details of the evidence
+it is impossible here to enter, but it was sufficiently proved that
+there were grave faults in the _Captain's_ construction,--faults which,
+as is unfortunately too often the case, were not discovered by such
+calculations as were made before the ship started on what may be said to
+have been her first, as it was her last, cruise.  It had, however, been
+noticed by some that the vessel was about a foot and a half deeper in
+the water than she should have been--that her free-board, in a word,
+instead of being eight feet above the water, as was designed, was only
+six feet six inches; and it needs but a very slight knowledge of marine
+matters to understand how this difference would materially prejudice the
+stability of such a vessel as the _Captain_.
+
+If it has been the reader's chance, as it has been ours, to visit anyone
+of our great naval arsenals--especially Portsmouth or Plymouth--he
+cannot have failed of being struck with the gallant and splendid
+appearance presented by many of our ships of war; but he must likewise
+have been affected with feelings the reverse of admiration by more than
+one type of modern ironclads.  No one who admires a real ship, be it of
+wood or of iron--a stately frigate in full sail before a favouring
+wind--can at the same time admire a monitor.  Many persons, in truth,
+will refuse to regard a turret-ship as a ship at all.  It overturns our
+every notion of what a ship should look like.  A low, black, mastless,
+raft-like, cruel-looking machine, without the faintest pretension to
+form or comeliness, a turret-ship is simply a fighting-engine, a
+floating battery--an ingenious and formidable instrument of death and
+destruction, no doubt, but nothing more.  Yet these are among the
+leading war-ships of the present, and, as far as can at present be seen,
+of the immediate future; and on these we must depend for the protection
+of our shores should they ever be threatened.
+
+And yet, great as is the annual cost of our navy, and great as is the
+amount of ingenuity spent in the construction of new and novel ships of
+war--each designed to be more impregnable and more formidable than its
+predecessor--our navy is at this moment in somewhat of an unsettled and
+transitory state.  Changes in the construction of ironclads are every
+year taking place, and considerable difference of opinion exists among
+our highest naval authorities upon important points in marine
+architecture.  Ships of war have now to contend with such formidable
+enemies in the shape of guns, torpedoes, and other engines of terribly
+destructive power, that it is difficult to say at present which will
+eventually triumph.  One of the old wooden ships placed beside a modern
+ironclad is as a child's toy battery compared with Gibraltar; and yet it
+can hardly be said that the nation has the same feeling of confidence
+and security in our present ships which it reposed in the vessels which
+Nelson so often led to victory; for it must be long ere the fate of the
+_Captain_ and the _Vanguard_ is entirely forgotten.
+
+Of this, however, we may, we think, at least rest assured, that, however
+dubious we may be in regard to some of the novelties and presumed
+improvements that are being from time to time introduced in naval
+architecture, England is well abreast of the age in maritime matters; if
+her ships be not absolutely perfect, and proof against every form of
+danger, they are at least equal to those of any other nation.  We need a
+strong, a very strong navy; and as a fact our naval resources are nearly
+equal to the combined naval strength of Europe.
+
+A somewhat different condition of things will need to come about from
+that which at present exists among the nations of the world ere England
+can afford to decrease her naval armaments; and until the Great Powers
+of the world agree to settle their disputes by some other means than by
+"wager of battle," and are resolved to "war no more," probably the best
+and only way for her is to keep herself as strongly and perfectly armed
+as possible.  It is this that has probably helped, at any rate, to
+secure so long and uninterrupted peace for our shores; and to try a
+different and opposite course would, to say the least, be a risk.  It is
+upon her navy, as all the world knows, that England depends for defence
+and security.  To be weak in our navy would be to be weak throughout all
+our armour.  Our navy is at present, we would fain hope, a peace-weapon
+in our hands--a shield, not a sword; and while it is such, the stronger
+and more flawless it is, the better for us, and perhaps for the world at
+large.  This may strike the reader as a somewhat vain-glorious,
+"spread-eagle" way of putting the case; but if he look at the matter
+fairly and impartially, we think he will admit that there is some truth
+in our statement.
+
+Before closing this chapter, a word or two must be said descriptive of
+that fell foe to ships of war, the torpedo, though space demands that
+our reference should be brief.  Almost all modern ships of war are
+constructed with false bottoms, designed especially to protect them
+against torpedoes.  There are many different forms of torpedoes,
+employed in a variety of ways.  A torpedo may be described as a
+submarine exploding apparatus.  It may contain from thirty to as much as
+five hundred pounds of gunpowder; and the explosion is effected either
+by means of electricity, or by a spring and a detonating substance when
+the engine comes in contact with a ship.  Some kinds of torpedoes rest
+on the bottom of the sea, while others are anchored and float suspended
+in the water.  If a vessel strikes against one of these terrible
+engines, she is either at once blown to splinters, or a rent is made in
+her bottom which causes her rapidly to sink.
+
+One type of torpedoes resembles somewhat a fish, and is impelled rapidly
+through the water by a screw and other machinery.  Torpedoes are so
+constructed as to be able to rise and strike a vessel just at the right
+moment.  When not filled with gunpowder or gun-cotton, dynamite and
+other explosive substances are used instead for charging these submarine
+war-engines.
+
+Various methods have been devised to secure ships from torpedoes.  Nets
+are sometimes extended in front of the ship, which catch the torpedoes
+before they can come in contact with the vessel's bottom.  This
+safeguard was adopted, in many instances with success, by the Federal
+war-ships when entering Confederate harbours.  But a great deal may be
+done to secure a ship against these terrible engines of destruction by
+precaution simply, as was proved in the Crimean War, when the Russian
+torpedoes did little or no damage to our ships, by reason of the
+unceasing watchfulness maintained on board.
+
+During the late war between Russia and Turkey one of the most daring
+exploits of the campaign was an attack by a Russian squadron of
+torpedo-boats on the Turkish monitor _Hifse Rahman_.  The flotilla
+comprised four ships, the _Czarevich_, the _Xenia_, the _Czarevna_, and
+the _Djirid_.  The two first named began the attack, the _Czarevna_ and
+the _Djirid_ holding themselves in reserve until their assistance should
+be wanted.
+
+The launches were equipped with strong iron awnings which shielded their
+crews from the enemy's fire.  Each boat was armed with two torpedoes,
+fastened to the end of long spars projected over the bulwarks and
+working on pivots.  The torpedoes could be detached from the spars when
+occasion demanded; while long chains were secured to the missiles, by
+which they were attached to the enemy's vessel, as well as to the wire
+of a galvanic battery fastened round the waist of the commander of the
+launch.  This battery was the means by which the torpedo was exploded.
+
+The flotilla left the Roumanian side of the Danube on the 25th of June
+1877 at about midnight, and in something less than an hour the _Hifse
+Rahman_ loomed in sight, a shadowy mass on the dark waters.  The
+approach of the torpedo-boats was almost noiseless, and the croaking of
+the frogs was said to have further favoured the Russians by drowning the
+sound of the engines, so that those on board the monitor were not aware
+of their enemy's propinquity until the launches were almost alongside.
+
+The sentry at once challenged, when Lieutenant Doubarsoff, the commander
+of the _Czarevich_, answered "Friends."  But his speech betrayed him;
+the alarm was spread; and the _Hifse Rahman_ opened a sharp fire upon
+the launches.  But Lieutenant Doubarsoff succeeded in attaching his
+torpedo-chain to a rope hanging at the monitor's bows, and then rapidly
+backed his little vessel and fired the torpedo.  A tremendous explosion;
+a column of water shot up into the air, and the launch was nearly
+swamped!  A breach had, however, been made in the _Hifse Rahman's_
+bulwarks.
+
+The other monitors were now thoroughly alive to their danger, and the
+Russian launches had to sustain a deadly cannonade, upon which
+Lieutenant Doubarsoff ordered Lieutenant Schestakoff to bring up his
+launch, the _Xenia_, and apply a second torpedo, which the latter was
+able to do, attaching the missile amidships of the Turkish vessel.  The
+fate of the _Hifse Rahman_ was now sealed, and in a few minutes she
+sank.
+
+The Russian launches succeeded in getting clear of their enemy again
+without losing a single man, and thus ended the first torpedo expedition
+ever made against an enemy's ironclads, but which may, as a writer
+describing the event says, "end in completely revolutionising our
+present system of monster iron walls."  The Grand Cross of Saint George
+was awarded to Lieutenants Doubarsoff and Schestakoff for this intrepid
+and successful exploit.
+
+Space is not left us to do more than revert for a moment to what is
+perhaps the deadliest weapon of offensive naval warfare yet devised,--
+rams.  Some experts maintain that nothing can match the power of the ram
+of a modern ironclad skilfully handled; and a well-known naval authority
+has declared that the use of the guns in a naval action should be merely
+preliminary to that of the ram--in other words, that all effort should
+be concentrated upon making an opportunity of using the ram.
+
+We close this chapter by recalling the reader's attention to a feature
+in modern war-ships already alluded to, and which indeed the whole
+course of our remarks upon this subject points to--the almost universal
+use of machinery in modern naval tactics.  Most assuredly in modern
+sea-warfare it may be said, in the Laureate's words--used by him, of
+course, with a very different sense--that "the individual dwindles," so
+that the prediction, which some of our readers may remember was once
+made by a First Lord of the Admiralty, seems not unlikely one day to
+become sober fact--that the time will come when we shall no longer
+require sailors, because all that our warships will need will be stokers
+and artillerymen.  Whether this is a consummation to be desired we are
+not careful here to pronounce.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+ORIGINS OF STEAMSHIPS--OCEAN-STEAMERS, ETCETERA.
+
+As we have been led, in writing about ships of the navy, to refer to
+steam, we turn aside at this point to treat of that tremendous
+motive-power.
+
+One night, in the year 1807, a terrible sight was witnessed by the
+inhabitants of the banks of the river Hudson in America.
+
+Men love what is marvellous, and they will go a long distance out of
+their way to see that which is terrific and horrible; but on the night
+in question there was no need to go far.  The farmers had only to look
+out of their windows, and the sailors of the shipping had only to lift
+their heads above the bulwarks, to behold a sight that appalled the
+stoutest hearted, and caused the very hair on the craniums of the timid
+to stand on end.
+
+The object that created so much consternation was--a "monster of the
+deep!"  At some parts of the river, men could not tell what it was like,
+for the night was dark when it passed, but a dark, shadowy idea they
+obtained by the light of the fire which the creature vomited from its
+jaws; and they formed a tremendous conception of its size and power from
+the speed at which it travelled, the splashing which it made, and the
+hideous groans with which it burdened the night-air.
+
+This "fiery monster of the deep" was the _first_ river-steamer, the
+_Clermont_!
+
+Before going further into the details of this the first of a class of
+ships which have, within the last fifty years, almost completely changed
+the whole system of navigation, let us take a cursory glance at the
+first attempts made to propel ships by means of steam.
+
+The subject has occupied mankind much longer than many people suppose.
+So long ago as the year 1543, a naval captain of Spain applied an engine
+to a ship of about two hundred tons, and succeeded in moving it at the
+rate of about two miles an hour.  The nature of his engine the captain
+kept secret; but it was noted that part of it consisted of a caldron of
+boiling water.
+
+This we are told by Thomas Gonzales, the director of the Royal Archives
+of Simancas; but his veracity is now called in question,--at any rate,
+nothing further was afterwards heard of the discovery.
+
+The first authentic record we have of steam navigation occurs in a work
+written by the Marquis of Worcester in 1665, in which allusion is made
+to the application of engines to boats and ships, which would "draw them
+up rivers against the stream, and, if need be, pass London Bridge
+against the current, at low-water."
+
+Many attempts, more or less successful, were made by ingenious men from
+time to time.  Papin of France in 1690 constructed a steamboat, the
+success of which may be gathered from the fact that it was ultimately
+broken up by enraged and jealous watermen!  Jonathan Hulls in 1736, and
+M. Genevois in 1759, were each successful, to a certain extent, in
+constructing working models, but nothing definite resulted from their
+labours.  Yet we would not be understood to undervalue the achievements
+of such men.  On the contrary, it is by the successive discoveries of
+such inquiring and philosophical men that grand results are at last
+attained.  The magnificent structures that crowd the ocean were not the
+creations of one era, or the product of one stupendous mind.  They are
+the result of the labours of thousands of men whose names have never
+been known to fame.
+
+The men who, working upon the materials supplied by preceding
+generations, brought the propulsion of boats by steam nearest to
+perfection, _just before_ the commencement of navigation, were Mr
+Miller of Dumfries, Mr Taylor, his friend, and tutor in his family, and
+Mr Symington.  All of these were, in a very important degree,
+instrumental in ushering in the great event.  Symington, in 1788, fitted
+an engine to a large boat, in which he attained the speed of seven miles
+an hour.
+
+The man to whom the credit belongs of introducing _steam navigation_ is
+undoubtedly Mr Fulton of America.  This gentleman, who was contemporary
+with those just mentioned, visited France and England, in the former of
+which countries he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to carry out his
+projects, while in the latter he met with Symington, and obtained much
+valuable information from him.
+
+We have no sympathy whatever with those who seem to rake in to the
+credit of their own country every discovery and invention they possibly
+or plausibly can.  We did much _towards_ the commencement of steam
+navigation, but we did not begin it.  We pushed considerably in advance
+of other nations in the invention of apparatus by which boats might be
+propelled by steam; we constructed models, tried it on a small scale,
+and found the thing to answer admirably: but we rested there.
+Meanwhile, an enterprising American came and saw our achievements,
+ordered an engine in England, carried it across the Atlantic, and
+_commenced_ the era of steam navigation, on the river Hudson, by
+building and launching:
+
+THE FIRST STEAMER.
+
+Robert Fulton, in conjunction with Chancellor Livingston of America,
+planned, built, and launched a boat in the spring of 1807, which they
+named the _Clermont_.  It was propelled by steam, and averaged the rate
+of five miles an hour on its first voyage from New York to Albany, a
+distance of nearly one hundred and fifty miles.
+
+All discoveries and novelties, great and small, are treated with
+ridicule at first by the mass of mankind, so it is not a matter of
+wonder that the crowds which flocked to the wharf to see the _Clermont_
+start on her first trip were somewhat satirical and jocose in their
+remarks.  But when the steam was turned on, and they heard the first of
+that series of snorts that was destined ere long to shake the trembling
+air of land and sea, and saw the great, uncouth paddle-wheels revolve
+powerfully in the water and churn it into foam, a shout, tinged
+doubtless with prophetic fervour, greeted the triumphant engineer as his
+little steamboat darted from the shore.
+
+Colden, in his Life of Fulton, speaks thus of the _Clermont's_ first
+voyage:--
+
+"She excited the astonishment of the inhabitants of the shores of the
+Hudson, many of whom had not heard even of an engine, much less of a
+steamboat.  There were many descriptions of the effects of her first
+appearance upon the people of the banks of the river.
+
+"Some of these were ridiculous, but some of them were of such a
+character as nothing but an object of real grandeur could have excited.
+She was described by some, who had indistinctly seen her passing in the
+night, as a monster moving on the waters, defying the winds and tide and
+breathing flames and smoke!  She had the most terrific appearance from
+other vessels which were navigating the river when she was making her
+passage.  The first steamboat (as others yet do) used dry pine wood for
+fuel, which sends forth a column of ignited vapour many feet above the
+flue, and, whenever the fire is stirred, a galaxy of sparks fly off,
+which, in the night, have a very brilliant and beautiful appearance.
+
+"This uncommon light first attracted the attention of the crews of other
+vessels.  Notwithstanding the wind and tide, which were adverse to its
+approach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly coming towards
+them; and when it came so near that the noise of the machinery and
+paddles was heard, the crews--if what was said in the newspapers of the
+time be true--in some instances shrank beneath their decks from the
+terrific sight, and left their vessels to go on shore; whilst others
+prostrated themselves, and besought Providence to protect them from the
+approaches of the horrible monster which was marching on the tide, and
+lighting its path by the fires that it vomited!"  The _Clermont_ became
+a regular passenger boat on the Hudson; and the progress of steam
+navigation continued to advance, until nearly all the navigable rivers
+of the world, and the great ocean itself, were covered with these
+clanking ships of commerce, which have added more to the comfort, the
+wealth, and the power of man--the power of doing good as well as evil--
+than the feeble human mind can conceive.
+
+THE COMET.
+
+It was not until five years after the Americans set us the example that
+we launched our first passenger steamboat, the _Comet_, a vessel of
+about twenty-five tons, with engines of three horse-power.  This little
+vessel was started by Henry Bell, of Helensburgh, on the Clyde.  It
+began its career in 1812, and plied regularly for two years.
+
+Like her predecessor the _Clermont_, she was regarded with no small
+degree of scepticism, and with a large amount of surprise by the
+thousands who saw her set forth.  Nevertheless, she soon proved her
+value, became a successful speculation to her owners, and was ere long
+followed by many other vessels of a similar kind.
+
+THE "ARGYLE", AFTERWARDS NAMED "THE THAMES."
+
+In 1813 the _Argyle_ was launched.  This vessel was the first European
+steamer that pushed out into the more dangerous navigation of the open
+sea-coast.  She was purchased by a company in London.  On her passage
+up, she was as nearly as possible wrecked on a lee-shore, but, by her
+steam-power, was enabled to go straight against the wind, at the rate of
+three and a half knots an hour, and so escaped.
+
+One of the passengers has left us an interesting account of this
+interesting voyage, from which we cull one or two paragraphs:
+
+"The weather had now become so stormy and bad that our captain
+determined to put in to the port of Wexford, his great object being to
+navigate the vessel safely to London, rather than, by using great
+despatch, to expose her to unnecessary risk.  We put to sea again at two
+o'clock p.m., on May 30th, and steered for Saint David's Head, the most
+westerly point of Wales.  During our passage across Saint George's
+Channel, one of the blades of the starboard paddle-wheel became out of
+order; the engine was stopped, and the blade cut away.  Some hours
+afterwards, a similar accident happened to the other wheel, which was
+remedied in the same manner.
+
+"About two-o'clock in the afternoon, twelve hours after leaving Wexford,
+we reached the pass of Ramsay.  We remained there for three hours, to
+oil the engine, and to give the stoker, who had not quitted his post an
+instant since leaving Wexford, a little rest.  In a short time several
+boats were seen coming to our assistance, the idea prevailing here, as
+at Wexford, that our vessel was on fire.  We landed on the island of
+Ramsay, a most desolate spot, containing only one habitation; we,
+however, procured some bread, butter, milk, cheese, and ale, with which
+we returned to the vessel, and commenced steaming through the straits,
+and across Saint Bride's Bay.
+
+"The weather had now become unfavourable, and the sea ran alarmingly
+high in the bay.  On the south side of Saint Bride's Bay, between Skomar
+Island and the mainland, is a nasty passage called Jack Sound.  Our
+pilot warned us of the danger of attempting this passage, excepting at
+high-water and with a favourable wind, as there were several formidable
+whirlpools, which would seize the vessel and carry her on the rocks.
+Captain Dodd, however, who knew the power of his engine, insisted on
+going through the sound, in order to save five hours and another night
+at sea.  The pilot repeated his remonstrances, at the same time
+trembling for fear; but we passed through all the whirlpools with the
+greatest ease.  Nothing, however, can be conceived more frightful than
+the aspect of some of the rocks, and especially of those called the
+Bishop and his Clerks.  Had we been in a sailing vessel, our position
+would have been most perilous; but our steam was all-powerful, and
+brought us safely to Milford Haven.
+
+"We put to sea again late on the evening of the 31st, and on Friday
+morning we were in the middle of the Bristol Channel, with no land
+visible; but towards evening we discovered the high coast that
+terminates England in the west.  As the weather, however, again assumed
+a gloomy aspect, our new pilot judged that it would be imprudent that
+night to double Land's End, so we shaped our course towards Saint Ives.
+
+"On approaching the shore, we perceived a crowd of small vessels making
+towards us with all possible rapidity, by means of oars and sails.
+Here, as elsewhere, the alarm was taken, on seeing a vessel, judged to
+be on fire, steering towards the town, and all the disposable craft
+immediately put to sea.  All the rocks commanding Saint Ives were
+covered with spectators; and when we entered the harbour, the aspect of
+our vessel appeared to occasion as much surprise amongst the inhabitants
+as the ships of Captain Cook must have produced on his first appearance
+amongst the islanders of the South Seas.
+
+"Another night passed, a night of storm and danger, but the little
+_Thames_ (the vessel had been renamed by the new company who purchased
+her) behaved nobly, and next day reached Plymouth.  Here," continues the
+narrative, "the harbour-master, who had never seen a steam-vessel
+before, was as much struck with astonishment, when he boarded the
+_Thames_, as a child is on getting possession of a new plaything.  He
+steered the vessel, and we passed round several ships of war in the
+sound.  The sailors ran in crowds to the sides of their vessels as we
+passed them, and, mounting the rigging, gave vent to their observations
+in a most amusing manner.
+
+"We left Plymouth at noon on the following day, and steamed without
+interruption to Portsmouth, where we arrived on Friday, June 9th, having
+accomplished one hundred and fifty miles in twenty-three hours.  At
+Portsmouth astonishment and admiration were, if possible, more strongly
+evinced than elsewhere.  Tens of thousands of spectators were assembled
+to gaze on the _Thames_; and the number of vessels that crowded around
+us was so great, that it became necessary to request the admiral to give
+us a guard to preserve some degree of order.
+
+"We entered the harbour in the most brilliant style, steaming in, with
+the assistance of wind and tide, at the rate of from twelve to fourteen
+miles an hour.  A court-martial was at the time sitting on board the
+_Gladiator_ frigate; but the novelty of our steamboat presented an
+irresistible attraction, and the whole court came off to us, excepting
+the president, who was obliged by etiquette to retain his seat until the
+court was regularly adjourned.  On Saturday, June 10th, the port-admiral
+sent his band and a guard of marines at an early hour on board; and soon
+afterwards he followed, accompanied by three admirals, eighteen
+post-captains, and a large number of ladies.  The morning was spent in
+steaming amongst the fleet, and running over to the Isle of Wight.  From
+Portsmouth we proceeded to Margate, which we reached on Sunday morning.
+Here we remained until the following day, when we embarked for our final
+trip, at half-past eight in the morning; and about six in the evening
+arrived at Limehouse, where we moored."
+
+We have entered thus at considerable length into this voyage, because,
+besides being the first steam sea-voyage, it serves to exhibit very
+distinctly how great and how rapid has been the progress of
+steam-navigation within the last fifty years.  In reading such an
+account as this, in these days of "ocean mail-steamers" and "Great
+Easterns," we can scarcely believe that in it reference is made, not to
+the middle ages, but to the year 1813.
+
+OCEAN-STEAMERS.
+
+After that momentous era when steam was first successfully applied to
+useful purposes, human progress and improvement in all departments of
+science and art seemed to have been hooked on to it, and to have
+thenceforth rushed roaring at its tail, with truly "railroad speed,"
+towards perfection!
+
+Scarce had the first model steamboat splashed with its ungainly "blades"
+the waters of a pond, than river traffic by means of steamboats began.
+And no sooner had this been proved to be a decided success, than daring
+schemes were laid to rush over the ocean itself on wheels.  Men were not
+long about it, after the first start was made.  Their intellectual steam
+was up, and the whirl of inventive effort racked the brains of engineers
+as the wheels of their steamboats tortured the waters of the deep.
+
+And here again the name of Fulton comes into notice.  Early in 1814 he
+conceived the idea of constructing a steam-vessel of war, which should
+carry a strong battery with furnaces for red-hot shot.  Congress
+authorised the building of such a ship, and before the end of the same
+year it was launched.  Fulton died the following year, but the fame of
+that enterprising engineer will never die.
+
+The new vessel received the rather quaint title of _Fulton the First_.
+She consisted of two boats joined together.  Those who were appointed by
+Congress to examine her and report, gave the following account of this
+curious man-of-war:
+
+"She is a structure resting on two boats and keels, separated from end
+to end by a channel fifteen feet wide and sixty-six feet long.  One boat
+contains the caldrons of copper to prepare her steam; the cylinder of
+iron, its piston, lever, and wheels, occupy part of the other.  The
+water-wheel revolves in the space between them.  The main or gun-deck
+supports the armament, and is protected by a parapet four feet ten
+inches thick, of solid timber, pierced by embrasures.  Through thirty
+port-holes as many thirty-two pounders are intended to fire red-hot
+shot, which can be heated with great safety and convenience.  Her upper
+or spar-deck, upon which several thousand men might parade, is
+encompassed by a bulwark, which affords safe quarters.  She is rigged
+with two stout masts, each of which supports a large lateen yard and
+sails.  She has two bowsprits and jibs, and four rudders--one at each
+extremity of each boat; so that she can be steered with either end
+foremost.  Her machinery is calculated for the addition of an engine
+which will discharge an immense column of water, which it is intended to
+throw upon the decks and through the port-holes of the enemy, and
+thereby deluge her armament and ammunition.
+
+"If, in addition to all this, we suppose her to be furnished, according
+to Mr Fulton's intention, with hundred-pound columbiads, two suspended
+from each bow, so as to discharge a ball of that size into an enemy's
+ship ten or twelve feet below her water-line, it must be allowed that
+she has the appearance, at least, of being the most formidable engine
+for warfare that human ingenuity has contrived."
+
+She certainly was; and even at the present time the _Fulton the First_
+would cut no insignificant figure if placed alongside our gunboats,
+floating-batteries, and steam-frigates.
+
+It is not easy to get intelligent men to believe in things that savour
+of the marvellous; yet there seems to be a point past which, if once a
+man be got, he will go on to believe almost anything, no matter how
+absurd.  In those days few people in Europe would credit the truth of
+this ship's proportions; but when, in the course of time and from
+indubitable testimony, they were compelled to believe, they flew to the
+opposite extreme of incredulity and believed anything, as the following
+curiously comical paragraph will show.  It is said to have appeared in a
+Scotch treatise on steamships, and is intended for a "full, true, and
+particular account" of this monstrous American man-of-war steamer.
+After giving her dimensions three times larger than they were in
+reality, the author continues:--"The thickness of her sides is thirteen
+feet of alternate oak plank and cork wood.  She carries forty-four guns,
+four of which are hundred pounders; quarter-deck and forecastle guns,
+forty-four pounders: and further, to annoy an enemy attempting to board,
+can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute; and, by
+mechanism, brandishes three hundred cutlasses with the utmost regularity
+over her gunwales; works also an equal number of heavy iron spikes of
+great length, darting them from the sides with prodigious force, and
+withdrawing them every quarter of a minute!"  This vessel, although
+probably intended for an ocean-steamer, was never used as such.  But not
+long after, a vessel propelled by steam ventured to cross the Atlantic,
+and thus became the parent of commercial steam navigation.  This vessel
+was:
+
+THE "SAVANNAH" STEAMER.
+
+Unfortunately, little information as to this, the first ocean-steamer,
+has been chronicled.
+
+She was launched at New York on the 22nd of August 1818, and in the
+following year made her first voyage to Savannah, from which she sailed
+for Liverpool soon after, and crossed the Atlantic in twenty-five days--
+during eighteen of which she used her engines.
+
+The _Savannah_ was about 350 tons burden, and was on this occasion
+commanded by Captain Moses Rodgers.  She was fitted with machinery for
+taking in her wheels in stormy weather, which was found to work
+admirably; and she is mentioned as having been seen on the ocean going
+at the rate of nine or ten knots.
+
+From Liverpool this steamer went to Saint Petersburg, and afterwards
+returned to Savannah in safety.
+
+This was the insertion of the wedge.  Our own country did not follow the
+lead until 1838, when the good people of New York were thrown into a
+state of excitement by the arrival of two steamers, the _Sirius_ and the
+_Great Western_, from England.  So long a time had elapsed since the
+voyage of the _Savannah_ that men had well-nigh forgotten it, and were
+disposed to regard these vessels as the _first_ ocean-steamers.  Indeed,
+some narrow-minded and ungenerous writers have asserted that they _were_
+the first--totally ignoring the prior claim of the _Savannah_.
+
+From that period ocean-steamers began to run frequently across the
+Atlantic.  They now do so regularly, as well as to nearly all other
+parts of the world.
+
+OCEAN MAIL-STEAMERS.
+
+The improvements which have taken place during recent years in
+ocean-going steamships have been great and rapid.  The speed attained by
+some of these magnificent vessels is little short of marvellous.  Many
+persons still living can recollect the time when the voyage to Australia
+in a sailing vessel lasted six months.  What is now the state of
+matters?  By more than one line of steamships the traveller may reach
+Sydney or Melbourne within forty days.  A recent voyage of the _Orient_,
+one of the latest and finest additions to ocean steamships, merits more
+than a passing notice.  The _Lusitania_, which belongs to the same line,
+steamed from England to Australia in less than forty days, and the feat
+was regarded as a great one.  But the _Lusitania_ has been far
+outmatched by her sister-ship the _Orient_, which has actually
+accomplished the same voyage in thirty-five days, fifteen hours, and
+forty-six minutes.  From Plymouth to the Cape of Good Hope took the
+_Orient_ only seventeen days twenty-one hours.  This is the fastest
+speed on record.  Whether it is the maximum rate possible to ocean
+steamships, or whether it is destined to be surpassed by a still higher
+degree of speed, remains to be seen.  Many persons are of opinion that
+the increased facilities of speed which are now within reach of
+travellers on long voyages will gradually lead to the total disuse of
+sailing ships for passenger traffic.  It may be so, but there are still
+not a few who would prefer a sailing to a steam ship for a long sea
+voyage, notwithstanding its so greatly inferior rate of speed.  But
+nowadays everything must be sacrificed to _time_.  "Time flies," is at
+present the motto of most instant and potent power with the world; but
+the day is perhaps not far off when the fiat, "Thus far, and no
+farther," must be pronounced not only on the speed of steamships, but on
+the breathless rush and hurry of the age in general.
+
+THE CZAR'S YACHT "LIVADIA."
+
+Undoubtedly one of the most remarkable craft afloat is the Russian
+Czar's steam-yacht the _Livadia_.  To a Scotch shipbuilding firm belongs
+the credit of having constructed this unique and splendid vessel, and it
+is certainly a feather in the cap of Messrs. Elder and Company, the
+well-known Glasgow shipbuilders, from whose yard the _Livadia_ was
+launched in July 1880.
+
+One would imagine that the highest point of comfort and luxuriousness
+has been reached in the accommodation offered by the _Livadia_; but this
+is far from being the only or even the chief respect in which the vessel
+is remarkable.  She is notable from a purely nautical point of view--
+being the outcome of principles that may be said almost to revolutionise
+all pre-existing ideas of shipbuilding, though something like the same
+principle may be found in the circular ironclads of Admiral Popoff.
+
+Hitherto the plan which naval architects have followed, where the
+desideratum was exceptional speed, was to give the vessel in course of
+construction length in combination with as fine lines and as perfect
+proportion as possible.  But in the case of an imperial pleasure-boat,
+like the _Livadia_, it was an object to obtain an ampler and more
+drawing-room like accommodation than is compatible with length,
+narrowness of beam, and fine lines; and the constructors of the Czar's
+new yacht have succeeded in securing not only this internal spaciousness
+and comfort, but also a satisfactory degree of speed.
+
+It was to the united exertions of Admiral Popoff of the Russian navy,
+and Dr Tideman of the royal dockyard, Amsterdam, that the design of the
+_Livadia_ was due.  It is not easy in words to convey a distinct
+impression of this curiously-shaped craft, but our description will, we
+hope, give the reader a pretty correct idea of the vessel.
+
+The constructors of the _Livadia_, it is believed, chose a turbot as
+their model for the hull; and in thus taking a flat fish as a suggestion
+for their vessel, the builders, as a recent writer on the subject points
+out, followed no extravagant, though certainly a novel, fancy.  In broad
+terms the _Livadia_ may be described as a wide and shallow oval in
+shape, half submerged, while over this turbot-shaped raft a
+superstructure is erected, somewhat similar in appearance to an ordinary
+vessel, and comprising large, lofty, and sumptuous saloons and other
+apartments.
+
+The _Livadia_ is 260 feet long, 150 feet broad, and 50 feet deep.  She
+is 11,609 tons burden, and her displacement 4000.  The two leading
+merits of the _Livadia_, due to its peculiar construction, are--first,
+that its frame can support a superstructure of almost palatial
+proportions such as would founder any other vessel; and second, that its
+great breadth of beam keeps the ship as steady as a ship can possibly
+be, while, at the same time, its lower lines secure a very good degree
+of speed.
+
+The _Livadia_ possesses powerful propelling engines.  There are three
+sets of these, each with three cylinders, the diameter being sixty
+inches for the high pressure, and seventy-eight inches for the low, with
+a stroke of three feet three inches.  As much strength and lightness as
+possible have been secured for the propellers by constructing them of
+manganese iron; while steel has been largely employed for the engines
+and boilers, which are, for their weight, the most powerful possessed by
+any vessel.  The estimated horse-power is 10,500, and the ship, under
+favourable conditions, can make fifteen knots an hour.
+
+The double water-tight bottom of the _Livadia_ is three feet six inches
+deep at the centre, and two feet nine inches at each end.  In this
+turbot-like lower part is the machinery, and it is the receptacle also
+for coals and stores of all kinds.  The twofold bottom of the ship
+comprises forty compartments, and the whole is sufficiently strong, it
+is believed, to withstand the heaviest weather to which the yacht is
+likely to be exposed, as well as the strain of her powerful machinery.
+
+The entire length of the upper part of the ship, in which are the
+imperial apartments, and the quarters of the officers and crew, is 260
+feet, and the breadth 110 feet.  The crew all told numbers 260.  The
+private apartments of the Czar himself are forward on the main-deck,
+well away from the heat of the engines and the smell of the machinery.
+A visitor to the ship is chiefly struck, perhaps, by the height to which
+the decks rise above the hull, the uppermost compartment of all being
+fitted out as a reception saloon, in the centre of which a little
+fountain rises out of a bed of flowers.  This portion of the vessel is
+forty feet above the level of the sea.  The apartment is luxuriously
+appointed in the fashion of the reign of Louis XVI.  The drawing-room is
+furnished in a style of equal sumptuousness, in the Crimean Tartar
+style; but the rest of the imperial apartments are in a simpler order of
+decoration.  Behind the funnels there is another deck-house, containing
+the captain's quarters and rooms for the Grand Duke Constantine.  It
+will thus be seen that the _Livadia_ is literally a floating palace,
+equipped and decorated with that almost Eastern love of sumptuous
+display which characterises the Russians as a people.
+
+All the three screws with which the _Livadia_ is furnished are wholly
+submerged in the water--another novelty in the construction of the
+vessel.  One or even two of these screws might suffer serious injury and
+the ship still remain manageable.
+
+It is not wonderful that the launch of a craft, at once so splendid and
+so curious, should have caused much interest and excitement in the
+neighbourhood in which it took place.  A distinguished company witnessed
+the ceremony, while the crowd which lined the banks of the river Clyde
+numbered 10,000.  A short service was conducted by three priests of the
+Greek Church, and the bows of the vessel were then sprinkled with holy
+water.  After the conclusion of this ceremony, the yacht received her
+name from the Duchess of Hamilton, and was then launched.  The launch
+was a complete success, the _Livadia_ taking the water in gallant style,
+though the task was one of more than ordinary difficulty from the
+circumstance of the great breadth of the ship's keel-less bottom, which
+much increased the friction to be overcome.  At the luncheon which
+concluded the day's proceedings, Mr Pearce, the chairman, who
+represented the firm of Elder and Company, stated that the principle
+adopted in the building of the _Livadia_ would probably be more useful
+in the case of ships of war than of merchant vessels, but that builders
+of the latter might also derive valuable hints from the construction of
+the new ship.  Whether this will prove to be the case time has yet to
+show.
+
+A most interesting discovery of a Norse war-ship has recently been made
+at Sandefjord in Norway.  The vessel, there can be no doubt, is one of
+the kind in which those formidable buccaneers, the Norsemen, used to
+harry the coasts of Great Britain and France ten hundred years ago.  It
+was found buried in the ground, and seems to have been the sepulchre of
+some great Viking chieftain, who had probably many a time sailed forth
+in it to the terror and detriment of some less warlike and powerful
+neighbour.
+
+The ship is unusually large, and very completely equipped.  Its length
+is about seventy-five feet; and sails, rigging, a number of shields and
+other instruments of battle, were found on board.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+THE "GREAT EASTERN."
+
+The _Great Eastern_ steamship deserves to be regarded as the eighth
+wonder of the world, beyond all question.  She is at present by far the
+largest vessel in the world, and is the most magnificent creation of
+naval architecture that was ever launched upon the sea.
+
+The substance of the following account of this interesting ship has been
+gathered principally from the Times and the Illustrated London News for
+1859, the year in which the _Great Eastern_ was launched, and from a
+pamphlet which was sold on board, by permission of the proprietors.
+
+The _Great Eastern_ was intended for the Indian and Australian route by
+the Cape of Good Hope.  The result of large experience in steam
+navigation has proved that the size of the ship, (when steam is used),
+ought to be in proportion to the length of the voyage.  Mr Brunel, the
+talented engineer to whose genius and perseverance this monster ship
+owes her existence, acting on this principle, calculated that the voyage
+to Australia and back being 22,500 miles--a vessel of 22,500 tons
+burden, (or a ton burden for every mile to be steamed), would require to
+be built, capable of carrying fuel for the entire voyage, it being
+impossible, without incurring enormous expense, to procure coal for such
+a vessel at intermediate ports.
+
+The Eastern Steam Navigation Company undertook the herculean work.  The
+total cost of construction was estimated at 804,522 pounds.  Mr Brunel
+prepared the designs.  A spot of ground was chosen on the banks of the
+Thames, in the building-yard of the company at Millwall, and the
+building was commenced, on the lines laid down by Mr Scott Russell, on
+the 1st of May 1854.
+
+Every minute detail of the arrangements and building of this wonder of
+the world is fraught with interest.  The mere preparing of the ground to
+receive her enormous weight was calculated to fill the minds of men with
+astonishment.  Her supports and scaffoldings, and the machinery by which
+she was ultimately launched, taxed the skill of her engineers even more
+than her construction.  A very town of workshops, foundries, and forges
+sprang into being round her hull; and as this rose, foot by foot, in all
+its gigantic proportions, the surrounding edifices dwindled down into
+insignificance, and the busy population of artificers clustered upon her
+like ants upon a prostrate monarch of the forest-trees.
+
+The hull of the _Great Eastern_ is built entirely of iron, and is 680
+feet in length, 83 feet in breadth, and 60 feet in height from keel to
+deck.  It is divided transversely into ten separate compartments of 60
+feet each, rendered perfectly water-tight by bulk-heads, having no
+openings whatever lower than the second deck; whilst two longitudinal
+walls of iron, 36 feet apart, traverse 350 feet of the length of the
+ship.
+
+The mind will be better able to realise the magnitude of these
+dimensions if we add that the _Great Eastern_ is six times the size of
+the Duke of Wellington line-of-battle ship, that her length is more than
+three times the height of the Monument, while her breadth is equal to
+the width of Pall Mall, and a promenade round the deck affords a walk of
+more than a quarter of a mile.
+
+There is no keel properly so called, but in its place a flat keel-plate
+of iron, about two feet wide and one inch thick, which runs the entire
+length from stem to stern.  This is the base upon which all the rest is
+reared, plates and girders alike.  The iron plates which form her
+planking are three-quarters of an inch thick.  Up to the water-mark the
+hull is constructed with an inner and outer skin, two feet ten inches
+apart, both skins being made of three-quarter inch plates, except at the
+bottom, where the plates are an inch thick; and between these, at
+intervals of six feet, run horizontal webs of iron plates, which bind
+the two skins together, and thus it may be said that the lower part of
+the hull is two feet ten inches thick.
+
+This mode of construction adds materially to the safety of the vessel;
+for, in the event of a collision at sea, the outer skin might be pierced
+while the inner might remain intact.  This space may also at any time be
+filled with water, and thus ballast, to the amount of 2500 tons, be
+obtained.
+
+Some idea of the magnitude and weight of the vessel may be formed from
+the fact that each iron plate weighs about the third of a ton, and is
+fastened with a hundred iron rivets.  About thirty thousand of these
+plates were used in her construction, and three million rivets.  The
+fastening of these rivets was one among the many curious operations
+performed in course of building.  The riveting men were arranged in
+gangs, each gang consisting of two riveters, one holder-up, and three
+boys.  Two boys were stationed at the fire or portable forge, and one
+with the holder-up.  This boy's duty was to receive the red-hot rivet
+with his pincers from the boy at the forge, and insert it in the hole
+destined for its reception, the point protruding about an inch.  The
+holder-up immediately placed his heavy hammer against the head of the
+rivet, and held it firmly there, while the two riveters assailed it in
+front with alternate blows, until the countersunk part of the hole was
+filled up, after which the protruding head was cut off smooth with the
+plate, the whole operation scarce occupying a minute.  In riveting the
+double part of the ship the holder-up and his boy were necessarily in
+the interior part of the tubes, and passed the whole day in the narrow
+space between, (of two feet ten inches wide), in comparative darkness,
+having only the glimmer afforded by a single dip candle, and being
+immediately under the deafening blows of the riveters.
+
+The _deck_ of the _Great Eastern_ is double, or cellular, after the plan
+of the Britannia Tubular Bridge.  The upper deck runs flush and clear
+from stem to stern, and he who takes four turns up and down it from stem
+to stern walks upwards of a mile.  The strength of this deck is so
+enormous that if the ship were taken up by its two extremities, with all
+its cargo, passengers, coals, and provisions on board, it would sustain
+the whole.  The deck has been covered with teak planking, and has been
+planed and scrubbed to man-of-war whiteness.  Not even a stray rope's
+end breaks the wonderful effect produced by its immense expanse.  Her
+fleet of small boats, which are about the size of sailing cutters, hang
+at the davits, ten on each side.  There are six masts and five funnels.
+The three centre square-rigged masts are of iron.  They were made by Mr
+Finch of Chepstow, and are the finest specimens of masts of the kind
+that were ever manufactured.  Each is made of hollow wrought iron in
+eight-feet lengths, strengthened inside by diaphragms of the same
+material.  Between the joints, as they were bolted together, was placed
+a pad of vulcanised india-rubber, which gives a spring and buoyancy to
+the whole spar greater than wood, while at the same time it retains all
+the strength of the iron.  The other masts are made of wood, and the
+canvas that can be spread is no less than 6500 square yards.  On deck
+are four small steam winches or engines, each of which works a pair of
+cranes on both sides of the vessel; and with these five thousand tons of
+coals can be hoisted into the vessel in twenty-four hours.
+
+The _engines_ and boilers are of immense power and magnitude.  There are
+both screw and paddle engines, the former being capable of working up to
+6500 horse-power, the latter to 5000.  There are ten boilers and one
+hundred and twelve furnaces.  The paddle engines, which were made by
+Messrs. Scott Russell and Company, stand nearly 40 feet high.  Each
+cylinder weighs about 28 tons, and each paddle-wheel is 58 feet in
+diameter, or considerably larger than the ring in Astley's Circus.  The
+screw engines were manufactured by Messrs. Watt and Company of
+Birmingham.  They consist of four cylinders of 84 inches diameter and 4
+feet stroke.  The screw propeller is 24 feet in diameter and 37 feet
+pitch; and the engine-shaft is 160 feet long, or 12 feet longer than the
+height of the Duke of York's Column.  The paddles and screw, when
+working together at their highest pitch, exert a force equal to 11,500
+horsepower, which is sufficient to drive all the cotton-mills in
+Manchester!  The consumption of coal to produce this force is estimated
+at about 250 tons per day.
+
+Besides these engines there are also several auxiliary engines for
+pumping water into the boilers, etcetera.
+
+The passenger accommodation in the _Great Eastern_ is very extensive--
+namely, 800 first-class, from 2000 to 4000 second-class, and about 1200
+third-class passengers; or if troops alone were taken, it could
+accommodate 10,000 men.
+
+The _saloons_ are fitted up in the most elaborate and costly manner.
+The chief saloon is magnificently furnished.  It is said that the
+mirrors, gilding, carpeting, and silk curtains for this apartment alone
+cost 3000 pounds.  In the berths, of course, no attempt is made at
+costly decoration of this kind, though the fittings are good and
+sufficiently luxurious.  The berths are arranged in three classes: those
+for parties of six or eight, and these are large rooms; those for
+parties of four; and the rest in the usual style of double cabins.  All
+are very roomy, as cabins go--very lofty, well lit, and those on the
+outer sides exceedingly well ventilated.  On the lower deck the berths
+are even larger, loftier, and more commodious than those on the upper.
+Both the berths and saloons here are in fact almost unnecessarily high,
+having very nearly fifteen feet in the clear.  The kitchens, pantries,
+and sculleries are all on the same extensive scale, and fitted with all
+the large culinary requisites of first-class hotels.  The ice-house
+holds upwards of 100 tons of ice; and the lofty wine-vaults--for such in
+fact they are--contain wine enough to form a good freight for an Oporto
+trader.
+
+_Miscellanea_.--In addition to the boats of the _Great Eastern_ (twenty
+in number), she carries two small screw-steamers, each 100 feet long, 16
+feet broad, 120 tons burden, and 40 horse-power, suspended aft of the
+paddle-boxes.
+
+As the captain's voice could not be heard half-way to the bow, even with
+the aid of the ancient speaking-trumpet, that instrument is supplanted
+by _semaphore_ signals by day, and _coloured_ lamps by night; the
+_electric telegraph_ is also used in connection with the engine-rooms.
+There are ten _anchors_, four of them being Trotman's patent, weighing
+seven tons each.  The _cables_ are each 400 fathoms long, and their
+united weight is 100 tons.  The _tonnage_ of the _Great Eastern_ is
+18,500 tons register, and 22,500 tons builders' measurement.  The _crew_
+at first consisted of thirteen officers, seventeen engineers, a
+sailing-master, and a purser, four hundred men, and two or three
+surgeons, all under the command of the late Captain W. Harrison,
+(formerly of the Cunard line).
+
+The _launch_ of this leviathan was a most formidable undertaking, and
+was accomplished by means of powerful hydraulic rams, which propelled
+the vessel down the launching "ways."  The ship rested on two gigantic
+cradles, and was forced sideways down the inclined plane, until she
+floated on the river.  By a complication of ingenious contrivances the
+great ship was regulated in her descent so as to proceed slowly and
+regularly down the ways.  Several unsuccessful attempts were made to
+launch her, and several of the hydraulic rams broke down ere she floated
+on the bosom of Old Father Thames; and the cost of this operation alone
+is said to have been nearly 100,000 pounds.
+
+The _trial of the engines_, both screw and paddle, took place for the
+first time on the 8th of August 1859, when the completion of the vessel
+was celebrated by a banquet on board.  The first movement of the
+gigantic cranks and cylinders of the paddle engines was made precisely
+at half-past one, when the great masses slowly rose and fell as
+noiselessly as the engines of a Greenwich boat, but exerting in their
+revolutions what seemed to be an almost irresistible power.  There was
+no noise, no vibration, nor the slightest sign of heating.  The
+tremendous frame of ironwork sprang at once into life and motion, with
+as much ease as if every rod and crank had been worked for the last ten
+years.
+
+The _trial trip_ of the _Great Eastern_ was an event that excited
+intense interest all over the kingdom.  For the first time, she cast off
+her moorings on Wednesday morning, (the 7th September), and reached the
+Nore on Thursday, where she anchored for the night before proceeding to
+sea.  On Friday morning, at ten minutes past nine, she started on her
+first salt-water voyage.  A conviction of the extreme steadiness of the
+vessel must speedily have seized everyone on board.  There was no
+perceptible motion of any kind.  The giant ship was speedily surrounded
+by yachts, tugs, fishing-smacks, and, indeed, by a representative of
+almost every kind of vessel which is prevalent at the Nore.  These
+accompanied her as far on her way as their limited sailing powers would
+permit.  Although there were sharp squalls and a chopping sea nearly all
+through the trip, not the slightest inconvenience was felt by any of the
+visitors, not even among the fairer portion of the passengers.  The
+morning, which was rather fine at starting, suddenly became clouded, and
+the shifting squalls increased in violence.  Though the squally state of
+the weather damped the pleasure of all on board, yet it afforded an
+opportunity of trying the properties of the ship, now under paddle as
+well as screw; and it was the wish of Mr Scott Russell and all on board
+to meet a good gale of wind.  At a moderate computation, the distance
+from the deck to the water could not be much less than forty feet, while
+the vessel is nearly seven hundred feet long.  This area would, of
+course, present an enormous surface to the force of the wind, and formed
+the subject of considerable discussion as to the effect it would have on
+her sea-going qualities.  The ship was as stiff and steady as though she
+still remained on her cradles in the Isle of Dogs, and her course was as
+calm and true as though she were on a lake without a capful of wind.
+
+It is said that at one portion of the voyage she steamed nineteen miles
+an hour.
+
+The _explosion_.--All went well till the ship had passed Folkestone.
+About half-past five o'clock, while the majority of the passengers were
+on deck, and a few gentlemen only remained in the dining saloon, a
+tremendous explosion occurred, and in an instant showers of broken
+glass, and fragments of wood and iron, came crashing through the
+skylight.  Those in the cabin rushed on deck.  The ship was still
+pressing onward; at either end all was still and deserted, while in the
+centre all was smoke, fire, vapour, and confusion.  The great funnel, of
+eight tons weight, had been shot up as if from a mortar, and fell on the
+deck broken in two pieces.  The whole centre of the ship seemed to be
+only one vast chasm, and from it were belching up steam, dust, and
+something that looked like incipient conflagration.  Captain Harrison
+acted nobly on this terrible occasion.  He had been standing on the
+bridge overhead, looking into the binnacle, and the moment he heard the
+report, and whilst the destructive shower was still falling fast, he
+jumped upon the deck, and ordered an immediate descent to the ladies'
+saloon, in the firm conviction that they were all there as on the
+previous evening.  But many of the men were panic-stricken, and had
+already shrunk away from the explosion.  A foolish passenger had raised
+a cry of "The boats," and, assisted by some of the sailors, was madly
+attempting to let them down.  In one moment all would have been lost;
+for the rush to the boats would have been general, and hundreds been
+drowned, whilst the noble ship would have been left to certain
+destruction.  But the voice of the captain was heard like a trumpet,
+calling out, "Men, to your duty; officers, to your posts; give me a
+rope, and let six men follow me!"  The effect of this short address was
+electric.  In an instant he had slid down the rope into the saloon,
+followed by his brave boatswain Hawkins, and six volunteers were not
+long wanted for the forlorn hope.  One after another he dashed open the
+gilded panels; but the splendid apartment had, strange to say, only two
+inhabitants,--his little daughter Edith, and her pet dog.  It was the
+reward of his gallantry that his own child should be thus the one to be
+so providentially saved.  But even then he did not for a moment lose his
+self-command.  Snatching up the child, and with one glance seeing that
+she was unharmed, he exclaimed, "Pass her along to the deck; there are
+more rooms to be searched."  In this way did he move about rapidly, but
+coolly, and did not again return to the deck until he had satisfied
+himself that not a single woman was in the burning, steaming,
+suffocating chamber.  His intimate friend, Mr Trotman, who had followed
+him down almost immediately, found the poor lap-dog moaning under a heap
+of ruins, and was the means of restoring it to its little mistress.
+
+The magnificent saloon was a mass of torn and shattered furniture,
+mirrors, and ornaments.  Had the passengers adjourned to this apartment
+after dinner, instead of to the deck, the consequences would have been
+awful.
+
+An eye-witness describes the scene of devastation as follows:--
+
+"The mirrors which formed the covering of the funnel which had been the
+cause of so much mischief were literally smashed to atoms, and large
+fragments of the broken glass were hurled upon deck, a long distance aft
+of the paddle-wheels.  The ornamental bronzed columns which supported
+the gilt cornices and elaborate ornamentation, were either struck down
+or bent into the most fantastic shapes; the flooring, consisting of
+three-inch planks, was upheaved in several places; the gangways leading
+to the sleeping-cabins at the sides were shot away; the handrails were
+gone, and the elegant carpet was concealed beneath a chaos of fragments
+of finery.  The books on the shelves of the library remained unmoved;
+the piano was thrown on one side; and the floor presented huge upheaved
+and rent chasms, through which might be seen the still greater ruin in
+the lower cabin.  Below the saloon, or drawing-room, is the saloon of
+the lower deck, which was, of course, traversed by the same funnel as
+the one above it.  On each side of these spacious saloons were small
+staircases leading to blocks of sleeping-cabins, scarcely one of which
+would have been without its two or more occupants a few hours later in
+the evening.  They were now blown down like a house of cards.  The
+furniture which they contained formed heaps of dislocated chairs, and
+wash-stands, and basins; the doors were off their hinges, the partitions
+were forced outward, the staircases leading to them had to be sought in
+the splinters and broken wood which lay in heaps in the lower saloon."
+
+The unhappy men who were working in the stoke-holes and tending the
+furnaces were the sufferers by this catastrophe.  Believing that one of
+the boilers had exploded, fears were entertained that the whole body of
+stokers and engineers attending the paddle engines were killed.  Mr
+Trotman went down the air-shaft communicating with the other boilers.
+Seeing by the light of the furnaces a number of men moving about, he
+inquired if they were all right, and the response sent up from these
+lowest depths of the ship was, "All right at present, but we don't know
+how long."  They were told to keep quiet, and stay where they were; that
+they could be of no service on deck, and all would be well in a few
+minutes.  The gallant fellows remained by their fiery furnaces with
+resolute good-will.  In the case of the firemen tending the other set of
+boilers a very different scene was taking place.  Ropes were thrown
+down, and, one by one, wounded, bleeding, and staggering men were drawn
+up, their black, begrimed faces forming a ghastly contrast with scalded
+portions of their limbs and bodies.  The men were taken aft to the
+hospital, and to the cabins, where mattresses and blankets were laid for
+them.
+
+Two or three of these poor fellows walked up to the deck almost, if not
+quite, unassisted.  Their aspect told its own tale, and none who had
+ever seen blown-up men before could fail to know at a glance that some
+had only two or three hours to live.  Where not grimed by the smoke or
+ashes, the peculiar bright, soft whiteness of the face, hands, or
+breast, told at once that the skin, though unbroken, had in fact been
+boiled by the steam.  One man walked along, and seemed quite unconscious
+that the flesh of his thighs, (most probably by the ashes from the
+furnace), was burnt in deep holes.  To some one who came to his
+assistance he said quietly, "I am all right.  There are others worse
+than me; go and look after them."  This poor man was the first to die.
+It was seen at once that but little hope existed for many, if not the
+majority, of the sufferers, who were twelve in number.  Most of them
+seemed very restless, and almost, if not quite, delirious; but a few of
+those whose injuries were likely to be more immediately fatal remained
+quiet, half unconscious, or at most only asking to be covered up, as if
+they felt the cold.  For these latter all knew that nothing whatever
+could be done, as, in fact, they were then dying.
+
+The explosion had occurred in the double casing round the bottom of one
+of the funnels.  We have not space to describe this minutely, and by the
+general reader the description, were it given, would scarce be
+understood; but it is well to remark that the piece of machinery which
+caused the deplorable accident had been previously condemned in strong
+terms by competent judges, and there is no doubt that the hot-water
+casing round the funnel ought never to have been there.
+
+After the catastrophe, the _Great Eastern_ kept on her course as though
+nothing had happened, although the force of the explosion was sufficient
+to have sent any other ship to the bottom.  The damage was estimated at
+5000 pounds.  She arrived at Portland on the 10th, and remained there
+for some time undergoing repairs.  Afterwards she continued her trial
+trip to Holyhead, where she arrived on the 10th of October.  The results
+of the trial, excepting, of course, the accident, were most
+satisfactory.  Her speed under disadvantageous circumstances had been
+good, and her engines had worked admirably.  Against a gale of head wind
+she went as steadily as if in harbour, but with the wind a-beam she
+rolled considerably.  Altogether there was good reason to hope that the
+_Great Eastern_ would fulfil the sanguine expectations of her warmest
+admirers.
+
+The following account of the continuation of her trial trip from
+Portland to Holyhead, as gathered from the _Times_, is exceedingly
+interesting:--When steam was up, and all ready for starting from
+Portland, the crew were sent forward to heave up the anchor.  Eighty men
+sufficed to drag the _Great Eastern_ up to and over her moorings.
+Bringing the anchor out of the ground, however, was not so easily
+managed; and it was not till all the musical resources known to sailors
+on such occasions were nearly exhausted that the tenacious gripe of
+Trotman's patent was released, when a slow drift with the tide showed
+that the great ship was again set free.  In another minute, without
+shouting, confusion, or hurry of any kind, and with less noise than is
+made by a 100-ton coaster, a slight vibration through the ship, with a
+thin line of foam astern, showed that the screw engines were at work and
+the vessel once more under way.  With such ease, with such perfect
+quietness and good order was everything accomplished, that the
+occasional cheering from the yachts and steamers was almost the first
+token given to those on board that the trial trip had commenced.  At a
+quarter to four the "way" on the vessel was rapid; her head went round
+like turning a pleasure-boat; and so little sign was given of the ship
+being under steam, that it seemed rather as if the breakwater had got
+adrift and was slowly floating past, than that the monster vessel was
+really cleaving the blue waves with a force which, as yet, we have seen
+no wind or sea to resist or check.  Directly the anchor was fished,
+Captain Harrison passed the word to steam ahead with both engines
+easily, and the wheels began their revolutions, slowly at first, but
+nevertheless making a track of foam upon the water such as they never
+made on the first start from Deptford to the Nore.  The accession of
+speed from working the paddles was at first but slight; not from any
+want of power, however, but simply from the fact that both engines were
+ordered to work slowly, and though propelling the great ship at
+something like eleven knots, were really scarcely driving at indicated
+half-speed.
+
+Quitting Portland, it was necessary to make rather a round turn on
+leaving the breakwater, as right ahead on the starboard bow was a small
+light-ship, looking like the skeleton of a vessel, and marking the
+presence of a dangerous shoal, known by the most appropriate and
+significant name of "The Shambles."  Inside this lay a long and turbid
+ridge of angry water, where the Race of Portland ran, and where a deep
+rolling swell, like the Bay of Biscay on a reduced scale, kept tumbling
+and breaking into spray like drifts of snow against the high, gaunt
+cliffs.  It, however, required no actual watching of the low green
+mounds of water, which seemed butting against the coast, to convince all
+on board that the _Great Eastern_ was at sea.  To the infinite relief
+and comfort of all the passengers, the vessel began to yield to reason,
+and to behave as much like another ship as she could consistently with
+her size.  It would be too much to say she rolled at this time; for when
+the _Great Eastern_ rolls, if ever she does roll, travellers may depend
+upon her accomplishing something in that peculiar style of ocean
+navigation quite in proportion to her bulk; but one thing is certain--
+that she went from side to side sufficiently to show that she was
+susceptible of the motion of the water, and that if ever she steams
+across a beam sea, she is likely to move to it with a will, though
+slowly and easily.
+
+Continuing for a considerable time under little more than half steam,
+the _Great Eastern_ averaged more than thirteen knots, (fifteen miles),
+an hour.  The best guide to the rapidity of the ship's progress was the
+way in which she passed fast-sailing schooners and overhauled the
+steamers.  At this time nearly all the swell had ceased, and the monster
+ship was rushing over what to her were the mimic waves, and leaving less
+wake upon the waters than is caused in the Thames by a Gravesend boat.
+The only peculiarity about her progress was the three distinct lines of
+frothy water which the screw and paddles made, and which, stretching out
+in the clear moonlight like a broad highway, seemed as if the _Great
+Eastern_ had fulfilled her purpose, and really bridged the sea.
+
+For a considerable part of the way the paddles were working easily at
+from nine to ten, and the screw at from thirty-two to thirty-four
+revolutions per minute.  It will give most readers a better idea of the
+tremendous nature of the size and speed of the engines which worked so
+easily, when it is said that, at ten revolutions, the paddle-wheels
+dashed through the water at something like 1600 feet per minute, and the
+screw revolved at 2500.  When accomplishing this, the consumption of
+fuel was at the rate of 250 tons a day for both engines, the indicated
+power being above 5000 horses--about 2000 horses for the paddles, and a
+little over 3500 for the screw.  In order to secure her going at full
+speed, however, under such circumstances, the great ship should have
+been down by the stern at least eighteen inches more than she really
+was, for not less than a foot of the screw-blades was out of the water,
+and the slip or loss of power was of course very great.  Off the coast
+of Cornwall, the swell caused her to roll very considerably, as long as
+she was a-beam of the long swell.
+
+Soon after this a small brig was seen right under the starboard bow.  As
+usual with these small coasters, she was showing no light and keeping no
+look-out, and but for the anxious vigilance exercised on board the big
+ship, the brig would have been under the waves in two minutes more.  Her
+escape was narrow enough, and nothing short of the instant stoppage of
+the engines and actually reversing the screw saved her from swift
+destruction.  She drifted from under the starboard paddle within twenty
+yards--quite close enough to enable Captain Harrison to speak to her
+master, and to express a very strong opinion on his style of navigation
+and conduct generally.
+
+Towards the close of the trip all the fore and aft sails were set.  The
+look of her vast spread of canvas and the extraordinary effect it
+produced, as one stood at the wheel-house and gazed beneath the long
+vista of brown sails stretched to the very utmost, and sending off the
+wind with the sustained roar of a volcano, was something almost
+indescribable.  No mere description could convey a fair idea of the
+curious effect of the long, unbroken avenue of masts, sails, and
+funnels,--like a whole street of steamships, if such a term is fairly
+applicable.
+
+The rate of going throughout the whole trip was very satisfactory.
+Allowing for the want of trim on the part of the vessel, and consequent
+absence of immersion in both screw and paddles, it was calculated from
+this data, by all the nautical authorities on board, that, in proper
+condition, the vessel might be depended on for eighteen miles an hour
+throughout a long voyage, and under steam alone.  That in a strong and
+favourable breeze she would at times accomplish eighteen knots, or more
+than twenty-one miles an hour, there was no reason to doubt.
+
+Among other tests to which the _Great Eastern_ was subjected was the
+terrible storm of the 25th and 26th October of that year, (1859), in
+which the _Royal Charter_ went down.  She lay at anchor in the harbour
+of Holyhead during that storm.  So fierce was the gale that a large part
+of the breakwater was destroyed, and several vessels went down inside
+the harbour, while some were driven on shore.  For one hour the big ship
+was as near destruction as she is ever likely to be.  Her salvation,
+under God, was due to the experience and energy of Captain Harrison and
+his officers.  During the whole gale the captain was on the watch,
+sounding the lead to see if she dragged, and keeping the steam up to be
+in readiness to put to sea at a moment's notice.  The gale roared and
+whistled through the rigging with indescribable fury.  The captain, in
+trying to pass along the deck, was thrown down, and his waterproof coat
+was blown to ribbons.  The cabin skylights were thrown open with a
+fearful crash, the glass broken, and deluges of rain and spray poured
+into the saloons.  Two anchors were down, one seven tons, the other
+three, with eighty and sixty fathoms of chain respectively; but the
+ground was known to be bad, and the lee-shore rocky, while the waves
+came curling and writhing into harbour, straining the cables to the
+utmost, and dashing against the rocks like avalanches of snow.  The dash
+of these billows on the breakwater was like the roar of artillery.  All
+this time the red light at the end of the breakwater shone out cheerily
+in the midst of a turmoil of spray.  At last masses of the timber-work
+and solid masonry gave way.  The gale rose to its fiercest, and one huge
+billow came rolling in; it towered high above the breakwater; it fell,
+and the red light was seen no more.  The danger was now imminent.  The
+cables could evidently bear no more, and the gale was increasing; so the
+screw was set going, but the wreck of timber from the breakwater fouled
+it and brought it to a dead-lock.  Then the wind veered round more to
+the north-east, sending a tremendous swell into the harbour, and the
+_Great Eastern_ began to roll heavily.  In this extremity the paddle
+engines were set going, and the ship was brought up to her anchors, one
+of which was raised for the purpose of being dropped in a better
+position.  At this moment the cable of the other anchor parted, and the
+great ship drifted swiftly toward what seemed certain destruction; but
+the heavy anchor was let go, and the engines turned on full speed.  She
+swung round head to wind, and was brought up.  This was the
+turning-point.  The gale slowly abated, and the _Great Eastern_ was
+saved, while all round her the shores and harbour were strewn with
+wrecks.
+
+After the gale the _Great Eastern_ started on her return trip to
+Southampton, which she reached in safety on the morning of the 3rd
+November.  In this, as in her previous experiences, the mighty ship was
+well tested, and her good and bad points in some degree proved.  At the
+very outset the steam gear for aiding in lifting the anchors broke down,
+and one of the anchors refusing to let go, was broken in half.  The
+condenser of the paddle engines seems to have been proved too small in
+this trip.  For some time she went against a stiff head-wind and sea--
+which is now well known to be the great ship's forte--with perfect
+steadiness; but on getting into the channel she rolled slowly but
+decidedly, as if bowing--acknowledging majestically the might of the
+Atlantic's genuine swell.  Here, too, a wave actually overtopped her
+towering hull, and sent a mass of _green_ water inboard!  But her roll
+was peculiarly her own, and wonderfully easy.
+
+The vessel made eighteen knots an hour.  She was under perfect command,
+even in narrow and intricate channels, and, despite her varied mishaps
+and trials, passed through this stormy period of her infancy with
+credit.
+
+_Disaster to "Great Eastern" in September 1861_.--Having made three
+successful voyages to America, the Great Eastern, after all her
+troubles, was beginning to establish her reputation, to confirm the
+hopes of her friends and silence the cavils of her enemies, when the bad
+fortune that has been her portion from the cradle once more overwhelmed
+her, and shook, if it did not altogether destroy, the confidence in her
+capabilities which the public had been beginning tardily to entertain.
+
+There is nothing more difficult to ascertain than the true state of the
+case--with reference to culpability, accidental circumstance, inherent
+or incidental weakness, negligence, unavoidable risks, etcetera--in such
+a disaster as that which happened to the great ship in September of
+1861.  And nothing could be more unfair than to pass judgment on her
+without a full knowledge of the minute particulars, and, moreover, a
+pretty fair capacity to understand such details and their various
+relations.  Before proceeding with the narrative of the event referred
+to, we may remark that while, on the one hand, it may be argued, with
+great plausibility, that her numerous disasters and misfortunes prove
+that she is unfitted for the navigation of the sea, it may, on the other
+hand, be argued, with equal plausibility, that the very fact of her
+having come through such appalling trials unconquered, though buffeted,
+is strong presumptive evidence that she is eminently fitted for her
+work, and that, under ordinary circumstances and _proper_ management,
+she would do it well.  It is believed that any other vessel afloat would
+have been sunk had she been exposed to the same storm _under similar
+circumstances_.  It must be borne in mind that, although other vessels
+weathered the same storm successfully, they did not do so with their
+rudder and rudder-posts gone, their captains and part of their crews new
+to them, and their chain cables, cabin furniture, and other material
+left as totally unsecured as if she had been a river steamer about to
+start on a few hours' trip.
+
+On Tuesday the 10th of September the _Great Eastern_ left Liverpool for
+America with 400 passengers and a large, though not a full, general
+cargo.  Between 100 and 200 of the passengers occupied the berths in the
+principal cabins; the remainder of them occupied the intermediate and
+steerage cabins.
+
+All went on prosperously until the Thursday, when, as the ship was in
+full steam and sail, she encountered a terrific gale about 280 miles to
+the west of Cape Clear, and, in spite of the best seamanship, she failed
+to ride over the storm, which, with tremendous fury, swept away both her
+paddles.  Simultaneously the top of the rudder-post, a bar of iron ten
+inches in diameter, was suddenly wrenched off, and her steering gear
+being also carried away, she broached to and lay like a huge log in the
+trough of the sea.  From Thursday evening until two o'clock on Sunday,
+her bulwarks almost touching the water, she rolled about like a disabled
+hulk, the passengers and crew expecting that she would every moment go
+down.  The working and rolling of the vessel, at one instant of dread,
+displaced and destroyed all the furniture of the cabin and saloons, and,
+broke it to pieces, throwing the passengers pell-mell about the cabin.
+Everything that occupied the upper deck was washed away, and a large
+part of the passengers' luggage was destroyed.  Between twenty and
+thirty of those who were on board, including several ladies, had limbs
+and ribs fractured, with numerous cuts and bruises.  One of the
+cow-sheds, with two cows in it, was washed into the ladies' cabin,
+together with other things on board, and caused indescribable
+consternation and confusion.
+
+On Sunday evening, after two days of terrible suspense, a temporary
+steering gear was fitted up, and the disabled vessel with her distressed
+crew made for Cork Harbour, steaming with her screw at nine knots an
+hour.  Her flag of distress was sighted at about three o'clock in the
+afternoon of Tuesday, off the Old Head of Kinsale, and H.M. ship
+_Advice_ at once steamed out to her assistance and towed her to within a
+mile of the lighthouse off Cork Harbour by about nine o'clock.
+
+Such is a general outline of this disaster--one which is rendered all
+the more remarkable from the circumstance that the vessel had only been
+recently surveyed by the officers of the marine department of the Board
+of Trade, when new decks and other requirements were carried out and
+completed at a cost of 15,000 pounds.
+
+The scene during the storm in the grand saloon, as described in detail
+by various passengers, was absolutely terrific.  None of the furniture
+had been secured, and when the gale became violent and the rolling of
+the vessel increased, sideboards, tables, chairs, stools, crockery,
+sofas, and passengers were hurled with fearful violence from side to
+side in a promiscuous heap.  When it is said that at each roll the top
+platform of the paddle-boxes dipped into the sea, anyone who has seen
+the towering sides of the _Great Eastern_ may form some conception of
+the angle of the decks, and the riot of unfastened articles that
+continued below during the greater part of the gale.  The destruction
+was universal.  The largest mirror in the grand saloon, which was about
+twelve feet high, was smashed to pieces by a gentleman going head
+foremost into it.  Although much bruised and cut, strange to say he was
+not seriously injured.  The chandeliers fell from the ceiling, and the
+crashes they made in falling added to the general din.  One of the other
+mirrors was smashed by a large stove.  Some of the passengers escaping
+from the dining-room were dashed against the iron balconies, which gave
+way with the pressure, and falling on the glass flooring at the sides,
+dashed it to atoms.  The noise and turmoil of destruction below,
+together with the howling of the tempest above and the dashing of spray
+over the decks, whence it flowed in copious streams down into the
+cabins, formed a scene which cannot be fully conceived except by those
+who witnessed it.
+
+On deck, the confusion was equally great and destructive.  Many of the
+boats were carried away.  The great chain cables rolled from side to
+side, until they were actually polished bright by the friction, while
+they were a source of perpetual danger to the crew in the performance of
+their duties.  The oil-tanks broke loose, and after tumbling about for a
+time, fell down through the upper hatchway.  And the two cows that fell
+with their cow-shed down into the ladies' cabin were killed by the
+violence of the shock.  The chief cook was flung against one of the
+paddle-boxes, and having put out his hand to save himself, had his wrist
+sprained.  He was then flung towards the other side, and coming against
+a stanchion in the way, had his leg fractured in three places.  One lady
+had a rib fractured; another her shoulder dislocated; another her wrist.
+These are only specimens, selected to show what the poor people were
+subjected to.  It is said that there were twenty-two fractures
+altogether, among passengers and crew, besides innumerable cuts and
+bruises.  The cabins were flooded to the depth of several feet, and
+broken articles of furniture floated about everywhere.  The luggage in
+the luggage-room, which had not been secured, was hurled about, until
+trunks, boxes, valises, etcetera, striking against each other, and
+against the sides of the compartment, were utterly destroyed--the very
+leather of the trunks being torn into small shreds.
+
+Throughout all this terrible scene, the passengers behaved, with one or
+two exceptions, admirably.  The ladies especially displayed great
+courage--remaining, in accordance with the desires intimated to them, in
+their cabins; while the gentlemen did their best to keep order.  On the
+Friday, they appointed a sort of committee or police force, of upwards
+of twenty strong, who took the duty in turns of going round the vessel,
+keeping order, carrying information to, and reassuring, the ladies and
+children.  Four only of these, who were called directors, had the
+privilege of speaking to the captain during the storm--thus saving him
+from the annoyance of repeated and ceaseless questioning.
+
+The crew also did their duty nobly.  Captain Walker acted throughout
+with calmness, courage, and good judgment; and from the tenor of
+resolutions passed at an indignation meeting, held by the passengers
+after their return into port, it would appear that they entirely
+exonerated him from any blame in reference to the disaster.  The fitting
+up of temporary steering gear, which was begun on the Sunday when the
+storm moderated, was a work of great difficulty and danger.  It was
+accomplished chiefly through the courage and cleverness of two men--John
+Carroll and Patrick Grant--who volunteered for it, and were let down
+over the stern at the imminent risk of their lives; and an American
+gentleman, Mr Towle, a civil engineer, rendered great assistance in
+superintending and directing the work.
+
+It was not until two o'clock on Sunday morning that the vessel got up
+steam in her screw boilers, and steered for Cork Harbour.  The whole of
+the ironwork of both paddle-wheels was carried entirely away.  The
+ladder leading up to the larboard paddle-box was twisted in an
+extraordinary manner.  The boats on the starboard side were all gone,
+and those on the other side were hanging loosely from their fastenings.
+Altogether, the great ship presented a most melancholy spectacle as she
+was towed into port.
+
+At the meeting of the passengers already referred to, the first
+resolution was expressive of their grateful acknowledgments to Almighty
+God for his kind care in protecting them during the storm, and bringing
+them in safety out of their danger.  The second condemned the directors,
+and stated that "the _Great Eastern_ was sent to sea thoroughly
+unprepared to face the storms which everyone must expect to meet with in
+crossing the Atlantic; and that, if it had not been for the
+extraordinary strength of the hull, and the skill which was manifested
+in the construction of the vessel and its engines, in all human
+probability every soul on board would have perished."
+
+It has been said that if the ship had been more deeply laden she would
+have weathered the gale more easily.  This, if true, is an argument in
+her favour.  But in viewing the whole circumstances of this and previous
+disasters, we cannot avoid being deeply impressed with the fact that the
+_Great Eastern had not up to that time had fair play_.  In her
+construction and general arrangements there have been some grave, and
+numerous more or less trivial errors.  From first to last there has been
+a good deal of gross mismanagement; but the _Great Eastern_ cannot, with
+justice, be pronounced a failure.  Latterly she has done good service in
+laying ocean telegraph-cables, a species of work for which she is
+pre-eminently well adapted.  It is possible that she may yet live to
+ride out many a wild Atlantic storm, and perchance become the first of a
+race of ponderous giants who shall yet walk the deep,--to the utter
+confusion of timid croakers, and to the immense advantage of the world.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+CURIOUS CRAFT OF MANY LANDS.
+
+"Many men, many minds," runs the proverb.  "Many nations, many ships,"
+is almost equally true.  A nation may show its individuality in the
+fashion of its marine architecture as much as in any other direction--
+as, for instance, in its national dress, dwelling-houses, food,
+amusements; and an ethnologist in studying a people's characteristics
+may do wisely not to overlook its ships and boats.
+
+Even in Europe, where an advanced civilisation may be supposed to be
+slowly smoothing off national characteristics and peculiarities, and
+gradually blending and amalgamating diverse national customs, there
+still exists a considerable disparity in the marine architecture of
+different states; while between the ships of Europe and those of some
+parts of Asia the gulf is certainly broad enough, so that about the only
+point of resemblance between an English ironclad and a Chinese junk is,
+that both are manifestly better adapted for the sea than the land.  We
+now propose describing some of the more curious craft peculiar to
+various nations, beginning with Europe:
+
+The Dutch galliot is a somewhat peculiar craft to the eye of an
+Englishman; heavy and clumsy-looking beyond doubt, but a good sea-boat
+notwithstanding.  The galliot looks much the same, whether you regard
+her from stem or from stern, both being almost equally rounded.  Keel
+she has scarce any; her floors are flat, hull broad and deep, and rudder
+very wide.  Hung on each side is a large lee-board, to keep her from
+making too much leeway.  Her hull is varnished a bright yellow colour,
+and shines in the sun.  Her bulwarks are lofty; and a wooden house is
+placed aft, where the captain and his family live, and which is always
+kept brightly painted.  This part of the ship is a remarkably snug
+place, comfortably furnished, and kept with the characteristic Dutch
+cleanliness and neatness.  Forward is the caboose of the crew, a wide,
+low, but roomy erection.
+
+The galliot is rigged with square sails on her mainmast, a fore and aft
+main-sail, a gaff mizzen and mizzen gaff top-sails, and a high bowsprit.
+Her sails are sometimes white, sometimes tanned.  If the reader has
+ever chanced to enter the port of Rotterdam, he will have encountered
+plenty of examples of the craft we are describing; and if he did not
+altogether approve or admire their shape, he must at least have been
+struck by their remarkable cleanness and brightness.  A Dutch galliot
+may be fifty, eighty, or even a hundred and fifty tons burden.  When the
+Dutch build vessels of a larger size than this, they do so on very
+similar lines to English merchantmen, though usually somewhat broader
+and bluffer.
+
+Off the coast of Portugal we meet with many different kinds of craft, of
+which the trading schooners differ from almost any other kind of vessel.
+Broad in the beam, and short in the counter, some are rounded at the
+stem, some nearly square.  They are decked, and are from forty to one
+hundred tons burden.  They are peculiarly rigged, having only lower
+masts stepped at different angles.  The gaffs of the fore-sail, as well
+as the main-sail, can be raised to different heights.  They have fore
+stay-sail, jib and flying jib, gaff top-sails, and a large square sail
+and square top-sails.  On the whole, they are ungainly-looking craft in
+the extreme; but they are very capable sea-boats, and make voyages as
+far as South America.
+
+Mr W.H.G. Kingston gives a graphic description of a Portuguese craft
+which it has never been our fortune to see.  He calls it the Lisbon
+bean-pod, from its exact resemblance to that vegetable, and affirms it
+to be the most curious of European craft, which we can readily believe.
+"Take a well-grown bean-pod," he says, "and put it on its convex edge,
+and then put two little sticks, one in the centre and one at the bows,
+raking forward, for the masts, and another in the bows, steeving up, for
+the bowsprit, and another astern for a boomkin or outrigger, and then
+you have before you the boat in question."  These boats carry a lateen
+sail, sail very fast, and are much used on the waters of the Tagus as
+fishing-boats and trawlers.
+
+Other curious craft to be met with in Europe are the scamparia and
+felucca of the Mediterranean, the Greek mystico and the trabacalo of the
+Adriatic.  The gondola, than which, perhaps, nothing that floats on the
+waters is suggestive of more romantic and poetical associations, is so
+familiar to everybody from pictures, and has so often been introduced
+into story, song, and narratives of travel, that we shall not pause to
+describe it.
+
+Passing from Europe to Africa, we note among the craft peculiar to that
+country the diabiah or Nile boat, a very comfortable travelling boat for
+warm climates.  It is a large boat, and contains a house at one end, in
+which the passengers sleep at night, or take refuge from the sun's
+fierce heat by day.
+
+In Asia a great variety of vessels and boats of various shapes and sizes
+are met with, to describe all of which would carry us far beyond the
+space at our disposal.  The dhow of the Arabs runs from sixty to a
+hundred tons, is almost entirely open, and has a sharp pointed bow,
+projecting for a considerable distance beyond the hull.  On the high,
+broad stern a covered-in poop is placed, containing the quarters of the
+captain and passengers.  The stern is usually ornamented with carving,
+as English vessels used to be in old days.  The dhow carries but one
+sail, lateen-shaped, and the mast stoops forward at a sharp angle.
+These craft have not unfrequently been engaged in the nefarious slave
+traffic carried on on the east coast of Africa.
+
+The catamaran of Madras can only be called a boat on the _lucus a non
+lucendo_ principle, for it consists simply of three logs placed side by
+side, pointed at the bows, and kept together by two cross-pieces.  Yet
+this rude raft does good service in its way, being the only means of
+communication in rough weather between vessels lying off Madras and the
+shore; for there are no wharves at Madras, and ships are compelled to
+anchor in the offing.  When the sea runs so high that boats of the
+ordinary kind are useless, the services of the catamarans are gladly
+enough made use of.
+
+The native boatmen, seated on their log rafts, and quite naked, make
+their way through the roughest surf to the vessels, carrying messages to
+and from the land.  The rower propels his boat with a rather long
+paddle.  Sometimes he is washed off his catamaran into the sea; but
+being an expert swimmer, he usually recovers his seat without much
+trouble, and it rarely happens that any of these men are drowned.
+
+We spoke a little space back of the national characteristics of a people
+being traceable in its marine architecture as well as in other things,
+and surely this statement finds abundant illustration in the craft of
+the Chinese.  In China we find an intensely conservative people, and
+their national bent is undoubtedly indicated in their ships, which in
+all probability have not altered in any material regard for centuries.
+A Chinaman would be as slow to change the shape of his junk as his
+shoes, or the length of his pigtail.  And a strange, old-world,
+semi-barbarous look a Chinese junk has.
+
+Chinese junks vary greatly in size, but all present the same type of
+architecture.  The sails in every case are of brownish-yellow matting,
+swung across the mast like a main-sail, and having pieces of bamboo
+placed cross-wise and parallel to each other, making them look somewhat
+like venetian blinds.  These wooden strips both strengthen the sail and
+facilitate its reefing when lowered.
+
+A large Chinese junk rises high out of the water; there are two or more
+decks aft above the main-deck, painted and carved with various devices;
+and the cabins are often luxuriously furnished according to Celestial
+tastes.  If you look at any representation of a junk, you will notice
+that the rudder is very broad, resembling somewhat the rudder of a canal
+barge.  In spite of its primitive look, it has, after all, something
+picturesque about it; but we fancy that we would rather contemplate it
+in a picture than sail in one across the Atlantic.
+
+On the deck of a junk is always to be found a josshouse or temple, in
+front of which the crew keep incense, sticks, and perfumed paper
+continually burning.  When a calm overtakes an English vessel, the
+sailors and passengers are always supposed to try what "whistling for a
+wind" will effect.  In lieu of this method of "raising the wind," a
+Chinese sailor shapes little junks out of paper, and sets them afloat on
+the water as a propitiatory service to the divinity who has the welfare
+of seamen under his especial care.
+
+The river-life of China is very curious.  Quite a large proportion of
+the people spend their whole lives on the water, while many who are
+employed during the day on land sleep in boats on the various rivers.
+This condition of things corresponds in some degree to that described by
+Captain Marryat in that fine old story "Jacob Faithful," in the early
+chapters of which we get diverting glimpses of life on board a Thames
+lighterman.  But the river population of China is still more absolutely
+aquatic in manner of life than the Thames barge-folk.  The boats in
+which this class of the population live have an awning of bamboo and
+matting fore and aft, which is removed by day and raised at night.  At
+sundown the boat-people anchor their craft in rows to stakes, thus
+forming boat-terraces as it were.  When business grows slack at one part
+of the river, the master of the boat moves up or down stream to some
+other part.  From the shape of these boats, resembling somewhat the half
+of an egg cut lengthwise, they are called in the Chinese language
+"egg-boats."  A large family will sometimes pack itself into an egg-boat
+not much more than twelve feet long and six broad.
+
+These river-folk have characteristics which almost render them a people
+apart.  They have a code of laws of their own, differing in many points
+from that which governs the land community, and the two populations do
+not intermarry.  Women to a large extent navigate the egg-boats, as
+indeed they do many other kinds of boats in China.  Travellers report
+that these river-families live peaceable and happy enough lives, seldom
+disturbed by disputes of any kind.  Possibly one cause for this may be
+that which some humourist suggested as the reason why "birds in their
+little nests agree," namely, because it would be dangerous if they "fell
+out."  But, speaking seriously, it says much for the placable nature of
+these Chinese river-folk that they can pass such a happy existence
+within the narrow bounds of their egg-boats.
+
+Passing over to America, we shall first describe the famous American and
+Canadian river steamboats, which are in many respects as curious and
+unique as they are generally magnificent.  These steamers are usually
+paddle-boats; are very long and narrow in shape, but of great strength.
+On the hull a sort of lofty platform is built, which is divided into
+what may be called the middle and the main deck, one above the other.
+Fore and aft there is a spacious, luxuriously appointed, and richly
+decorated saloon, covered in with a glass roof.
+
+Ranged on each side of the saloon are the cabins, each containing two
+berths.  These sleeping-cabins, like the saloon, are prettily furnished
+and tastefully decorated.  Over the saloon is another deck or platform--
+the whole structure as may be seen from our illustration is very much
+"be-decked"--about the middle of the vessel and in front of the funnel.
+Here is situated the wheel, and here also the captain and officers take
+their position.  This part of the vessel is kept private to them, no
+passenger being permitted to trespass on it.
+
+Beneath the saloon-deck is the middle-deck, as has already been
+indicated, which also contains a saloon of its own, as well as sleeping
+apartments.  This portion of the steamer is usually reserved for the
+unmarried ladies among the passengers, who, as all readers of American
+literature must be aware, are treated in America with an almost
+chivalrous courtesy and consideration.
+
+The dining-saloon of the vessel is situated in a third and undermost
+deck, which reaches from the middle of the boat right aft, and is a
+well-lighted, well-arranged room.
+
+The cargo is placed amidships, heaped up in great piles--passenger boats
+seldom or never carrying heavy goods.  The American's passion for
+economising time is manifest in the steamboats as everywhere else, most
+of them carrying a barber, who will accommodate you with "easy shaving"
+during the voyage.  The barber's shop is forward with the cook's
+quarters and other offices.  American river-boats may vary, of course,
+in details, but we have endeavoured to indicate the leading
+characteristics of a typical example.  The stories current in regard to
+the facility with which an American steamboat blows up have been much
+exaggerated, but nevertheless it is probably true that they bear the
+bell in this direction of risk and danger.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Of all craft of the canoe order, the flying-proa of the Pacific is the
+swiftest.  It carries a sail almost triangular in shape, and a straight
+yard.  It has an outrigger; and outrigger, mast, and yard are of bamboo.
+Strong matting composes the sail, which is stretched very flat upon the
+yard.  When the crew wish to put their boat about they have merely to
+shift the sail, when what was before the prow of the proa becomes the
+stern.  These boats are usually manned by a crew of about half-a-dozen.
+One man sits at either end of the vessel and takes his turn of steering
+according to whatever tack the canoe is on.  The duty of the rest is to
+bail out the boat and to keep the sail properly trimmed.
+
+Nothing afloat, probably, can go so close to the wind as the
+flying-proa, while its speed is astonishing.  The Malays use the proa,
+but theirs is a broader, heavier, and less swift boat than that used by
+the Ladrone islanders of the Pacific, which is that which we have just
+described.
+
+The canoes of the Fijians are superior to those in use among any other
+of the South Sea islanders.  Their chief feature is that they are
+twin-canoes, joined together by cross-beams, which support a platform of
+from twelve to fifteen feet broad.  Of the two canoes, one is smaller
+than the other, and the smaller serves by way of an outrigger.  These
+canoes are sometimes one hundred feet long, their depth being usually
+about seven feet.  Sometimes a small cabin is built upon the platform.
+The mast is about thirty feet long, is supported by guys, and is
+furnished with a yard carrying a large sail.  There are small hatchways
+at both ends of the craft, at each of which one of the crew sits ready
+to bail out the boat.  The Fijian canoes can also be propelled by means
+of sculling, the sculler using a broad-bladed scull about ten feet in
+length.  A large canoe can be got through the water at the rate of two
+or three miles an hour by sculling.
+
+Various experiments have from time to time been made in the way of
+building boats and ships with double hulls, the object being to obtain
+increased stability, and thus reduce to a minimum the rolling and
+pitching of ordinary vessels.  The steamship Castalia was an ambitious
+attempt in this direction.  She was built for the passenger service
+between England and France.  But she did not realise the expectations
+formed of her.
+
+Most persons who have crossed from Dover to Calais, or vice versa, by
+the Calais-Douvre mail packet, will bear witness both to the comfort and
+speed of that vessel.  Up to this she has proved the most perfect form
+of steam-ship yet constructed for the purpose required.  The
+Calais-Douvre is built somewhat upon the same principle as the Castalia,
+but differs from that vessel in that whereas the latter was two
+half-ships joined together, each twin-portion of the Calais-Douvre is a
+perfect ship in itself.  The result has been, that while the Castalia
+was a failure, the Calais-Douvre has proved a distinct success.  She is
+three hundred feet in length and sixty feet in breadth; her tonnage is
+two thousand, and her water-draught only six feet, so that she can enter
+Calais Harbour at even a low tide.  Two transverse iron girder
+bulk-heads unite the two hulls of the vessel; and her steering apparatus
+is so simple, and at the same time so effective in construction, that
+one wheel is usually sufficient to work it.  She makes the passage from
+Dover to Calais usually in an hour and a half; but in very fine weather
+we ourselves have crossed in less than that time.  With the maximum rate
+of speed, the Calais-Douvre has attained the minimum amount of pitching
+and rolling yet secured by any Channel boat.  Her saloons, cabins, and
+decks are spacious and handsomely appointed, so that the Channel passage
+in this vessel is made under as favourable conditions for bad sailors as
+any sea-passage can be.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Man on the Ocean, by R.M. Ballantyne
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