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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:34:17 -0700 |
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diff --git a/27235-h/27235-h.htm b/27235-h/27235-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d99507 --- /dev/null +++ b/27235-h/27235-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8313 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Voyage Alone in the Yawl “Rob Roy”</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; margin-right: 1em; } + img.floatright { float: right; margin-left: 1em; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Voyage Alone in the Yawl “Rob Roy”, by John MacGregor</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Voyage Alone in the Yawl “Rob Roy”</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: John MacGregor</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 12, 2008 [eBook #27235]<br /> +[Most recently updated: March 20, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Price</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOYAGE ALONE IN THE YAWL “ROB ROY” ***</div> + +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/coverb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Book cover" +title= +"Book cover" +src="images/covers.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>THE<br /> +VOYAGE ALONE<br /> +<span class="smcap">in the</span><br /> +YAWL “ROB ROY,”</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">FROM LONDON TO PARIS, AND BY +HARVE<br /> +ACROSS THE CHANNEL TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT,<br /> +SOUTH COAST, &c., &c.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">B<span class="smcap">y</span> JOHN +MACGREGOR, M.A.,</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">captain +of</span> ‘<span class="smcap">the royal canoe +club</span>,’<br /> +<span class="smcap">author of</span> ‘<span class="smcap">a +thousand miles in the rob roy canoe</span>,’<br /> +‘<span class="smcap">the rob roy on the +baltic</span>,’<br /> +‘<span class="smcap">the rob roy on the +jordan</span>,’ &c.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>SIXTH EDITION</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:<br /> +SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap"><i>limited</i></span>.<br /> +St. Dunstan’s House,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Fetter Lane</span>, <span class="smcap">Fleet +Street</span>, E.C.<br /> +1893</p> +<p style="text-align: center">(<i>All rights reserved</i>.)</p> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:<br /> +<span class="smcap">printed by william clowes and sons</span>, +<span class="smcap">limited</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">stamford street and charing cross</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Frontispiece: A tight squeeze. See page 159" +title= +"Frontispiece: A tight squeeze. See page 159" +src="images/fps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>In the earlier part of this voyage, and where it was most +wished for, along the dangerous coast of France, fine weather +came.</p> +<p>Next there was an amphibious interlude to the Paris +Exhibition, while the Rob Roy sailed inland.</p> +<p>Thence her course over the sea brought the yawl across the +broad Channel (100 miles) to Cowes and its Regattas, and to rough +water in dark nights of thunder, until once more in the Thames +and up the Medway she was under bright skies again.</p> +<p>Cooking and sleeping on board, the writer performed the whole +journey without any companion; and perhaps this log of the voyage +will show that it was not only delightful to the lone sailor, but +useful to others.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Blackheath</span>, <span +class="smcap">Kent</span>,<br /> +<i>May</i>, 1880.</p> +<p>The Author’s profits from the +preceding Editions were devoted to Prizes for Boys in the +following Training Ships:—</p> +<p>The ‘<span class="smcap">Chichester</span>’ in the +<i>Thames</i>.<br /> +The ‘<span class="smcap">Arethusa</span>’ in the +<i>Thames</i>.<br /> +The ‘<span class="smcap">Cumberland</span>,’ in the +<i>Clyde</i>.<br /> +The ‘<span class="smcap">Indefatigable</span>,’ in +the <i>Mersey</i>.<br /> +The ‘<span class="smcap">Havannah</span>,’ in the +<i>Severn</i>.</p> +<p>The profits will again be devoted to similar Prizes as +explained in the Appendix.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Project—On the +stocks—Profile—Afloat alone—Smart +lads—Swinging—Anchors—Happy boys—Sea +reach—Good looks—Peep below—Important +trifles—In the well—Chart—Watch on +deck—Eating an egg—Storm sail.</p> +<p>It was a strange and pleasant life for me all the summer, +sailing entirely alone by sea and river fifteen hundred miles, +and with its toils, perils, and adventures heartily enjoyed.</p> +<p>The two preceding summers I had paddled alone in an oak canoe, +first through central Europe, and next over Norway and Sweden; +but though both of these voyages were delightful, they had still +the drawback, that progress was mainly dependent on muscular +effort, that food must be had from shore, and that I could not +sleep on the water.</p> +<p>In devising plans to make the pleasure of a voyage complete +then, many cogitations were had in the winter, +and these resulted in a beautiful little sailing-boat; and once +afloat in this, the water was my road, my home, my very world, +for a long and splendid summer.</p> +<p>The perfect success of these three voyages has been due mainly +to the careful preparation for them in the minute details which +are too often neglected. To take pains about these is a +pleasure to a man with a boating mind, but it is also a positive +necessity if he would ensure success; nor can we wonder at the +fate of some who get swamped, smashed, stove-in, or turned over, +when we see them go adrift in a craft which had been huddled into +being by some builder ignorant of what is wanted for the sailor +traveller, and is launched on unknown waters without due +preparation for what may come.</p> +<p>I resolved to have a thoroughly good sailing-boat—the +largest that could be well managed in rough weather by one strong +man, and with every bolt, cleat, sheave, and rope well-considered +in relation to the questions: How will this work in a +squall?—on a rock?—in the dark?—or in a rushing +tide?—a crowded lock; not to say in a storm?</p> +<p>The internal arrangements of my boat having been fully settled +with the advantage of the canoe experiences, the yacht itself was +designed by Mr. John White, of Cowes—and +who could do it better? She was to be first <i>safe</i>, +next <i>comfortable</i>, and then <i>fast</i>. If, indeed, +you have two men aboard, one to pick up the other when he falls +over, then you may put the last of the above three qualities +first, but not prudently when there is only one man to do the +whole.</p> +<p>The Rob Roy was built by Messrs. Forrestt, of Limehouse, the +builders for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and so she +is a lifeboat to begin with. Knowing how much I might have +to depend on oars now and then, my inclination was to limit her +length to about 18 ft., but Mr. White said that 21 ft. would +“take care of herself in a squall.” Therefore +that length was agreed upon, and the decision was never +regretted; still I should by no means advise any increase of +these dimensions.</p> +<p>One great advantage of the larger size, was that it enabled me +to carry in the cabin of my yawl, another boat, a little dingey +<a name="citation3"></a><a href="#footnote3" +class="citation">[3]</a> or punt, to go ashore by, to take +exercise in, and to use for refuge in last resource if +shipwrecked, for this dingey also I determined should be a +lifeboat, and yet only eight feet long. The childhood of +this little boat was somewhat unhappy, and as she grew into shape +she was quizzed unmercifully, and the people shook their heads +very wisely, as they did at the first Rob Roy canoe. Now +that we can reckon about three thousand of such canoes, and now +that this little dingey has proved a complete success and an +unspeakable convenience, the laugh may be forgotten. +However, ridicule of new things often does good if it begets +caution in changes, and stimulates improvement. Good things +get even benefit from ridicule, which may shake off the plaster +and paint, though it will not shiver the stone.</p> +<p>Thoroughly to enjoy a cruise with only two such dumb +companions as have been described, it is of importance that the +man who is to be with them should also be adapted for his +place. He must have good health and good spirits, and a +passion for the sea. He must learn to rise, eat, drink, and +sleep, as the water or winds decree, and not his watch. He +must have wits to regard at once the tide, breeze, waves, chart, +buoys, and lights; also the sails, pilot-book, and compass; and +more than all, to scan the passing vessels, and to cook, and eat, +and drink in the midst of all. With such pressing and +varied occupations, he has no time to feel “lonely,” +and indeed, he passes fewer hours in the week alone than many a +busy man in chambers. Of all the people I +have met with who have travelled on land or sea alone, not one +has told me it was “lonely,” though some who have +never tried the plan as a change upon life in a crowd, may fear +its unknown pleasures. As for myself, on this voyage I +could scarcely “get a moment to myself,” and there +was always an accumulation of things to be done, or read, or +thought over, when a vacant half-hour could be had. The man +who will feel true loneliness, is he who has one sailor with him, +or a “pleasant companion” soon pumped dry; for he has +isolation without freedom all day (and night too), and a tight +cramp on the mind. With a dozen kindred spirits in a yacht, +indeed, it is another matter; then you have freedom and company, +and (if you are not the owner) you are not slaves of the skipper, +but still you are <i>sailed</i> and <i>carried</i>, as passive +travellers, and perhaps after all you had better be in a big +steamer at once—the Cunard’s or the P. and O., with a +hundred passengers—real life and endless variety. +However, each man to his taste; it is not easy to judge for +others, but let us hope, that after listening to this log of a +voyage alone, you will not call it “lonely.”</p> +<p>The Rob Roy is a yawl-rig, so as to place the sailor between +the sails for “handiness.” She is +double-skinned to make her staunch and dry below, and she +is full-decked to keep out the sea above. She has an iron +keel and kelson to resist a bump on rocks, and with four +water-tight compartments to limit its effects if once stove +in. Her cabin is comfortable to sleep in, but only as +arranged when anchored for the purpose:—sleep at sea is +forbidden to her crew. Her internal arrangements for +cooking, reading, writing, provisions, stores, and cargo, are +quite different from those of any other yacht; all of them are +specially devised, and all well done; and now on the 7th of June, +at 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, she is hastily launched, +her ton and a half of pig-iron is put on board for ballast, the +luggage and luxuries for a three months’ voyage are loaded +in, her masts are stepped, the sails are bent, the flags unfold +to the breeze, the line to shore is slipped, and we are sailing +from Woolwich, never to have any person aboard in her progress +but the captain, until she returns to the builders’ +yard.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p6b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Drawing of the Rob Roy" +title= +"Drawing of the Rob Roy" +src="images/p6s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Often as a boy I had thought of the pleasure of being +one’s own master in one’s own boat; but the reality +far exceeded the imagination of it, and it was not a transient +pleasure. Next day it was stronger, and so to the end, +until at last, only duty forced me reluctantly from my floating +freehold to another home founded on London clay, sternly +immovable, and with the quarter’s rent to pay.</p> +<p>At Erith then the Royal Canoe Club held its first sailing +match, when five little paddling craft set up their bamboo masts +and pure white sails, and scudded along in a rattling breeze, and +twice crossed the Thames. They were so closely matched that +the winner was only by a few seconds first. Then a Club +dinner toasted the prizemen, and “farewell,” +“bon voyage” to the captain, who retired on board for +the first sleep in his yawl.</p> +<p>The Sunday service on board the Training-ship +‘Worcester,’ at Erith, is a sight to see and to +remember. The bell rings and boats arrive, some of them +with ladies. Here in the ’tween decks, with airy +ports open, and glancing water seen through them, are 100 +fresh-cheeked manly boys, the future captains of Taepings and +Ariels, and as fine specimens of the gentleman sailor-lad as any +Englishman would wish to see. Such neatness and order +without nonsense or prim awe. Health and brightness of +boyhood, with seamen’s smartness and silence: I hope they +do not get too much trigonometry. However, for the past +week they have been skurrying up aloft “to learn the +ropes,” skylarking among the rigging for play, and rowing +and cricketing to expand muscle and limb; and now on the day of +rest they sing beautifully to the well-played harmonium, then +quietly listen to the clergyman of the “Thames +Mission,” who has been rowed down here from his +floating church, anchored then in another bay of his liquid +parish, but now removed entirely.</p> +<p>The Royal National Lifeboat Institution had most kindly +presented to the Rob Roy one of its best lifeboat +compasses. The card of this compass floats in a mixture of +spirits, so as to steady its oscillations in a boat, and a +deft-like lamp alongside will light it up for use by night. +Only a sailor knows the peculiar feeling of regard and mystery +with which the compass of his craft becomes invested, the +companion in past or unknown future perils, his trusty guide over +the wide waste of waters and through the night’s long +blackness.</p> +<p>Having so much iron on board, and so near this wondrous +delicate needle, I determined to have the boat +“swung” at Greenhithe, where the slack tide allows +the largest vessels conveniently to adjust their compasses. +This operation consumed a whole day, and a day sufficed for the +Russian steamer alongside; but then the time was well +bestowed,—it was as important to me to steer the Rob Roy +straight as it could be to any Muscovite that he should sail +rightly in his ship of unpronounceable name. <a +name="citation10"></a><a href="#footnote10" +class="citation">[10]</a></p> +<p>While the compass was thus made perfect for use at one +end of the boat, her anchors occupied my attention at the +other.</p> +<p>It was necessary to carry an anchor heavy enough to hold well +in strong tides, in bad weather, and through the long nights, so +that I could sleep then without anxiety. On the other hand, +the anchor must be also light enough to be weighed and stowed by +one man, and this too in that precious twenty seconds of time, +when in weighing anchor, the boat, already loosed from the ground +but not yet got hold of by the sails, is swept bodily away by the +tide, and faces look cross from yachts around, being sure +you will collide, as a lubber is bound to do.</p> +<p>After considering the matter of anchors a long time, and +poising too the various opinions of numerous advisers, the Rob +Roy was fitted with a 50-lb. galvanized Trotman anchor and 30 +fathoms of chain, and also with a 20-lb. Trotman and a hemp +cable.</p> +<p>The operation of anchoring in a new place and that of weighing +anchor are certainly among the most testing and risky in a voyage +like this, where the circumstances are quite new on each +occasion, and where all has to be done by one man.</p> +<p>You sail into a port where in less than a minute you must +apprehend by one panoramic glance the positions of twenty +vessels, the run of the tide, and set of the wind, and depth of +the water; and this not only as these are then existing, but in +imagination, how they will be six hours hence, when the wind has +veered, the tide has changed, and the vessels have swung round, +or will need room to move away, or new ones will have +arrived.</p> +<p>These being the <i>data</i>, you have instantly to fix on a +spot where there will be water enough to float your craft all +night, and yet not so deep as to give extra work next morning; a +berth, too, which you can reach as at present sailing, and from +which you can start again to-morrow; one where there are no +moorings of absent vessels to foul your anchor, and where the +wind will not blow right into your sleeping cabin when the +moonlight chills, and where the dust will not blind you from this +lime barge, or the blacks begrime you from that coal brig as you +spread the yellow butter on your morning tartine.</p> +<p>The interest felt in doing this feat well is increased by +seeing how watchfully those who are already berthed will eye the +stranger, often speaking by their looks, and always feeling +“hope he won’t come too near <i>me</i>;” while +the penalty on failure in the proceeding is heavy and sharp, a +smash of your spars, a hole in your side, or a sleepless night, +or an hour of cable-clearing to-morrow, or all of them; and +certainly in addition, the objurgations of every yachtsman within +the threatened circle.</p> +<p>Undoubtedly the most unpleasant result of bad management is to +have damaged any other man’s boat; and I cannot but mention +with the greatest satisfaction, that after so often working my +anchors—at least two hundred times—and so many days +of sailing in crowded ports and rivers, on no one occasion did +the Rob Roy even brush the paint off any other vessel.</p> +<p>Not far from my yawl there was moored a fine old frigate, +useless now for war, but invaluable for +peace—the “‘Chichester’ Training-ship for +homeless boys of London.” It is for a class of lads +utterly different from those on the ‘Worcester,’ but +they are English boys still, and every Englishman ought to do +something for English boys, if he cares for the present or the +future of England.</p> +<p>Pale and squalid, thin, heartless, and homeless, they were; +but now, ruddy in the river breeze, neat and clean, alert with +energy, happy in their wooden home, with a kind captain and smart +officers to teach them, life and stir around, fair prospects +ahead, and a British seaman’s honest livelihood to be +earned instead of the miserable puling beggardom of the streets, +or the horrid company of the prison cell; which, that they should +lie in the path of any child of our land, adrift on the rough +tide of time at ten years old, is a glaring shame to the millions +of sovereigns in bankers’ books, and we shall have to +answer heavily if we let it be thus still longer. <a +name="citation14"></a><a href="#footnote14" +class="citation">[14]</a></p> +<p>The burgee flag of the Canoe Club flew always (white with our +paddle across Ɔ C in cipher) and another white flag on the +mizen-mast had the yawl’s name inscribed. +Six other gay colours were used as occasion required. These +all being hoisted on a fine bright day, and my voyage really +begun, the ‘Chichester’ lads ‘boyed’ the +rigging, and gave three ringing cheers as they shouted, +“Take these to France, sir!” and the frigate dipped +her ensign in salute, my flag lieutenant smartly responding to +the compliment as we bade “good-bye.”</p> +<p>The Thames to seaward looks different to me every time I float +on its noble flood. I have seen it from on board steamers +large and small, from an Indiaman’s deck, the gunwale of a +cutter, and the poop of an ironclad, as well as from rowboat and +canoe, and have penetrated almost every nook and cranny on the +water, some of them a dozen times, yet always it is new to +see.</p> +<p>Thames river life is a separate world from the land life in +houses. The day begins on the water full an hour before +sunrise. Cheery voices and hearty faces greet you, and +there seems to be no maimed, or sick, or poor. From the +simple fact that you are on the river, there is a brotherhood +with every sailor. The <i>mode</i> is supple as the water, +not like the stiff fashion of the land. Ships and shipmen +soon become the “people.” The other folks on +shore are, to be sure, pretty numerous, but then they are +ashore. Undoubtedly they are +useful to provide for us who are afloat the butter, eggs, and +bread they do certainly produce; and we gaze pleasantly on their +grassy lawns and bushy trees, and can hear the lark singing on +high, and peacocks screaming, and all are very pretty, and we are +bound to try to sympathize with people thus pinned to the soil, +while we are free in the fine fresh breeze, and glide on the +bounding wave. <i>N.B.</i>—These very people are all +the while regarding <i>us</i> with humane pity, as the +“poor fellows in that little ship there, cabined, cribbed, +confined.” Perhaps it is well for all of us that the +stand-point of each, be it ever so bleak, becomes to him the +centre of creation.</p> +<p>As the country lane has charms for the botanist which will +sadly delay one in a summer stroll with such a companion, so to +the nautical mind every reach on a full river has a constant flow +of incidents quite unnoticed by the landsmen. In the crowd +of ships around us, no two are quite the same even to look at, +nor are they doing the same thing, and there are hundreds +passing. What a feast for the eye that hath an +appetite! The clink of an anchor-chain, the +“Yo-ho!” of a well-timed crew, the flapping of huge +sails—I love all these sounds, yes, even the shrill squeal +of a pulley thrills my ear with pleasure, and grateful to my +nostrils is the odour of tar.</p> +<p>Meanwhile we are sailing on to Sheerness; and no wonder +that the Rob Roy fixes many a sailor’s eye, for the bright +sun shines on her new white sails, and her brilliant-coloured +flags flutter gladly in the wind as the waves glance and play +about her polished mahogany sides, the last and least addition to +the yacht fleet of England.</p> +<p>Rounding Garrison Point, at the mouth of the Medway, our +anchor is dropped alongside the yacht ‘Whisper,’ +where the kind hospitality to the Rob Roy from English, French, +and Belgian, at once began, and it ceased only at the end of my +voyage.</p> +<p>After our tea and strawberries, and ladies’ chat +(pleasant ashore and ten times more afloat), the +blue-jackets’ band on board the Guard-ship gives music, and +the moon gives light, and around are the huge old war-hulks, +beautiful, though bygone, and all at rest, with a newer, uglier +frigate, that has no poetry in her look, but could speak forth +loudly, no doubt, with a very heavy broadside, for her thundering +salute made all the windows shudder as she steamed in +gallantly.</p> +<p>The tide of visitors to my yawl began at Sheerness. +Among them I caught a boy and made him grease the mast. His +friends were so pleased with their visit, that when the Rob Roy +came there again months afterwards, they brought me a present +of fresh mussels, highly to be esteemed by those who +like to eat them—everybody does not; but then was it not +grateful to give them thus? and is not gratitude a precious and +rare gift to receive?</p> +<p>The internal arrangements of the Rob Roy yawl are certainly +peculiar, for they were designed for a unique purpose, and as +there is no description (at least that I can find) of a yacht +specially made for one-man voyages, and proved to be efficient +during so long a sail, it may be useful here to describe the +inside of the Rob Roy. Safety was the first point to be +attained, as we have already mentioned, and this was provided for +by her breadth of beam (seven feet), her strongly bolted iron +kelson, her water-tight compartments, and her double skin, the +outer one being of polished Honduras mahogany, and the inner of +yellow pine, with canvas between them; also by her strong, firm +deck, her undersized masts and sails, and her lifeboat +dingey.</p> +<p>Next we had to consider the capacity for comfort; not for the +sake of any luxurious ease which could be expected, but so as to +take proper means to preserve health, maintain good spirits, and +to economize the energy which would undoubtedly be largely taxed +in downright physical muscular work, and which now would be +liable any day to yield if overwrought by +long-continued anxiety, wakefulness, and exertion.</p> +<p>For this purpose the actual labour bestowed upon maintaining +the outward forms of a (partially) civilized life must be a +minimum, and the action required in times of risk or danger must +be as little encumbered as possible; and as every arrangement +came frequently under review, and improvements were well +considered in meditative hours, and many were put in practice +during a stay at Cowes, where the very best workmen were at +command, it may not unreasonably be asserted that for a solitary +sailor’s yacht the cabin of the Rob Roy is at least a very +good specimen of the most recent model, and perhaps the best that +has been devised as a basis for the next advance.</p> +<p>Although at present I have no radical improvements to suggest +upon the general plan, it is, of course, open to the refining +experience of others; and I do not apologize for speaking of the +fittings of a little boat as if they were mere trifles because it +held only <i>one</i> man, when they may in any degree be useful +to yachts of larger size, and thus to that noble fleet of roaming +craft which renew the nerve and energy of so many Englishmen by a +manly and healthful enterprise, opening a whole new element of +nature, and nursing a host of loyal seamen to defend our +shores.</p> +<p>From the sketch given at p. 23, and one partly in +section at p. 41, it will be understood that the Rob Roy is fully +decked all over except an open well near the stern which is three +feet square, and about the same in depth; a strong combing +surrounds both the well and the main hatchway as a protection in +the sea. <a name="citation20"></a><a href="#footnote20" +class="citation">[20]</a> This well or after compartment is +separated from the next compartment by a strong bulkhead, sloping +forward (p. 7) to give all the room possible for stretching +one’s limbs and a change of posture, and also so as to form +a comfortable sloping back inside in the cabin, while it supports +a large soft pillow, the whole being used as a sofa to recline on +while reading or writing, or finally being +converted into a bolster by lowering it when the crew is piped to +bed for the night, or at least such hours of it as the tide and +wind may allow for sleep.</p> +<p>Fronting the seat the binnacle hangs with its tender thrilling +compass inside, well protected by thick plate glass, and the +lamp, which is always ready to be lighted up should darkness need +it; for experience has showed me only too plainly that it will +not do to postpone any preparation for night, or wind, or hunger, +or shoal water, but that you should be always quite prepared for +them all.</p> +<p>Above the binnacle is the chart; that is to say, a rectangular +piece cut out from the larger sheet, and containing all that will +be sailed in a day. The other parts, too, of the chart +ought to be kept where they are accessible for ready +reference.</p> +<p>Rain or the dashing of a wave or two soon softens the paper of +the chart, and on one occasion it was so nearly melted away in +this manner in a rough sea that I had to learn its lines and +figures quickly off by heart, and trust to memory for the rest of +the day.</p> +<p>To prevent another time such an awkward state of things, I +made a frame with a glass front and movable back, and this +allowed each portion of the chart to be placed inside, and +to be well protected, an excellent arrangement when your hands +are as wet as all other things around, and the ordinary chart +would be soaked in five minutes.</p> +<p>The chart frame is also detachable from its place, as it is +sometimes necessary to hold it near a lamp at night so as to read +the soundings. To aid still further to decipher the chart +at night and in dull afternoons, there is a small mounted lens in +a leather loop alongside, which has often to be used. The +compass <a name="citation22"></a><a href="#footnote22" +class="citation">[22]</a> itself is so placed that you can see it +well while either sitting or standing up, or when lying at full +length on the deck, with the back against a pillow propped by the +mizen mast, the blight sun or moon overhead, and a turn or two of +the mainsheet cast about your body to keep the sleepy steersman +from rolling over into the water, as shown next page.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p23b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Watch on Deck" +title= +"Watch on Deck" +src="images/p23s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This somewhat effeminate but decidedly comfortable attitude in +which to keep one’s watch on deck, was not invented until +farther on in the cruise; and it seems odd that I should so long +have continued to sit upright for hours together (wriggling only a little at the constraint) for many a fine day +before adopting for a change so obvious a posture, and thus +effectually postponing any sense of weariness even in sailing for +a whole day and night. Still it is only for light airs, +gentle waves, or in deep rivers, or with long runs on the same +tack, that the captain may do his duty while he lies on a +sofa. In fresh breezes and rolling seas, or in beating to +windward with frequent boards, such indulgence is soon cut short; +and indeed the muscles and energies of the sailor are so braced +up by the lively motion and refreshing blasts when there is +plenty of wind, that no <i>ennui</i> can come; and there is quite +enough play of limb and change of position caused by the working +of the ship, while he soon learns by practice to steer by the +action of any part of his body from head to feet being in contact +with the tiller, that delicate and true sensorium of a boat to +which all feeling is conveyed.</p> +<p>Sometimes I would sit low and out of sight, but with a glance +now and then at the compass, while the tiller pressed against my +neck. At others I would lie prone on the hatchway with my +head upon both hands, and my elbows on the deck, and my foot on +the tiller; while, again, every day it was necessary to cook and +eat, all the time steering; the most difficult operation of all +being to eat a boiled egg comfortably under these conditions, +because there is the egg and the spoon, each in a hand, and the +salt and the bread, each liable to be capsized with a direful +result.</p> +<p>Uncovered and handy for instant use there lies a sharp axe at +the bottom of the well, by which any rope may be cut, and a blow +may be given to the forelock of an anchor or other refractory +point needing instant correction, and near this again is the +sounding lead, with its line wound on a stick like that of a +boy’s kite. I soon found that much the best way +to tell the fathoms, especially at night, was to measure the line +as it was hauled in by opening my arms to the full stretch of one +fathom between my hands.</p> +<p>In two large leather pockets fixed in the well, were sundry +articles, such as a long knife, cords of various kinds, a foot +measure of ivory (best to read off at night), and a good +binocular glass by Steward in the Strand. <a +name="citation25"></a><a href="#footnote25" +class="citation">[25]</a></p> +<p>Turning now to the left of the seat in the well, we open a +door about a foot square, hinged so as to fall downwards and thus +form a cook’s “dresser;” and now the full +extent is visible of our kitchen range, at p. 41, or in nautical +tongue here is the caboose of the Rob Roy.</p> +<p>It is a zinc box with a frame holding a flat copper kettle, a +pan in which to heat the tin of preserved meat for our dinner +to-day, and the copper frying-pan in which three eggs will be +cooked <i>sur le plât</i> for our breakfast to-morrow.</p> +<p>The invaluable Rob Roy lamp <a name="citation26"></a><a +href="#footnote26" class="citation">[26]</a> is below this frame, +and a spare lamp alongside—a fierce blast it has, and it +will be needed if there is bad weather, for then sometimes as a +heavy sea is coming the kitchen is hastily closed lest the waves +should invade it, but the lamp may still be heard roaring away +inside all the same. An iron enamelled plate and a duster +complete the furniture of our little scullery, all the rest of +the things we started with having been improved out of existence, +for simplicity is the heart of invention as brevity is the soul +of wit.</p> +<p>If we desire to get at the tubular wooden flag box that some +gay colours may deck our mast in entering a new harbour, this +will be found inside the space aft of the caboose; and again, by +reaching the arm still further into the hollow behind our seat, +it will grasp the <i>storm mizen</i>, a strongly made triangular +sail, to be used only in untoward hours, and for which we must +prepare by lowering the lug mizen, and shifting the halyard, +tack, and sheet. Then the Rob Roy, with her mainsail and +jib reefed, will be under snug canvas, as seen at page 57.</p> +<p>But now it is bed-time, and the lecture on the furniture of +the yawl may be finished some other day.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<p +class="gutsumm">Sheerness—Governor—Trim—Earthquake—Upset—Wooden +legs—On the Goodwin—Cuts and soars—Crossing the +Straits—The ground at Boulogne—Night +music—Sailors’ maps—Ship’s +papers—Weather—Toilette—Section.</p> +<p>Sheerness is on the whole a tolerable port to land at, that +is, as long as you refrain from going ashore. The harbour +is interesting and more lively than it appears at first sight, +but the streets and shops are just the reverse.</p> +<p>The Rob Roy ran into this harbour seven or eight times during +her cruise, and there was always “something going +on.” The anchorage on the south of the pier is in mud +of deep black colour, but not such good holding ground as it +would seem to be, and then what comes up on the anchor runs like +black paint upon your deck, and needs a good scrubbing to get rid +of it from each palm of the anchor. Even after all seems to +be cleared away thoroughly, there may be a piece only +the size of a nut, but perverse enough to fasten upon the white +creamy folds of your jib newly washed out, and then the inky +stain will be an eyesore for days, until, for peace of mind, the +sail must be scrubbed again. Trifles these are to the +yachtsman who can leave all that to his crew, who sees only +<i>results</i>, but when the captain alone is the crew, the +realities of sea life must be endured as well as enjoyed, and yet +surely he is the one to enjoy most keenly the luxury of a white +spotless sail whose own hands have made it so.</p> +<p>If any sailor henceforth has me for his captain, and he has to +“tidy up” my yacht, he may be sure of having a very +considerate if not indulgent master—“Governor,” +of course, I mean, for there are no “masters” any +longer now, they are all promoted to the rank of +“Governor.”</p> +<p>And the reason I should be considerate is that until you do it +all yourself you cannot have any idea of the innumerable +<i>minutiæ</i> to be attended to in the proper care of a +yacht. Mine, indeed, was in miniature; but the number of +little things was still great, though each little thing was more +little. On the whole we should say that a yacht’s +crew, even in port, have full employment for all their working +hours if the hull, spars, sails, ropes, and boats, besides the +cabin and stores, are always kept in that condition of order, +neatness, cleanliness, readiness, and repair which ought to +be little short of perfection when regarded with a critical +eye.</p> +<p>In like manner as you drive out in a carriage and return, and +the carriage and horses disappear into the stables for hours of +careful work by the men who are there, so may the day’s +sail in a yacht involve a whole series of operations on board +afterwards. Inattention to these in the extreme can be +observed in the boats of fishermen, and attention in the extreme +in the perfect vessels of the Royal Squadron; but even a very +reasonable amount of smartness requires a large expenditure of +labour which will not be effectual if it be hurried, and which +is, of course, worse than useless if it is done by inferior +hands.</p> +<p>In perfect trim and “ship shape” now, we loosed +from Sheerness, to continue the sail eastwards, and with a +leading breeze and a lovely morning. This part of the +Thames is about the best conjunction of river and sea one could +find, with land easily sighted on both sides, yet fine salt +waves, porpoises, and other attributes of the sea, and buoys, and +beacons, and light-ships to be attended to, and a definite line +of course determined on and followed by compass. A gale +here is not to be trifled with, though in fine weather you may +pass it safely in a mere cockle-shell, and the last time +I had sailed here alone it was in an open boat, just ten feet +long inside. Still the whole day may be summed up now, as +it was in the log of the Rob Roy, “Fine run to +Margate;” the pleasures of it were just the same as so +often afterwards were met, enjoyed, and thanked for, but which +might be tedious to relate even once.</p> +<p>The harbour here dries bare at low tide, and as seventeen +years had elapsed since we had sailed into it, this bad habit of +the harbour was forgotten, but more years than that may pass +before it will be forgotten again, for as evening came, and the +water ebbed, and I reclined unharnessed in the cabin, reading +intently, there suddenly came a rude bumping shove upwards as +from below, and then another—the Rob Roy had +grounded. Soon there was a swaying this way and that, as if +yet undecided, and at length a positive heel over to <i>that</i>; +the whole of my little world within being canted to half a right +angle, and a ridiculous distortion of every single thing in my +bedroom was the result. The humiliating sensation of being +aground on hard unromantic mud is tempered by the ludicrous +crooked appearance of the contents of your cabin and by the +absurd sensation of sleeping in a corner with everything askance +except the lamp flame, which, because it burns upright, looks +most awry of all, and incongruously flares on +the spout of the teapot in your pantry.</p> +<p>And why this <i>bouleversement</i> of all things? +Because I had omitted to bring a pair of “legs” with +me, for a boat cannot stand upright on shore without legs any +more than an animal.</p> +<p>Next time the Rob Roy came to Margate we made one powerful leg +for her by lashing the two oars to the iron shroud, and took +infinite pains to incline the boat over to that side so as to be +turned away from the wind and screened from the tide, and I +therefore weighted her down by placing the dingey and heavy +anchor on the lee gunwale, and then with misplaced contentment +proceeded to cook my dinner. At a solemn pause in the +repast, the yawl, without other warning than a loud splash, +perversely turned over to the <i>wrong</i> side, with deck to sea +and wind, and every single thing exactly the contrary of what was +proper. I had just time to plunge my hissing spirit-lamp +into the sea, and thus to prevent the cry of “Ship on +fire!” but had not time to put out my cabin-lamp, and this +instantly bore its flame provokingly upright against the thick +glass of the aneroid barometer, which duly told its fate by three +sonorous “crinks,” and at once three starred cracks +shot through its crystal front.</p> +<p>The former experience of the night as spent when one is +thus arbitrarily “inclined to sleep” made me wish to +get ashore; but this idea was stifled partly by pride and partly +by the fact that there was not water enough to enable me to go +ashore in a boat, and yet there was too much water besides soft +mud to make it at all pleasant to set off and wade to bed. +The recovery from this unwholesome state of things, with all the +world askew, was equally notable, for when the tide rose again, +in the late midnight hours, the sea-dreams of disturbed slumber +were arrested by a gentle nudge, and then by a more decided +heaving up of one’s bed in the dark, until at last it came +level again as the boat floated, and all the things that were +right when she was wrong turned over now at wrong angles, because +the boat had righted. <a name="citation32"></a><a +href="#footnote32" class="citation">[32]</a></p> +<p>An excellent cure for all such little mishaps is to +“imagine it is to-morrow morning,” for in the morning +one is sure to forget all the night’s troubles; and so with +the fiery rising sun on the sails we are floating out to sea.</p> +<p>In such a sunny day the North Foreland is a very +comfortable-looking cliff, with pleasant country-houses on the +top, and corn-fields growing round the lighthouse. Next +there is Ramsgate, and then Dover pier. But now, and in +weather like this, will be a proper occasion to practise +manœuvres which will certainly have to be performed in bad +times, so we stretched away out to the Goodwin Sands, where one +is nearly always sure to find a sea running, and for several +hours we worked assiduously at reefing the sails, and getting the +little dingey out of the cabin and into the water, and <i>vice +versâ</i>.</p> +<p>At least a short trial of my yacht in the Thames would have +been advisable before starting on a long voyage, but as this was +not possible now, it was of invaluable benefit to spend an +afternoon at drill on the Goodwin; rightly assured that success +in this journey could not be expected haphazard, but might be +hoped for after the <i>practice in daylight and fine weather of +what had to be done afterwards in rough water and +darkness</i>. By this time, just a week in the Rob Roy, the +little craft seemed quite an old friend. Her many virtues +and her few faults were being found out. The happy life +aboard had almost enchained me, but still I left the yawl at +Dover, and ran up to London for the annual inspection of the +London Scottish Volunteers; and having led +his fine company of kilted Riflemen through Hyde Park, the +Captain sheathed his claymore to handle the tiller again, eager +for the voyage.</p> +<p>The new rough hairy ropes had chafed my hands abundantly, and +they were red and black, and blistered, and swollen, and +variously adorned by cuts, and bruises, and scars. When +shall I ever get gloves on again, or be fit to appear at a +dinner-table? These wounds, however, had taught me this +lesson, “Do every act deliberately. Hasty smartness +is slowest. When each single thing from morning to night +has to be done by your own fingers, save them from bruises and +chafes. Nothing is worse spent than needless muscular +action. You will want every atom you have some day or other +this week. Husband vital force.”</p> +<p>The Sappho schooner was at Dover, and her owner, Mr. Lawton, +one of the Canoe Club, took leave of the Rob Roy, and sailed away +to Iceland, while I started for Boulogne in the dawn, when all +the scene around looked like a woodcut, pale and colourless, as I +cooked hot breakfast at five o’clock. Nothing +particular happened in this voyage across the Channel. It +was simply a very pleasant sail, in a very fine day, and in a +good little boat. The sight of both shores at once, when +you are in the widest part of a passage, deprives it immediately +of the romance and interest of being entirely out of +sight of land and ships, and all else but water, and so there is +absent that deeper stir of feeling which powerfully seized me in +the wider traverse afterwards from Havre to Cowes.</p> +<p>Indeed, when you know the under-water geography of the channel +near Dover, it is impossible not to feel that you are sailing +over shallow waves; for though they seem to be deep and grand +enough from Dover Castle or the Boulogne heights, the whole way +might almost be spanned by piers and arches, and if you wished to +walk over dry shod at the low spring-tide, you need only lay from +shore to shore a twenty miles’ slice of undulated ground +cut from the environs of London. The cellars of the houses +would be at the bottom of the sea, but the chimney-pots would +still be above it for stepping-stones.</p> +<p>The wind fell as we neared France, and a fog came on, and the +tide carried us off in a wrong direction north to Cape Grisnez, +where I anchored with twenty fathoms, to wait for the reflux six +or seven hours. Often as we had to do the same thing in +after days, there was always constant employment for every hour +of a long stoppage like this, with a well-furnished tool-box, and +a busy mind ever making additions, experiments, improvements, and +with books to read. Not one single moment +of the voyage ever hung heavy on the Rob Roy.</p> +<p>Trying to get into Boulogne at low water was an unprepared +attempt, and met its due reward; for the thing had to be done +without the benefit of my “Pilot-book,” which had +been put away with such exceeding care, that now it could not +anywhere be found—not after several rigorous searches all +over the boat. Finally, concluding that I must have taken +the book to London by mistake, we had to trust to nature’s +light and go ahead. This does well enough for a canoe, but +not for the sailing-boat, which, if once aground, and with a sea +running, it would be utterly out of the power of one man to save. +<a name="citation36"></a><a href="#footnote36" +class="citation">[36]</a></p> +<p>In encountering the first roller off the pier at Boulogne, she +thumped the ground heavily. At the second, again, the masts +quivered, and all the bottles rattled in my cellar. Instant +decision turned her round from the third roller, and so after +bumping the ground twice again in the retreat, we put out to sea, +anchored, and got out the dingey, half-ashamed to be discomfited +thus at the very first French port. After an hour or two +spent in the dark, carefully sounding to discover the +proper channel, and to get it well into my head, the anchor was +weighed, and we entered in a poor sort of triumph upon midnight, +slowly ascending the long harbour, but looking in vain for a +proper berth. All was quiet, every one seemed to be in bed, +until I came to the sluices at the end, which just then opened, +and the rush of foaming water from these bore me back again in +the most helpless plight, until I anchored near the well-known +“Etablissement,” furled sails, rigged up hatch, and +soon dropped fast asleep.</p> +<p>Now there is a peculiarity of the French ports which we may +mention here for once for all, but it applies to every one of +them, and has to be seriously considered in all your calculations +as a sailing-master.</p> +<p>They are quiet enough up to a certain time of night, but as +the tide serves, the whole port awakes, all the fishing vessels +get ready to start. The quays become vocal with shouts, +yells, calls, whistles, and the most stupid din and hubbub +confounds the night, utterly destructive of sleep. This +chorus was in full cry about two o’clock <span +class="smcap">a.m.</span> Soon great luggers came splashing +along with shrieks from the crews, and sails flapping, chains +rattling, spars knocking about, as if a tempest were in +rage. Several of these lubberly craft smashed against the +pier, and the men screamed more wildly, +and at length one larger and more inebriated than all the rest, +dashed in among the small boats where the Rob Roy slept, and +swooping down on the poor little yawl, then wrapt in calm repose, +she heeled us over on our beam-ends, and after fastening her +clumsy, rusty anchor in my mizen shrouds (which were of iron, and +declined to snap), she bore me and my boat away far off, +ignominiously, stern foremost.</p> +<p>Certainly this was by no means a pleasant foretaste of what +might be expected in the numerous other ports we were to enter, +and, at any rate, that night’s sleep was gone. But in +a voyage of this sort a night’s sleep must be resigned +readily, and the loss is easily borne by trying to forget it, +which indeed you soon do when the sun rises, and a good cup of +tea has been quaffed, or, if that will not suffice, then +another.</p> +<p>Vigorous health is at the bottom of the enthusiastic enjoyment +of yachting; but in a common sailor’s life sleep is not a +regular thing as we have it on shore, and perhaps that staid +glazy and sedate-looking eye, which a hard-worked seaman usually +has, is really caused by broken slumber. He is never +completely awake, but he is never entirely asleep.</p> +<p>Boulogne is a much more agreeable place to reside at than one +might suppose from merely passing +through it. Once I spent a month there, and found plenty to +see and to do. Good walks, hotels, churches, and +swimming-baths; the river to row in, the reading-room to sit in, +the cliffs to climb, and the sands to see.</p> +<p>At Dover the dock-people had generously charged me +“nil” for dues. I had letters for France from +the highest authorities to pass the Rob Roy as an article entered +for the Paris “Exhibition;” and when the +<i>douane</i> and police functionaries came in proper state at +Boulogne to appraise her value, and to fill up the numerous +forms, certificates, schedules, and other columned documents, I +had hours of walking to perform, and most courteous and tedious +attention to endure, and then paid for sanitary dues, “two +sous per ton,” that was threepence. Finally, there +was this insurmountable difficulty, that though all my +ship’s papers were <i>en règle</i>, they must be +signed “by two persons on board,” so I offered to +sign first as captain and then as cook. They never troubled +me again in any other port, probably thinking the boat too small +to have come from a foreign harbour. In France the law of +their paternal Government prevents any Frenchman from sailing +thus alone.</p> +<p>The sun warmed a fine fresh breeze from the N.E. as we coasted +from Boulogne, and to sail with it was a +luxury all day. The first pleasure was the morning +ablution, either by a wholesale dip under the waves, or a more +particular toilette if the Rob Roy was then in full sail.</p> +<p>To effect this we push the hatch forward, and open the +interior of the boat. If the water we float on is clean +(whether it be salt or fresh) we dip the tin basin at once, but +if we are in a muddy river or doubtful harbour we must draw from +our zinc water tank, which holds water for one week. This +tank is concealed by the figure of the cook kneeling in the +opposite sketch, but it is next to my large portmanteau in the +lower shelf.</p> +<p>A large hole in the top of the tank allows it to be filled at +intervals through a tun-dish, while a long vulcanized tube +through the cork to the bottom has an end hanging over. +When I wish to draw water it is done by applying the mouth for a +moment with suction, and the clear stream then flows by syphon +action into a strong tin can of about eight inches cube, which +holds fresh water for one day. By means of this tube, the +end of which hangs within an inch or two of my face when in bed, +I can drink a cool draught at night without trouble or chance of +spilling a drop. On the tank top is soap, and also a clean +towel, which to-morrow will be degraded into a duster, and +“relegated,” the newspapers would say, to +the kitchen, and from whence it will again be promoted backwards +over the bulkhead to the washing-bag. This, you see, is the +red-tape order of dealing with towels on board the Rob Roy.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p41b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Cooking in Rain" +title= +"Cooking in Rain" +src="images/p41s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>On the left shelf of the cabin we find two boxes of japanned +tin each about eighteen inches by six inches wide, as shown in +the woodcut. Below the shelf is a portmanteau full of +clothes. One of the boxes holds “Dressing,” +another “Reading and writing.” The aneroid +barometer, and my watch are seen suspended alongside. The +boxes on the other side, shown in section at a future page, are +marked “Tools” and “Eating,” while the +pantry is beside them, with teapot, cup (saucer discarded), and tumbler, and a tray holding knife and fork, spoons, +salt in a snuff-box (far the best cellar after trials of many), +pepper (coarse, or it is blown away), mustard, corkscrew, and +lever-knife for preserved meat tins, etc., etc. <a +name="citation42"></a><a href="#footnote42" +class="citation">[42]</a></p> +<p>The north coast of France from Boulogne to Havre is well +lighted at night, but the navigation is dangerous on account of +the numerous shoals and the tortuous currents and tides. +For about the first half of the distance the shores are low, and +the water, even far out, is shallow. Afterwards the land +rises to huge red cliffs, rugged and steep sometimes for miles, +without any opening.</p> +<p>The real matter of importance, however, in coasting here is +the direction of the wind. Had it been unfavourable, that +is S.W., and with the fogs and sea which that wind brings, it +would have been a serious delay to me—perhaps, indeed, a +stopper on my voyage—seeing that I must sometimes enter a +port at night so as to sleep in peace, for that could scarcely be +pleasantly done if anchored ten miles from land, and with no one +awake to keep a look-out. Fortunately, we had good weather +on the worst parts of the French coast, and my stormy days were +yet to come.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Russian lamp—Breakfast—Store +rooms—Mast-light—Run down—Rule of the +road—Signal thoughts—Sinking sands—Pilot +caution—French coast.</p> +<p>After a wash and morning prayers the crew are piped to +breakfast, so we must now turn to the kitchen, which after +constant use some hundred times I cannot but feel is the most +successful “hit” in the whole equipment.</p> +<p>Much thought and many experiments were bestowed on this +subject, because, first, it was well known that the hard and +uneven strain of bone, muscle, and energy in a voyage of this +sort needs to be maintained by generous diet, that cold feeding +is a delusion after a few days of it, and that the whole affairs +would fail, or at any rate, enjoyment of the trip would cease, +unless the Rob Roy had a caboose, easy to work, speedy in result, +and capable of being used in rain, wind, +and rough weather, and by night as well as by day.</p> +<p>Of course, all stoves with coal or coke, or similar fuel were +out of the question, being hard to light, dusty when lighted, and +dirty to clean. Various spirit lamps, Etnas, Magic stoves, +Soyers, and others, were examined and tried, and all were +defective in grand points.</p> +<p>The wickless lamp used by the Alpine climber who occupies the +responsible post of “Cook of the Canoe Club,” and +modified (after consulting Professor Tyndall), is less than three +inches each way, and it acts after the manner of a +blow-pipe. It was also adopted in the Abyssinian +expedition. In two minutes after lighting it pours forth a +vehement flame about a foot in height, which with a warming heat +boils two large cups full in my flat copper kettle in five +minutes, or a can of preserved meat in six minutes. <a +name="citation44"></a><a href="#footnote44" +class="citation">[44]</a></p> +<p>While the kettle is boiling we bring forward the box marked +“Eating,” take the loaf of bread out of its macintosh +swathing, prepare the egg pan with two eggs, the teapot, and put +sugar into the tea-cup, and a spoonful of preserved milk (Amey’s is most convenient, being in powder; but +Borden’s, in a kind of paste, is most agreeable); lastly, +we overhaul the butter tin, a pot of marmalade or anchovies.</p> +<p>The healthful relish with which a plain hot breakfast of this +sort is consumed with the fresh air all round, and the sun +athwart the east, and the waves dancing while the boat sails +merrily all the time, is enhanced by the pleasure of steering and +buttering bread, and holding a hot egg and a tea-cup, all at +once.</p> +<p>Then, again, there is the satisfaction of doing all this +without giving needless trouble in cleaning up, for every whit of +that work, too, is to be yours. A crumb must not fall in +the boat, because you will have to stoop down afterwards and pick +it up, seeing that whatever happens, one thing is insisted +on—“the Rob Roy shall be always smart and +clean.”</p> +<p>All the breakfast things are cleared away and put by, each +into its proper place, and a general “mop up,” has +effaced the scene from our deck, but we can still take a look +below and notice what is to be seen.</p> +<p>Some of the articles chiefly important in the well of our boat +have been already described, but only those on the left of the +steersman sitting. Now, turning to the right we find a +water-tight door, like that on the opposite side, +to be opened by folding down, and it reveals to us, first the +“Bread store,” a fourpenny loaf wrapped in macintosh, +which makes the best of table cloths, as it may be laid on a wet +deck, and can be washed and dried again speedily; next there is a +butter keg (as in the coolest place), and a box of biscuits, and +a flask of rum—the “Storm supply”—only to +be drawn upon when things of air and sea are in such a state that +to open the main hatch would be questionable prudence.</p> +<p>Here are, also, ropes, blocks, and purchases, as well as a +“fender,” not to keep coals on the hearth, but to +keep the mahogany sides of the Rob Roy safe from the rude +jostlings of other craft coming alongside. Above these odds +and ends is the “Spirit room,” a strong reservoir +made of zinc, with a tap and screw plug and internal division not +to be rendered intelligible by mere description here, but of +important use, as from hence there is served out, two or three +times daily, the fuel which is to cook for the whole crew. +One gallon of the methylated spirits, costing four shillings and +sixpence, will suffice for this during six weeks.</p> +<p>Above the spirit room will be found a blue light to be used in +case of distress, and a box of candles, so that we may be enabled +to rig up the mast-light if darkness comes, when it +will not do to open the cabin. This ship-light is therefore +carried here. It is an article of some importance, having +to be strong and substantial, easily suspended and taken down, +and one that can be trusted to show a good steady light for at +least eight hours, however roughly it may be tossed about when +you are fast asleep below, in the full confidence that nobody who +sees your mast-light will run his great iron bows over your +little mahogany bed-room. Yet I fear it does not do to +examine into the grounds for any such confidence. Many +vessels sail about in the dark without any lights whatever to +warn one of their approach, and not a few boats, even with proper +lights in them, are “accidentally” run over and sunk +in the river Thames; while out at sea, and in dark drizzly rain +or fog, it is more than can be expected of human nature that a +“look-out man” should peer into the thick blackness +for an hour together, with the rain blinding him, and the spray +splash smarting his eyes, and when already he has looked for +fifty-nine minutes without anything whatever to see. It is +in that last minute, perhaps, that the poor little hatch-boat has +come near, with the old man and a boy, its scanty crew, both of +them nodding asleep after long watches, and their boat-light +swinging in the swell. There is a splash, a +crash, and a spluttering, and the affair is over, and the dark is +only the dark again. Nobody on the steamer knows that +anything has occurred, and only the fishermen to-morrow on some +neighbouring bank will see a broken hull floating sideways, near +some tangled nets.</p> +<p>I fully believe that more care is taken for the lives of +others by sailors at sea than in most cases on land where equal +risks are run; but there are dangers on the waves, as well as on +the hills, the roads, and even in the streets, which no foresight +can anticipate, and no precaution can avert.</p> +<p>The principal danger of a coasting voyage, sailing alone, is +that of being run down, especially on the thickly traversed +English coast, and at night.</p> +<p>As for the important question concerning the “rule of +the road” at sea, which is every now and then raised, +discussed and then forgotten again after some collision on a +crowded river in open day has frightened us into a proper desire +to prevent such catastrophes, it appears to me that no rule +whatever could possibly be laid down for even general obedience +under such circumstances, without causing in its very observance +more collisions than it would avert, unless the traffic in the +river were to be virtually arrested.</p> +<p>On land the “rule of the road” is well enough on a <i>road</i>, where vehicles are moving in one of +two directions, but how would it do if it were to be insisted +upon at the place where two streets cross? Now the Thames +and other populous rivers are at times as much blocked and +crowded by the craft that sail and steam on the water as the +crossing at Ludgate Hill is by vehicles at three o’clock, +that is, considering fairly the relative sizes of the objects in +motion, and the width of the path they must take, their means of +stopping or steering, and, above all, the great additional forces +on the water which cannot be arrested—<i>wind</i> and +<i>tide</i>—moreover, at this London crossing the traffic +has to be regulated by policemen, not by a rule for the drivers, +but by an external arbitrary director.</p> +<p>The wonderful dexterity of the cabmen, carmen, and coachmen of +London is less wonderful than that of the men who guide the +barges, brigs, and steamers on the Thames, and it is perfectly +amazing that huge masses weighing thousands of tons, and +bristling with masts and spars, and rugged wheels projecting, +should be every day led over miles of water in dense crowds, +round crooked points, along narrow guts, and over hidden shoals +while gusts from above, and whirling eddies below are all +conspiring to confuse the clearest head, to baffle the strongest +arm and to huddle up the whole mass into a general wreck.</p> +<p>Consider what would be the result in the Strand if no +pedestrian could stop his progress within three yards, but by +anchoring to a lamp-post, and even then swinging round with +force. Why, there would be scarcely a coal-heaver who would +not be whitened by collision with some baker’s boy. +Ladies in full sail would be run down, and dandies would be sunk +by the dozen.</p> +<p>The fact is, that vessels on the wide sea are like travellers +on a broad plain and not on a road at all, and the two cases do +not admit of being dealt with by the same rule, and it is not +wonderful that there should be many collisions in the open sea +while there are so few in the Thames, the water street of the +world. We may learn some lessons from land for safe traffic +on water. The cabman who “pulls up” is sure to +signal first with his whip to the omnibus astern of him, and the +coachman who means to cross to the “wrong side” never +does so without a warning to those he is bearing down upon. +What is most wanted, then, on the open water, is some ready, +sure, and costless signal, to say, “I am going <i>that</i> +way” (right or left); for nearly all collisions at sea are +caused by one ship not being able to know what the other is going +to do. <a name="citation50"></a><a href="#footnote50" +class="citation">[50]</a></p> +<p>This is my thought on the matter after many thoughts and +some experience: meantime while we have ate, and talked and +thought, our yawl has slipped over six miles of sea, and we must +rouse up from a reverie to scan the changing picture.</p> +<p>Glance at the barometer—note the time. Trim the +sails, and bear away to that pretty fleet of fishing boats +bobbing up and down as they trail their nets, or the men gather +in the glittering fish, and munch their rude breakfasts, +tediously heated by smoky stoves, while they gaze on the +white-sailed stranger, and mumble among themselves as to what in +the world <i>he</i> can be. The sun mounts and the breeze +presses till we are at the bay of the Somme with its shifting +sands, its incomprehensible currents, and its low and treacherous +coast, buoyed and beaconed enough to puzzle you right into the +shoals. The yacht, with my friend S--- in her, bound for +Paris, has just been wrecked on that bank near +Cayeux—unpleasant news now—and there is St. Valery, +from whence King William the Conqueror sailed with his fleet for +England, as may be seen on the curious tapestry at Bayeux worked +by his Queen’s hands, and still almost as fresh as +then. I never saw a place appear so differently from sea +and from land as this strange port, so I ran in just to +reconnoitre, and spent some hours with chart, compass, lead-line, +and Pilot-book, trying my best, to make out the currents, but all +to no purpose except to conclude that a voyage along this coast +in bad weather would be madness, unless with a man to help.</p> +<p>But nearly all this part of the French coast is awkward ground +to be caught in, especially where there are shifting or sinking +sands, for if the vessel touches these, the tide stream instantly +sucks the sand from under one side, while it piles it up on the +other, and thus the hull is gradually worked in with a ridge on +such side, and cannot be slewed off, but is liable to be wrecked +forthwith. It was interesting to read here the account of +this coast given by my Pilot-book, which had at last been dug out +of its hiding-place. The reader need not peruse this +official statement, but to justify my remarks on the dangers it +is given below in a note. <a name="citation52"></a><a +href="#footnote52" class="citation">[52]</a></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Thunder—In the squall—The +dervish—Sailing consort—Poor little +boy!—Grateful presents—The dingey’s +mission—Remedy—Rise and work.</p> +<p>The aneroid barometer in my cabin pointed to “set +fair” for many a day, and just, too, when we required it +most to be fine, that is along the French coast. Had the +Rob Roy encountered here the sort of weather she met with +afterwards on the south coast of England, we feel quite assured +she must have been wrecked ashore or driven out to sea for a +miserable time.</p> +<p>So it was best to keep moving on while fine weather lasted, +for there was no knowing when this might change, even with the +wind as now in the good N.E. The Pilot-book says, upon this +(and pray listen to so good an authority—my only one to +consult with), “Gales from N. to N.E. are also violent, but +they usually last only from 24 to 36 hours, and the wind does not +shift as it does with those from the +westward. They cause a heavy sea on the flood stream, and +during their continuance the French coast is covered with a white +fog, which has the appearance of smoke. This is also the +case with all easterly winds, which are sometimes of long +duration, and blow with great force.”</p> +<p>In the evening, as a sort of practical comment on the text +above, there was sudden fall of the wind, and then a loud peal of +thunder. Alert in a moment, we noticed, far away in the +offing, the fishing boats dip their sails and reef them, so we +knew there would soon be a blow, and we resolved to reef, too, +and just in time. My life-belt, <a name="citation55"></a><a +href="#footnote55" class="citation">[55]</a> therefore, was +at once strapped on, and two reefs put in the mainsail, and one +in the jib, and the storm mizen was set, all in regular order, +when up sprung a fine west breeze, just as we were opposite +Treport, a pretty little bathing town under some cliffs, where my +night-quarters were to be.</p> +<p>The book already referred to gave a rather serious account of +the difficulties of entering Treport, its shingle bar, and the +high seas on it, and the cross tide and exceedingly narrow +entrance; but in an hour more the Rob Roy had come close to all +these things, and rose and fell on the rollers chasing each other +ashore.</p> +<p>The points to be kept in line for entering the harbour were +all clearly set forth in the book, and the signals on the pier +were all faultlessly given, while a crowd gradually collected to +see the little boat run in, or be smashed, and it was rather +exciting to feel that one bump on the bar with such a sea, +and—in two minutes the yawl would be a helpless wreck.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p57b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Reefed in a squall" +title= +"Reefed in a squall" +src="images/p57s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Among the spectators, the only one who did not hold his hat on +against the wind, was an extraordinary personage who capered +about shouting. Long curly hair waved over his face; his +dress was hung round with corks and tassels; he swung a long +life-line round his head, and screamed at me words which were of +course utterly lost in the breeze. +This dancing dervish was the “life saver,” marine +preserver, and general bore of the occasion, and he seemed unduly +annoyed to see me profoundly deaf to his noise as I stood on the +after-deck to get a wider view, holding on by the mizen-mast, +steeling with my feet, and surveying the entrance with my +glass. All the people ran alongside as the Rob Roy glided +past the pier and smoothly berthed upon a great mud bank exactly +as desired, and then I apologized to the quaint Frenchman, saying +that I could not answer him before, for really I had enough to do +to steer my boat, at which all the rest +laughed heartily—but we made it up next day, and the +dervish and Rob Roy were good friends again.</p> +<p>Here we found the ‘Onyx,’ an English-built yacht, +but owned by M. Charles, one of the few Frenchmen to be found who +really seems to <i>like</i> yachting; plenty of them +<i>affect</i> it.</p> +<p>He was enthusiastic in his hospitality, and I rested there +next day, meeting also an interesting youth, an eager sailor, but +who took sea trips for his health, and drove from some Royal +Château to embark and freshen the colour in his delicate +face, so pale with languor. We could not but feel and +express a deep sympathy with one who loved the sea, but whose +pallid looks were in such contrast to the rough brown hue and +redundant health enjoyed so long by myself.</p> +<p>All was ataunt again, and then the two yachts started in +company for a run to Dieppe, which is only about thirteen miles +distant. We came upon a nest of twelve English yachts, all +in the basin of this port, so my French comrade spent the rest of +his time gazing at their beauty, their strength, their +cleanliness, and that unnamed quality which distinguishes English +yachts and English houses, a certain fitness for their special +purpose. These graceful creatures (is it possible that a +fine yacht can be counted as an inanimate thing?) +reclined on the muddy bosom of the basin, but I would not put the +Rob Roy there, it seemed so pent up and torpid a life, and with +the curious always gazing down from the lofty quay right into +your cabin, especially as next day I wished to have a quiet +Sunday.</p> +<p>Instead of a peaceful day of rest the Sunday at Dieppe was +unusually bustling from morning to night, for it was the +“Fête Dieu” there. The streets were +dressed in gala, and strewed with green herbs, while along the +shop fronts was a broad festooned stripe of white calico, set off +by roses here and there; the shipping, too, was decked in flag +array, and guns, bells, and trombones ushered a long procession +of schools and soldiers and young people coming from their +“first communion,” who with their priests, and +banners, and relics, halted round temporary altars in the open +air, to recite and chant, while a vast crowd followed to +gaze.</p> +<p>In a similar procession at St. Cloud, one division of the +moving host was of the tiniest little children, down to the +lowest age that could manage to toddle along with the hand of a +mother or sister to help, and the leader of them all was a chubby +little boy, with no head-gear in the hot sun but his curly hair, +and with his arms and body all bare, except where a lamb-skin +hung across. He carried a blue cross, too, and the +pretty child looked bewildered enough. Some thought he was +John the Baptist, many more pronounced it a +‘<i>sottise</i>.’</p> +<p>In the canoe voyages <a name="citation60"></a><a +href="#footnote60" class="citation">[60]</a> of the two preceding +summers, I had found much pleasure and interest in carrying a +supply of books, pictures, and periodicals, and illustrated +stories in various languages, which were given as occasion +admitted to all sorts of people, and everywhere accepted with +thanks, so that we could only regret the limit imposed on the +number to be carried in a canoe, where every ounce of weight +added to the muscular toil.</p> +<p>Relieved now from this restriction, the Rob Roy yawl was able +to load several boxes of this literary cargo, most of them kindly +granted for the special purpose of her voyage.</p> +<p>These presents were given away from day to day, and especially +on Sunday afternoons, among the sailors and water-population +wherever the Rob Roy roved. Thousands of seamen can read, +and have time, but no books. Bargees lolling about, or prone in the sun, eagerly began a +‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ when thus presented, and +sometimes went on reading for hours. Fishermen came off in +boats to ask for them, policemen and soldiers, too, begged for a +book, and then asked for another for ‘a child at +school.’ Smart yachtsmen were most grateful of all, +and some even offered to pay for them; the navvies, lock-keepers, +ferrymen, watermen, porters, dockmen, and guard-men of +lighthouses, piers, and hulks, as well as many a Royal Navy +blue-jacket, gratefully accepted these little souvenirs with +every appearance of gratitude.</p> +<p>The distribution of these was thus no labour, but a constant +pleasure to me. Permanent and positive good may have been +done by the reading of their contents; at any rate, they opened +up conversation, gave scope to courteous intercourse, often +leading to kinder interest. They opened to me many new +scenes of life, and some with darker passages and sorrowful +groups in the evident but untold background. They were, in +fact, the speediest possible introductions by which to meet at +once with large bodies of fellow-men too much unknown to us, +therefore forgotten, and then despised. The strata of +society are not to be all crushed into a pulpy mass, but a +wholesome mingling betimes does good, both to the heavy +dregs below and to the ‘crême’ on the very +top.</p> +<p>Thus encouraged, we launch the little dingey on Sunday for +three or four hours’ rowing, and with a large leather bag +well filled at starting but empty on its return; and instead of +its contents we bring back in our memory a whole series of tales, +characters, and incidents of water-craft life, some tragic, +others comic, many ‘hum-drum’ enough, but still +instructive, suggestive, branching out into hidden lives one +would like to draw forth, and telling sorrows that are softened +by being told. Of the French crews I began with here, not +one of the first few could even read, while five or six English +steamboats took books for all their men. On a preceding +Sunday (at Erith), I did not meet one man, even a bargee who +could not read, and all up the Seine only one in this +predicament. Truly there is a sea-mission yet to be +worked. Good news was told on the water long ago, and by +the Great Preacher from a boat.</p> +<p>And while thus giving these books and papers to others, it may +perhaps be allowed us also to add a few reflections suggested on +returning from the scenes and people we have sailed amongst +abroad. New scenes ought to be to the mind what fresh air +is to the body, reviving it for work as well as +gladdening it with play; and perhaps one can do more for human +misery by withdrawing now and then from its close contact, than +by constant action in its midst. Yet it must be admitted +that the first impressions on one’s return from such a long +vacation as the Rob Roy had are painfully acute. To come +back and read up in an hour the diary of the three months’ +work of our “Boys’ Beadle” (the agent employed +by the Reformatory Union to look after and attend to the +uncared-for street children), is to resume one’s post of +contemplation of the dreadful picture of woe which crowds an +endless canvas with suffering figures, and each case delineated +in such a report means far more behind to the eye that can +realize. Again, to walk past St. George’s Hospital +next day and observe the stream of visitors with anxious steps +going up the stairs, and those coming down with kind and +thoughtful looks, as they leave their dearest relatives, and +confidingly, in strangers’ hands, and to think what is up +there. To find in letters awaiting one’s return the +gaps made by death in the circle of acquaintance. These are +salutary and sudden shocks to self-enjoyment of health and whole +limbs, and they are loud calls for more than a gush of sympathy +or a song of thankfulness, but for downright help by practical +work. Still greater was the change from bounding along +in florid health on merry waves of the wholesome sea, to a walk +through the east end of London,—that morass of vice, and +sighs, and savagery,—what is forced on the senses in an +hour being not a hundredth of what is sunk below.</p> +<p>Perhaps it is well we do not always realize the amount of evil +around us, of bad, I mean, that can be made good by efforts, some +of which we are bound to make. If we knew how big the +mountain is we might despair of digging it down by spadefuls, +though the faith that digs is the one that can say with best +hopes for obedience, “Be thou removed and cast into the +sea.” Few children would have courage to begin the +alphabet as a step to learning if they knew what a long and heavy +road is to be trudged beyond.</p> +<p>And it may be remarked that in returning to one’s post +of duty after a time of “leave,” there is at first a +disposition rather to generalize about what ought to be done than +to set to work and do it. It is natural, indeed, that +before putting on the harness once more we should take a look at +the collar and buckles, and at the load to be drawn, and it may +be allowable to the soldier, while on his way to rejoin the +ranks, to take just a glance at the line of march before he falls +in.</p> +<p>Theorizing is soon cut short, however, by the clamour of work waiting to be done, and the absorbing +interest felt in doing it, and perhaps too soon we forget all +doubts as to whether the direction of our labours is after all +the best, or whether time might not be saved by improving the +instruments of our work, the object of using them being still the +same.</p> +<p>Now there is a reflection suggested each time in frequent +foreign travel which lasts longest on my mind after returning to +England—“How is it that our lowest classes seem to be +lower than the lowest abroad?”</p> +<p>Whether they are so or not is another question; but in all our +great towns there is a mass of human beings whose want, misery, +and filth are more patent to the eye, and blatant to the ear, and +pungent to the nostrils, than in almost any other towns in the +world. Their personal liberty is greater, too, than +anywhere else. Are these two facts related to each +other? Is the positive piggery of the lowest stratum of our +fellows part of the price we pay for glorious freedom as +guaranteed by our “British Constitution”? and do we +not pay very dearly then? Must the masses be frowsy to be +free?</p> +<p>The highest class of society can <i>enjoy</i> the benefits of +our mode of government, with their rank and wealth secured, and +<i>prestige</i> added. In return +they surrender indeed the pleasure of downright tyranny and a +small quota of their ample gold.</p> +<p>The middle class also can <i>enjoy</i> their freedom from +oppression, and a nominal share in politics, and they pay by hard +work for this.</p> +<p>But the wretched beings at the bottom of all, muddled, +starved, and squalid, cannot <i>enjoy</i> freedom, and must not +have “license.” They seethe by thousands in +ignorance and foulness, and, with our “British +Constitution” standing by in all its glory, they rot and +perish, a multitude dark and unclean.</p> +<p>That all the luxury and congestion of wealth in the head of +the body corporate, while its lowest limbs are in rags and pallid +mortification, should be permitted by the head, blinded by +plethora, and peacefully endured by the limbs, dispirited by +inanition, is an astounding marvel. But there are twinges +of pain now and then. The very quiet is only that of +syncope, and any day it may be broken by a wild and furious +paroxysm. Unless the permission of this evil by the head +ceases, then the endurance of it by the limbs will cease.</p> +<p>If the rich are not mingled with the wretched, they are at +least entangled with them, and by knots that cannot be untied, +and will not be cut. The thief indeed, and the burglar, and +more lately the lazy vagabond, and now the +assassin, have <i>forced</i> us to consider them; and we even +attend to the drunkard, provided he pleads for notice by rolling +in our path.</p> +<p>Perhaps at last the wretched also will arrest us.</p> +<p>Is not the time come yet to rouse up head, and heart, and +hand, to do more than we have even attempted, and to raise at the +least the appearance of our lowest classes to the respectability +now attained in countries we are apt to despise?</p> +<p>What is the specific? I have no new one, and no new +reason for the old one, but it is easy enough to find tools to +work with in this field, if only we are persuaded that work has +to be done and we are willing to take our share. Numbers do +this, and nobly, but far too few, and much is done, but not half +enough. Thousands are yet idle here, who will not listen to +God or their conscience or even their instinct in the matter, who +live comfortably apart from the evil places, and so hear only now +and then a message from the dying wafted on the sable wings of +cholera or typhus. Is it not shabby this, to shirk their +share of the work and the trouble, and to leave it to be done by +softer hearts and a national purse?</p> +<p>It is these, who are moved neither by religion, nor humanity, +nor self-respect, that a downright scolding may +perhaps stir up; and if we can show them that the state of our +lowest classes is a <i>national shame</i>, that we are beaten as +in a battle and distanced in a race, then they will soon find the +means by which national honour is to be retrieved. +Half-a-dozen Englishmen are in danger of death in Africa, and we +spend millions of money because they are Britons, and to sustain +the British name; but thousands of Britons are living in +wretchedness or dying in misery just far enough from our doors +not to be seen, and less heard of than if they were in +Zululand—to leave them as they now are is a scandalous +national disgrace which every true Englishman who knows the facts +is ashamed of and which, even if he ignores them at home, he is +forced to feel abroad by the taunts of strangers.</p> +<p>Already we wonder that we ever kept the Thames as a common +sewer; our sons will wonder, some day, that their fathers had a +great human sink in every great town reeking out crime, disease, +and disloyalty on the whole nation. I have seen the serfs +in Russia, the slaves in Africa, the Jews in Asia, and the +negroes in America; but there are crowds of people in England in +a far worse plight than these—their very nearness to light, +and happiness, and comfort, makes their misery more +disgraceful.</p> +<p>National honour may be a lower motive to work with than +love to Christ or love to man; but it moves more minds than +either of these, and on a scale large enough to relieve us from a +national disgrace which will cling to the nation until the nation +rises in shamed earnest to shake it off.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Cool—Fishwives—Iron-bound +coast—Etretat—Ripples—Pilot-book—Hollow +water—Undecided—Stomach law—Becalmed—Cape +la Hève—The breeze—Havre de +Grâce—Crazy.</p> +<p>So much for Sunday thoughts; but after the day had ended, +there happened to me an absurd misery, of the kind considered to +be comical, and so beyond sympathy, but which must be told, and +it happened thus:—</p> +<p>The little yawl being anchored in the harbour had also a long +rope to the quay, and by this I could draw her near the foot of +an upright ladder of iron bars fixed in the stones of the quay +wall, an ordinary plan of access in such cases. The +pier-man promised faithfully to watch my boat as the tide sunk +(it was every moment more and more under his very nose), and so +to haul her about that she should not “ground” before +my return; yet, when I came back at night, her keel had sunk and +sunk until it reached the bottom, so she could not +be moved with all our pulling. Moreover the tide had gone +out so far as to prevent any boat at all from coming to the dock +wall round the harbour. I tried to amuse myself for an hour +while the tide might rise; but at length, impatient and sleepy +and ready for bed, to be off to-morrow at break of day, I +determined to get on board at once somehow or other.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p71b.jpg"> +<img class="floatleft" alt= +"Descending to the boat" +title= +"Descending to the boat" +src="images/p71s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Descending then by the iron bars until I reached the last of +them, I swung myself on the slack of the strong cable hanging +from above (and attached at the other end to my yawl), and which +the man received strict orders to “haul taut” at the +critical moment. Alas! in his clumsy hands the effect +intended was exactly reversed; the rope was gently loosened, and +I subsided in the most undignified, inevitable, +and provokingly cool manner quietly into the water at 10.30 <span +class="smcap">p.m.</span> However, there was no use in +grumbling, so I spluttered and laughed, and then went to bed.</p> +<p>Long before sunrise the Rob Roy was creeping out of the +harbour of Dieppe against the strong wind at that point dead +ahead; but I took the tow-line thrown down from the quay by some +sturdy fishwives, who will readily tug a boat to the pier head +for a franc or two, and thus save a good half-hour of tedious +rowing against wind and tide. This rope was of a deep black +colour, very fine, thin, and yet strong. There was no time +to find out what it was made of, but it seemed to be plaited of +human hair. As I was aft in my boat and steering, the line +suddenly slipped and disappeared, and the Rob Roy was in great +danger of going adrift on the other pier head, but the excellent +dames speedily regained their long black tress, and coiled it and +threw it to me again with great dexterity; and soon all was put +right, and the sails were up, and the line cast off, and we +plunged along in buoyant spirits.</p> +<p>It was a fair wind now, and with a long day in front, and the +freshness of Monday after a good rest. Still this was a +rather more anxious day than the others, because in those though +we had passed over the dangers on the coast of the Somme, they were hidden by water; and on a sunny morning +who can realize shoals that are so fatal in bad weather, but are +concealed by the smiling calm of a fine day? Not so with +the great beetling cliffs of sharp red flint now glittering +alongside my course for miles and miles far beyond what the eye +could reach. These formed an impressive object ever in +sight, and generally begetting, as it was seen, an earnest hope +that the weather might be good “just to-day.” +This part of the coast, too, beside being iron-bound, has no port +that is easy to enter, and the tides moreover are very powerful, +so that, with either a gale or a calm, there would be a danger to +meet.</p> +<p>It is obvious, of course, to the sailor who reads this that +the difficulty of navigation along such a coast was much +increased by my being alone. An ordinary vessel would put +well out to sea, and go on night and day in deep water with a +good offing, and its crew would take watch and watch until they +neared the land again close to their destination.</p> +<p>But the course of the Rob Roy had to be within seven or eight +miles of the shore, so as to keep within reach of a port at +night, or at the worst near some shallower spot for anchorage; +else, in the attempt to sleep, I might have been drifted twenty miles by the tide, perhaps out to sea, right away +from our course, and perhaps ashore on the rocks. It had +not yet become my plan to pass whole nights at sea as was +necessary in the latter part of this voyage.</p> +<p>With these little drawbacks now and then, which threw rather a +graver tone into the soliloquy of the lonely traveller, it was +still a time of excessive enjoyment. The noble rocks +towered up high on the left, and the endless water opened out +wide on the right with only some dot of a sail, hull down, far +far off on the horizon, a little lonely speck fixed in hard +exile; but very probably the crew in that vessel too were happy +in the breezy morn, and felt themselves and their craft to be the +very “hub of the universe.”</p> +<p>In a nook of the cliffs was Etretat, now the most fashionable +bathing-place of Northern France. Long pointed pillars of +rock stood in the sea along this shore, one especially notable, +and called the “Needle of Etretat.” Others were +like gates and windows, with the light shining through. I +thought of looking in here to escape the flood-tide which was +against me, but I was deterred by the Pilot-book telling in plain +words, “The Eastern part of the beach at Etretat is +bordered by rocks which uncover at low water.”</p> +<p>The Rob Roy’s previous behaviour in a sea made me +quite at ease about waves or deep water, but to strike on a rock +would be a miserable delay, and somehow I became more cautious as +to exposing my little craft to danger the more experience I +acquired; certainly also she was valued more and more each +day. This increase together of experience and of +admiration, begetting boldness and caution by turns, went on +until it settled down into a strange compromise,—extreme +care in certain circumstances, and undue boldness at other +times.</p> +<p>All over the British Channel there are patches of sand, +shingle, or rock, which being deep down are not dangerous as +regards any risk of striking upon them, but still even without +any wind they cause the tide-stream to rush over them in great +eddies, and confused babbling waves. The water below is in +action, just like a waterfall tumbling over a hill, and the +whirlings and seethings above look threatening enough until you +become thoroughly aware of the exact state of the case, being +precisely that which occurs above Schaffhausen, on the deeps of +the Rhine, and which we have described in the account of a canoe +voyage there.</p> +<p>These places are called by the French +“ridèns,” or in England “ridges,” +and in some charts, “ripples” or +“overfalls,” and while there is sure to be +a short choppy sea upon them, even in calm weather, the effect of +a gale is to make them boil and foam ferociously.</p> +<p>A somewhat similar feature is the result when a low bank +projects under water from a cape round which the tide is rushing; +and as I determined not to risk going into Etretat, we had to +face the tedious tossing about off one of these banks, described +thus in the Pilot-book:—</p> +<p>“Abreast Etretat the shoal bottom, with less than eight +fathoms on it, projects a mile to the N.N.W. from the shore, and +when the flood-stream is at its greatest strength it occasions a +great eddy, named by the mariners of the coast the +<i>Hardières</i>, which extends to the northward as far as +the Vaudieu Rock, and makes the sea hollow and heavy when the +wind is fresh from the eastward.”</p> +<p>It was just because the wind was fresh from the eastward that +I could hope to stem the tide and get through this place; but +once in the middle of the hubbub, the wind went down almost to +nothing, so that for three or four hours I could only hold my +place at most, and the wearisome monotony here of “up and +down” on every wave, with a jerk of all my bones each time, +was one of the few dull and disagreeable things of the whole +voyage.</p> +<p>A sea that is “hollow” is abominable. +However high a wave is, it may still have a +rounded and respectable shape, and it will then tilt you about +smoothly; but a “hollow” sea splashes and smacks and +twists and screws, and the tiring effects on the body, thus hit +right and left with sudden blows, is quite beyond what would be +anticipated from so trifling a cause.</p> +<p>At length, as the tide yielded, the wind carried me beyond the +Hardières, on and on to Fécamp, where the Rob Roy +meant to stop for the night. But, willing though I was to +rest there, the appearance of Fécamp from the offing was +by no means satisfactory. It did not look easy to get into, +and how was I to get out of it to-morrow? The Pilot-book +took a similar view of this matter. <a name="citation77"></a><a +href="#footnote77" class="citation">[77]</a></p> +<p>Yet we must put in somewhere, and this was the nearest port to +the Cape Antifer, the only remaining point to be anxious about, +and which we might now expect to round next day. On the +other hand, there was the argument, “If the wind chops +round to the west, we may be detained in Fécamp for a +week, whereas now it is favourable; and if we can possibly get +round to-day—Well what a load of anxiety would be done +with if we could do that!” The thought, quite new, +seemed charming, and, yet undecided, I thought it best to cook +dinner at once and put the question to the vote at dessert.</p> +<p>It is very puzzling what name to give to each successive meal +in a day when the first one has been eaten at 2 <span +class="smcap">a.m.</span> If this is to be considered as +<i>breakfast</i>, then the next, say at nine o’clock, ought +to be luncheon, which seems absurd, though the Americans call any +supplemental feeding a “lunch,” even up to eleven +o’clock at night, and you may see in New York signboards +announcing “Lunch at 9 <span +class="smcap">p.m.</span> Clam Chowder.” <a +name="citation78"></a><a href="#footnote78" +class="citation">[78]</a></p> +<p>Now, as I had often to begin work by first frying at one or +two o’clock in the moonlight, and as it would have a greedy +sound if the next attack on eatables were to be called +“second breakfast,” the only true way of settling +this point was to consider the first meal to be in fact a late +supper of yesterday, or at any rate to regard it as belonging to +the bygone, and therefore beyond inquiry, and so to ignore this +first breakfast altogether in one’s arrangements. The +stomach quite approved of this decision, and was always ready for +the usual breakfast at six or seven +o’clock, whatever had been discussed a few hours +before.</p> +<p>The matter as to Etretat was decided then. We two were +to go on, and to hope the wind would do so to. Then away +sped we merrily singing, with the new and unexpected prospect of +possibly reaching Havre that very day. From thence a month +was to be passed in going up and down the Seine and at Paris; and +what was to come after that? How come back to +England? Why that problem must now be +“blinked,” as a future if not an insoluble question, +at any rate just as easy to solve a month hence as it is now.</p> +<p>For a long time the wind was favourable, and precisely as +strong as was desirable, and the formidable looking Cape Antifer, +which at mid-day seemed only a dark blue stripe on the distant +horizon, gradually neared us till we could see the foam eddying +round its weather-wasted base. Then came the steep high +wall of flint cliff with shingle débris at its foot, but +no one approach from top to bottom, if any bad thing +happened,—no, not for miles.</p> +<p>This was a time of alternate hope and fear, as the wind +gradually lulled away to nothing, and fog arose in the hot sun; +the waves were tossing the Rob Roy up and down, and flapping the +sails in an angry petulant way, very distressing if you are +sleepy. For four hours this hapless state of things +continued, yet we were already within five miles of Cape de la +Hève, and, once round that, on the other side was +Havre. How tantalizing to be so near, and yet still out of +reach! If this calm ends in a west wind, we may be driven +back anywhere by that and the tide. If it ends in a +thunderstorm we shall have to put off to sea at once.</p> +<p>See there the lighthouses up aloft on the crag—two of +them are lighted. Soon it will be dark around, and we shall +at this rate have to enter Havre by night. All this time we +were close to the cliffs, but the sounding-lead showed plenty of +water, and when the anchor was thrown out the cable did not pull +at all; we were not drifting but only rocked by the incessant +tumble and dash of the sea, which, though of all things glorious +when careering in the breeze, is of all most tiresome when +rolling in a calm.</p> +<p>At this time I felt lonely, exceedingly lonely and helpless, +also sleepy, feverish, discontented, and miserable. The +lonely feeling came only twice more in the voyage; the other bad +feelings never again.</p> +<p>Now, there are one or two sensations which after experience at +sea seldom deceive you as to what they prognosticate, though it +is impossible to give reasons for their hold upon +the mind. One is the feeling, “I am drifting,” +another, “The water is shoaling,” and the third, +“Here comes a breeze.” Each of these may be +felt and recognised even with your eyes shut. It does not +come in through one sense or another, but it seems to grasp the +whole system; and it is a very great convenience to have this +faculty alive in these three directions, and to know when to +trust it as a true impression.</p> +<p>On the unmistakable sensation that a breeze was coming, the +rebound from inaction and grumbling, lying full-length on deck, +to alert excitement was instantaneous and most pleasing. +The anchor was rattled up in a minute, and it was scarcely stowed +away before the genial air arrived, with ripples curling under +its soft breath, once more exactly favourable.</p> +<p>Slowly the two lights above on the cliff seemed to wheel round +as we doubled the Cape. Slowly two little dots in the +distance swelled up into big vessels in full sail, and others +rose from the far-off waters, all converging to the same port +with myself; their very presence being companionship, and their +community of purpose begetting a mutual interest. For these +craft deep in the water the navigation here is rather intricate, +though the excellent and uniform system of buoys employed in +France does all that is possible to make the +course clear; but my little boat, drawing less than three feet of +water, could run safely even over the shallows, though, as a +rule, I navigated her by the regular channels, as this gave me +much additional interest in the bearings about every port.</p> +<p>When the lights at Havre hove in sight the welcome flashing +was a happy reward to a long day’s toil, and as the yawl +sped forward cheerily through the intervening gloom, the kettle +hummed over the lamp, and a bumper of hot grog was served out to +the crew. Soon we rounded into the harbour, quiet and calm, +with everybody asleep at that late hour; and it was some time +more before the Rob Roy could settle into a comfortable berth, +and her sails were all made up, and bed unrolled, and the weary +sailor was snoring in his blanket.</p> +<p>Next day the people on the quays were much amused by the +curious manœuvres of my little dingey; its minute size, its +novel form (generally pronounced to be like a half walnut-shell), +its bright colour, and the extraordinary gyrations and whirlings +which it could perform, for practice taught some new feat in it +almost every day.</p> +<p>At night there was a strange sound, shrill and loud, which +lasted for hours, and marred the calm eve and the quiet twinkling +of the stars. This came from a +hundred children collected by a crackbrained stranger (said to be +English). These he gave cakes and toys to by day lavishly, +and assembled them at night on the quay to sing chorus to his +incoherent verses—a proceeding quite wonderful to be +permitted by the police so strict in France.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Seine—A +wetting—Pump—Locks—Long +reach—Rouen—Steering—A mistake—Horny +hands—Henpecked—British flag—The +captain’s wife.</p> +<p>Havre was a good resting-place to receive and send letters, +read up the newspapers, get a long walk, and a hot bath, and +fresh water and provisions. Bacon I found, after many +trials to cook it, was a delusion, so I gave mine to a steamboat +in exchange for bread. Hung beef too was discovered to be a +snare—it took far too long to cook, and was tough after +all; so I presented a magnificent lump to a bargee, whose time +was less precious and his teeth more sharp. Then one mast +had to come down in preparation for the bridges on the Seine; and +therefore with these things to do, and working with tools and +pen, all the hours were busily employed until, at noon on June +26, I hooked on to a steamer, ‘Porteur,’ with +its stern paddles very common in France, to be towed up the +river; a long and troublesome voyage of about 300 miles, so +winding is the course to Paris by the Seine.</p> +<p>This mode of progress was then new to me, and I had made but +imperfect preparations, so that when we rounded the pier to the +west, and met the short, snappish sea in the bay, every wave +clashed over me, and in ten minutes I was wet to the skin, while +a great deal of water entered the fore-compartment of the yawl +through the hole for the chain-cable at that time left open. <a +name="citation85"></a><a href="#footnote85" +class="citation">[85]</a> The surprising suddenness of this +drenching was so absurd that one could only laugh at it, nor was +there time to don my waterproof suit—the sou’wester +from Norway ten years ago, the oilskin coat (better than +macintosh) from Denmark last year, and the canvas trowsers.</p> +<p>A good wetting can be calmly borne if it is dashed in by a +heavy sea in honest sailing, or is poured down upon you from a +black cloud above; but here it was in a mere river-mouth, and on +a sunny day, and there was no opportunity to change for several +hours, until we stopped at a village to discharge cargo. +The river at that place was narrow, and all the swell I thought +was past; so, after a complete change of clothes, +it was too bad to find in a mile or two the same story over +again, and another wetting was the result. The evening rest +was far from comfortable with my bedding all moist, and both +suits of clothes wet through. One has therefore to beware +of the accompaniments of being towed. The boat has no time +to go over the waves, and, long rope or short, middle or side, +steering ever so well, the water shipped when a heavy boat is +swiftly towed must be as well prepared for as if it were in a +regular gale on open sea.</p> +<p>The Rob Roy had now in the hold a great deal of water, and for +the first time I had to apply the pump, which, having been +carefully fitted, acted well. An india-rubber tube leading +down to the keel was in such a position that I could immediately +screw on a copper barrel and work the piston with one hand, so as +to clear the stern compartment. By turning a screw valve I +could let the water come from the centre compartment, if any was +there, and then I went to the fore-compartment, about seven feet +long, which held the spare stores, and a curiosity in the shape +of a regulation chimney-pot hat to be worn on state occasions, +but which was brought out once a week merely to brush off the +green mould.</p> +<p>At noon the steamer set off again, dragging the yawl +astern, and soon entered the first lock on the Seine, where the +buildings around us, the neat stone barriers, and the dress and +the very looks of the men forcibly recalled to my mind the +numerous river locks passed in my canoe trips, but in so +different a manner, by running the boat round every one of them +on the gravel or over the grass.</p> +<p>The waste of time now in passing through each lock was +prodigious. While nearing it the steamer sounded her shrill +whistle to give warning, but still the lock was sure to be full +of barges and boats. Then our cavalcade had to draw aside +until the sluggish barges in front had all come out, and we went +into the great basin with bumps, and knocks, and jars, and +shouting. It required active use of the boathook for me to +get the Rob Roy into the proper place in the lock, and then to +keep her there. The men were not clumsy nor careless, but +still the polished mahogany yawl had no chance with the heavy +floats and barges in a squeezing and scratching match, and it was +always sure to go to the wall.</p> +<p>Time seemed no object to these people, they were no doubt paid +by the day. The sun shone upon them and it was pleasant +simply to exist and to loiter in life, so why make haste? +Finally we ascended as the lock filled, and then a second and a third joint cut off from our too long tail of +barges had to be passed in also. After all, the captain and +sometimes the whole crew deliberately adjourned to the +lock-keeper’s house for a “glass” and a chat; +and when that was entirely done, and every topic of the day +discussed, they all came back and had another supplemental +parliament on the steamer’s deck, like ladies saying +“good bye” at a morning visit; so that, perhaps, in +an hour from beginning it, the work of ten minutes was +accomplished, and the engine turned again once more—a +tedious progress. Thus it was that four nights and part of +five days were passed in mounting the Seine.</p> +<p>The scenery on the banks is in many places interesting, in a +few it is pretty, and it is never positively dull. The +traffic on the river is considerable above Rouen; but as there +are two railways besides, few passengers go by water. The +architecture and engineering on this fine river are indeed +splendid. The noble bridges, the vast locks, barrages, +quays, barriers, and embankments are far superior to ours on the +Thames, though that river floats more wealth in a day than the +Seine does in a month.</p> +<p>The sailors and dockmen were eager for my cargo of books; and +among the various odd ways by which these had to be given to men +on large vessels, there is one shown in the +sketch alongside, where the cabin-boy of a steamer looking +through the round deadlight with an imploring request in his +face, stretched out an eager hand to catch the book lifted up on +the end of one of my sculls.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p89b.jpg"> +<img class="floatright" alt= +"Cabin-boy reaching for book" +title= +"Cabin-boy reaching for book" +src="images/p89s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Then the neatness and apparent cleanliness of the villages, +and the well-clothed, well-mannered people—all so +“respectable.” France is progressing by great +leaps and bounds, at least in what arrests the eye. Its +progress in government, liberty, and politics, is perhaps rather +like that in a waltz.</p> +<p>Life in a towed yacht, alone on the Seine, is a somewhat hard +life. You have to be alert, and to steer for sometimes +twenty hours a day, and to cook and eat while steering. At +about three o’clock in the morning the +steamer’s crew seemed suddenly to rise from the deck by +magic, and stumble over coal-sacks, and thus abruptly to begin +the day. We stopped about nine o’clock at night, and +the crew flopped down on deck again, asleep in a moment, but not +I for an hour or two.</p> +<p>As the grey dawn uncovered a new and cloudless sky, the fierce +bubblings in the boiler became strong enough to turn the engine, +and our rope was slipped from the bank. Savoury odours from +the steamer soon after announced to me their breakfast cooking, +and the Rob Roy’s lamp too was speedily in full +blast. Eggs or butter or milk were instantly purveyed, if +within reach at a lock; sometimes delicious strawberries and +other fruits or dainties, the only difficulty was to cook at all +properly while steering and being towed.</p> +<p>It is easy to cook and to steer at sea without looking up for +many minutes. The compass tells you by a glance, and if +not, the tiller has a nudge which speaks to the man who knows the +meaning of its various pressures, through any part of his body it +may happen to touch. But if you forget to steer constantly +and minutely in a heavy boat towed on a river, she swerves in an +instant, and shoots out right and left, and dives into banks or +trees, or into the steamer’s side-swell, and the man +at the wheel turns round with a courteous French scowl, for he +feels by <i>his</i> tiller in a moment, and you cannot escape his +rebuke.</p> +<p>There was no romance in this manner of progress up the +river. The poetry of wandering where you will, and all +alone, cannot be thrown around a boat pulled by the nose while +you are sitting in her all day. The Rob Roy, with mast +down, and tied by a tow-rope, was like an eagle limping with +clipped pinion and a chained foot. Still, for the man not +churlish, there is scarcely any time or place or person wholly +devoid of interest, if he is determined to find it there.</p> +<p>The steamboat captain and crew were chatty enough; and when we +towed a string of barges, the yawl was lashed alongside of one of +these (and not at the end of the line), so that I visited my +fellow-travellers, and soon became friends, and then interchanged +presents. All this “Social Science” of the +sailor was far better done by the French bargee than in +England.</p> +<p>In both countries they frequently mistook me at first for a +common sailor in charge of a yacht, for my dress told no +more. As intercourse proceeded it was curious to watch the +gradual recognition of the fact that this “sailor” +talked and thought not just the same as others. Then they +regarded me as an agent come to sell the pretty boat; but it was in England only that any of them could be made to +believe that the owner of the Rob Roy “would not part with +his boat, did not want a cook or cabin-boy, and was not at all +anxious to see the end of his voyage.” Sometimes the +conversation, begun as between equals, would gradually get the +word “Sir” sprinkled over it; and once or +twice—and this not in France—it came down at last to +that “glass of beer,” sheepishly enough asked for, +which of course instantly drowns the converse that has been free +on one side and independent on the other.</p> +<p>“Workmen,” “working men,” +“artizans,” or whatever they are, or whatever you may +call them—I mean the class now being spoiled by petting in +England—let them be told (perhaps it may be said plainest +by their best friends) that there are just as many proud +exclusives among them as in any other stratum of society, and +that they have at least a full share too of conceit, foppery, and +affectation.</p> +<p>It may be heresy to say so, but the “horny hand” +has no necessary connection whatever with the “honest +heart,” as is the fashion to assert on one side, and almost +to believe on the other; and the friend who really does shake +that hand with a brotherly feeling is the most likely and the +best entitled to refuse to talk popular nonsense of this sort +about the “people.”</p> +<p>For the night we stopped usually in towns, but once or +twice we rested in a great bend of the river where the steamer +was run straight into the trees and made fast ashore exactly as +if it were on the Mississippi and not on the Seine.</p> +<p>That thousands of solitary fishermen should sit lonesome on +the river was the same puzzle to me as it had been before in +canoeing on other French streams. Their silence and +patience, during hours of this self-inflicted isolation, were +incredible for Frenchmen, fond as we at first think all of them +to be of “billard,” café, or dancing puppies, +of anything, in fact, provided it assumes to be lively.</p> +<p>One thing I am at last decided about, that it is not to catch +fish these men sit there; and the only reasonable explanation I +can find of the phenomenon is that all these meek and lone +fishermen are husbands unhappy at home!</p> +<p>There are numerous sailing-boats and rowing-boats on the +Seine; but I did not see one that there was any difficulty in not +coveting—their standard of marine beauty is not ours. +All rigs and all sizes were there, even to a great centre board +cutter, twenty-five feet broad, and any number of yards long, in +which the happy yachtsman could sail up and down between two +bridges which bounded him on either side to a two miles’ +reach!</p> +<p>The French national flag is perhaps the prettiest on the +world’s waters; but as it is repeated to the eye by every +boat and building, the sight of it becomes tiresome, and suggests +that absence of private influence and enterprise so striking to +an Englishman in every French work. Then again their +sailors (not to say their landsmen) in very many instances do not +even know our English flag when they see it, our union-jack or +ensign flying free on every shore.</p> +<p>At first I used to carry the French flag as well as our +British jack out of compliment to their country, but as I found +out that even in some of their newspapers the Rob Roy was +mentioned as a “beautiful little French yacht,” I +determined that <i>that</i> mistake at any rate should not be +fostered by me, so down came the tricolour, and my Cambridge +Boat-club flag took its place.</p> +<p>In one reach of the river we came upon a very unusual sight +for a week day, a French yacht sailing. Her flag was +half-mast high, and she was drifting down the stream, a helpless +wreck. A distracted sort of man was on board, and a lady, +or womankind at least, with dishevelled locks (carefully +disordered though), the picture of wan weary wretchedness, and +both of these hapless ones entreated our captain to tow their +little yacht home. But, after a knowing glance, he quickly +passed them in silence, and another steamer behind us +also rounded off so as to give the unhappy pair the widest +possible berth. Perhaps both captains preferred English +sovereigns to French francs.</p> +<p>I was charged about 3<i>l</i>. for being towed to Paris; but +the various steamers (six in all) I employed on the river were +every one well managed, and with civil people on board. +Indeed, I became a favourite with one captain’s wife, a +sturdy-looking body, always cutting up leaves of lettuce. +She gave me a basin of warm soup, and I presented her with some +good Yorkshire bacon. Next day she cooked some of this for +me with beans, and I returned the present by a packet of London +tea, a book, a picture of Napoleon, and another of “the Rob +Roy on the Seine,” in the highest style of art attainable +by a man steering all the time he is at the easel.</p> +<p>From all this it will be readily understood by any one who has +travelled much in various ways that to be towed up the Seine is +quite different from all other modes of progress, and that it +brings you among a large, new, and sharply-defined class of +people, who could scarcely be known, and certainly could not be +studied so well in any other way.</p> +<p>Nor is the traveller less interesting to these people than they are to him. Often it was +necessary to restrain the inquisitive French <i>gamins</i>, who +would teaze a boat to pieces if not looked after; but it is +always against the grain with me to be strict with boys, +especially about boats, for I hold that it is a good sign of them +when they relish nautical curiosities.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Dull reading—Chain +boat—Kedging—St. +Cloud—Training-Dogs—Wrong colours—My +policeman—Yankee notion.—Red, White, and Blue.</p> +<p>The effect of living on board a little boat for a month at a +time without more than three or four nights of usual repose, was +to bring the mind and body into a curious condition of subdued +life, a sort of contemplative oriental placid state in which both +cares and pleasures ceased to be acute, and the flight of time +seemed gliding and even, and not marked by the distinct epochs +which define our civilised life. Although this passive +enjoyment was really agreeable—and, in fine weather and +good health, perhaps a mollusc could affirm as much of its +existence,—certainly an experience of the condition I have +described enables one to understand what is evidently the normal +state of many thousands of hard-worked, ill-fed, and +irregularly-sleeped labourers; the men who, sitting down +thus weary at night, we expect to read some prosy book full of +desperately good advice, of which one half the words are not +needed for the sense and the other half are not understood by the +reader. <a name="citation98"></a><a href="#footnote98" +class="citation">[98]</a></p> +<p>The last tug-boat we had to use was of a peculiar kind, and I +am not aware that it is employed upon any of our rivers in +Britain. A chain is laid along the bottom of the Seine for +(I think) two hundred miles. At certain hours of the day a +long solidly-built vessel with a powerful engine on board comes +over this, and the chain is seized and put round a wheel on +board. By turning this wheel one way or the other it is +evident that the chain will be wound up and let down behind, +while it cannot slip along the river’s bottom—the +enormous friction is enough to prevent that, and therefore the +boat is wound up and goes through the water. The power of +this chain-boat is so great that it will pull along, and that too +against the rapid stream, a whole string of barges, several of +them of 300 tons’ burthen. The long fleet +advances steadily though slowly, and the irresistible engine +works with smokeless funnels, but there are groanings within, +telling of tight-strained iron, and earnest undertoned breathings +of confined steam.</p> +<p>Although the chain-boat is not often steered for the purpose +of avoiding other vessels (these must take care of their own +safety), yet it has to be carefully managed by the rudders (one +at each end), so that it may drop the chain in a proper part of +the river for the next steamer of the Company which is to use +it. When two such boats meet from opposite directions, and +both are pulling at the same chain, there is much time lost in +effecting a passage, and again when the chain-boat and all its +string of heavy craft arrives at a lock, you may make up your +mind for a long delay. It is evident that we do not require +this particular sort of tug-boat on the Thames below Teddington, +for the strong tide up and down twice every day carries along +thousands of tons of merchandize at a rapid pace, and one or two +men will be enough to attend upon each barge. In fact we +have the sun and moon for our tugs. These draw the water +up, and the tide is the rope which hauls our ships along.</p> +<p>To manœuvre properly with the Rob Roy in such a case as +this with the chain-boat required every vigilance, and strong +exercise of muscular force, as well as caution and prompt +decision, for I had sometimes to cling to the middle barge, then +to drop back to the last, and always to keep off from the +river-banks, the shoals, and the trees. On one occasion we +had to shift her position by “kedging” for nearly +half a mile, and this in a crowded part of the Seine too, where +the current also was swift. On another occasion the sharp +iron of a screw steamer’s frame ran right against my bow, +and at once cut a clean hole quite through the mahogany. +Instantly I seized a lump of soft putty, and leaning over the +side I squeezed it into the hole, and then “clinched” +it (so to speak) on the inside; and this stop-gap actually served +for three weeks, until a proper repair could be made.</p> +<p>The lovely precincts of St. Cloud came in sight at dawn on the +last day of June, prettier than Richmond, I must confess, or +almost any river-town we can boast of in England; and here I was +to rest while my little yawl was thoroughly cleaned, brightly +varnished, and its inside gaily painted with Cambridge blue, so +as to appear at the French Exhibition in its very best suit, and +then at the British Regatta on the Seine.</p> +<p>Some days were occupied in this general overhaul, during which +the excellent landlady of the hotel where I slept must have been +more amazed even than she declared, to see her guest return each day clad in blue flannel, and spattered all over +with varnish and paint, for the captain was painter as well as +cook. Of course all this was exchanged for proper attire +after working hours.</p> +<p>In the cool of the morning, three fine young fellows are +running towards us over the bridge; with lithe and easy step, +speed but not haste, and in white flannel and white shoes. +They have come to contend at the regatta here, the first of an +invasion of British oarsmen, who soon fill the lodgings, cover +the river, and waken up the footpath early with their rattling +run. Some of these are brown-faced watermen from Thames and +Humber and Tyne, others are ruddy-cheeked Etonians or University +men, or hard-trained Londoners, and others have come over the +Atlantic; John Bull’s younger brothers from New Brunswick, +not his cousins from New York. You might pick out among +these the finest specimens of our species, so far as pluck and +muscle make the man.</p> +<p>Few of the French oarsmen could be classed with any of the +divisions given above. Rowing has not attained the position +in France which it holds in England. For much of our +excellence in athletics and field sports we have to thank our +well-abused English climate, which always encourages and +generally necessitates some sort of exercise when we are out of +doors.</p> +<p>But it is a new and healthy sight on the Seine, these +fine fellows running in the mornings, and it gives zest to our +walk by the beautiful river.</p> +<p>Here also as we stroll about, two dogs gave us much amusement: +one was a Newfoundland, who dashed into the water grandly to +fetch the stick thrown in by his master. The other was a +bulldog, who went in about a yard or so at the same time, and +then as the swimmer brought the stick to shore the intruder +fastened on it, and always managed somehow to wrest the prize +from the real winner, and then carried it to his master with the +cool impudence which may be seen not seldom when the honour and +reward gained by one person are claimed and even secured by +another. <a name="citation102"></a><a href="#footnote102" +class="citation">[102]</a></p> +<p>From the truck to the keel the Rob Roy had been thoroughly +refreshed and beautified. The perfection of a yacht’s +beauty is that nothing should be +there for only beauty’s sake. In the strict +observance of this rule the English certainly do excel every +other nation; and whether you take a huge steam-engine, a yacht, +or a four-in-hand drag, it is certainly acknowledged by the best +connoisseurs of each, that ornament will not make a bad article +good, while it is likely to make a good one look bad.</p> +<p>Even the flags of a yacht have each a meaning, and are not +mere patches of pretty colours. Therefore they ought to be +made, at all events, perfectly correct first, and then as pretty +and neat as you please. I examined the flags of all the +boats and yachts and steamers at the Exhibition; and there was +wonderfully little taste in their display; nearly every +one—English and foreign—was cut wrong, or coloured +wrong, or too large for the boat that carried them. Even +our Admiralty Barge, where specimens of boats from England were +exhibited, had a flag flying, with the stripes in the +‘jack’ quite wrong. She was the only craft on +that side of the Pont de Jena; but as it was the English side I +anchored there, right opposite the sloping sward of the +Exhibition, and I did this without asking any questions, for it +is best now and then to do right things at once, and not to delay +until time is wasted in proving them to be right.</p> +<p>Here I slept on board my little craft in perfect +comfort, and could spend all the rest of the day on shore. +Each morning about 7 o’clock you might notice a +smart-looking French policeman standing on the grass bank of the +Exhibition, and staring hard at the Rob Roy. He had come to +see her captain at his somewhat airy toilette, and he was +particularly interested, and even amazed, to witness the +evolutions of a toothbrush, which were not only interesting but +instructive as involving an idea perfectly new—hard also to +comprehend from so distant an inspection. Surely he thought +this strange implement must be a novelty imported from England +for exhibition here.</p> +<p>As he gazed in wonder at the rapid exercise, I sometimes gave +the curious instrument an extra flourish above or below, and the +intelligent and courteous gendarme never rightly decided whether +or not the toothbrush was an essential though inscrutable part of +the yacht’s sailing gear. Our acquaintance, however, +improved, and he kindly took charge of the boat in my absence; +not without a mysterious air as he recounted its travels (and a +good deal more), to the numerous visitors,—many of whom, +after his explanations, left the Rob Roy quite delighted that +they had seen “the little ship which had sailed from +America!”</p> +<p>The boat “Red, White, and Blue” he thus +confounded with mine—was at that time not far off, in a +house by itself, amid the other wonders which crowded the gardens +of the Exhibition.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p105b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The French policeman" +title= +"The French policeman" +src="images/p105s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The two venturesome Americans who came to Europe in this ship +had but scant pleasure either in their voyage itself or in their +visit to France and England. Storm, wet, and hunger on the +wide Atlantic were patiently borne in hopes of meeting a warm +welcome in Old England; but, instead, they had the cold chill of +doubt. Many of their sufferings in both these ways were +directly due to their own and their friends’ +mismanagement, the stupid construction of their cabin, the +foolish three-masted rig of their boat, the boastful wager of the +boat’s builder, and their imprudence in painting up the +boat on her arrival, and tarring the ropes; and, lastly, in +allowing a mutilated paper to be issued as their “original +log.”</p> +<p>Disappointed here, they turned to Paris, expecting better +days. Fair promises were made. Steamers were to tow +the boat up the Seine in triumph; but it was towed against a +bridge and smashed its masts. Agents were to secure goodly +numbers to visit her; but for three months scarcely any one paid +for a ticket, until at length the vessel was admitted into the +grounds of the Exhibition. Finally, the ruined Captain ran +away to England, but cleverly contrived to carry his ship with +him. Whatever may be thought as to the wisdom or advantage +of making such a voyage and in such a boat, it is a very great +pity that when it has been effected there should be a failure in +appreciating its marvellous accomplishment.</p> +<p>The possibility of taking a boat across the Atlantic, with +west wind prevailing and with no rocks or shoals to fear, is +altogether beyond doubt. The ill-fate of two other boats +that have tried the feat shews how dangerous it is to try. +The success of another more recent trip of ‘man and wife’ in one boat is reassuring. But after +examining, probably more than any body else, the evidence in +their case—the men, the log, the documents, and affidavits, +and the boat, and its contents, also the numerous doubts and +criticisms from all quarters, both in London and Paris, and in +Dover and Margate, I have good reason to believe that the +“Red, White, and Blue” had no extraneous help in her +voyage across that wide ocean. The unexplained wonder is +that men able and willing to perform such a deed as this should +be incapable of building and rigging their boat so as to do it +comfortably.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Presents—The +Emperor—Anecdote—The Abbé in London—A +vert—Singing girl—English bird—Model—Old +friend—The Turks—Guzzling—The friture.</p> +<p>As they walked past the building where this travelled ship was +shewn, many of the visitors seemed each to be reading a paper in +his hands, while some have a gilt-edged book, and others a +broadsheet with a large woodcut on it.</p> +<p>These people have come past that other building, which seems +to be all windows; and let us stop there a few minutes to see why +the groups crowd round, and reach out their hands, and go away +reading.</p> +<p>If you heard that it is “only some tracts” being +given away, and then turned away yourself, you have lost a +wonderful sight: one that, well pondered upon, has wide +suggestions to the mind that thinks; and a sight that, of its +kind, was quite unexampled at any time and anywhere. Inside +this building, and another near it, were hundreds of +thousands of Bibles, Testaments, periodicals, papers, picture +books and tracts, beautifully printed in the languages of +visitors from distant lands, and mostly given free to those who +will receive them.</p> +<p>Even in England, at none of our Exhibitions or any other +place, had such a proceeding been permitted, doubtless from +prudential reasons,—the fear of “giving +offence” or exciting disturbance; so that it had been left +to France, at a time when pleasure seemed the chief and only +object of all, to brave these supposed dangers, and, despite all +scruples, to give utmost freedom to the distribution of +God’s Word and of man’s comments upon it. The +example was not without fruit; at each subsequent Grand +Exhibition, and even under the Republic in 1878, the Book of Law +and Gospel has been freely given in the frivolous capital of +France.</p> +<p>The fact is, if you mean to get at all the people, you cannot +find them in the same place or reach them by the same road, or +treat them in the same way; and all the people must be got at +somehow.</p> +<p>As fast as they could give these books and papers out of the +windows, several persons were delivering them into the open hands +of the people, and when a window became vacant, and there was +need of some one to help, the post was filled by the crew of the +yawl.</p> +<p>We intended to stay only a short time, but six hours +often passed before the interesting work could be left; I can +never forget those hours, and the subsequent occasions of the +same sort.</p> +<p>Every variety of person came quickly before us, of +nationality, of manner, of dress, of language, and of bearing, as +each drew near, took a paper, read a few lines, thanked the +donor, and then went off reading as they walked, or with +reflecting gaze, or simply astonished.</p> +<p>Hundreds of soldiers came to the window, sometimes a dozen of +them at once, and these all asked for their +‘Empereur.’ This meant the special copy of the +well-known periodical ‘British Workman,’ which was +translated into French, and had a very large and well-done +woodcut of Napoleon III. on its broad first page. The +generosity of some good men supplied funds to give one of these +Emperor papers to every soldier, policeman, and public +employé; and much additional interest was attached to the +paper because it was actually printed before their eyes at a +press in the centre of the building, and because the press itself +had borne off a gold medal for excellence of workmanship. <a +name="citation110"></a><a href="#footnote110" +class="citation">[110]</a></p> +<p>Priests came often, and even returned to get tracts for +their villages in distant parts of France. Germans asked +for papers in “Allemand,” and numerous Italians and +Spaniards asked for them in their languages. Two Russians +came, but we had then no books in Russ; and at length four grave +Mussulmen stood before me in turbans and flowing robes, with a +suppliant but dignified air, while their interpreter said they +wanted to buy a “dictionary to learn English +from.” Now they will easily get these dictionaries in +the “Beaconsfield Library” of Cyprus.</p> +<p>Although in frequent tours in foreign lands we had been +accustomed to see minglings of the people from many nations, the +sight at this window was more varied in the components of the +constant flowing stream of human beings for hours and hours than +we ever saw before.</p> +<p>Some years ago, travelling in Algeria with an Arab guide, I +put up for the night at an old semaphore station, where was a +French soldier in charge. It was far from any houses, and +on a high hill, and he had a visit only every fortnight from his friends, who brought him provisions on +mules’ backs. He willingly let me in, and spread a +mattress for me on the floor alongside his own. The Arab he +kept outside, and the poor fellow had to sleep coiled up on the +doorstep.</p> +<p>The Frenchman was courteous and intelligent; but he had only +one thing to read for many weeks, a vapid French novel. He +said he would willingly read something better if he had it. +At the next French town I searched for some better book, and this +caused me to find the agent of the Bible Society, and so a parcel +of books, religious and secular, were sent off to the telegraph +station; but my attention once drawn to the French soldiers and +their reading, it was impossible not to follow a subject so +interesting and important. The regiment quartered in the +town had but a few Testaments. <a name="citation112"></a><a +href="#footnote112" class="citation">[112]</a> By a little +exertion about a hundred copies were obtained and +distributed. I saw the men reading these in the streets for +hours under the trees, and I sailed in a man-of-war carrying the +regiment to Mexico. Not one in five of these men survived +that fearful campaign.</p> +<p>Priestly opposition to this giving of Testaments +resulted in an appeal to the General in command. He asked +the priests if the book was a “bad one,” and when it +was not possible to say “yes,” he gave the book free +course. Inquiry was excited by this opposition, and 1500 +Testaments were received.</p> +<p>There was a remarkable contrast between the absence of public +efforts by French Romanists to disseminate their opinions at the +Exhibition and the unusual freedom for others, sanctioned by the +late Archbishop of Paris. Various causes were at work to +produce this very unexpected state of things, and they will not +be alluded to here. But the points thus noticed remind one +forcibly of what actually occurred in 1851, when the then +Archbishop of Paris specially appointed the Abbé Miel, a +learned and able man, to go to London and to do his best to +further Romanism here during the Exhibition.</p> +<p>One of his first acts was to issue two small tracts on the +supremacy of the Pope and of St. Peter; and some hundred thousand +of these, beautifully printed, were distributed in London. +A copy came to the hands of a clever layman, well skilled in the +Romish controversy; and he saw immediately that this little +tract, if not well answered, might do much harm.</p> +<p>After careful study of the subject, he wrote to the +Abbé, calling attention to several important misquotations +in the tract, which were evident when it was compared with +original documents in the British Museum. The Abbé +replied, that he was not responsible for the accuracy of the +extracts, but that they had been given to him by the late +Cardinal Wiseman.</p> +<p>The Protestant layman then wrote a series of letters in a +well-known English newspaper, <i>Bell’s Weekly +Messenger</i>, upon the subject treated in the tract, and for the +time the matter dropped. Years afterwards he received a +letter from the Abbé, stating that these newspaper +articles had convinced him of the need of inquiry into the +subject, and he went to Rome to consult his former +instructors. Finally, this Abbé, selected as the +champion of Rome by the Archbishop of Paris, and convinced by the +arguments adduced by a layman in London, renounced the Romish +church, and though offered promotion for his past services, he +came to London and went straight to the house of the layman, whom +he had not yet seen.</p> +<p>Often have I walked with that clever Abbé, riveted by +his deeply interesting conversation, his new and fresh views of +English life, his forcible exposures of those false estimates of +Protestant truth which had for so many years +blinded him, and his explanations of the machinery then in action +at the Oratory, near the Strand.</p> +<p>But his former allies could not brook the desertion of so +formidable a champion, and he was driven by their continual +annoyance to seek another home. So he went to Ireland, and +soon became the best teacher of the French language in Dublin, +from whence he removed to America. Let us hope that there, +at least, he is free to profess the truth he had found, and to be +one of the instances—very rare indeed they are—of a +consistent and steady Protestant, who had for years before been +thoroughly imbued with those doctrines which gnaw at the very +vitals of mental perception, and obliterate the sense of +fairness, and which very seldom leave enough alive in the mind to +hold even real truth firmly.</p> +<p>It will not be breaking the promise that our visit to the +exhibition is not to involve us in a description of all its +wonders, if we walk up-stairs and look into the Tunisian +Café, attracted by the well-known drumming and the moaning +dirge which Easterns call music. Tunis is best seen out of +Tunis, for the broidered gold and bright-coloured slippers can +then be enjoyed without those horrible scenes of filth—dead +camels, open sewers, and maimed beggars which encase the shabby mud walls I have seen so near the marble ruins +of old Carthage.</p> +<p>The café was full of visitors. English and +Americans were admiring a pretty singing girl about fifteen years +of age, who was beautifully dressed, and sitting with four very +demure and ugly Orientals in the little orchestra.</p> +<p>Soon she rose and sang a song. Black eyes, blackest of +hair, pale cheeks, languid grace. She is a fair daughter +from the rising sun. “Yes, there is certainly +something in their Eastern beauty which is quite beyond what +Britons or Yankees see at home!”</p> +<p>But the words and music of the song seemed known to me. +Surely she is now singing English while she shakes the golden +sequins in her long jet hair and rattles her tambourine? We +asked a waiter, and he said she could sing Turkish, Spanish, +French, and English. At last being persuaded that her +pronunciation of English was too distinct for a foreigner, we +took the very bold measure of going up to the orchestra, and +saying to the young lady, “You are English, are you +not?” She stared, and held down her face, which still +was pale, even if she blushed and answered “Yes, +sir.” “Are you here alone?—no relation, +no woman friend with you?” “Yes.” +“And do they treat you well?” “Yes.” “From what part of +England?” “From ---shire.”</p> +<p>I said she seemed to mean the words of the song she had +sung,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘I wish I were a bird, and I would flee +away.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and I asked if she could read, and would like a nice +book. “Oh yes, I should, and very much.” +Now there was a stall set up in the Exhibition by “The Pure +Literature Society,” from 11, Buckingham Street, Adelphi, +London, which selects about three thousand books from various +publishers, but publishes none itself; gets no profits on its +sales except thanks and satisfaction; so that its catalogue is +likely to contain what it may wish should be read. <a +name="citation117"></a><a href="#footnote117" +class="citation">[117]</a> Here we selected a very +interesting volume with many illustrations, suitable for the +girl’s reading; and soon at the café again, I bowed +to the senior fiddler, who nodded assent, and then the poor pale +lonely girl had the pleasant book as a remembrance of home placed +in her hands, and a promise given her that a good Christian lady +would call that evening.</p> +<p>So perhaps our catalogue of nationalities at the Exhibition +ought to be somewhat abridged, and not wholly +founded upon the variety it presents to the eye; especially as in +London, too, we may remember Punch’s crossing-sweeper, who, +being dressed in Hindoo garb, begged from a passer-by with, +“Take pity on the poor Irishman—Injun, I +mane.”</p> +<p>On the Sunday the little dingey had its usual cargo, and the +bargemen on the Seine, in the heart of Paris, were just as glad +as others elsewhere to get something to read.</p> +<p>Among the curiosities exhibited in the English Naval +Architecture building here was a very beautiful model of the Rob +Roy canoe, presented to its owner by the builders, Messrs. +Searle, who have already built some hundreds of such canoes on +the principles first applied in that above mentioned; and to me +it was even more gratifying to find in the Admiralty Barge, the +Rob Roy canoe itself, with sails set and the flag of the Royal +Canoe Club flying, and with maps of the paddling voyages through +Europe.</p> +<p>Very speedily I launched my old travelling companion, and had +a paddle up the river by moonlight, and it was surprising to find +that scarcely any water leaked in, though the other boats which +were hung up in the barge were found to be a good deal injured by +the strong draught of wind rushing through the arch of the +bridge, and then under the open sides of the shed, covered only by a roof. But then those other boats were +new, and perhaps some were not built of such well-seasoned wood +<a name="citation119"></a><a href="#footnote119" +class="citation">[119]</a> as Messrs. Searle employ beyond all +other boat-builders I know; whereas the weatherbeaten Rob Roy had +been too long inured to wet and dry, sun and wind, heat and cold, +to be affected with the rheumatism and ague which shook even the +man-of-war’s boats on the barge.</p> +<p>The sketch (see next page), represents a man watering a horse, +and who swum it out to my boat to get a paper, and then carefully +placed the gift in a dry place ashore until he should be able to +use it when he was dressed again.</p> +<p>My life at the Exhibition soon settled into a somewhat regular +one. Seeing, seeing, seeing all day, and then returning to +my quiet bed on the river at night, with a ‘Times’ +newspaper to study, and books and letters. It was a variety +to launch the dingey, and scull along the quays and +visit the other yachts, all of them most hospitable to the Rob +Roy. I ventured even to go alongside the Turkish vessel, +the <i>Dahabeeh</i>, from the Nile, full of specimen +“fellahs,” all hidden by a curtain of grey calico, +except to those who had paid their franc for general +entrance. We never observed any visitor actually on board +this vessel; indeed, it required a bold inquirer to face those +solemn Africans’ gaze, as they sat cross-legged on deck, +and ate their soup from a universal bowl, or calmly inspired from +their chibouques, and blew out a +formal and composed puff of the bluest tobacco-smoke. It +did, indeed, soon forcibly recall the feelings of Egyptian travel +to see these men;—the red fiery sunsets, the palm-trees, +and crocodiles, and obelisks, and Indian corn, and, over all, the +thrumming, not unmusical sound of the +<i>tarabookrah</i>—earthen drum—with the wailing +melodies in a minor key of the “Chaldæans whose cry +is in the ships.” <a name="citation121"></a><a +href="#footnote121" class="citation">[121]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p120b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Sunday ride" +title= +"Sunday ride" +src="images/p120s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>So I ventured near in my dingey, and the imperturbable +Egyptians were fairly taken by surprise. They soon rallied +to a word or two in their language and an Englishman’s +smile, and rapidly we became friends, and talked of Damascus and +Constantinople, and finally decided that “Englishman +bono!” The shape and minute dimensions of my dingey +much astonished them; but they probably believed, that in that +very craft I had come all the way from London.</p> +<p>The luxury of Paris must have at least some effect in making +<i>gourmands</i> of the young generation, even if their fathers +did not set the example. The operation, or rather the +solemn function, of breakfast or dinner, is with many Frenchmen +the only serious act in life. When people can afford to order a dinner in exact accordance with the lofty +standard of excellence meant by its being “good,” the +diner approaches the great proceeding with a staid and watchful +air, and we may well leave him now he is involved in such +important service. But with the <i>octroi</i> duty for even +a single pheasant at two shillings and sixpence, there are many +good feeders who cannot afford to “dine well,” and +the fuss they make about their eatables is something +preposterous. It is a vice—this systematic +gluttony—that seems to be steadily increasing in France for +the last twenty years, at least in its public manifestation, and +moreover it is an evil somewhat contagious.</p> +<p>One evening, while some of us had dinner at the Terrasse in +St. Cloud, a family entered the room, and were partly disrobing +themselves of bonnets and hats for a regular downright dinner, +when the waiter came, and in reply to the order of a +“<i>friture</i>” he calmly said they had none.</p> +<p>At this awful news the whole party were struck dumb and pale, +and they leant back on their chairs as if in a swoon. The +poor waiter prudently retreated for reinforcements, and the +landlady herself came in to face the infuriate guests.</p> +<p>“No friture!” said the father. “No +friture, and we come to St. Cloud?” he muttered deeply in +rage. His wife proceeded to make horribly wry faces, whereat Rob Roy irreverently laughed, but he +was not observed, for they noticed nothing of the external +trifling world. The daughters heaved deep sighs, and then +burst into voluble and loud denunciations. Then the son +(who wanted dinner at any rate, and the objurgations might do +afterwards) proposed at once to leave the desolate, +famine-stricken spot.</p> +<p>But though this was debated warmly, it was not carried. +They had already anchored, as it were, and they resolved to dine +“starving,” and to grumble all the time of dinner +when no one subject was talked about except the +<i>friture</i>. It was a miserable spectacle to witness, +but confirming the proposition, not at all new, that the French +care more about eating than even John Bull.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Paris +Regatta—Absentees—Novelties—New +Brunswickers—Steam yachts—Canoe race—Canoe +chase—Entangled—M. Forcat—Challenge.</p> +<p>While the voyage in the Rob Roy’s dingey on Sunday was +such as we have described, it was a busy time a little further +down the river at St. Cloud, being the first day of the Paris +Regatta, which continued also on the Monday, and then our British +Regatta occupied the next four days. These two were under +separate committees. The British Regatta was managed by +experienced oarsmen, and His Royal Highness the Commodore of the +Canoe Club was patron—not a merely nominal patron but +presiding frequently at the committee meetings held at +Marlborough House, and generously contributing to the +funds. The Emperor of the French also gave us his name, and +prizes to the amount of 1000<i>l</i>. were offered in a series of +contests open to all the world. In these better days now +the rowing world of France could lately count upon +the patronage of their distinguished Foreign Minister, M. +Waddington, who rowed in the same boat with me at +Cambridge—‘ages ago.’</p> +<p>But this experiment of holding an international regatta in a +foreign country was quite novel, and there were difficulties +around it which it is not convenient to detail.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding the hasty predictions of people who could not +approve of what was originated and carried out without requiring +their advice, the regatta brought together a splendid body of the +best oarsmen and canoeists in the world from England, France, and +America. Three Champions of England for the first time +contended at the same place. The most renowned watermen +came from Thames and Tyne and Humber, and eight-oared boats raced +for the first time on the Seine. The weather was +magnificent, the course was in perfect order, and better than +almost any other of equal length near any capital; the +arrangements made were the very best that might be contrived +under the peculiarly difficult circumstances which could not be +controlled, even by a committee comprising the very best men for +the purpose, and zealous in their work; and lastly the racing +itself, for spirit and for speed, and for that exciting interest +which is caused by equal excellence sustained during +well-contested struggles, was never surpassed.</p> +<p>But this grand exhibition of water athletics was not +seen by more than a few hundreds of persons, so that +“Tribunes,” richly draped, and with streamers flying +above, and seats below for 1000 visitors, often had not three +people there at a time.</p> +<p>The French oarsmen must have been absent at some +“better” place, and of the French public you might +see more of them assembled on the roadside round a dancing +dog. The Emperor could not come—perhaps Bismarck +would not let him, and as the Prince of Wales had to be in his +proper place as the representative of England, receiving the +Sultan in London, this important duty prevented His Royal +Highness from enjoying the pleasure he might well have counted +upon after the trouble he had taken in connection with the +British Regatta in Paris.</p> +<p>But after stating this disappointment bluntly, it will be +remembered by all who were at St. Cloud, that there was a great +deal of real amusement, as well as of hard work, and the whole +had a strange novelty both in its charms and its troubles.</p> +<p>For crews in “hard training” to sit down to +<i>bifteck</i>, and Medoc, omelette, and <i>haricots verts</i>, +with strawberries and cream, and bad French jabbered round, was +certainly a novelty. To see a group of London watermen, +addressed in unknown tongues, but perfectly self-possessed, +visiting the Exhibition in the morning and +rowing a race in the afternoon, was new; and to observe the +complete bewilderment of soldiers and police at the whole +proceedings, which came upon them of course with surprise in a +country where no one reads the papers for an advertisement, +except about a new play, or an infallible pill—all this was +very amusing to those who could listen and look on.</p> +<p>The English rowing-men soon made themselves as comfortable as +they could in their new quarters, and suffered patiently the +disagreeables of French lodgings. They repaired their +boats, often broken by the transit from London, and behaved with +good humour in proportion to their good sense. Even the +grumblers were satisfied, because they were provided with a new +set of grievances; and so things passed off better than was +expected by those who knew the real circumstances of the +venture. It was the first regatta of the kind, and +doubtless it will be the last.</p> +<p>No particular description of the various races for eight-oars, +four-oars, pair-oars, and sculling, by watermen and amateurs, +would be interesting to general readers; but a few notable +lessons were there to be learned, which will probably not be +disregarded.</p> +<p>An interesting feature was added to the occasion by +the arrival of four men, who came from New Brunswick, to row at +this regatta. They had no coxswain to steer them, as every +other boat had, but the rudder was worked by strings leading to +one of the rowers’ feet.</p> +<p>They contended first in a race where it was not allowed to use +“outrigged” boats (so called because they are so +narrow that the oars cannot work on the gunwale, but are rigged +out on iron frames). Moreover, they rowed in a broad, +heavy, clumsy-looking craft, with common oars like those used at +sea, and they pulled a short jerky stroke, and had to go round a +winding French course—indeed with apparently every +disadvantage; yet they came in first, beating English and French, +and winning 40<i>l</i>.</p> +<p>The same crew went in next for another race, and in another +boat, an outrigger they had brought with them from the Dominion +of Canada, and again they were first, and won 40<i>l</i>. more. +<a name="citation128"></a><a href="#footnote128" +class="citation">[128]</a> At once “Les +Canadiens” became the favourites and heroes of the +day. Englishmen cheered them because they were the winners, +and some Frenchmen cheered them because they supposed the men +were French, whereat the hardy Canadians smiled with French +politeness, but muttering the while round +protestations, intelligible only to English ears.</p> +<p>The river Seine was made unusually lively during the summer by +the movement upon it of a whole fleet of steamers of all shapes +and sizes, and with flags often exceedingly +‘coquet.’ Little screw yachts or steam launches +flitted up and down, sometimes so small as to admit only three or +four people on board, with a bit of awning to deflect the sun; +others were crowded with passengers. This style of +locomotion is peculiarly adapted to Parisians. It has all +the heat, bustle, and noise that can be desirable in nautical +pleasures, and yet it almost avoids those highly inconvenient +undulations which open water has too often the bad taste to +assume. The completion of the Thames Embankment and of the +purification of our river has already made water travelling more +fashionable in London. Soon, perhaps, the Representative of +some powerful Trades-union or incorrupt Borough, will see by the +Westminster Clock that it is time to go down to the +“House,” and will order his double-screw steamer +round to the water steps near his terrace door; and no coachman +in those days need apply for a place unless he can steer.</p> +<p>Even now, the number of miniature steamers, tug-boats, and +private yachts on the Thames is large and +increasing; while a few years ago not one was to be seen. +Most of these are pretty little things, and the best of all craft +to be handled safely in the crowded waterway. The multitude +of them one sees at Stockholm shews what may be seen some day in +Middlesex.</p> +<p>Several English screw yachts had come to Paris. Mr. +Manners Sutton kindly lent his to the Regatta Committee, and the +steam launch of the Admiralty Barge was also used, so that the +umpire was able to follow each race in a proper position for +seeing fair play, while the Rob Roy was anchored at the +winning-post, to guard the palm of victory. Here, too, +various bomb-shells were fired high into the air at the end of +each race, and were supposed to correspond in number with the +place of the winning boat on the programme; but somehow they so +exploded as effectually to confuse the audience they were meant +to enlighten as to “who had won:” which uncertainty, +we all know, is one of the principal excitements of a regatta, +and it can be sometimes prolonged even until the day +afterwards.</p> +<p>The other features of these rowing matches on the Seine may be +left to the reader’s imagination if he has seen a regatta +before; and if he has not seen one, he could not well apprehend +the thing by reading. The canoe races, however, being more novel, have another claim on attention.</p> +<p>One of these races was for fast canoes, and to be decided only +by speed. The other was a “canoe chase,” in +which dexterity and pluck were required for success.</p> +<p>For the canoe race three Englishmen had brought from the +Thames three long boats with long paddles, and they were the +three fastest canoes in England, so far as could be proved by +previous trials. Against these, three French canoes were +entered, all of them short, and with short paddles. One of +these, propelled by an Englishman (resident in Paris), came in +easily first, and the second prize was won by a Frenchman. +Here, surely, was a good sound lesson to English canoe-men who +wished to paddle fast on still water, in a boat useless for any +other purpose, and slower at last than a skiff with two +sculls. Accordingly, we accepted the beating with +thanks.</p> +<p>The ‘Canoe Chase,’ first instituted at our Club +races on the Thames, was found to be an agreeable variety in +nautical sport, and very amusing. Therefore, two prizes +were offered at the Paris Regatta for a canoe chase, open to all +the “peoples.” Five French canoes entered, but +there was only one English canoeist ready in his Rob Roy +to meet all comers (the Hon. A. F. Kinnaird).</p> +<p>The canoes were drawn up on land alongside each other, and +with their steins touching the lower step of the +“Tribune” or Grand Stand. It was curious to +observe the various positions taken up by the different men, as +each adopted what he thought was the best manner of +starting. One was at his boat’s stern; another, at +the side, half carried his canoe, ready to be “off;” +another grasped the bow; while the most knowing paddler held the +end of his “painter” (or little rope) extended from +the bow as far as it would reach.</p> +<p>All dashed off together on being started, and ran with their +boats to the water. The Frenchmen soon got entangled +together by trying to get into their boats dry; but the +Englishman had made up his mind for a wetting, and it might as +well come now, at once, as in a few minutes after, so he rushed +straight into the river up to his waist, and therefore being free +from the crowding of others, he got into his boat all dripping +wet, but foremost of all, and then paddled swiftly away. +The rest soon followed; and all of them were making to the +flag-boat anchored a little way off, round which the canoes must +first make a turn. Here the Englishman, misled by the +various voices on shore telling him the (wrong) side he was to +take, lost all the advantage of his start so that +all the six boats arrived at the flag-boat together, each +struggling to get round it, but locked with some other-opponent +in a general scramble. Next, their course was back to the +shore, where they jumped out and ran along, each one dragging his +boat round another flag on dry land, amid the cheers and laughter +of the dense group of spectators, who had evidently not +anticipated a contest so new in its kind, and so completely +visible from beginning to end. Again, dashing into the +water the little struggling fleet paddled away to +another flag-boat, but not now in such close array. Some +stuck in the willows or rushes, or were overturned and had to +swim; and the chance of who might win was still open to the man +of strength and spirit, with reasonably good luck. Once +more the competing canoes came swiftly back to shore, and were +dragged round the flag, and another time paddled round the +flag-boat; and now he was to be winner who could first reach the +shore again and bring his canoe to the Tribune: a well-earned +victory, won by the Hon. A. F. Kinnaird, far ahead of the +rest.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p133b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The struggle" +title= +"The struggle" +src="images/p133s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The whole affair lasted not much longer than might be required +to write its history; but the strain was severe upon pluck and +muscle, and called forth several qualities very useful in life at +sea, but which mere rowing in a straight race does not require +and cannot therefore exhibit. Instantly after this exciting +contest, a Frenchman challenged the winner to another chase over +the same course. But as the challenger had not thought fit +to enter the lists and test his powers in the chase, which was +open to him like the rest, it would, of course, have been quite +unfair to allow him, quite fresh, to have a special race with the +hard-worked winner, though the Englishman was at once ready to +accept the gage.</p> +<p>Among the visitors to the regatta was M. Forcat, whose +peculiar system of propelling boats I have mentioned in the +account of a former voyage; and he brought up for exhibition, and +for the practical trial by the winner of the canoe chase, a very +narrow and crank boat, rowed by oars jointed to a short mast in +front of the sitter, and thus obtaining one of the advantages +possessed by canoeists, that their faces are turned to the bow, +and so they see where they are going.</p> +<p>It is no doubt an enormous disadvantage that in ordinary +rowing your back is turned upon the course, with all its dangers +and beauties; and this inconvenience is only put up with because +you can go faster as you row with your back foremost, and the +scenery is of no account if a river serves only to float the +skiff but not to please the eye. As for travelling on new +and lovely waters in this style, with face to the stern, it is +just as if you were to walk backwards along a road, and to think +you could appreciate the picturesque either by a stare at the +retreating beauties you are leaving, or by a glance now and then +over your shoulder at what is coming. But though M. +Forcat’s boat had the rower’s face to the bow, the +form and size of the nondescript novelty were not to be +understood in a moment, and we tried to dissuade our young +canoeist from entering hastily a new sort of boat, +very easily capsized. He had his own will, however, and his +own way, because he was a Scot, and only “English” in +the sense we use that word for “British,”—too +frequently thereby giving dire offence to the blue lion of the +North, whose armorial tail is so punctiliously correct as to the +precise curl and make up of its “back hair.”</p> +<p>“He’s upset,” they cried in a minute or +so. But we might well let so good a swimmer take his +chance; he merely pushed the boat ashore, and then took a +pleasant swim, until he was finally captured and put into the Rob +Roy’s cabin, to change his wet clothes as well as a modest +man might do behind a plaid screen and before the curious +world.</p> +<p>Therefore in boats, as well as in business and politics, we +may learn lessons from one another, both on the water and on the +land: from Canada, as to the steering and the stroke; from +France, as to the fast, quick turning canoe in still water; and +from England, as to the <i>man</i>.</p> +<p>It was to see this regatta and to help in it that the Rob Roy +had pushed her way to Paris; and for this six hundred miles of +river navigation in a sea-going boat were justifiable, yet often +did I feel much the sea-trim lifeboat yawl was out of place upon +a calm inland water like the Seine.</p> +<p>Before the arrival of my little yacht, a challenge had +been sent to her to sail on the Seine against a French yacht +there. To this I replied that it would be scarcely a fair +match for the Rob Roy, a sea craft, to race on a river known only +to one of the competitors; but that the yawl would gladly sail a +match with any French yacht having only one man on +board,—the course to be at sea either one hundred miles for +speed, or one week for distance, and communication not allowed +with any other boat or shore. No answer came.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Dawn music—Cleared for +action—Statistics—Blue Peter—Passing +bridges—A gale—A +shave—Provisions—Toilette—An upset—Last +bridge—A peep below—Cooking inside—Preserved +provisions—Soups.</p> +<p>The Rob Roy was very pleasant lodgings when moved down to the +lovely bend at St. Cloud. Sometimes she was made fast to a +tree, and the birds sung in my rigging, and gossamers spun webs +on the masts, and leaves fell on the deck. At other times +we struck the anchor into soft green grass, and left the boat for +the day, until at night, returning from where the merry rowers +dined so well in training, and after a pleasant and cool walk +“home” by the river side, there was the little yawl +all safe on a glassy pool, and her deck shining spangled with +dewdrops under the moon, and the cabin snug within,—airy +but no draughts, cool without chill, and brightly lighted up in a +moment, yet all so undisturbed, without dust or din, and without +any bill to pay.</p> +<p>Awake with the earliest sun, there was always the same +sound alongside as we lay at anchor. The sweet murmurings +of the water running by, cleft by my sharp bow, and gliding in +wavelets along the smooth sides only a few inches from my ear, +and sounding with articulate distinctness through the tight +mahogany skin; and then there was the muttering chatter of the +amateur fisherman, who was sure to be at his post, however +early.</p> +<p>This respectable personage, not young but still hearty, is in +his own boat,—a boat perfectly respectable too, and well +found in all particulars, flat, brown, broad, utterly useless for +anything but this its duty every morning.</p> +<p>Quietly his anchor is dropped, and he then fixes a pole into +the bottom of the river, and lashes the boat to that, and to that +it will be fixed until nine o’clock; at present it is +five. He puts on a grey coat, and brown hat, and blue +spectacles, all the colours of man and boat being philosophically +arranged, and as part of a complicated and secret plot upon the +liberties of that unseen, mysterious, and much-considered +<i>goujon</i> which is poetically imagined to be below. It +has baffled all designs for this last week, for it is a wily +monster, but <i>this</i> morning it is most certainly to be +snared.</p> +<p>Rod, line, float, hook, bait, are all prepared for the conflict, and the fisherman now seats himself +steadily in a sort of arm-chair, and with stealth and gravity +drops the deceitful line into hidden deeps. At that float +he will stare till he cannot see. He looks contented; at +any rate, no muscle moves in his face, though envy may be +corroding his soul. After an hour he <i>may</i> just yield +so much as to mutter some few sounds, or a suppressed moaning +over his hard lot, ‘and that is what I hear in my +cabin.’ Then at last he rises with a determined +briskness in his mien, and the resentment against fate from an +ill-used man, and he casts exactly three handfuls of corn or +bread-crumbs into the water, these to beguile the reluctant +obstinate gudgeon, who, perhaps, poor thing, is not so much to +blame for inattention after all, being at the time just one +hundred and fifty yards away, beside those bulrushes.</p> +<p>Indeed that very idea seems to have struck the fisherman too, +and he marks the likely spot, and will go there to-morrow, not +to-day—no, he will always stick one day at one place. +How he moves to or from it I do not know, for the man and boat +had always come before I saw them, and I never stopped long +enough to see them depart. Four men fished four mornings +thus, and only two fish were caught by them in my presence.</p> +<p>The regatta is over, and Nadar’s balloon is in the sky, but seeming no bigger than other balloons, so +soon does the mind fail to appreciate positive size when the +object you look at is seen alone. It is the old story of +the moon, which “looks as large as a soup-plate,” and +yet Nadar’s <i>Géant</i> was the largest balloon +ever seen, and it carries a house below it instead of a +car—a veritable house, with two storeys, and doors and +windows. The freedom of its motion sailing away reminds me +that the Rob Roy ought to be moving too,—that she was not +built to dabble about on rivers, but to charge the crested wave; +and, indeed, there was always a sensation of being pent up when +she was merely floating near the inland cornfields, and so far +from the salt green sea; and this, too, even though pleasant +parties of ladies were on board, and boys got jaunts and cruises +from me, which I am certain pleased them much; still the +reef-points on her sails rattled impatiently for real breezes and +the curl of the surf, while the storm mizen was growing musty, so +long stowed away unused.</p> +<p>Next day, therefore, the Blue Peter was flying at the fore, +and the Rob Roy’s cellar had its sea stock laid in from +“Spiers and Pond,” of ale, and brandy, and +wine. Before a fine fresh wind, with rain pelting +cheerfully on my back, we scudded down the Seine. To sail +thus along a rapid stream with many barges to +meet, and trees overhanging, and shoals at various depths below, +is a very capital exercise, especially if you feel your honour at +stake about getting aground, however harmless that would +be. But the Seine has greater difficulties here, because +the numerous bridges each will present an obstacle which must be +dealt with at once, and yet each particular bridge will have its +special features and difficulties, not perhaps recognized when +first you meet them so suddenly. <a name="citation142"></a><a +href="#footnote142" class="citation">[142]</a> The bridges +on the Seine were often not high enough to allow the yawl to pass +under, except in the centre, or within a few feet on one side or +other of the keystone, and as the wind is deflected by the +bridge, just at the critical moment when you reach such places, +and the current of water below rushes about in eddies from the +piers, there is quite enough of excitement to keep a captain +pretty well awake in beating to windward through these bridges; +for the wind <i>must</i> be dead ahead a great part of the time, +because the river bends about and +about with more and sharper turns than almost any other of the +kind.</p> +<p>Though sun and wind had varnished my face to the proper +regulation hue, in perfect keeping with a mahogany boat, yet the +fortnight of fresh water had softened that hardiness of system +acquired in real sea. My hands had gradually discarded, one +after another, the islands of sticking-plaister, and a whole +geography of bumps and bruises, which once had looked as if no +gloves ever could get on again—or rather as if the hands +must always be encased in gloves to be anywhere admissible in a +white-skinned country.</p> +<p>But now once again outward bound, though still so many miles +from the iodine scent of the open sea, and the gracious odour of +real ship’s tar, one’s nerves are strung tight in a +moment. The change was hailed with joy, though sudden +enough, from the glassy pond-like water at St. Cloud, lulled only +by gentle catspaws, half asleep and dreaming, to the rattling of +spars and blocks, and hissing of the water, in the merry +whistling gale by which we now were rapt away.</p> +<p>At Argenteuil there are numerous French pleasure-boats, and +the Rob Roy ran into a good berth. Next day there was a +downright gale, so I actually had to reef before starting, +because in a narrow river the work of beating against the wind is very severe on legs and arms, and especially on +one’s hands, unless they are hardened, and kept hard, too, +by constant handling of the strong ropes.</p> +<p>At length we put into a quiet bay, where the river Oise joined +the Seine, and we moored snugly under the lee of a green meadow, +while trees were above waving and rustling in the breeze. +It was far from houses, for I wished to have a good rest, as the +tossing of the former night had almost banished sleep.</p> +<p>But soon the inquisitive natives found the yawl in her +hiding-place, and they sat on the grass gazing by the hour. +The surroundings were so much like a canoe voyage, that I felt +more strongly than ever the confinement to a river, while the sea +would have been so open and grand under such a breeze. +Therefore I gave up all idea of sailing down the Seine any more, +and decided to get towed to Havre, and to launch out fairly on +our proper element once more.</p> +<p>Yet it was fine fun to row about in the dingey, and to +discover a quaint old inn, and to haul ashore my tiny cockleshell +and dine. Here they were certainly an uncouth set, they did +not even put a cloth on the table, nor any substitute for +it,—a state of things seen very seldom indeed in the very +outermost corners of my various trips.</p> +<p>Faithful promise was made by a man that he would rouse +me from slumber in my cabin under the haybank at the passing of +the next steamer, be it light or dark at the time. The +shriek of the whistle came in the first hours of morning, and the +man ran to tell it, with one side of his face shaven, and the +other frothed over with lather.</p> +<p>Being towed down is so like being towed up the river, that we +need merely allude to a few features in the voyage westward.</p> +<p>At one pretty town we stopped to unload cargo for some hours, +and I climbed the hills, scaled the old castle walls, and dived +into curious tumbledown streets. The keeper of the +newspaper-shop confessed to me his own peculiar grievance, +namely, that he often sent money to England in reply to quack +advertisements, but never had any reply. He seemed to be +too “<i>poli</i>” to credit my assertion that there +are “many rogues in perfidious Albion,” and on the +whole he was scarcely shaken in the determination to persevere in +filling their pockets, though he might empty his own.</p> +<p>An old man at a lock was delighted by a New Testament given to +him. “I know what this is; it is Protestant +prayers. Oh, they are good.” Then he brought +his wife and his grandchildren, and every one of them shook +hands.</p> +<p>It was not very easy to get one’s sea-stores replenished +in the continuous run down the Seine. Sometimes I +saw a milkman trundling his wheelbarrow over a bridge, and, +jumping on shore, I waylaid him for the precious luxury, or sent +off a boy for bread, and butter, and eggs; but, of course, the +times of eating had nothing to do with any hours, or recurring +seasons for a meal: you must cook when you can, and snatch a +morsel here or there, in a lock or a long reach of the +stream. At night the full moon sailed on high, and the crew +lay down with their faces over the steamer’s side, +chattering with their English comrade till it was far past +bed-time, for we shall be off at three to-morrow morning.</p> +<p>The steam in the boiler first warns of the coming bustle as +its great bubbles burst inside, and rattle the iron plates. +Then, being more frequent and tighter bound, they give out a low +moaning, hidden rumble; and if the boat touches the side of the +steamer, there is a strong vibration through all her sonorous +planks, until some tap is turned in the engine, and the rush of +steam leaps into the cylinder as if indignant at its long +restraint. You had better get up now (there is no dressing, +for the simple reason that there has been no undressing), and in +two minutes you are fresh and hearty, though it is only a few +hours since you dropped to rest.</p> +<p>Rouen looks as if it would be all that is pleasant for +a sailing-boat to rest in. Never was a greater +deception. It is difficult to find an anchorage, and +impossible to get a quiet berth by the quay. The bustle all +day, and the noise all night, keep you ever on the tenterhooks; +though, as these discomforts are caused by the active commerce of +the port, one ought to bear them patiently.</p> +<p>In one of the numerous <i>mêlées</i> of barges, +boats, and steamers whirling round and round, amid entangled +hawsers, and a swift stream, we had at last to invoke aid from +shore, and a number of willing loungers gladly hauled on my +rope. Some of these men, when I thanked them, said they had +more to thank me for,—the books I had given them in my +voyage up. Still, with all this aid, the Rob Roy was +inextricably entangled with other heavier craft, and, in shoving +her off I tumbled overboard, and had to put up with a thorough +wetting; so, after a warm bath ashore, more <i>à la +mode</i>, I returned to my little cabin for a profound sleep.</p> +<p>Rain, almost ceaseless for a whole day and night, had searched +the smallest chink, and trickled ungraciously into my very +bed-room. But I suspended an iron tea-cup in the dark just +over my body, so <i>that</i> one little stream was +intercepted. This was the first really hard pressure of wet on the Rob Roy, and all the defects it brought +to light were entirely remedied afterwards at Cowes.</p> +<p>On each of the four preceding nights I had been aroused for +the next day’s work at three, or two, or even one +o’clock, in the dark, and yet for one night more there was +to be no regular repose.</p> +<p>My mast had been made fast to the quay wall, but in +forgetfulness that on a tidal river this fastening must be such +as to allow for several feet of fall as the water ebbs. +Therefore, about the inevitable hour of one o’clock, in the +dark, there was a loud and ominous crack and jerk from the rope, +and I knew too well the cause. In the rainy night it was a +troublesome business to arrange matters, and next day was a +drowsy one with me, spent in the strange old streets of the +town.</p> +<p>The policeman had orders to call me at any hour when a steamer +went by, and, being hooked at last to the powerful twin-screw +<i>Du Tremblay</i>, with a pleasant captain, I rejoiced to near +the very last bridge on the river, with the feeling at heart, +“After this we are done with fresh-water +sailing.”</p> +<p>It was a suspension-bridge, and the worthy captain forgot all +about the Rob Roy and her mast, when he steered for a low part, +where his own funnel could pass because it was lowered, but where +I saw in a moment my mast must strike.</p> +<p>There was no time to call out, nor would it have +availed even to chop the towing-line with my axe, for the boat +had too much “way” on her to stop. Therefore I +could only duck down into the well, to avoid the falling spars +and the splinters.</p> +<p>The bridge struck the mast about two feet from the top, and, +instead of its breaking off with a short snap, the mast bent back +and back at least four feet just as if it were a fishing rod, to +my great amazement. The strong vibration of its truck +(<i>pomme</i> the French call it), throbbed every nerve of boat +and man, as it scraped over each plank above, and then the mast +sprang up free from the bridge with such a switch, that it burst +the lashings of both the iron shrouds merely by this rebound.</p> +<p>Now was felt the congratulation that we had carefully secured +a first-rate mast for the Rob Roy, one of the pieces of Vancouver +wood, proved, by the competitions lately held, to be the +strongest of all timber.</p> +<p>The moments of expected disaster and of happy relief were +vivid as they passed, but I made the steamer stop, and on +climbing the mast, I found not even the slightest crack or injury +there. Henceforth we shall trust the goodly spar in any +gale, with the confidence only to be had by a crucial test like +this.</p> +<p>As we shall soon be at sea again, but the river is +calm enough here, perhaps this will be a fit opportunity for the +reader to peep into Rob Roy’s cave as it was usually made +up for the night.</p> +<p>The floor of the cabin is made of thin mahogany boards, +resting on cross-beams. The boards are loose, so that even +in bed I can pull one up, and thus get at my cellar or at the +iron pigs of ballast. The bed is of cork, about seven feet +long and three feet wide. On this (for it <i>was</i> rather +hardish) I put a plaid, <a name="citation150"></a><a +href="#footnote150" class="citation">[150]</a> and then a railway +rug, which being coloured, had been substituted for a blanket, as +the white wool of the latter insisted on coming off, and gave an +untidy look to my thick blue boating-jacket.</p> +<p>One fold of the rug was enough for an ample covering, and I +never once was cold in the cabin.</p> +<p>A large pillow was encased by day in blue (the uniform colour +of all my decorations), and it was stripped at night to be soft +and smooth for the cheek of the sleeper.</p> +<p>Putting under this my coats and a regulation woven Jersey, +with the yacht’s name worked in red across its breast in +regular sailor’s fashion, the pillow became a most +comfortable cushion, and the woodcut shows me reclining in the +best position for reading or writing, as +if on a good sofa. On my right hand behind is a +candle-lamp, with a very heavy stand. It rests upon a +shelf, which can be put in any convenient place by a simple +arrangement.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p151b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Cabin" +title= +"The Cabin" +src="images/p151s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>In the sketch already given at p. 41, there is a tarpaulin +spread over the well, and this was used on one occasion when we +had to cook in rain while at anchor. <a name="citation151"></a><a +href="#footnote151" class="citation">[151]</a></p> +<p>On the same side, and below the boxes, +“Tools” and “Eating,” already mentioned, +are two large iron cases, labelled “Prog,”—a +brief announcement which vastly troubled the brains of several +French visitors, whose English etymology did not extend to such +curt terms.</p> +<p>In these heavy boxes are cases of preserved meats, soups, and +vegetables, and these I found perfectly satisfactory in every +respect, when procured at a proper place (Morel’s in +Piccadilly). Here you can get little tin cases, holding +half a pint each and sealed up hermetically. <a +name="citation152"></a><a href="#footnote152" +class="citation">[152]</a></p> +<p>To cook one of these tins full—which, with bread and wine is an ample dinner—you cut the top +circle with the lever-knife, but allowing it to be still attached +by a small part to the tin, and fold this lid part back for a +handle.</p> +<p>Then put the tin into a can of such a shape and size that it +has about half an inch of water all round the tin, but not +reaching too high up, else it may bubble over when boiling, and +as you can use salt water or muddy water for this water-jacket, +it will not do to sprinkle any of that inside the tin.</p> +<p>The can is then hung over the Rob Roy lamp, and in six minutes +the contents of the tin are quite hot. Soup takes less +time, and steak perhaps a little more, depending on the facility +of circulation of the materials in the tin and the amount of wind +moderating the heat. The preserved meat or soup has been +thoroughly cooked before it is sold, and it has sauce, gravy, and +vegetables, and the oxtail has joints, all properly mixed. +Therefore, in this speedy manner your dinner is prepared, and +indeed it will be smoking hot and ready before you can get the +table laid, and the “things” set out from the +pantry.</p> +<p>Concentrated soup I took also, but it has a tame flavour, so +it was put by for a famine time, which never came. As for +“Liebig’s Extract of Meat,” you need not starve +while there is any left, but that is the most we can say in its +favour.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">High tide—Seine pilot—To +bed—Terrible scene—A tumble in—In the +swell—Novel steeling—The +Empress—Puzzled—Night thoughts—The +Start—A draft on the deck—Balloon jib—On the +deep.</p> +<p>On the Seine there is a tide phenomenon, called the +<i>barre</i>, as in English rivers the <i>bore</i>, which, when +not provided for, is very dangerous, especially at spring +tides. The water then rushes up the narrowing funnel-shaped +estuary, in a broad and swelling wave, sometimes four feet high, +and this will sweep off even large vessels from their anchors, +and it causes many wrecks.</p> +<p>On a former occasion when I happened to be in this +neighbourhood, a high tide had been truly predicted by +astronomers, which would culminate at the little town of Caudebec +on the Seine, but would also rise higher than ever known before +on all the adjacent coasts.</p> +<p>The news of this coming wonder spread over France, and +there being then a lull in Europe as to revolutions, &c. +(except, of course, the perennial revolution in Spain), the +<i>quidnuncs</i> of the provinces had to run to the coast for an +excitement. Excursion trains, and heavily-laden steamers +poured volumes of people into Caudebec, and many of them had +never seen salt sea before. At the fashionable bathing-town +of Trouville the sight was a strange one when thousands of +expectant observers paraded the soft white sand as the full moon +shone on a waveless sea, and the brilliant dresses of the ladies +coloured the beautiful tableau.</p> +<p>The tide flowed and flowed; it bubbled over the usual bounds +of the shore; it trickled into the bathing sheds; it swelled +still higher upon the trim-kept promenade, until it lapped the +highest point and then went gently down again. Eclipses and +tides are patent proofs to the people that physical science can +appeal to. The “music of the spheres” hath also +a true rhythm, “There is neither speech nor language but +their voices are heard.”</p> +<p>To escape this <i>barre</i> on the Seine, our steamer anchored +by the quaint old town of Quillebœuf with other vessels; +and, though the wind howled and the rain poured, the hill beside +us sheltered all from its blasts, which were too +wild and powerful in the sea outside to allow us to proceed next +day. <a name="citation156"></a><a href="#footnote156" +class="citation">[156]</a></p> +<p>However, our Seine pilot pointed to an English steamer +“which dared not go out;” so any remonstrance on the +subject was silenced, and then he boldly asked if I would like a +pilot on board the Rob Roy (towed by the steamer all the time), +and I had sufficient command of countenance to decline with due +gravity. Better, perhaps, it would have been for me not to +carry then so much of the John Bull into these strange waters, as +will be seen from what occurred that night.</p> +<p>The tide rushed up with extraordinary strength, until it was +quite full. Then it paused for five minutes, and again it +set off in the opposite direction with the same fury, increased, +too, by the stream and the wind being also down the river.</p> +<p>At each of these changes every vessel, of course, swung round +to its anchor, and so must have loosened its hold, while all the +water picture changed from right to left like a scene shifted on +the stage. During this short interval of quiet you could +row ashore, but to get back again was almost impossible +when the full torrent of water ran in straight.</p> +<p>As night came on I noticed that our steamer’s anchor was +dragging, and that other steam vessels, more on the alert, were +easing the strain on their cables by working their engines at +half power all the time.</p> +<p>“Captain, we are dragging anchor.” +“No, sir,” he said, “you are +mistaken.” “I am sure we are dragging: I have +watched for ten minutes.” “No, sir, I am +certain we do not drag.” He said this with such +firmness, that I confidingly believed it, and turned into +bed.</p> +<p>But it was not to sleep, except in fitful snatches. The +sound of the water hurrying by my side, like a mill race, and +within a few inches of my ear, had a strange and unwonted effect, +not now to soothe, but to drive sleep away. Bits of wood +and other <i>débris</i> often struck my mahogany +sounding-board with a loud thump, until I became accustomed even +to this, and was in a dreamy dozing about one o’clock.</p> +<p>Then there came a new noise,—a low, steady rap, tap, +tap, tap, on the boat, and from underneath. For a moment or +two there was a sensation without apprehension,—a sort of +mesmeric, irresistible spell; but a sudden thought burst through +the trance, and with a powerful impression of what was +doing—one no less horrid than true—I dashed off +covering, roof, hatchway, and all, and stood upon deck to meet a +terrible scene.</p> +<p>Our steamer had drifted in the dark until we closed upon +another steamboat astern. My yawl, tied to the stern of +one, was between that and the bows of the other, the anchor chain +of which had already got underneath the waist of the Rob Roy, and +had been ringing the rap, tap, tap of a warning that undoubtedly +saved her life. Light flashed from the riding lamp at the +steamer’s bow full on my boat’s deck, which was now +heeled over deeply until the dark water rushed through her +gunwale; it seemed that only a few seconds more and the poor +little yawl would sink in the flood, or be ground into splinters +by the two great iron monsters nearing each instant in the +dark.</p> +<p>All this was noticed in the same rapid glance which in such +dangers grasps a whole scene in a moment and stamps it in the +mind for years.</p> +<p>My boat hung on the cold iron chain, yet it wavered with equal +poise to go this way or that. If she could be swerved to +the stern she might possibly escape destruction, but if to the +other side, then the strong rope at her bow would entirely +prevent her escape. With a loud shout to arouse the crews I +put every atom of bodily force into +one strenuous shove, straining nerve and muscle in the desperate +effort until I could not see. She trembled and +surged—it was successful, and I fell into the water, but my +yawl was saved. <a name="citation159a"></a><a +href="#footnote159a" class="citation">[159a]</a></p> +<p>Crash came the two steamers together. I heeded nothing +of their din and smashing, and the uproar of the men, but I +scrambled all wet into my cabin, nervously shaking with +excitement and a chattering of teeth. Then I sat down to +sum up my bruises,—a barked shin, sprained thigh, and +bleeding cheek-bone; and a hapless object I must have seemed, +bathing, by turns, my leg, and shin, and face, from a brandy +bottle, and then a gulp inside. In a survey of the yawl +made next day, there was to be seen (as still there is) the marks +of the iron chain-links deeply impressed in the mahogany planks +of her waist. The piece of wood that bears these mementoes +of that night’s deed might well be cut out and kept as a +curious memorial. The bowsprit also was found to have been +nipped at the end (though it had been drawn in close to the +stem), and the squeeze had quite flattened the strong iron ring +upon it, and jammed up the wood into a pulp as if it were cork. +<a name="citation159b"></a><a href="#footnote159b" +class="citation">[159b]</a></p> +<p>The weather did not moderate next day, but we started nevertheless, and when the waves of the wider +sea were tumbling in I expected to have a wetting as in passing +here before; but the sea was in fine long swells, and so the yawl +rode over them buoyantly. Also the large twin-screw tugboat +is far more pleasant to follow than the smaller steamer with its +two paddle-wheels, one at each side of the stern. <a +name="citation160"></a><a href="#footnote160" +class="citation">[160]</a></p> +<p>In another way also I managed better than before while +undergoing the process of being towed. I set the hatch of +the well in front of me, and then allowed the reflection of the +funnel of the steamer upon the wet deck of my boat to be seen +through a chink, while my head and body were entirely concealed +and completely sheltered from spray.</p> +<p>Now, having marked where this reflection rested, when I was +exactly in a proper line abaft the steamer, I was enabled to +steer altogether by the shadowy image, although I could not see +the object itself to which I was directing the bow of my +boat. The captain and crew of the steamer were very much astonished with this proceeding. <a +name="citation161"></a><a href="#footnote161" +class="citation">[161]</a></p> +<p>Arriving at Havre on July 21, there was need for a good rest, +and the port was suited for it. There is quiet water in a +sequestered nook of the harbour and plenty of amusement on +shore. Havre, too, was in a state of much excitement, for +the Empress was about to embark thence for England, and the +Imperial yacht was in the basin, with a splendid crew on +board. In the evening the Emperor also came to the town, to +escort his wife when she embarked, and as his carriage drove past +the crowd ran after it hallooing.</p> +<p>The last time I had seen the Empress Eugenie was under +somewhat peculiar circumstances; she was floating in the sea, and +we shall tell more of her Majesty afloat in a future page, when +fair bathers at Margate appear.</p> +<p>The beautiful English yacht ‘Vindex’ was on +the gridiron with the Rob Roy; that is to say, on a sunk stage of +wood, on which you can place a vessel, if it is desired to +examine or repair its hull and keel when the tide leaves it there +dry.</p> +<p>‘Vindex’ had come to the Havre Regatta, and as she +had won the prize there in the previous year a great deal of +interest was shown about her now. But the regatta on this +occasion was by no means interesting, for the wind fell into +calm, and it was merely a drifting match.</p> +<p>My usual visits in the dingey had disposed of nearly all my +store of French books and periodicals, and the remainder we took +to a civil bookseller, from whom we bought French charts and a +Pilot book of the English south coast soundings.</p> +<p>Meantime, after a rest and refreshment to my crew, a thorough +scraping to my boat, and a good stock laid in of comfort for my +voyage to England, the question had to be distinctly put, +“How am I to get over the broad Channel to the Isle of +Wight?” It was, of course, impossible to think of +coming back as we had gone,—that is, along the French +coast. This would never do. Again, it was also found +that the steamers were not allowed to tow any boat to sea behind +the passenger vessels unless in cases of distress, so that put an +end to another solution of the problem, which was to +get half way by towing and then to cast off and sail.</p> +<p>Well, shall I get an additional hand on board? But where +is he to sit if it blows hard? And if it does not blow +hard, what is the use of him? In fact I was steadily +driven, as if by severe logic, to the conclusion already at the +bottom of my mind, to <i>sail right across alone</i>.</p> +<p>Then I asked one or two experienced sailors if they thought +the Rob Roy could do it, and they said, “Yes, she can; but +can <i>you</i>? You may be three or four days out, and can +you stand the fatigue? At any rate, do not start in a +southwest wind: it raises a sea and the up and down of the waves +will tire you soon in a long day’s work, and then there is +the night besides.”</p> +<p>Having retired to my calm little creek, where the yawl was +tied by a line to a large fishing-smack, I tried to read, but +very soon found I was thinking of anything but the words on the +printed page; then to sleep; but still I was musing on the +prospect now opened of a hazardous and delightful sail.</p> +<p>About one o’clock I gazed out moodily on the quiet night +scene of the harbour, sleeping around. Tall masts whitened +by the moon, black hulls darkened in the shade, busy quays +silent, long-necked iron cranes peering into the deep +water that reflected quaint leaning houses, all distorted, and +big buoys magnified by the haze.</p> +<p>“Why continue this anxiety about how to get over? +See the clouds drift over the clear moon with an east wind. +Will it ever be easier than now? I cannot sleep—why +not start this moment?”</p> +<p>Once the decision was made, all was alert on the Rob Roy; and +in half an hour I had breakfasted, and then very noiselessly +loosed the thin line that bound us to the quay, and bid +“adieu to France.”</p> +<p>Every single thing we could think of was perfectly +prepared. The sails were all ready to set, but we had to +row the yawl slowly into the main harbour, and there we met a low +round swell coming in from the sea. We tugged hard to +force her against the adverse tide, but progress was tediously +slow. Presently some fishing luggers were getting under +way, and soon the usual clatter and din of the French sailors, at +full tide, rang forth as if by a magic call at two in the +morning.</p> +<p>After shouting some time for a boat to tow me to the +pier-head, at last one came.</p> +<p>“What will you charge?”</p> +<p>“Ten francs.”</p> +<p>“I’ll give you eight;” and after parley the +two men in their little boat agreed to +take the Rob Roy in tow.</p> +<p>Almost immediately I noticed that the moon was hid, and the +wind had chopped round to the southwest, the very wind I was told +not to start with, but now—well it was too late to +withdraw, and so we laboured on, while the great clumsy luggers +crossed and recrossed our course, and frequently dashed upon the +piles of the pier in the stupidest manner, with much loud roaring +of voices, and creaking of spars, and fluttering of sails.</p> +<p>Presently the men called out that, as the sea was getting +higher, I had better pay them the money. +“Certainly,” I said; but, alas! I could find +only five francs of change, the rest being napoleons.</p> +<p>They shouted, “Give us gold—we will send the +change to England;” but I bellowed out a better plan, to +give them an order on the yacht agents at Havre for five francs, +and the silver besides.</p> +<p>Finally this was accepted, so I got out paper and envelope, +and on the wet deck, by moonlight, wrote the banker’s +draft.</p> +<p>When they came near the harbour’s mouth, they sung out +“Get ready your mizen.”</p> +<p>“Ay, ay!”</p> +<p>“Hoist;” and so up went the trim little sail, glad +to flap once more in salt air. Then they bid me +“Get ready your jib—we have cast you off; +hoist!” Yes, and I did hoist.</p> +<p>Perhaps the reader may recollect that the end of my bowsprit +had been squeezed by a collision, and was in fact as weak as a +charred stick. But I had entirely forgotten this by some +unaccountable fatality, during the three days at Havre, when it +might have been easily repaired.</p> +<p>The moment therefore I had hoisted the jib, the bowsprit end +broke sharp off into a ragged stump, and the jib instantly flew +away into the air just like an umbrella blown inside out.</p> +<p>This was of course a most critical time for such a mishap, +with a strong breeze dead ahead, driving me in upon piles, and a +tumbling sea, and numerous large luggers sailing about me in the +dark. Therefore I felt that this unlucky accident and the +southwest wind meant, “I must not go out to-night. It +will not do to begin a voyage of a hundred miles with a broken +bowsprit.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p167b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"For a hundred miles" +title= +"For a hundred miles" +src="images/p167s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>All this prudent reasoning was at once cut short by the +Frenchmen calling out, “<i>Voulez-vous sortir encore</i>, +<i>monsieur</i>?” and the Rob Roy thus hailed could make +but one reply, “<i>Oui</i>, <i>oui</i>, +<i>certainement</i>;” so I bid them lay hold again while I +captured the truant jib, hauled down and reefed it, and made it +fast to the stem, and then again “<i>Lachez +tous</i>,” we are free on the rolling waves.</p> +<p>At the worst, methought, we can return in four or five +hours, when the tide falls, if we find it unadvisable to go on; +but meanwhile our yawl shot away westward to get a good offing +from the Cape de la Hève, and then I cooked breakfast (the +former one counted of course in the former day, according to the +excellent rule already explained), and about half-past four I +laid on my straight course to old England, with a capital breeze +on my quarter, and a hundred times glad that I had not gone +back.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Nodding—Prancing—First +Thoughts—England—Mid-channel +thoughts—Battle—Religion—Science—Church—Guide.</p> +<p>Up rose the sun, and all was cheerful. Then I laid her +to, and got out my axe, and chopped the bowsprit into shape, so +that it would run out further, and then set the whole jib firmly +on it.</p> +<p>All the feelings restrained so long by the river work, and +regatta amenities, and Exhibition in Paris, now came forth +powerfully in a flow of enthusiasm.</p> +<p>Boys seem to like the stories of the canoe voyages, and +perhaps they will read this one of the yawl. If they have a +sailor turn, they will imagine the new pleasure to be felt when +you glide away from a fast-retreating land, and nothing is in +front but sea, sea, sea. Then the little boat you are in, +and know in every plank, and love too, becomes more than ever +cherished as a friend. It is your only visible trust, and, +if it <i>is</i> a good boat, you +trust it well, for indeed it seems to try its very best, like a +horse on the desert plain, that knows it must go on if it is ever +to get to the other side. Then as the cliffs, that looked +high behind you, dwindle into a line of deep blue, the compass by +your knees becomes a magic thing, with no tongue indeed to speak, +but surely a brain it must have to know the way so well.</p> +<p>For hours we went on thus in silent pleasure, gazing at the +gentle needle as it moved without noise; and, with nothing around +but plash of waves, bright sun, and a feeling of hot silence, the +spell of sleep was overpowering. Homer sometimes nodded, it +is said, and he would have certainly had a good nap had he +steered long thus. The sinking off into these delicious +slumbers was imperceptible, and perfectly beyond the will’s +control. In a moment of trance I would be far away in +dreamland, and with a thousand incidents, all enacted in orderly +succession, with fights, wrecks, or pageantry, or the confused +picture of bright-coloured nothings which fancy paints on the +half-alive brain.</p> +<p>From these sweet dreams there was a rude awakening; a slap +from the sea on my face, as the yawl, untended, suddenly rounded +to, or a rattling taptoo on the deck when the jib-sheets found +they were free.</p> +<p>Then for a time I would resolutely insist upon +attention—every moment of slumber being a positive +wandering from the course; but no, the outer self that demands a +nap will not be denied by the inner nobler self that commands +alertness.</p> +<p>Only one single sea-gull did I see in thirty hours. One +vessel also far off was the sole break upon the painfully +straight horizon, and as the wind gradually died away into +nothing, the prospect did not improve.</p> +<p>Then came the up and down riding over seas without gaining a +yard, the “prancing” of the vessel which had galloped +forth in the morning like a horse in its first bounds on grass +when, leaving a hard road, its hoof paws gladly the springy +turf.</p> +<p>Some feelings that came up then from deep recesses in the mind +were new, but too new and unnamed to put in words. Alone on +the waters, when you cannot see land, is a strange +condition. However, if only fog or darkness hides the land +you still feel that land is there. Quite another thing is +it to be afloat alone, where, because it is fifty miles away, +land <i>cannot</i> be seen. Doubtless it may seem foolish, +but I am not able to tell the feelings of that time.</p> +<p>Becalmed midway between France and England, it was natural for +the mind to think of both countries, +and every time I have left France it has been with more +admiration of that lively land; <a name="citation171"></a><a +href="#footnote171" class="citation">[171]</a> but Frenchmen, +during this visit, looked at by us for the twentieth time, had +evident signs of wounded vanity: they were conscious of playing +second fiddle in a grand German opera.</p> +<p>Thinking of England, on the other hand, religion and not +politics became the theme; for is not religion at least more +considered amongst us than ever before? It may be opposed +or misapprehended or derided, but it is not ignored as it used to +be.</p> +<p>Look at the three leading newspapers, the morning, the +evening, and the weekly registers of the direction, warmth, and +pressure of public thought, as noted by keen observers, who are +shrewd and weatherwise as to the signs of the times, and are +seldom wrong when they hoist a storm signal. More and more +each of these secular papers occupies its best +columns with religious questions, and not with the mere facts or +gossip on the subject, or with records of philanthropy, important +as these are, but with deep essential doctrines, and prolonged +arguments about the very kernel of truth.</p> +<p>Religion is allowed to have a place now in every stratum of +society, even if a wrong place and a very uncomfortable place for +a slender religion, though sometimes, indeed, a politician +laments that “Parliament has its time occupied by the +subject,” as if it were possible for the House to settle +the Church and the School and the homes of men, without also +considering their religion.</p> +<p>And if almost each family gives some place or other to it, so +perhaps no one man in England would allow any other man to say of +him that he has “nothing to do with religion.”</p> +<p>Religion is more present among us; but this is a wide +term—‘religion.’ If there is a God, then +that there is a revealed religion is acknowledged, and that the +Christian religion has the best, if not the only claims to be +this. Who is to decide for me as to whether there is a +God?</p> +<p>If ignorance unfits me to judge this rightly, does not class +prejudice unfit others to be the arbiters?</p> +<p>Are not the official exponents of theology liable to +be prejudiced in its favour as something that establishes or +enhances the position of their order among men?</p> +<p>Are not the votaries of natural science subject to a prejudice +against Theism as something that dethrones them from +supremacy?</p> +<p>Is there not among these last a writhing invisible agony to +escape from the avowal that God governs? And why is +this? Perhaps because man proudly relishes freedom, and +hates to say that his life is inspected and controlled by another +Being who will also judge him hereafter; and because the student +of physical science knows that if there is a God, then moral +science must be a far nobler pursuit than his own pursuit, even +if it is less palpable and popular; also because the scientific +man is tempted to do all he can to ignore that anything is +outside the ken of science—that there is a Being on quite +another plane, far above him and his researches.</p> +<p>But science has no exclusive or even predominant right in the +decision of this matter; nor has it any solid success in the long +battle, though one or other in its ranks may triumph in a +skirmish. When one philosopher demolishes the Bible, an +ordinary man cannot convince him he is wrong. But when a +dozen savants tilt in the fray, even an ordinary man can see that +their weapons demolish each other, and the old Book stands.</p> +<p>This geologist has scratched the varnish on the globe, +and forthwith frames his new theory of creation. In ten +years he is proved utterly wrong by that microscopist who has +detected animal remains in an igneous rock. The simple +bystander cannot understand either side, and far less tell which +side is true. But when the combatants slay each other, the +wayfaring man can understand this neutralization. The +philosopher strikes me with awe so long as he keeps aloft beyond +my knowledge or comprehension. When he comes down I can +love him, but the reverence of his mystery is gone, and he is +soon found out to be a brother mite. My friend can walk +faster and farther on earth than I can; but when he wades into +the water, I find I can swim just as well as he—while if we +try to fly in the air, neither of us can soar a yard.</p> +<p>Thus the mind that is great in observing, collating, and even +generalizing facts, gets immediately out of its depth a few feet +from land in the ocean of hypothesis, and it can be drowned there +like my own.</p> +<p>Reaching up higher, in search of First Cause, the clever brain +grasps the liquid æther above, and yearns; but it holds +nothing, not one atom more than an ordinary mind; nor has all the +striving of all the world lifted one man a foot above the plain +towards heaven.</p> +<p>If these sentiments are pretentious, they show that one +can learn at least forwardness from philosophers, if not +wisdom.</p> +<p>But it is not the Atheist that puzzles one so much as those +who find it convenient to admit the one point to start +from—“There is a God,” be He styled in +redundant reverence, “Nature,” +“Providence,” or “Heaven.” The +vacuity behind that is too dark and abysmal to be a home for +their soul, and therefore they will accompany you thus far.</p> +<p>This short creed is long enough to cover many different +meanings, and elastic enough to be worn, at least outside, for +common decency, and to fit almost any form of life and +character.</p> +<p>Some men have never had more than this meagre garment. +Others have been swathed in more ample folds from the nursery, +but have stripped off the mental clothing of their childhood, +feeling it tight, or encumbered with braid and tassels, and some +have torn it all to tatters; but at last, as their inner being +chills in the air of naked freedom, they take upon them this +creed as the one general raiment of prudence.</p> +<p>There may be quiet in this creed, for a time, if not comfort; +but the garment fails to warm the heart if indeed it even covers +the head; and the mind soon wonders whether God can <i>be</i>, +and yet not <i>do</i>, and it yearns to know +what God has said and done. Instinct tells it that to know +the very truth upon this will make the man’s creed a +vascular body for action, not a mere decent clothing. The +mind begins its search for this truth on a battle-field. It +is a fight for peace as well as a search for treasure. +Facts have to be settled, in hot conflict, which are felt to +touch every point of life, and not mere fancies high in the air, +or thoughts too deep for common people. Each man fights +hand-to-hand here. Strategy and leaders avail not. +Mere numbers on one side or the other do not count for individual +conviction; we are not saved in bundles.</p> +<p>No man can keep out of reach of the turmoil, though many would +be content to remain as bystanders, secure from remark or +disturbance, in a hazy cloud where the only thing distinct is +their denial that there is anything definite. Their creed +is not strengthened by its being vague and curtailed. +“Moral sense,” “intuitive truth,” +“general utility”—their ultimate +appeal—is just as far out of reach of algebraic logic as +any of the propositions are which they reject because these +cannot be proved thus. Try this scrimp creed by their own +standard of proof, and it shrivels away, until no God,—no +soul,—no being remains as absolutely demonstrated, and +there is only a <i>thing</i> faintly conscious +of its own existence. In this watery element of dim, soft +fog, or hard cold ice, there is no rest for the soul.</p> +<p>There are others, again, who, frightened by the hurly-burly, +after a short wild wandering alone, join any group, as a refuge, +if it be only visible, and seek a Church as an asylum for the +timid rather than a fortress for the brave.</p> +<p>But what Church shall give rest, or which of them is even +quieter than the outer din? There is one, indeed, that, +long nursed and dozing in the lap of the State, is now roughly +shaken, but is she yet awake? She has grown in bulk at +least, while sleeping. Is she not like an overgrown child +too big to be carried, and too rickety to walk alone?</p> +<p>She is called National but is only Diocesan, with different +doctrine and worship in different dioceses. The bishops +meet, and thinking different, but trying to say the same, they +say what is unanimous only when it means nothing. The +clergy meet, but while some of them are true Ministers, others +would be as Presbyters towards their bishops and Popes to their +people. Each parish can wear the ribbons that are badges of +its doctrine. We are crystallizing into congregations, and +soon these will split into families, and so perhaps we shall get +back at last to the simple old shape, +when the message was for Nymphas and “the church which is +in his house.”</p> +<p>Meantime, my life-borne bark must not founder for lack of a +guide. True, there is a chart, and precepts for the right +way are clear, but my craving is for a living Spirit within which +shall point me to the peaceful shore by an attraction powerful +and unerring, though unseen, and, like that of the needle, +incomprehensible.</p> +<p>And was it not the divinest act ever done by God to come down +Himself among men, saying, “I am the Way,” “and +I will give you rest?”</p> +<p>Now we can safely steer, and will surely reach port.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Half-seas over—Thick +night—Risky—Reckless—Tied +in—Lying-to—Land ahead—Scottish +replies—Sleep.</p> +<p>See the sails are impatiently flapping. Each wave jerks +the mast and canvas with a smart loud crack like that of a +whip. The sound is unspeakably irritating, it seems so +useless and wanton, and so perfectly <i>de trop</i> while the +wind is absolutely calm. At other times, in such a case, +you can stop this provoking clatter by hauling up the boom and +lowering the jib; but here, in mid ocean, we must not hamper the +sails but be ready for the first faint breath of wind, and +moreover—best to confess it—I had in this case a +serious disturbance <i>within</i>, yet not mental. +Strawberries and cream imprisoned with mushrooms did not +agree.</p> +<p>They called them mushrooms in Havre yesterday, and we know +“there are 371 edible fungi;” but I assert that the +rebellious species embarked with me +were toadstools, and so giddiness followed upon sleep . . .</p> +<p>Gentle and cool is the first fresh murmur of a new breeze as +it comes from afar, tripping along. Gratefully we watch its +footsteps on the sea. Its garments rustle in the south, and +the glassy rounded waves are now crested by its touch. Then +the coolness of it fans the cheek, the flag flutters while the +sails fill full, the mast bows gently under the soft pressure, +and the Rob Roy runs eagerly again upon her proper course.</p> +<p>Dinner was instantly served up to celebrate the event. +It is an Englishman’s way. Still we were fifty miles +from England, but wave after wave rose, dashed, and was left +behind, till the sun got weary in his march, and hung, in the +west, a great red globe. My course had been taken for the +Nab light, which is in the entrance towards Portsmouth, but the +Channel tide, crossing my path twice, could carry the yawl fast, +yet secretly, first right, then left, and both ways once +again.</p> +<p>Yet when the evening shade fell we expected to see at least +some light in the horizon, for the English lights are clear, and +they shine out twenty miles to sea. How I peered into the +inscrutable darkness, and standing by the mast to get higher, but +in vain; yet still the wind urged on, and the sea tumbled forward +all in the right way. Hours +passed, and ship-lights now could be descried; they were crossing +my path, for they were in the great fair-way of nations bound +east or west through the Channel. This at least was +company, but it was also danger. We have left the lonely +plain, and are walking now in the street of waters; but how am I +to sleep here, and yet I <i>must</i> sleep this night. I +tried to “speak” a goodly vessel sailing past like a +shadow—I ventured even to near it—hailing, “How +far to the Nab?” but the voice melted in the breeze. +Low vapoury clouds began to rise from the sea; they looked like +dark trees around; but the stars were clear up above. It +was impossible not to feel as if land was there, yet, when my +lead was cast, the deep only laughed at its little reach +downward.</p> +<p>In such thick weather it will never do to ferret out the +channel to Cowes, even if we are near it. The night must be +passed at sea, and better begin to do that now than go in too +near the cliffs in darkness; and so we prepared to lie-to. +Lowering the main-sail I tried the yawl first under mizen and +jib; but the rolling in every trough of the waves was most +uncomfortable, and besides she drifted north, which might end by +going ashore.</p> +<p>Then I took in the jib and set the storm-mizen, and hung out +the anchor with twenty fathoms of chain—not, of course, to +reach the bottom, but to keep the +boat’s head easier in the sea, and this did perfectly +well. The motion was a long, regular rise and fall, and the +drift was to the east; quite out of our proper course, indeed, +but I couldn’t help that.</p> +<p>The motion of a vessel lying-to is far more easy than what +would be supposed possible. When you are rocked in a boat +making progress by sails or steam, the pressure of each wave is +more or less of a blow, for the ship is going forward, and it +resists the mass of water often with violence. At anchor, +too, though in a modified degree, the action is the same, and in +a swell without wind the oscillations are jerky and short, for +they are not softened by the sails then merely hanging. But +if a boat is staunch and strong, and the deck is tight, and she +has plenty of keel, so as not to swerve round right and left, but +to preserve a general average direction towards the wind, then +she may lie-to in a very stiff gale and high sea with a +wonderfully gentle motion. Her head then is slightly off +the sea, and there is but little rolling. The sails are so +set that they ease every lateral heave. She forges forward +just a little between the wave tops, and when the crest of one +lifts her up she courteously yields for the time, but will soon +again recover lost ground by this well-managed +“compromise.”</p> +<p>When we saw how admirably the Rob Roy behaved in +lying-to, and that scarcely a wave broke over her deck, we felt +that if it came to the worst we might thus pass a whole week in +her safely.</p> +<p>Now I must make my bed. Undoubtedly this was a risky +deed about to be done; but pray what else could we do?</p> +<p>“You ought not to have come there at all,” may be +replied.</p> +<p>Say that to the huntsman who has got into a field with the +only way out of it over a chasm to leap. Tell it to the +mountain climber scrambling down, who pauses before a +<i>crevasse</i>; and do not forget to say the same to the poor +old fisherman overtaken in the midnight winter’s gale with +his life in one hand and in the other a tangled net that has +caught the fried sole for your comfortable dinner.</p> +<p>It would not do of course to go into my cabin. In the +first place, the dingey was there, and then if I were to be +enclosed inside when anything like a “run down” had +to be dealt with, the cabin might be my coffin.</p> +<p>First I tried to crouch down in the well, but the constraint +on limbs and joints was unbearable. My head slept while my +knees ached with the pressure. No! there must be a positive +lying down to sleep, if the sleep is to give true refreshment +when you are rocked about on the waters; and this you +have no doubt been convinced of any time at sea.</p> +<p>The strange twists of body I tried to fit into comfortably +where the space (in the well) was only three feet each way, +reached at last to the grotesque—the absurd contortions of +a man miserable on a pleasure jaunt—and I laughed aloud, +but somehow it sounded hollow and uncanny.</p> +<p>As to the exact spot where the Rob Roy was at this particular +time we had of course no possible idea, but judging from after +circumstances, the position must have been about ten miles south +of St. Catherine’s Head, and she drifted twenty miles east +while I dreamed.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p185b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Bed of the Sea" +title= +"Bed of the Sea" +src="images/p185s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>One effect of extreme exhaustion is to make the mind almost +reckless of risk, and we can well understand how in some +shipwrecks, after days and nights without sleep, men are in a +placid, callous composure of sheer weariness, and that the last +agony of drowning then is nothing, just as Dr. Livingstone told +me, the shake given by a lion to his victim paralyses the whole +system before it is killed. Therefore, as danger was only +likely, and sleep was imperative, I must have sleep at all +hazards, and so we loosed out the folds of the main-sail on the +wet deck. How white and creamy they looked while all was +dark around, for no moon had risen. Then I +put on my life-belt, and fastened the ship’s light where it +would not swing, but rested quite close to the deck. I +rolled the thick, dry, and ample main-sail round me, stretching +my limbs in charming freedom, and I tied myself to the boom, so +as not to be easily jerked overboard by the waves. Of +course it was my firm intention to sleep only by winks of one eye +at a time; but the struggle with Morpheus was, we suspect, +<i>very</i> faint; at any rate no record remained but a few dim +visions that may have flickered in the soft vanishing of +consciousness.</p> +<p>Can any person be expected to describe his first +feelings as he awakes in such a bed and finds it broad day? +Bright and glorious sun, high up, how I stared at you! and then a +glance to the side, and behold, there is +land—England. Deliberately I rose and gave three +hearty cheers—nobody there to hear, indeed, but +myself—no matter, it did good to me to cheer, and to hear +too. Breakfast was soon agoing. Ten hours’ +sleep had thoroughly refreshed me, mind and body; but I could not +make out what part of the coast we had hit upon.</p> +<p>It was still about twelve miles distant, and as there were no +cliffs in sight, it could not be the Isle of Wight. My +chart told nothing; my French Pilot-book had woodcut pictures of +all the coast, but nothing came of the search in these; and +whether we had drifted east or west of the Isle of Wight we +finally gave up as a question—we must go to the coast +itself and see.</p> +<p>Therefore we steered due north, rapidly nearing the unknown +land, and with a joyous morning, barometer high, wind south, and +a coming fine day. Presently there loomed on the horizon +one, and then another, and another, splendid ships of war. +They steamed in line, and I tried to intercept them to put the +query, “Where am I?” Baffled in this, the +puzzle was, “Are they going to +Portsmouth or Plymouth?” There were equally good +reasons for either.</p> +<p>At length three towns could be seen, and the pictures of the +French Pilot-book were closely examined, but several plates had +each three towns which would fit the case before me, one as well +as the other. Fortunately we chose the middle one of the +three, because it had a little lighthouse. That on the left +we found afterwards was Bognor, which has a reef of dangerous +rocks upon its shore.</p> +<p>A fisherman was in his boat, and I hailed him, “Boat +ahoy! What is the name of that town?”</p> +<p>“Town, sir?”</p> +<p>“Yes; that village right ahead; what do you call +it?”</p> +<p>“The village there, sir?”</p> +<p>“Yes; what is its name? It has a name, +hasn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, certainly, sir, it’s got a +name.”</p> +<p>“Well, what is the name? I don’t know where +I am.”</p> +<p>“Where have you come from, sir? from the +Wight?”</p> +<p>And after these Scottish answers to the questions of a +Scotsman, at last I found my way into Littlehampton; and if ever +you go to the Beach Hotel in want of a soft bed, after sleeping +out of a bed for nearly a month, you will find it +there.</p> +<p>This little place, between Bognor and Brighton, is a quiet +bathing town just in the delicate stage of existence, when it has +been found out and admired, but not yet spoilt. One row of +houses fronts the sea with a fine grassy plain between, and a +clean white strand.</p> +<p>The Inn was of olden times, and apart near the water, with a +landlady of the good old English type; and her son, the waiter, +rampant about canoes, kept an aviary under the porch and a +capital swimming dog in the stable.</p> +<p>Lie on a sofa in the coffee-room detached, and read the +‘Times,’—go into the drawing-room and play the +piano, or sit under the garden trees and gaze on the fair blue +sea, and hope fervently that, with a strong Tory government to +protect our institutions, this hotel may be long kept hid from +that merciless monster the “Company (Limited).” +But already a railway runs here, and threatens its quiet. +Even a steamer now and then from France screws its way into the +very narrow channel, where the river Arun has wound down thus far +from Arundel. <a name="citation188"></a><a href="#footnote188" +class="citation">[188]</a></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Heavy sea—Isle of Wight—The +Commodore—A glance at gear—Bow—Running +rigging—Sisterhooks—Horse—Tiller.</p> +<p>The boy and his dog formed a small crowd on the little pier to +see the Rob Roy start again with a fine breeze off shore, but +freshening every minute until near Selsea Bill it blew half a +gale. The navigation round this point is difficult at low +water, as may be seen from the markings in the chart copied at +page 245, merely as a specimen of what a chart is for the +sailor’s eye.</p> +<p>At last it was necessary to reef main-sail and jib, the wind +blew so hard and in gusts, and the adverse tide met me as it +rushed out of Spithead with a heavy swell. Rain poured down +slanting with the wind, and the rocks, uncovered at low water, +looked very uninviting to leeward.</p> +<p>The little dingey was towed astern, as we had not expected so much sea with a north wind, but for the +first time we found how perfectly this diminutive boat was +adapted for towing, and after this trial she was never again +stowed in the cabin. The bluff bow above, and the keelless, +round, smooth bottom below, enabled the dingey to top the +sharpest wave, and I often forgot my steering while turning round +to watch the little creature as she nimbly leaped over the +tumbling billows. The weather got worse, therefore we +changed for a storm-mizen, and so many seas broke heavily over +the Rob Roy, that the water in the well washed about my ankles, +and finally we were compelled to give in and lie-to for an hour +or more, after manning the pump.</p> +<p>This wind, rain, and sea together were the worst we had met +with, but the yawl seemed in high spirits, like her owner; though +the waves in the tide-way were sometimes so short and sharp that +it was impossible to rise and fall fast enough, and she often +buried deeply. It was here that my chart was so wet that it +melted before my eyes, even with all endeavours to preserve it, +and therefore I bore up for Brading Harbour, in the Isle of +Wight, and somehow managed to get round Bembridge reef all safe +into the quiet lake beyond.</p> +<p>Here, and on British soil again, was an end to all expected anxieties of the summer’s +voyage. The rest to come were to be met, but not +anticipated. There had been first the goal of Paris to be +reached at a certain time for the Regatta there, and then there +was the unknown voyage over the Channel, homeward bound; but +henceforth no more dates or wide seas had to be thought of, and +the rest of the vacation was free.</p> +<p>The shores and seas about the Isle of Wight looked more +cheerful and lovely than ever, with a fair day next +morning. Here we soon pass one of the new sea-batteries, a +huge granite castle, reminding one of Bomarsund, but unfinished, +and with scaffolds round that are worked or stopped, as +Ministries go out or in, and as guns or iron plates are proved +strongest in turn at Shoeburyness.</p> +<p>Portsmouth is in front, always with moving life on the +waves. A squadron of ironclads presses heavy on the water +at Spithead, and among them conspicuous is the five-masted +Minotaur. White-winged yachts glide through the blue space +between these and Ryde. Osborne basks in the sunshine with +the “sailor Prince’s” pleasure-boat by the +shore. If there be a gap or two in the horizon it is soon +filled up by some rich laden merchantman, with sails swelling +full in the light, and gay signal flags flowing out bright +colours; and all the scene is woven together, as +it were, by swift steamers flitting to and fro like shuttles +strung with a thread of foam across a warp of blue.</p> +<p>But it is to that wooded point at Cowes we are steering, and +the tall yellow masts clustered there shew already what an +assemblage the yawl will meet at the Royal Yacht Squadron +Regatta.</p> +<p>There was a certain amount of sailor’s pride as our yawl +steadily advanced, steering in among these, the smallest of them +all, but ready to be matched against any of its size and +crew. She quietly approached the crowded quay, and I put my +portmanteau ashore at the Gloucester Hotel; then the jib was +filled again to sail up straight to Medina dock, where Mr. John +White would see the craft he had modelled, and after a careful +survey, the verdict upon her was entirely favourable. <a +name="citation192"></a><a href="#footnote192" +class="citation">[192]</a></p> +<p>On her safe arrival at Littlehampton, after crossing the +Channel, a short account of the voyage had been sent to the +‘Times,’ and this had reached the numerous yachtsmen +at Cowes an hour before the boat herself appeared in front of the +Club house. Therefore, the little craft required +no more introduction. My flag was my card, and I was +speedily made a member of the Club for the time being. Many +old friends here greeted me, and many new visitors came on board +to congratulate, while His Royal Highness the Commodore of the +Royal Canoe Club, whose burgee flew at my mast-head, graciously +shook hands.</p> +<p>While the ship carpenters at Medina Dock are making my new +bowsprit, and a hundred other things, and Mr. Ratsey is putting +the last finish to my sails, we may examine a little the upper +gear of the yawl, for that has not yet been specially noticed; +but as ladies and landsmen often come on board, who do not +require a minute description of all the ropes and spars in the +Rob Roy, they can skip the rest of this chapter.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>From the sketches of the yawl given in our pages, it will be +seen at once that she was under-masted and under-sailed. +She could bear a spread of canvas double of that she carried; but +for safety, for handiness, and for comfort, we must be content to +sacrifice some speed.</p> +<p>Therefore, it was only in a very powerful breeze that the +beautiful build and lines of the hull had anything like fair play +for shewing her pace through the water. <i>Then</i>, +indeed, and when other craft were reeling about and shipping +seas, even under reefed canvas, the Rob Roy at once asserted her +position.</p> +<p>We have spoken of the excellent mast already. The +shrouds were of iron rope. This is affected by heat and +wet, but not so much, as cordage is. The +screw links to tighten the shrouds seldom had to be employed; a +copper rope from the truck to a shroud acted as a lightning +conductor.</p> +<p>The bowsprit is on the starboard side, for this allows you to +use the light hand with the chain cable in the bitts. The +jib has a foot of nine feet in stride. Its tack is on a +rope round an open hook at the bowsprit end, so that in reefing +you can get it in without danger of falling overboard while +reaching out to detach it; then it is hooked on the stem. +An iron bobstay we discarded, and an iron forestay, as difficult +to keep taut; but, after trials with no bobstay at all, we found +it advisable to replace this, although it is a troublesome rope +in dealing with the anchor.</p> +<p>The gunwale has an opening of half an inch, all round, and +this was enough for scuppers.</p> +<p>The forehatch is thirteen inches square, so that I can readily +squeeze down into the fore-cabin.</p> +<p>I painted about a foot of the chain-cable of a bright red +colour, at ten and at twenty fathoms, which was useful in telling +how much ran out with the anchor. Fenders I got in Paris, +very neatly made of line net-work, over canvas bags of cork.</p> +<p>The iron sheave on the stem for the anchor-chain was large, +with a high cheek, and the comfort of this was well appreciated +in weighing anchor at night or in a swell. The jib-sheets +led aft, and the position of the cleats for these was most +carefully chosen, as they are more worked than any part of the +rigging; yet this position was twice altered, and the best place +seems to be on the deck, two feet forward from your breast and +two feet to the side.</p> +<p>The strain on these sheets in rough weather was greater than +had been anticipated, and at last I had to put a tackle on the +port jib-sheet, as that is the one less conveniently placed for +belaying.</p> +<p>The peak halyard was fast to the gaff, then through a single block on the mast and one on the gaff, and again +one aloft. The throat halyard was fast to the mast, and +through a block on the throat, and then aloft. Both these +halyards came down on the starboard side, and to separate cleats, +but I found it generally more ready to haul on the two at once +and belay them together.</p> +<p>The jib-halyard had a block on the sail, and then, with the +topping lift, came down on the port side. A jib purchase I +soon cut away—one learns to be economical of action when +alone. Each of these four ropes then passed through a +sheave on deck, two on each side, in an iron frame, properly +inclined to give a clear lead. <a name="citation195a"></a><a +href="#footnote195a" class="citation">[195a]</a></p> +<p>Sisterhooks are troublesome things. Some much better +plan as a substitute has to be invented, but I used for their +“mousings” india-rubber rings, which answered +perfectly well, and were easily replaced at six for a penny.</p> +<p>Stocking and re-stocking the anchor were the only operations +when I felt the want of another hand, either to do the work at +the bow or to give that one touch to the tiller at the critical +moment, which an infant could do when near it, but which is hard +for a man at a distance. The anchors were on deck, one at +each side of the bitts, and fitting securely within the +gunwale.</p> +<p>Two things, above all, I must try to devise for next +voyage,—a cleat that will need no bends, <a +name="citation195b"></a><a href="#footnote195b" +class="citation">[195b]</a> but hold anywhere instantly, +and an anchor-stock, self-acting in dark, rain, and wind, and +without a forelock to slip out or get jammed.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p196b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Dashing spray" +title= +"Dashing spray" +src="images/p196s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The hatch of the well was in two parts, and one of them, a +foot in breadth, had chocks on each side, so that in rain and +dashing spray it was fixed up at an angle before me, and thus +only my eyes were above it exposed, and by moving my head down +about one inch below the position shewn in the sketch, I could +see the compass and the chart. A tarpaulin of one-faced +india-rubber over the sloping board and under +the horse, had its loose folds round one of my shoulders to the +weather side, so that even in very rough water not much could get +into the open well.</p> +<p>The main-boom had a ring working between cheeks and carrying a +double block with a single block below. To reduce the long +fall of the sheet I altered the upper block to a single one; but +in the first heavy weather afterwards it was found to be too +small a purchase. The force of the wind is underrated if +you reason about it in fair weather.</p> +<p>The sheet block was fast to a strong, plain, copper ring, as a +traveller, and after much trouble and expense about a horse for +this, trying first an iron one, then a copper rope, and then +hemp, I found that a rounded inch bar of red iron-wood straight +across and about two inches above the bulkhead of the well, +answered to perfection. <a name="citation197"></a><a +href="#footnote197" class="citation">[197]</a></p> +<p>The oars were stowed one on each side of the hatch combing +with blades aft, and looms chock up to the gunwale at the bows, +so as to be seldom moved by a rush of sea along the deck, and yet +one or other or both could be instantly put into the iron +crutches always kept ready shipped, and so placed that I could +row comfortably while in the well and facing the bow. The +boat-hook had its handle-end always near my right hand, and this +saved me many a run forward in awkward times.</p> +<p>The tiller of iron-wood was well wedged into the +rudder-head. Of course any joggling or slackness here is +like a broken front tooth, or a loose steel pen. No plan +that I heard of, or saw, or could devise yet, is entirely +satisfactory for enabling the tiller to be set +fast in a moment, at any angle, and yet to be <i>perfectly</i> +free in ordinary times. I used a large piece of rough cork +as a wedge to set the tiller, and a cord loop at each side of the +gunwale, to keep it “hard down” when going +about. At night, to stop the vibration of the rudder, I +knocked in a brass wedge between its head and the iron bushing of +the rudder hole.</p> +<p>Every bit of iron above water was galvanized; but this +operation weakens small pieces of iron unless it is carefully +done. However, the only part which carried away was my +small anchor-stock, and this took place at the first cast of it +into the Thames.</p> +<p>Such is the Rob Roy yawl, of 4 tons register, and the map +(about 70 pages farther on) shews the general course of her first +sea voyage by a dotted line, but many a long mile of zigzag had +to be sailed besides.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Ducklings—Victoria +Park—Yachtsmen—Cowes—Floating family—The +‘Zara’—Lifeboats—Wrecked—Mop—An +odd story—The law of anchors—Experiments—The +Royal yacht.</p> +<p>Medina Dock is the place to see all sorts of ships and boats +for steam, sailing, or rowing, lifeboats, rafts, and +models. The basin is full of broken-backed men-of-war whose +old black bones are being disjointed and dragged asunder here to +make strong knees again, just because they are black and well +seasoned. Alongside the quay we had seen the three American +yachts, which came across the Atlantic amid many English cheers +for the vessels of two hundred tons crossing from New York, while +we scarcely record the voyages of our own hundred-ton vessels +that have often sailed to Australia.</p> +<p>In Mr. White’s garden there are Chinese junks and catamarans afloat in a pond, and even the walls +around are not allowed to be quite of dry land, being painted +with sea soundings and charts of the neighbouring coasts. +This may indeed be called the Admiralty of the yacht fleet, and +Cowes is its Portsmouth.</p> +<p>“Nauta nascitur non fit,” which is in English, +“British boys are ducklings born to the water.”</p> +<p>Now many of these have affectionate parents not web-footed, +and the filial duty of a little duck to the motherly hen is a +very difficult question of conscience when a pond is near; but +then there is no positive need to boat, while there <i>is</i> a +positive command to obey. This ought to solve the question +with all brave loving boys, who are manly enough to obey the +woman dearest on earth to them.</p> +<p>A little vessel two feet long may be called a toy ship, but it +is a toy that can teach much to an Admiral, and I should not like +to have as my comrade on a voyage the man of forty who can pass +the Serpentine without a glance at the little ragged urchin +there, who is half in the water himself while he reaches with a +twig his tiny lugger after its long voyage across the lake among +ducks, and row-boats, and billows two inches high.</p> +<p>Victoria Park, again, has a feast of nauticalities now and then for boys who love boats, when the Model +Yacht Club sails its liliputian squadron for a half-crown +cup.</p> +<p>The competing yachts first lie on the green grass for +inspection. They are made in “off hours” by +working men, who sail as well as build them. Wife or a +school-girl daughter has sewed the sails, and the paint on the +hull is gorgeous. Crowds of all classes and ages are at the +starting-post, and when the pistol fires the cheers begin. +Each favourite in the fleet has its admirers, who run alongside, +and the Secretary alone has a grave face, as of a man on +important duty. Who can say what sailors’ seedlings +may be watered in that pond, and to grow up in manhood afterwards +as hearts of oak?</p> +<p>And if a boy is too young, or lazy, or clumsy-fingered to make +a boat for himself, let him go along Fleet Street till he comes +to the spot where he can turn his back upon St. Dunstan’s +church. Depend upon it he will cross over to the <i>Model +Dockyard</i> there, and after buttoning his jacket over his +watch-chain, and a good shove down to his pocket-handkerchief, if +he has one, let him wriggle in by elbow and knees till he gets a +good place among the crowd at the window.</p> +<p>Even when it is time to go home he will not have seen half the +naval stores here, or the little sailors—from Cork—all waiting to be +engaged; but if he buys the <i>Illustrated Handibook</i> inside +from the civil shopman, to con at home, perhaps at his next visit +he may be admitted up-stairs to a delicious treat, where he can +gloat over the more hidden fleet of the future.</p> +<p>Some, perhaps many, people keep yachts who do not enjoy +sailing. We have sometimes seen a yacht-owner who could not +steer his own dingey. There are others whose chief anxiety +when once on board is for their speedy arrival at the next +port. To have the best yacht of the year is no sign of its +owner being a good sailor. The horse that wins the Derby +would most likely not be first if he carried his owner, and a man +may have a good carriage who cannot himself “handle the +ribbons.”</p> +<p>It is no discredit to anybody that he is not able to ride a +race, or steer a schooner, or drive a drag; but it is well to +remember more than we do whose is the skill that wins in each of +these exercises.</p> +<p>At Cowes one perceives very soon that a good deal of +<i>yachtomania</i> is fed upon the good meat and drink afloat, +and balls and promenades ashore, and the pomp and bustle of +getting from one to the other, not to forget the brass buttons +which fasten more vulgar minds to some Clubs.</p> +<p>Leaving aside all these in peace, provided they play +with the thing as they have a right to do, and as openly as now, +so that none can mistake them, we have still to admire a splendid +set of fellows, yes, and of women too, who really love the +sea. We know a hardy canoeist who said he would not marry +anybody unless she could “pull bow oar,” and it +certainly is an addition to the family hearth when the tender +help-meet can “mind her luff.”</p> +<p>In the regatta week the tide of a congregation coming out of +the pretty church at Cowes is thoroughly aquatic. Fine +stalwart men with handsome faces, girls with chignons as big as a +topsail bunt, yacht skippers of bronze hue and anxious eye, well +fed sailors with cerulean Jerseys, children with hat ribbons and +neckties labelled with yacht names. There were 150 yachts +on the water here, and the Rob Roy anchored close to the Hotel, +from which the sight was magnificent at night, when each +mast-light was hung, and the whole made a brilliant crescent +reflected in calm sea, while excellent music played softly on +shore, and at each half-hour the bell of every vessel tolled the +time, the Rob Roy adding her note to the jingle by so many thumps +on an iron pot.</p> +<p>Near the yawl was a strange little cutter of five tons, as +remarkable for the number of people on board it as +mine was for having so few. There was the grey-haired +hearty papa, and when we had noticed him taking observations with +a sextant, we knew he was “a character.” Then +there was his active son, and a younger brother, and a sister in +bright red, and a sailor boy. They looked even more +numerous, because they kept for ever moving out of sight, and +then appearing in new costume, under and above the awning, which +like a large umbrella, was spread on their boom.</p> +<p>It was a treat to lunch with this kind hale yachtsman, and to +see the one minute cabin full of mirrors, pictures, statuettes, +crockery, and furniture. To make room for the visitor two +of the inhabitants ate their share of a huge pie in the punt +alongside.</p> +<p>Then, to rise at once to the largest yacht of them all, there +was the beautiful ‘Zara,’ a schooner of 315 tons, +fitted out for a Mediterranean cruise, but making her first +voyage from Cowes to Southampton, convoyed by the Rob Roy, and as +her reefing topsails and her Flemish horse got entangled aloft by +new stiff ropes, she drifted against another fine schooner; but +with cool heads and smart hands on board of each of them, the +pretty craft were softly eased away from a too rough embrace, and +no damage was done.</p> +<p>About twenty of the yachts were steamers, and at +least as many besides had steam-launches, a new adjunct rapidly +becoming popular, and which soon will be almost a necessary for +every yacht of 200 tons. All of these that I saw were +lifeboats, built on “Lamb and White’s” +principle, that is, with air chambers along the sides, so that +they decline to upset, and if they are filled by the sea, they +are not only still floating but steady also.</p> +<p>The Royal National Lifeboat Institution build boats with +ballast below and with air-chambers so disposed at the ends and +in the bottom as to cause the boat to right itself when it has +been overturned, while Mr. S. White’s boats are constructed +so as rather to prevent a capsize than to right the boat +afterwards.</p> +<p>During an experimental trial in a heavy sea, one of these +side-chamber boats was intentionally overturned, and it then kept +steadily floating bottom upwards, so that the crew clambered up +safely on the keel, where the handles provided for the purpose +enabled them to hold on. Of the fourteen men, however, only +thirteen could be counted, and so it was found that +“Jem” was missing; but when he was called, Jem +answered from the <i>inside</i> of the boat, “All +right!” “What! Are you +inside?” “Yes, I’m looking for my +cap.” He was safe enough in the vacant space between +the water and the floor, upturned over him, and there was room for several more of the crew inside.</p> +<p>The two rival systems then seem to represent (1) a boat which +will speedily right, of which the men, if upset, may float +outside until she rights, or may keep inside, and cling to the +thwarts and trust to be soon righted; and (2) a boat which will +upset only under strongest pressure, but the men can either stop +inside, or if cast out can cling to the keel.</p> +<p>To decide between the merits of these lifeboats would require +actual experiment outside and inside of each by the judge, who +ought to look at all sides of the question; but my opinion is, at +present, in favour of the side-chamber plan, for ships’ +boats, and of course for steam-launches; while the evidence in +favour of the other plan for pure lifeboat service in rough water +is convincing.</p> +<p>Whatever may be finally settled as to the best position of the +air-cases in lifeboats—and the best men in the world for +these matters are engaged in earnest upon the subject <a +name="citation206"></a><a href="#footnote206" +class="citation">[206]</a>—it certainly is prudent for all +who care not to be drowned, that the boat they sail +in should be so built as not to go down bodily when a mere hole +is knocked in her, and this may be insured by dividing her into +water-tight compartments.</p> +<p>Some years ago I had a sharp lesson on this point. It +was in Dublin Bay, where I was sailing entirely alone in an iron +cutter-yacht, very small, yet far too large to be managed by me, +then a boy. The throat parrell suddenly broke, and the +mainsail jammed at once, so that she would not stay. Then I +tried to wear ship, but the running sea poured in over the +counter at each plunge, and baling was impossible, for it ran +fore and aft. As the water got deeper inside she settled +down, for she had no compartments, and, being of iron, of course +she must speedily sink. A yacht had humanely come out, +seeing my distress, and she rounded to and dropped a boy on board +me with a strong rope; but when the boy set foot on my bows they +plunged deep under water, and with a loud cry he hauled himself +back on board the other yacht.</p> +<p>The captain instantly tacked and came again, and cast the rope +to me, which I fastened securely to my mast, and then got safely +aboard the preserver’s vessel, while mine sunk down, but +suspended still by the rope, until we towed it into shallow +water.</p> +<p>This sort of thing was fully provided against in the +Rob Roy by the water-tight compartments, three in number, besides +the air-chambers, so that if she was filled in any one, she could +yet sail on, and if all three compartments had been entirely full +of water, she would still float with her air-chambers, and with +five hundredweight to spare. <a name="citation208"></a><a +href="#footnote208" class="citation">[208]</a></p> +<p>The buoyancy of the yawl was very remarkable. She easily +carried twenty men, and in the same space one could accommodate +five ladies of reasonable circumference.</p> +<p>A boat’s mop is, of course, well known to be always fair +spoil to him who can take it, and whatever other article the +yachtsman leaves loose on an unguarded deck, he never omits to +hide or lock up the mop, for a mop is winged like an umbrella, it +strays, but seldom returns. The usual protection of mops is +their extreme badness, and it is on this account, no doubt, that +you never can find a good mop to buy. The Rob Roy’s +mop was the only bad article on board, and I left it out loose in +perfect confidence. Often and often it had evidently been +turned over, but on examination it was found supremely bad, worse +than the thief’s own mop, and not worth stealing. At +last, however, and in Cowes, too, the focus of +yachting, if not of honesty, my mop was stolen. The man who +took it is to be pitied, for, clearly, before he coveted a bad +mop, he must have been long enduring a worse one.</p> +<p>Nor is the property in boats’ anchors quite free from +the legal subtleties which allow but a dim sort of ownership in +things that are attached to the soil.</p> +<p>When, indeed, your boat is at one end of the cable, you will +scarcely fear that the anchor should be stolen from the other +end. But when necessity or convenience causes you to slip +anchor and sail away, you must recollect that though the anchor +is the emblem of hope, it does not warrant any <i>expectation</i> +that on returning you will find the anchor acknowledged to be +yours. It has now passed into the category of “found +anchors,” and it is not yet decided how the rights to these +are best determined. However, I may here mention one mode +of settling the matter.</p> +<p>A gentleman we shall call N., sailing from a port on the +Thames, had to slip his anchor, and he said to the lad +ashore—“You see I am leaving my anchor here, and be +good enough to tell your father to get it when the tide falls, +and to carry it to where my yacht is, and when I return here +to-morrow I will give him half-a-crown.”</p> +<p>After his sailing was over, N. came back and said to +the father, “Well, have you got my anchor?” +“I have found an anchor,” he answered. +“Yes, that is mine, and I told your son I would give you +half-a-crown if you brought it here.” “I have +found an anchor, and I’ll not give it up under five +shillings,” said the man; and their argument and +remonstrance gradually enveloped the subject in a hazy +abstruseness, while the usual knot of idlers listened all +round. At length N. said, “Come, now, we really must +settle this matter. I’ll <i>fight you</i> as to +whether I am to pay five shillings or nothing for the +anchor,” and he took off his coat and waistcoat, so it was +plain he was in earnest. The other man stripped too, a ring +was formed, and after N., worsted at first, had well thrashed his +opponent, the latter gave up the anchor. Here, perhaps, we +might think the case had ended, but N. had still a point to be +settled, saying to the man, “Your bargain was not only to +give up the anchor, but to <i>bring it here</i>;” and as +the fellow refused to do this, the valiant N. cut the second +discussion short by saying, “Well, then, I’ll fight +you again as to who shall carry it up,” and it need +scarcely be said that the anchor was not carried up by N.</p> +<p>Is there any other country but England where two men can +pummel each other in hard earnest, and yet +with less passion at the time, and less grudge afterwards than +often exists for years between two combatants who battle with +their tongues, or even fight with their pens and post-stamps?</p> +<p>As anchors are important parts of one’s equipment, I had +begun early to experiment at once with mine, and the small one +had been tried once as a kedge. With the first heave it +broke off short; the stock had snapped in the place which ought +to be the strongest, but which is really made the weakest, by the +present faulty construction of anchor-stocks. The +<i>memo</i> in my log-book was, “Invent a proper +anchor;” and even at Cowes I could not find any plan that +met this need. <a name="citation211"></a><a href="#footnote211" +class="citation">[211]</a></p> +<p>Before the end of my voyage, a score of minutiæ as well +as things of some importance were marked as lines for great +improvement, when a nautico-mechanical brain shall be brought to +bear upon them. The mental consideration of such points +afforded varied subjects for many weeks’ thought. +Indeed <i>all</i> the fittings of a sailing-boat seem +open to much improvement. Meanwhile we have laid down the +large Trotman as moorings in the Medina, while we range about the +bays of the island with the smaller anchor duly repaired.</p> +<p>Of course the dingey had its Sunday voyage at Cowes, and was +everywhere received with kindness. It went to the Royal +Yacht here, as it had done to the Emperor’s yacht at St. +Cloud, and the sailors were grateful for books to read, for they +have plenty of time on Sundays. When I went afterwards with +my canoe to the Nile, my next neighbour at the hotel dinner in +Port Said was the owner of an English yacht, who gratefully +expressed his thanks for books given to his crew at Cowes.</p> +<p>It did not appear to be the fashion at Cowes to work the crews +for pleasure sailing seven days a week; indeed, we saw only one +yacht sail in on Sunday, and she was arriving after a +night’s voyage.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The life-raft—A travelled +hen—Prussian adventure—American—Going +up-stairs—Portsmouth—Fair +visitor—Cruises—A review—Questions.</p> +<p>The ‘Nonpareil’ American life-raft was in Cowes +after her Atlantic voyage of forty-three days at sea. Two +of her three adventurous crew were Germans, who could speak +English only imperfectly, and the third was a Yankee. This +uncomfortable voyage was undertaken partly to promote the sale in +England of these rafts, and partly to pay the three men by fees +from visitors, while they could see Europe themselves at a cheap +rate. One of Mr. White’s steamers towed the raft in +front of the Castle, where the members of the Royal Yacht +Squadron Club have their spacious house, with a sea wall over the +waves.</p> +<p>From the accompanying sketch it will be seen that she is +schooner-rigged, and very coarsely rigged +too. Gigantic flags and streamers overwhelm her masts, but +fourteen of us on her deck seemed to sink the buoyant life-raft +only an inch more in the water.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p214b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The raft" +title= +"The raft" +src="images/p214s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>She is made of three long tubes of india-rubber blown up by +bellows; and, when the air is out, these can be packed away +snugly, weighing in all about a ton, and intended to be inflated +and launched from a ship’s deck in case of disaster. +A small raft in the capacity of a dingey, but formed like the +other, was towed beside her, and as a special favour I was +piloted to go away in this, which was easily worked by +oars or sculls upon outriggers.</p> +<p>The men had for shelter during their long voyage only a small +waterproof tent on the deck, with a gutter round its edge to +catch the rainwater, and so to replenish their supply, kept in +bags on each side, and now handed about in glasses as +“travelled liquor,” to wash down biscuits, still +surplus from the “sea store.” Their cooking +apparatus was at first worked by petroleum, but this speedily +burned the metal out, and they were driven to manufacture a very +ramshackle sort of oil-lamp, fed by the oil for their ship-light +and their compass, and by some supplied from passing vessels.</p> +<p>Two centre-boards, like long narrow doors, placed diagonally +between the web joinings of the tubes, dipped into the water, and +served as a keel, so that when we cast her off from the steamer, +the raft managed to sail a little over to windward. The +whole raft being collapsible when the air is driven out, can be +readily carried aboard ship, and for this it is valuable, but +many other and better rafts compete with this for favour.</p> +<p>The actual <i>substratum</i>, or raft proper, seemed to be +strong and substantial, but the sails and gear were miserably +contrived, and worse executed, in preparation for a long dreary +voyage of six weeks, drifting in wet and weariness, which +I could not but contrast with the pleasant six weeks just passed +in the Rob Roy.</p> +<p>The most interesting thing on the raft was a passenger, who +had come on board her when about a thousand miles away in the +sea. This was an old hen, given to the crew by a passing +vessel. It was a common brown, dowdy, grandmother-looking +hen, and in this prosaic state it was very odd and incongruous, +tethered to the deck by a bit of tarred lanyard, and pecking away +till you looked hard at it, then it cocked up one eye with an air +that said, “Why are you staring at <i>me</i>?”</p> +<p>Among the visitors to the raft was a wealthy gentleman, who +surveyed the whole with interest, and at last fixed his eye upon +the barn-door fowl, and asked if it was to be sold. +“Yes, sir, for a hundred guineas,” was the answer; +but he deferred any immediate purchase by saying, “If I +thought that eating that hen’s eggs would make me as plucky +as you are, I might buy it.” As for being +“plucky” in the matter, what will not men risk for +money? The risks run by many sailors in the rotten coffins +that bring our scuttles of coals round Yarmouth Sands are quite +as great as the hazard on this raft, and their forecastles are +about as comfortable as the tent upon it. If it were not on +such a serious subject as risk to human life, one might +well be amused to hear the wrong estimates of the dangers in +various sorts of voyages which are so hastily expressed by +benevolent people who are ignorant of the whole matter.</p> +<p>I advised the raft-men to take her to Berlin, for exhibition +as “the German raft from America,” for such she is; +but they persisted in their scheme for showing her in London, +where folks are already tired of “flotsam and jetsam” +from the West. Their enterprise failed; and the poor +Germans had to depart from England deep in debt instead of laden +with money, and their raft was left for sale.</p> +<p>Since the ‘Nonpareil,’ there has come to England +from America another floating monstrosity, a boat called the +‘John T. Ford,’ worse “found” in every +sense than the others, and which had three men drowned on the +passage, and one nearly starved—a sad finale to the +failures of the ‘Henrietta,’ ‘Red, White, and +Blue,’ and ‘Nonpariel,’ as speculations. +Another craft came in with man and wife as crew. Finally in +July, the two Andrews came in the ‘Nautilus.’</p> +<p>Every day at Cowes the yawl Rob Roy was under way for a sail, +and sometimes in good breezes she would thread in and out among +thickly clustered yachts, so as to show her handiness. +Certainly, without previous practice, it would be highly improper +to attempt this sort of cruising; for the +yachts, with bowsprits run out, and jiggers and mizen-booms +projecting, are at anchor here on the implied understanding that +no one will wantonly endanger a collision by sailing about in the +crowd, merely for fun. After practice, however, for weeks +in the same craft, the operation of guiding her safely through a +maze of boats, and on a strong cross-tide, becomes like the +unnoticed and nearly involuntary muscular efforts of the body +which carry us safely through a crowd on shore. I recollect +once seeing some very dignified Arab Chiefs, who for the first +time in their lives had to go up-stairs, and their awkward +stumbling, even in the ascent of a few steps, showed how much our +nerves and limbs have to learn before we can do so ordinary a +thing without even a thought.</p> +<p>One day the Rob Roy sailed to Portsmouth, and into all the +creeks and crannies, and through all the channels and guts she +could find in that complicated waterway, and then anchored near +the ‘Duke of Wellington,’ with the old +‘Victory’ close beside. There also was the +‘Serapis,’ one of the magnificent troop-ships, of a +size and build found to be the best success of our last naval +efforts. By the quay was the ‘Warrior,’ the +first sea-going iron-clad, and of beauty indisputable, and the +celebrated ‘Wyvern,’ with its tripod +masts. Others later made, and always more and more stumpy +and square, need a strong pressure of utilitarian conviction to +restrain us from pronouncing that they are downright ugly. +But we shall soon become reconciled, and then enamoured, of forms +that are associated with proved utility, and the grand +three-decker of our youth will look as clumsy then as the ships +of Queen Elizabeth do now, which seem to have carried, each of +them, a lot of toy guns, and a country mansion on its deck.</p> +<p>The church service on board old ‘Victory’ was most +interesting to take part in when Sunday came round, and next day +her captain came to visit us in his well-manned gig, which, +indeed, was longer than our boat, and he said that the Rob Roy +“fulfilled a dream of his youth.” This from a +“swell of the ocean” was a high compliment to our +little yawl.</p> +<p>A boat full of boys, from the Portsmouth Ragged School, sang +hymns on the water in the lovely evening.</p> +<p>Among the other remarkable visitors to the yawl was a pleasant +young lady, who sat in a very pretty boat, rowed by a trusty +man. She had hovered round and round the Rob Roy with a +cautious propriety, which, however, could not conceal a certain +wistful gaze as the narrowing spiral of +her course brought her nearer at each turn. My little +dingey was the attraction, and the lady confessed boldly that she +“would <i>so</i> like to have a boat like that to row +in.” Next she consented to see dinner cooked on the +Rob Roy, and—just because she was a lady—she complied +with the request not to fly away when I began to eat. +Finally, as curiosity increases by gratifying it, the +good-humoured girl (with the full consent of the trusty guardian) +accepted one mouthful of the newly cooked rations, stewed steak, +on Rob Roy’s fork, and then suddenly it had become +“very late, and time to join papa.”</p> +<p>The variety of life during a fortnight here, yet all afloat, +was abounding. One day sailing in company with other small +boats up the winding Medina, or tacking about, close-reefed, in +rough water; the next day cruising in some splendid schooner away +and away towards the Needles. Every one was kind and +hospitable, and often dipping their ensigns to the yawl. +Surely we have named her cruise wrongly as “the voyage +alone;” and, indeed, I could scarcely get time in my cabin +for a glance at a paper, to see the news and doings of the land +folk, bricked up ashore: their wars and congresses and the +general rasping they get for it all by a hard squeeze in the +press at the end of every week, to keep them from forgetting their own discomforts or their +neighbours’ ills, for Parliament being dispersed in +vacation, there is the fourth estate to legislate by public +acclaim.</p> +<p>Most remarkable it is, and commendable, and a feature only a +few years old, that the principal morning and evening papers +should take up one after another of philanthropic institutions, +and even of individual cases, and advocate them vigorously, while +they spare no wrong from censure, and freely discuss remedies, +which are much harder to talk of than any wrongs. +Philanthropy is made popular by the press, and many a good worker +is cheered by this powerful help. Blessings on their +type!</p> +<p>But on the other hand, lest we should subside into doing good, +hoping better, and making the best of things in a practical way, +the whole has to be reviewed at the end of each week by a hard +hebdomadal board, on which a dozen clear thinkers sit aside and +criticise all the rest of us. Perhaps it is a part of the +irreverence of our times that one should gradually lose awe in +the presence of this weekly printed wisdom. Or is it that +experience finds types are just as fallible as tongues for +telling truth, and that years give us hardiness even in the +presence of that most mighty, wise, and impudent of all earthworms,—man, that judges the very God of +Heaven.</p> +<p>However, the brilliancy of these critics flares out and +attracts, and it ought to attract, though it need not dazzle, +even if it be the brilliancy of the electric light, warming as +little, and darkening one side as much. Their thoughts +reach thousands, and without the answers: thus to thousands they +are judgments, not arguments. It is a tremendous +responsibility to wield such powers, and perhaps it is not felt +by a corporate body as each one of them would acknowledge for +himself.</p> +<p>It is a good sign of them, or of the age, that they should +yield to man’s innate love of continuous detraction?</p> +<p>Is not their own shibboleth the hardest of all, the most +shifting, the most inaudibly pronounced by themselves, if it be +not a universal “No,” and yet the most rigorously +insisted upon? Is there not a “cant” of the +vague and complacent denial, quite as bad as that of the too +positive and assumed belief? Will it cure the weakness of +the milk-and-water they complain of to pour in mustard and +vinegar? and would not any one man, with all these bristling +points of sarcasm, dispraise, and bitterness, be about as +pleasant in social life as a porcupine? Surely this +powerful literary lever could be plied to +raise heavier stones, and to settle them in goodly order. +Let others grub in the rubbish; but the leading organ of the week +could sound with a grander harmony, more pleasant, and not less +piquant if it gave rhythm to the mind of England in a forward +march against misery.</p> +<p>Perhaps to write thus is too daring; for while Saturn +masticates his own offspring it is a bold child that complains to +his face; but it is better to be called rash than to be proved +timid.</p> +<p>Meantime we are nearing Cowes in our sail from Portsmouth, and +must mind the rocks and beacons rather than soliloquies, for this +one question may be put after all:—Is it right to moralize +at all in a log-book? and will not the reader say, that when +there is not a storm in the yawl, or a swamp, there is sure to +come a sermon?</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Continental sailors—Mal de +mer—Steam-launches—Punt chase—The +ladies—Fireworks—Catastrophe—Impudence—Drifting +yachts—Tool chest—Spectre ship—Where am +I?—Canoe <i>v</i>. yawl—Selfish—Risk and +toil—Ridicule.</p> +<p>The regatta days opened with wind and rain; but even at the +best of times, the sight of a sailing match from on shore is like +that of a stag hunt from on foot,—very pretty at the start, +and then very little more to see. It is different if you +sail about among the competing yachts. Then you feel the +same tide and wind, and see the same marks and buoys, and dread +the same shoals and rocks as they do, and at every turn of every +vessel you have something to learn.</p> +<p>No one can satisfactorily distribute the verdict +“victor” or “vanquished” in a +sailing-match between the designer, the builder, the rigger, and the course, the weather, the rules, the sailor of +each craft, and chance; though each of these will conduce in part +to the success or failure in every match. Still there is +this advantage, that the loser can always blame, and the winner +can always praise, which of these elements he finds most +convenient. But if a sailing-match has little in it quite +intelligible, even when you see it, the account of a past regatta +is well worth keeping out of print—so be it then with this +one, the best held at Cowes for many years.</p> +<p>The large crowds that attended, and their obstinate standing +in heavy rain, were in marked contrast to the phlegmatic and +meagre interest of the few French who came to the regatta at St. +Cloud. But it is such occasions that remind us of England +being a land of seamen, while continental sailors are at best of +the land, except in northern nations.</p> +<p>Once it was my lot to sail in a small screw-steamer along the +coast of Calabria. Of the four passengers one was a +Neapolitan officer, who embarked in full uniform; and with light +tight boots and spurs, and clanging sword, he stalked the +quarter-deck, that is, he took three steps, and was at the end, +and three steps back.</p> +<p>In going out of Messina I saw we should have a tough bit of +sea outside, and was soon prepared accordingly. He did not so, and the first +bursting wave wet him through in a moment, and down he went +below. Some hours afterwards I descended too, and a +melancholy sight was there, with very lugubrious sounds.</p> +<p>In the cabin was a huge tub full of water, and the officer +(spurs, boots, and all) was sitting in it with his legs out of +one end and his head groaning and bellowing from the other. +This was his specific for sea-sickness, and for three days he +behaved about as well as a fractious child who sadly wants a good +whipping. It is no discredit to a man to be sea-sick. +Nelson, we are told, was so far human. But it is somewhat +unmanly for an officer to whine and blubber like a baby, and yet +we have several times seen this phenomenon abroad. When we +came into Naples this lachrymose hero was again in full feather, +boots, spurs, and sword, stalking the quarter-deck as if no tub +and tears had intervened.</p> +<p>Some excellent rowing-matches, after the Regatta in Cowes, +were varied by a “punt chase,”—an amusement +thoroughly English; when one man in a punt is chased by four in a +low-boat, who have to catch both him and his boat within ten +minutes.</p> +<p>Of course his path is devious and tortuous on the water, his +resort being quick turns, while the chasers +gain in speed. After numerous close escapes he leaps into +the water. Then if the pursuers catch and hold his boat it +clogs them in following him, and if they follow him while his +boat is left free, he manages to escape round some tangled mass +of shipping, and so regains his boat for a new start.</p> +<p>This is the sort of thing that tries both swimming and pluck +in the water, as well as mere muscle or wind in rowing. It +is to racing proper what a hunt is to a flat race. Rowing +is only one small part of boating, and it is apt to monopolise +our favour chiefly because many can row for one that can +<i>boat</i>.</p> +<p>In one of these punt chases at Cowes the punter had several +times plunged into the sea, and amid shouts and cheers he was +always closely followed by one of his chasers who swam almost +equally well.</p> +<p>At length the brave punter swam over to the +‘Alberta,’ one of the Queen’s steam-yachts, +which had several of the royal Princesses and others on board, +who kindly thus patronized the races, and their presence was +thoroughly appreciated by us all. The hardy sailor scaled +the yacht, and actually ran among the ladies,—who doubtless +were much amused, and indeed they tittered vastly. Then he +mounted the lofty paddle-box, closely +followed by his resolute pursuer, who would not be shaken +off. With one moment of hesitation the punter took a +splendid “header” into the sea, and as he was thus +descending from the paddle-box the gun fired, showing that the +ten minutes had expired. The pursuer could then, of course, +have given up the chase as done. He had lost and could not +win now. But there was still in him that fine free boldness +which superadds brave deed to stern duty, and, amid a burst of +cheers, he too leaped down into the sea.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p228b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Punt Chase" +title= +"The Punt Chase" +src="images/p228s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The first diver, however, had heard the wished-for gun +as he fell and so he claimed his prize when he came up, all red +and watery, and both had well gained the applause of the +spectators.</p> +<p>It is not for one who has rowed fifty races with pleasure to +underrate, far less to disparage, mere rowing; but still we +maintain that for the encouragement of pure manliness, and the +varied capacities useful in a sailor’s life, one punt chase +is far better than ten of the others.</p> +<p>The rapid introduction of steam-launches into use for our +large English yachts adds quite a new feature to every grand +regatta. Here again, however, the French navy led the way, +and England follows somewhat tardily. The French fleet at +the Cherbourg review, some years ago had a swarm of these fussy +little creatures buzzing about the great anchored +iron-clads. English steam-launches were built to carry each +a gun, and so they are bluff and slow. Our Admiralty +declined to allow a race between these and the French launches in +Paris, else, no doubt, the superior speed of the French boats +would have astonished John Bull. All this has lately +changed, so that launches and torpedo boats in England can steam +twenty miles an hour.</p> +<p>The “voyage alone” had culminated at Cowes when +the splendid exhibition of fireworks closed the grand +show of British yachting. It was a beautiful sight those +whizzing rockets speeding from wave to sky, and scattering bright +gems above to fall softly from the black heaven; those glares of +red or green that painted all the wide crescent of beauteous +hulls, and dim, tall masts with a glow of ardent colour, and the +“bouquets” of fantastic form and hue, with noise that +rattled aloft, while thousands of paled faces cheered loud +below. To this day the deck of the Rob Roy (which is now in +Australia) bears marks of the fire-shower falling quietly, gently +down, but still with a red scar burned in black at the last.</p> +<p>Luggage is all on board again, and our tiny “Blue +Peter” flies at the fore, for the Rob Roy will weigh anchor +now for her homeward voyage. The Ryde Regatta was well +worth seeing, and she stopped there in an uneasy night, but we +need not copy the log of another set of sailing matches.</p> +<p>Thus in a fine evening, when the sun sank ruddy and the breeze +blew soft, we turned again to Brading harbour, and, just perhaps +because we had come safely once before, there was listless +incaution now, as if Bembridge reef could not be cruel on such a +fine evening as this.</p> +<p>Various and doubtless most true directions had been given to +me as to entering this narrow channel:—“Keep the tree in a line with the +monument; that’s your mark.” But when you come +there and see the monument, there are twenty trees; and which +then is <i>the</i> tree to guide by? Here, therefore, and +in mundane things on land too it is alike, the misapprehension of +a rule was worse than the chance mistake of undirected +mother-wit. A horrid crash brought us suddenly to rest; the +Rob Roy had struck on a rock. Though I was lax at the time, +and lolling and lazy, yet presence of mind remained. Down +came the sails, out leaped the anchor, and shoving, and hauling, +and rowing did their best; but no, she was firmly berthed on one +of the north-west rocks. Presently a malicious wave lifted +her stern round and the rudder soon bumped on another sharp +ledge, until by sounding and patience I at last got her free, and +rowed out through a channel unconscionably narrow, and then ran +the sails up, and the yawl was safe again, sailing smoothly, with +a deep sigh of deliverance.</p> +<p>A sailing-boat had put off from the shore to help, seeing the +catastrophe, but I signalled to her, “Thanks—all +right now,” and she went back.</p> +<p>Soon another boat that had rowed out came near, and the man in +her determined to be a <i>salvor</i> whether or no, and leaped on +board the yawl. I made him get off to his boat; I had not +invited him, nor had he asked permission to +board me. He could see it was the other man’s job, +and he ought to have obeyed the signal, as the other did. +Grumbling heavily, he at length asked me to tow him in. +“Well,” I said, “why, yes, I will give you a +tow, though you have been very impudent.” But the +moment he came near he jumped on board again, resolved “to +save me,” though I might protest ever so hard. Once +more, then, I bundled him into his boat, and this time rather by +deeds than words. He kept up a volley of abuse all the way +to the shore, and there I gave my yawl in charge of the first +man, who had acted right both in coming out and in going back +when signalled. A hospitable Captain R.N. offered me his +moorings (as a good bed for my yawl), and asked me to breakfast +next day, which was accepted, “subject to the wind,” +especially as the entertainer was of the clan “Mac,” +like his guest.</p> +<p>Calm night falls on the Rob Roy, in a little inland lake, +profoundly still, more quiet indeed, in respect of current, tide, +or wind, or human being than any night of the voyage. It +was very difficult to turn in below with such a moon above, and +water quite unruffled. So there was a long lean-to on +propped elbows, and reverie reeled off by the yard.</p> +<p>Daybreak grey, with a westerly breeze, at once dissolved the breakfast engagement, and carried the Rob +Roy to sea, with her own kettle briskly boiling; and now we are +fairly started on our voyage to the Thames again. But the +glowing sun also took its morning meal, and greedily ate up the +wind; and so the yachts from Ryde could be seen far off, looking +farther off in a misty curtain, all only drifting with the tide, +while they raced their hardest for a cup. Yet there is +science and skill in drifting well. If the skipper has no +wind to show his prowess in with sails, he must win by his +knowledge of current, tide, and channel, while he seems perhaps +to be carried along helplessly. One after another the +pretty racers slowly rounded the Warner light-ship, and then each +sunk back, as it were, into the gauzy distance, until they seemed +like white pearls dotted on grey satin, and the Rob Roy was alone +again, while the fog thickened more. Land was shut out, +then sky, then every single thing, and the glazed sea seemed to +stiffen as if it had set flat and smooth for ever.</p> +<p>To know that this state of thing was to last for hours would +make it intolerable, but the expectancy of every moment buoys up +the mind in hope, and every past moment is buried as you reach +thus forward to the next coming.</p> +<p>Then the inexorable tide turned dead against me, and down went +my anchor; for, at any rate, we must not +be floated backwards. Tool-chest opened, and hammer and saw +are instantly at work, for there are still “things to be +done” on board, and when all improvements shall have been +completed then vacant hours like these will be tedious enough; +but never fear, there is no finality in a sailing-boat, if the +brain keeps inventing and the fingers respond.</p> +<p>Out of the thick creamy fog a huge object slowly loomed, with +a grand air of majesty, and a low but strenuous sound as it came +nearer and clearer to eye and ear. It was an enormous +Atlantic Steamer, and it went circling round and round in ample +bends, but never too far to be unexpected again. Sometimes +her great paddles moved with a measured plash, but slow, until +she dissolved before my eyes into a faded vision. Again, +when hidden, there would still come a deep moaning from her +hoarse fog-whistle out of the impenetrable whiteness, and she +again towered up suddenly behind, ever wheeling, gliding on, +vapour and water so commingled that you could not say she +floated, but was somehow faintly present like the dim picture on +a canvas screen from a magic lantern half in focus. She was +searching in the fog for the ‘Nab’ light-ship, thence +to take new bearings and cleave the mist in a straight course at +half-speed for Southampton. When she +found the ‘Nab’ she vanished finally, and I was glad +and sorry she was gone.</p> +<p>After long waiting, the faintest zephyr now at last dallied +with my light flag for a minute, and the anchor was instantly +raised. A schooner, also outward bound, soon gently burst +its way through the cloudy barrier, and I tried to follow her, +but she too melted into dimness, and left me in a noiseless, +sightless vacancy, except when the distant gong of the light-ship +told that they also had a fog there.</p> +<p>How did the ancients by any possibility manage to sail in a +fog without a compass? In those days, too, they had no +charts; yes, and there was no “Wreck chart,” to tell +at the year’s end all the havoc strewn at the bottom of the +sea.</p> +<p>Well, we sailed on and on, always seeming to sail on into pure +cotton-wool, which blushed a little with an evening tint as the +sun tired down, and so here was a long day told off and ending; +but where exactly am I now as darkness falls?</p> +<p>You will say, “Why, the chart tells that, of +course;” and so it does, if you have anything like sure +reckoning to indicate what part of the mazy groups of figures on +it to look for as your probable place; otherwise a dozen +different places in it will all suit your soundings, and eleven +of them are wrong.</p> +<p>Consider the <i>data</i>, for our calculation. +The Rob Roy had been carried by two tides; one this way, the +other that. She had sailed on three different tacks, that +is, in various angular directions, and with different speeds, and +these complicating forces had acted for times very +uncertain. Where is she now? an all-important question for +settling the start point in a night cruise, and on a dangerous +coast.</p> +<p>The last time I was sailing in fog was on the Baltic, in my +canoe, where, just at the nick of time, a look-out man was +descried on a high ladder far overlooking the low rocky islands +of the Swedish coast, and he speedily showed me that my bow was +then pointed exactly wrong for the desired haven.</p> +<p>This may be the time, perhaps, to compare the canoe voyages +with the yawl cruise, even if we cannot settle the question so +often put to me, “Which was the most agreeable?”</p> +<p>A canoe voyage can be enjoyed by several men, each in a +separate boat, and yet all in a combined party; that is, with +distinct responsibility but united companionship. The yawl +cruise devolves both toil and care on one alone, but he also has +all the pleasure, and so it might be pronounced at once to be +more <i>selfish</i> than the other voyage. But after a +score of tours, in large and small parties, I +see that selfishness is quite independent of the number +concerned. A man who is pleasing his wife or his children +in a tour I do not count at all; for everything that delights or +benefits <i>them</i> is of course a pleasure to <i>him</i>. +Or again, he may journey with ten companions, and his travelling +circle will indeed be larger, but the centre of it may be after +all the same.</p> +<p>Of the thousand tourists who rush out over the Continent each +summer there is little check on selfishness by meeting people in +trains, steamers, and hotels for a temporary acquaintance which +is speedily dissolved as soon as the interests or the likings of +the companions are not coincident.</p> +<p>Unselfishness appears to consist in doing good when it is not +exactly pleasant to do it, and to people who are not in our own +groove, or in “our set,” but like the people invited +in the feast prescribed by Christ, and for whom we work as a +duty, whether it is immediately agreeable or not. It is +giving up our own will to God’s command and obeying this +ungrudgingly: and yet our own pleasure may be most in giving +others pleasure, and we can be lavish of labour for others while +we are selfish at the core. Thus it seems to be very +difficult ever to be unselfish in the sense that it is often +absurdly insisted upon; namely, that others are +everything and yourself nothing. Nevertheless, after all +casuistry, we know what is <i>meant</i> by “selfish,” +as an undue regard. But the result of an action is to be +looked at, and it does not become selfish because we alone do one +part of it. A man who steps out from a crowd to pluck +flowers alone on the edge of the cliff may bring back a bouquet +that will give fragrant pleasure to them all, while another who +stays in the group of gatherers may gather none at all or may be +very selfish about his handful. Our lonely labour may, in +fact, be useful for other people in the end.</p> +<p>The anxieties of the canoe trip are more varied and less heavy +than in a sailing cruise.</p> +<p>In the yawl I was always sure of food and lodging, but then in +the canoe one does not fear wind, wave, calm, and fog; for, at +any rate, one can at the worst take the canoe ashore. The +risk of a total loss of the canoe is only fifteen pounds gone, +but the other shipwreck risks ten times as much, and whereas each +canoe danger can usually be avoided, those met in sailing at sea +are often to be encountered without any escape.</p> +<p>The physical endurance required in a canoe is more under +control of a previous arrangement. The muscular exertion +with the paddle is generally voluntary, while that in the yawl +was often hardest when one wanted most to rest. You need +scarcely be forced, in canoeing, to go on two days and +two nights without sleep, as will presently be seen was my fate +in the yawl.</p> +<p>The scenery in traversing land and water in a canoe is of +course more varied than in sailing always at sea, but the perils +of the deep have a grandeur and wideness that seem to rouse far +more the inner soul and with more profound emotions. The +thoughts during a night storm at sea are of a higher strain than +those in passing the rapids in a river.</p> +<p>Finally, there is at first a sense of incongruity in the +appearance of a canoe when in a cart, on a train, or in a house, +and you have often to meet an inexplicable but evident +<i>smile</i> at the whole affair, which perhaps comes from pity, +certainly from ignorance, and it may be from contempt; whereas a +sailing-boat crossing the deep is doing what people in ports and +ships know very well about, and if your boat keeps on doing it +successfully they cannot despise the deed because the boat that +does it is small. A man who comes to the “meet” +on a little pony will not be laughed at if he is always well in +at the death.</p> +<p>Perhaps the voyage alone in a yawl will not be so often +repeated by other people as that in a canoe, but this last manner +of touring became popular at once.</p> +<p>One of the members of the Royal Canoe Club (The late +Hon. J. Gordon), a distinguished University oar and Wimbledon +Prizeman, sailed <a name="citation240"></a><a href="#footnote240" +class="citation">[240]</a> at night across the Channel from Dover +to Boulogne, paddled through France and sailed to Marseilles, and +thence from Nice to Genoa, through the Italian lakes, the Swiss +lakes, and by the Reuss to the Rhine home again. A second +coasted along England, and paddled across the Channel from the +French side in a ‘Rob Roy’ made with his own +hands. A third crossed from Scotland to Ireland in his +‘Rob Roy.’ A critic complacently denied, a few +months before these voyages, that a canoe could cross a bay eight +miles wide. The canoes of our Members have paddled over +thousands of miles in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, +including China and Japan, besides cruises in Australia, New +Zealand, and many groups of islands far away.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Bedtime—A +trance—Thunderings—Chart—Light dims—Night +flies—First running—Newhaven—On the +gridiron—Mr. Smith—Tumbledown +walls—Derelict.</p> +<p>“Where is the yawl now?” was the question we had +asked in the fog, and the natural answer was—that the chart +would tell, of course. So let us look at the small slice of +chart copied on page 245, which is crammed, you see, with figures +of soundings, and names of banks, buoys, and beacons; but the +only thing to be seen on the actual horizon around us, is the +Owers light behind, and about N.W. in its bearing. The tide +will soon turn against our progress towards the east, therefore +we tack towards shore, so as to be within anchorage soundings +should it become needful to stop, for the wind has just changed +rather suspiciously, and we can even hear the sound of +the drums at Portsmouth as they beat the taptoo. A few +bright meteors shoot athwart the heavens above, reminding us that +this is one of their usual epochs—the 14th of August.</p> +<p>Now we are in ten fathoms by the lead, and we must anchor +here, for the tide has fully turned and the wind has lulled, and +perhaps it will do to sleep for six hours now before going on +again.</p> +<p>The beautiful phosphorescence of the sea on this occasion was +an attractive sight, and I could follow the line of my hemp cable +by the gleam of silver light which enfolded it with a gradually +softened radiance from the surface of the sea, down—down to +an unseen depth, where, in sooth, it was dark enough. <a +name="citation242"></a><a href="#footnote242" +class="citation">[242]</a></p> +<p>The gentle motion of riding with a chain-cable is quite in +contrast to that when anchored by a rope; for this latter will +jerk and pull, while the heavier chain, laid in a drooping curve, +acts as a constant spring that eases and cushions every rude +blow.</p> +<p>I intended to start again with any freshening breeze, and to get into Littlehampton for the night; +therefore the small anchor and the hemp cable were used so as to +be more ready for instant departure, and well it was thus.</p> +<p>Time sped slowly between looking at my watch to know the tide +change, and dozing as I lay in the cabin—the dingey being +of course astern; until in the middle of the night, lapsing +through many dreams, I had glided into that delicious state when +you dream that you are dreaming. On a sudden, and without +any seeming cause, I felt perfectly awake, and yet in a sort of +trance, and lying still a time, seeking what could possibly have +awakened me thus. Then there came through the dark a peal +of thunder, long, and loud, and glorious.</p> +<p>How changed the scene to look upon! No light to be seen +from the Owers now, but a flash from above and then darkness, and +soon a grand rolling of the same majestic, deep-toned roar.</p> +<p>Now I must prepare for wind. On with the life-belt, +close the hatches, loose the mainsail, and double reef it, and +reef the jib. Off with the mizen and set the storm-sail, +and now haul up the anchor while yet there is time; and there was +scarcely time before a rattling breeze got up, and waves rose +too, and rain came down as we sailed off south to the open sea +for room. Sea room is the +sailor’s want: the land is what he fears more than the +water.</p> +<p>We were soon fast spinning along, and the breeze brushed all +the haze away, but the night was very dark, and the rain made it +hard to see. Now and then the thunder swallowed all other +sounds, as the wild cries in the desert are silenced by the +lion’s roar.</p> +<p>Sometimes there was an arch shining above as the flashes +leaped across the upper clouds, and then a sharp upright prong of +forked lightning darted straight down between, while rain was +driven along by the wind, and salt foam dashed up from the +waves. It seemed like an earthly version of that heavenly +vision which was beheld in Patmos by the beloved +John:—“And I heard as it were the voice of a great +multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of +mighty thunderings.” <a name="citation244"></a><a +href="#footnote244" class="citation">[244]</a></p> +<p>How well our English word “thunder” suits the +meaning in its sound, far better than <i>tonnerre</i> or +<i>tonitru</i>!</p> +<p>In the dark, a cutter dashed by me, crossing the yawl’s +bows, just as the lightning played on us both. It had no +ship-light up, shameful to say. I shouted out, “Going +south?” and they answered, “Yes; come along off that +shore.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p245b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Owers chart" +title= +"The Owers chart" +src="images/p245s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>From the bit of chart here copied (covering only a few +miles) it will be understood what kind of shore we had to +avoid. There was quite water enough for our shallow craft, +but it was the twisting of currents and tides +that made the danger here.</p> +<p>The breeze now turned west, then south, and every other way, +and it was exceedingly perplexing to know at once what to do in +each case, especially as the waves became short and snappish +under this pressure from different sides, and yet my compass +quietly pointed right, with a soft radiance shining from it, and +my mast-light in a brighter glow gleamed from behind me <a +name="citation246"></a><a href="#footnote246" +class="citation">[246]</a> on the white crest of the waves.</p> +<p>At one time a heavy squall roughened the dark water, and taxed +all my powers to work the little yawl; but whenever a lull came, +or a chance of getting on my proper course again, I bent round to +“East by North,” determined to make way in that +direction.</p> +<p>In the middle of the night my compass lamp began to glimmer +faint, and it was soon evident that the flame must go out. +Here was a discomfort: the wind veered so much that its direction +would be utterly fallacious as a guide to steer by, and this +uncertainty might continue until the lightning ceased. +Therefore, at all hazards, we must light up the compass +again. So I took down the +ship-light from the mizen shroud, and held it between my knees +that it might shine on the needle, and it was curious how much +warmth came from this lantern. Then I managed to get a +candle, and cut a piece off, and rigged it up with paper inside +the binnacle. This answered for about ten minutes, but +finding it was again flickering, I opened the tin door, and found +all the candle had melted into bright liquid oil; so this +makeshift was a failure. However, another candle was cut, +and the door being left open to keep it cool, with this lame +light I worked on bravely, but very determined for the rest of my +sailing days to have the oil bottle always accessible. +Finally the wind blew out the candle, though it was very much +sheltered, and the ship-light almost at the same time also went +out suddenly. Then we lay to, backed the jib, opened the +cabin hatch, got out the oil, thoroughly cleaned the lamp, put in +a new wick, and lighted it afresh, and a new candle in the +ship’s light; again we started all right once more, with +that self-gratulation at doing all this successfully,—under +such circumstances of wind, sea, and rain,—which perhaps +was not more than due.</p> +<p>What with these things, and reefing several times, and cooking +at intervals, there was so much to do and so much to think about +during the night that the hours passed quickly, +and at last some stray streaks of dawn (escaped before their time +perhaps) lighted up a cloud or two above, and then a few +wave-tops below, and soon gave a general grey tint to all around, +until by imperceptible but sure advance of clearness, the vague +horizon seemed to split into land and water, and happily then it +was seen plainly that the Rob Roy had not lost way in the +dark.</p> +<p>As soon as there was light enough to read we began to study +Shoreham in the Pilot book, and neared it the while in the water; +but though now opposite the Brighton coast, it was yet too +faraway to make out any town, for we had stood well out to sea in +the thunderstorm. All tiredness passed off with the fresh +morning air, and the breeze was now so strong that progress was +steady and swift.</p> +<p>It may be remarked how a coast often appears quite different +when you are fifteen or twenty miles out to sea, from what it +does when you stand on the beach, or look from a row-boat close +to the land. So now we were puzzled to find out Brighton, +one’s own familiar Brighton, with its dull half-sided +street, neither town nor bathing-town, its beach unwalkable, and +all its sights and glories done in a day. We might well be +ashamed not to recognise at once the contour of the hills, which we had so often trudged over in column or in +skirmish in the Volunteer Reviews.</p> +<p>The chain-pier was, of course, hardly discernible at a great +distance. But the “Grand Hotel” at last +asserted itself as a black cubical speck in the binocular field, +and then we made straight for that; Shoreham being gradually +voted a bore, to be passed by, and Newhaven adopted as the new +goal for the day.</p> +<p>We had shaken out all reefs, and now tore along at full speed, +with the spray-drift sparkling in the sun, and a frolicsome +jubilant sea. The delights of going fast when the water is +deep and the wind is strong—ah! these never can be rightly +described, nor the exulting bound with which your vessel springs +through a buoyant wave, and the thrill of nerve that tells in the +sailor’s heart, “Well, after all, sailing is a +pleasure supreme.”</p> +<p>Numerous fishing-vessels now came out, with their black tanned +sails and strong bluff bows and hardy-looking crews, who all +hailed me cheerily when they were near enough, and often came +near to see. Fast the yawl sped along the white chalk +cliffs, and my chart in its glazed frame did excellent service +now, for the wind and sea rose more again; and at length, when we +came near the last headland for Newhaven, we lowered the mainsail +and steadily ran under mizen and jib. Newhaven came in +sight, deeply embayed under the magnificent cliff, +which, at other times I could have gazed on for an hour, admiring +the grand dashing of the waves, but we had to hoist mainsail +again, so as to get in before the tide would set out strongly, +and so increase every minute the sea at the harbour’s +mouth.</p> +<p>It was more than exciting to enter here with such waves +running. Rain, too, came on, just as the Rob Roy dashed +into the first three rollers, and they were big and green, and +washed her well from stem right on to stern, but none entered +farther. The bright yellow hue of the waves on one side of +the pier made me half afraid that it was shallow there, and, +hesitating to pass, I signalled to some men near the pier-head as +to which way to go, but they were only visitors. The tide +ran strongly out, dead in my teeth, yet the wind took me +powerfully through it all, and then instantly, even before we had +rounded into quiet water, the inquisitive uncommunicative +spectators roared out, “Where are you from?” +“What’s your name?” and all such stupid things +to say to a man whose whole mind in a time like this has to be on +sail and sea and tiller. <a name="citation250"></a><a +href="#footnote250" class="citation">[250]</a></p> +<p>During this passage from the Isle of Wight I had noticed now and then, when the waves tossed more +than usual, that a dull, heavy, thumping sound was heard aboard +the yawl, and gradually I concluded that her iron keel had been +broken by the rock at Bembridge, and that it was swinging free +below my boat. This idea increased my anxiety to get in +safely; and to make sure of the matter we took the Rob Roy at +once to the “gridiron,” and laid her alongside a +screw-steamer which had been out during the night, and had run on +a rock in the dark thunderstorm. The “baulks” +or beams of the gridiron under water were very far apart, and we +had much difficulty in placing the yawl so as to settle down on +two of them, but the crew of the steamer helped me well, and all +the more readily, as I had given them books at Dieppe, a gift +they did not now forget.</p> +<p>Just as the ebbing tide had lowered the yawl fairly on the +baulks, another steamer came in from France, crowded with +passengers, and the waves of her swell lifted my poor little boat +off her position, and rudely fixed her upon only one baulk, from +which it was not possible to move her; therefore, when the tide +descended she was hung up askew in a ludicrous position of +extreme discomfort to her weary bones; but when I went outside to +examine below, there was nothing whatever amiss, and gladness for +this outweighed all other troubles, +and left me quite ready for a good sleep at night.</p> +<p>For this purpose we rowed the yawl into a quiet little river, +and lashed her alongside a neat schooner, whose captain and wife +and children and their little dog ‘Lady’ were soon +great friends, for they were courteous people, as might be +expected in a respectable vessel; it is generally so.</p> +<p>Now the Rob Roy settled into soft mud for a good rest of three +days, and I went to the Inn where “Mr. Smith” landed +from France in 1848, after he had given up being King Louis +Philippe.</p> +<p>The Inn traded upon this fact, and it had other +peculiarities—very bad chops, worse tea, no public room, +and a very deaf waitress! the whole sufficiently uncomfortable to +justify my complaint, and it must be a very bad inn indeed that +is not comfortable enough for <i>me</i>.</p> +<p>Here I was soon accosted by a reader of canoe books, and next +day we inspected the oyster-beds, and a curious corn-mill driven +by tide-water confined in a basin—one of the few mills +worked by the power of the moon. Also we wandered over the +new sea fortifications, which are built and hewed by our +Government one week, and the week afterwards if there comes a +shower of rain they tumble down again. This is the case, at +any rate, with the Newhaven fortress, and we must only hope that an invading army will not attack the +place during the wrong week.</p> +<p>Three steamers in a day, all crowded with Exhibition +passengers, that was a large traffic for a small port like +Newhaven; but it did not raise the price of anything except ham +sandwiches, and I bought my supplies of eggs and butter and +bread, and walked off with them all, as usual, to the extreme +astonishment of an aristocratic shop-woman.</p> +<p>In crossing a viaduct my straw hat blew off into a deep hole +among mud, and I asked a boy to fetch it. The little fellow +was a true Briton. He put down his bundle, laboriously +built a bridge of stones, and at imminent risk of a regular +mud-bath, at length clasped the hat. His pluck was so +admirable, that he had a shilling as a reward, which, be it +observed, was half the price of the hat itself two months before, +a “No. 2” hat, useful to shop in.</p> +<p>This incident put an end to quiet repose, for the boy-life of +the town was soon stirred to its lowest depth, and all youngsters +with any spirit of gain trooped down to the yawl, waiting off and +on for the next day also, in hopes of another mishap as a chance +of luck to them.</p> +<p>The dingey too had its usual meed of applause; but one rough +mariner was so vociferous in deriding its +minuteness, that at last I promised him a sovereign if he could +catch me, and he might take any boat in the port. At first +he was all for the match, and began to strip and prepare, but his +ardour cooled, and his abuse also subsided.</p> +<p>Many Colchester boats were here, nearly all of them well +“found,” and with civil crews, who were exceedingly +grateful for books to read on the Sunday, and, resting among +them, was a little yacht of five tons, which had been sent out +with only one man to take her from Dover to Ryde. Poor +fellow! he had lost his way at night and was unable to keep +awake, until at last two fishermen fell in with the derelict and +brought him in here, hungry and amazed; but I regarded him with a +good deal of interest as rather in my line of life, and I quite +understood his drowsy feelings when staring at the compass in the +black, whistling rain.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Tide waiter—Beachy Head—Night +Ghost—Man overboard—Ship +ahoy!—Overfalls—Thoughts—Thunder—A +question—Day—Good-bye, +dingey!—Dungeness—A nap.</p> +<p>The barometer mounted steadily all Sunday, so we resolved to +start next morning at break of day. But though the night +was quiet the vessels near my berth were also getting ready, +therefore at last I gave up all hopes of sleep, and for +company’s sake got ready also after midnight, that we might +have all the tide possible for going round Beachy Head, which, +once passed, we could find easy ports all the way to +London. So about two o’clock, in the dark, we are +rowing out again on the ebbing tide, and the water at the +pier-head looks placid now compared with the boiling and dashing +it made there when the yawl passed in before.</p> +<p>Dawn broke an hour afterwards with a dank and silent +mist skirting up far-away hills, and a gentle east wind faintly +breathing as our tea-cup smoked fragrant on deck. The young +breeze was only playful yet, so we anchored, waiting for it to +rise in earnest or the tide to slacken, as both of them were now +contrary; and meantime we rested some hours preparing for a long +spell of unknown work; but I could not sleep in such a lovely +daybreak, not having that most valuable capacity of being able to +sleep when it is wanted for coming work, and not for labour +past.</p> +<p>The east wind baffled the yawl and a whole fleet of vessels, +all of us trying to do the same thing, namely, to arrive at +Beachy Head before two o’clock in the day; for, if this +could be managed, we should there find the tide ebbing eastwards, +and so get twelve hours of current in our favour.</p> +<p>This feature—the division of the tides there—makes +Beachy Head a well-marked point in the navigation of the +Channel. The stream from the North Sea meets the other from +the Atlantic here, and here also they begin to separate. +After beating, in downright sailing, one after another of the +schooners and brigs and barques in company, I saw at last with +real regret that not one of us could reach the point in time, and +yet the yawl got there only a few minutes too late; but it +was dead calm, and I even rowed her on to gain the last little +mile.</p> +<p>One after another the vessels gave it up, and each cast +anchor. Coming to a pilot steamer, I hailed: “Shall I +be able to do it?” “No, sir,” they said; +“no,—very sorry for you, sir; you’ve worked +hard, sir, but you’re ten minutes too late.” +Within that time the tide had turned against us. We had not +crossed the line of division, and so the yawl had to be turned +towards shore to anchor there, and to wait the tide until nine +o’clock at night, unless a breeze came sooner.</p> +<p>After three hours’ work she reached the desired six +fathoms’ patch of sand, just under the noble white cliff +that rears its head aloft about 600 feet, standing ever as a +giant wall, sheer, upright, out of the sea.</p> +<p>Dinner done and everything set right (for this is best policy +always), I slipped into my cabin and tried to sleep as the sun +went down, but a little land-breeze soon began, and every now and +then my head was raised to see how tide or wind progressed. +Then I must have fallen once into a mild nap, and perhaps a +dream, for sudden and strong a rough hand seemed to shake the +boat, and, on my leaping up, there glanced forth a brilliant +flash of lightning that soon put everybody on the <i>qui +vive</i>.</p> +<p>Now was heard the clink of distant cables, as I raised +mine also in the dark, with only the bright shine of the +lighthouse like a keen and full-opened eye gazing down from the +cliff overhead.</p> +<p>Compass lighted, ship-lantern fixed, a reef in each sail, and, +with a moment’s thought of the very similar events that had +passed only a few nights ago, we steered right south, away, away +to the open sea.</p> +<p>It was black enough all around; but yet the strong wind +expected after thunder had not come, and we edged away eastward, +doubly watchful, however, of the dark, for the crowd of vessels +here was the real danger, and not the sea.</p> +<p>Look at the ghost of Rob Roy flitting on the white sail as the +lamp shines brightly. Down comes the rain, and with it +flash after flash, peal upon peal of roaring thunder, and the +grandeur of the scene is unspeakable. The wind changed +every few minutes, and vessels and boats and steamers whirled +past like visions, often much too near to be welcome.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p259b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Beachy Head Ghost" +title= +"Beachy Head Ghost" +src="images/p259s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>A white dazzling gleam of forked lightning cleaves the +darkness, and behold! a huge vessel close at hand, but hitherto +unseen, lofty and full-sailed, and for a moment black against the +instant of light, and then utterly lost again. The plashing +of rain hissed in the sea, and a voice would come +out of the unseen—“Port, you lubber!” The +ship, or whatever it is, has no lights at all, though on board it +they can see mine. Ah, it’s no use peering forward to +discover on which side is the new danger; for when your eye has +gazed for a time at the lighted compass it is powerless for half +a minute to see in the dark space forward; or, again, if you +stare into the blackness to scan the faintest glimmer of a sail +ahead, then for some time after you cannot see the compass when +looking at it dazzled. This difficulty +in sailing alone is the only one we felt to be quite +insuperable.</p> +<p>Again a steam whistle shrieked amid the thunder, and two eyes +glared out of the formless vapour and rain—the red and the +green lights, the signals that showed where she was steaming +to. There was shouting from her deck as she kept rounding +and backing, no doubt for a man overboard. As we slewed to +starboard to avoid her, another black form loomed close on the +right; and what with wind, rain, thunder, and ships, there was +everything to confuse just when there was every need of cool +decision.</p> +<p>It would be difficult for me to exaggerate the impressive +spectacle that passed along on the dark background of this +night. To shew what others thought, we may quote the +following paragraph from the ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ of +next day, the 20th of August: <a name="citation260"></a><a +href="#footnote260" class="citation">[260]</a>—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The storm which raged in London through the +whole of last night was beyond question by far the most severe +and protracted which has occurred for many years. It began +at half-past eight o’clock, after a day of intense heat, +which increased as the evening advanced, though it never reached +the sultriness which was remarked before the storm of last +week. The first peal of thunder was heard about nine, and +from that time till after five this morning it never +ceased for more than a few minutes, while the lightning may be +said to have been absolutely continuous. Its vivid +character was something quite unusual in the storms of recent +summers, and the thunder by which it was often instantaneously +followed can only be described as terrific. The storm +reached its greatest violence between two and three +o’clock, when a smart gale of wind sprang up, and for about +ten minutes the tempest was really awful.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We had noticed some rockets sent up from Eastbourne earlier in +the evening; probably these were fireworks at a <i>fête</i> +there, but the rain must have soon drowned the gala. +Certainly it closed up my view of all other lights but the +lightning, though sometimes a shining line appeared for a moment +in the distance, perhaps from Hastings; and at one time the moon +came out red and full, and exactly at the top of a vessel’s +lofty sails. One steamer had puzzled me much by its keeping +nearly still. This drifted close up at last, and they +called out, “Ahoy, there!—are you a fishing +boat?” They wanted to know their bearings, as the +current and shifting wind made the position of Beachy Head quite +uncertain in the dark. <a name="citation261"></a><a +href="#footnote261" class="citation">[261]</a> I replied to +their hail—“No, I’m the yacht Rob Roy, crew of +one man; don’t you see my white sails?” and they answered—“See? why, +who can see to-night?”</p> +<p>Sometimes a sudden and dead lull came with an ominous meaning, +and then the loud hissing of rain could be heard advancing to us +in the dark till it poured on the yawl in sheets of water, and +the mere dripping from the peak of my sou’wester was enough +to obscure vision.</p> +<p>And yet, after a few hours of the turmoil and excitement, this +state of things became quite as it were <i>natural</i>, so soon +does one get accustomed to any circumstances, however strange at +first. I even cooked hot tea; it was something to do, as +well as to drink, and singing and whistling also beguiled the +dark hours of eager, strained matching. In a lighter +moment, once a great lumbering sloop sailed near, and we hailed +her loudly, “How’s the wind going to +be?”—for the wind kept ever changing (but the thunder +and lightning were going on still). A gruff voice answered, +“Can’t say; who <i>can</i> say—night—this +sort—think it’ll settle east.” This was +bad news for me, but it did not come true. The +sloop’s skipper wished for an east wind, and so he expected +it.</p> +<p>A stranger sound than any before now forced attention as it +rapidly neared us, and soon the sea was white around with +boiling, babbling little waves—what could it be? Instantly I sounded +with the lead, but there was no bottom—we were not driving +on shore—it was one of the “overfalls” or +“ripples” we have mentioned before where a turbid sea +is raised in deep water by some far-down precipice under the +waves.</p> +<p>The important question at once arose as to which of the +“overfalls” on my chart this could be—the one +marked as only a mile from Beachy Head, or the other ten miles +further on. Have we been turning and wheeling about all +this dreary night in only a few square miles of sea, or have we +attained the eastern tide, and so are now running fast on our +course?</p> +<p>The incessant and irksome pitching and rolling which the +overfalls caused, might be patiently borne, if only we could be +assured that the yawl progressed. But all was still left in +doubt.</p> +<p>So sped the storm for eight long hours, with splendours for +the eye, and dark long thrills of the sublime, that stirred deep +the whole inner being with feelings vivid and strong, and loosed +the most secret folds of consciousness with thoughts I had never +felt before, and perhaps shall never know again. The mind +conjured up the most telling scenes it had known of +“alone” and of “thunder,” to compare with +this where both were now combined.</p> +<p>To stand on the top of Mont Blanc, that round white +icicle highest in Europe, and all alone to gaze on a hundred +peaks around—that was indeed impressive.</p> +<p>More so was it to kneel alone at the edge of Etna, and to fill +the mind from the smoking water with thoughts and fancies teeming +out of the hot, black, and wide abyss.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p264b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Map of English Channel" +title= +"Map of English Channel" +src="images/p264s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Thunder and lightning, also, in the crater of Vesuvius we had +wondered at before; and it had been grander still, when the +flashes lighted up Niagara pouring out its foam that glistened +for a moment dazzling white and then vanished, while the +thundering heavens sounded louder than the heavy torrent tumbling +into the dark. But here, in my yawl on the sea, was more +splendid than these. Imagination painted its own free +picture on a black and boundless background of mind strung tight +by near danger; and from out this spoke the deep loud diapason, +while the quick flashing at intervals gave point to all. +Then that glorious anthem came to my memory, where these words of +the 18th Psalm are nobly rendered:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“He bowed the heavens and came down, and +darkness was under His feet.</p> +<p>“He rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, He did fly upon +the wings of the wind.</p> +<p>“He made darkness His secret place; the pavilion round +about Him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.</p> +<p>“The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the +Highest gave His voice: hailstones and coals of fire.</p> +<p>“Then the channels of waters were seen, and the +foundations of the world were discovered: at Thy rebuke, O Lord, +at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.</p> +<p>“He sent down from above, He took me, He drew me up out +of many waters.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The sensations were prolonged enough to be analyzed and +reasoned upon, and it was a difficult question which cannot yet +be answered—“Would I willingly have all this over +again?” Lying on a sofa in a comfortable room, I +would not go out to this scene; but in a boat, if all this began +again, I certainly would not go ashore to avoid its discomforts +and lose its grandeurs.</p> +<p>The profound uncertainty as to what was to come next moment +being one of the most exciting features of the occasion; perhaps +the whole scene would be tamed sadly by a mere repetition; but +one sentiment was dominant over all at the time, that I had lived +a long year in a night.</p> +<p>Soon after four o’clock, there suddenly stretched out +what seemed to be a reef of breakers for miles under the sullen +rain-clouds, and, with instant attention, the yawl was put about +to avoid them.</p> +<p>This extraordinary optical illusion was the dawn opening on +the coast, then actually ten miles away, and in a very few +minutes, as the cloud lifted, the land seemed to rush off to its +proper distance, until at last the curtain +split in two, and I found to my intense delight that in the night +we had crossed the bay!</p> +<p>Now came joyous sounds from our moist crew—“Hurrah +for the day! Pipe all hands to breakfast—slack out +the mainsheet, here’s the west wind;” and up rose the +sun, well washed by the torrents of rain.</p> +<p>An elaborate <i>friture</i> of my last three eggs was soon +cooked to perfection, and I held the frying-pan over the side, +while it drained through a fork; when, alas! there came a heavy +lurch of the boat, and all the well-deserved breakfast was +pitched into the sea, with a mild but deep-meant “Oh, how +provoking!” from the hapless, hungry, lonely sailor. +Shame that, preserved through such dangers, we should murmur at +an omelet the less! But this tyrant stomach exacts more, +and thanks less, than all the body besides.</p> +<p>Hastings was soon passed, and we skirted the cliffs towards +Rye. I had written to the harbourmaster <a +name="citation267"></a><a href="#footnote267" +class="citation">[267]</a> here to send out a boat if he saw my +craft (enclosing him a sketch of it), as the entrance to that +harbour seemed to be very difficult by the chart.</p> +<p>But the breeze was fresh and invigorating, and though sadly +needing sleep after two nights without any, the +idea of going to bed while such a fine breeze blew seemed +preposterous, and Rye was soon left in the rear.</p> +<p>From this place a very low flat tongue of land stretches along +in the strangest way, until at its end is the lighthouse of +Dungeness. Martello towers are on the shore, but for miles +outside of this, the nearest beach is all one can see; and +therefore the tall lighthouse, viewed even through the glass, +looked only like a small grey speck on the waves, without any +land whatever between. About midday the yawl neared this +very remarkable beacon, which is painted red and white; strong, +lofty, and firm set on a cape of pure gravel, with here and there +a house, not visible at all until you come close.</p> +<p>A heavy sea was here, and it was more and more as we came +quite near the cape; until one fine bold wave, following our +little craft, actually cast the dingey (then towing astern) right +upon the deck of the yawl, and dealt me a severe stroke on the +back, by which I was cast forward, and then an awkward thump on +the head by which I was stunned. <a name="citation268"></a><a +href="#footnote268" class="citation">[268]</a> Recovering +again just in time, I saw another wave send the +dingey once more on board with a crash, and splinters flew up, so +we thought she was smashed, but it was the jigger-boom that was +broken by the collision. The very next billow broke the +dingey’s painter of strong canoe rope, but much worn. +Away floated the tiny cockleshell, and it was very soon hid in +the trough of the sea.</p> +<p>“Down with the helm!”—“Haul the +sheet!”—“Slack the jib!” and we gave +chase in great glee, and catching her soon with the boat-hook, we +quickly pulled the dingey on board, and lashed her securely down +to the deck, an arrangement that answered well.</p> +<p>One of the great delights of real sailing is the large variety +of incident that comes. Mere sitting in a yacht, while +others have all the work in a breeze, and all the responsibility, +is no pleasure to me; nay, I confess frankly, it is a +“bore.”</p> +<p>Once round Dungeness, we could see Folkestone and Dover +cliffs; and after a few minutes of rest, to put all in readiness +for a fast run before the wind, we steered straight for Dover +pier.</p> +<p>The breeze freshened so much that the mizen had to be lowered, +and as the wind was now favourable, the only thing to beware of +was falling asleep; in which case the boom might jibe (swing-over +from one side to the other) with great force, and if it +hit me on the head, then I should certainly have either a very +short nap or a <i>very long one</i>. <a name="citation270"></a><a +href="#footnote270" class="citation">[270]</a></p> +<p>Dover pier was, we must say, welcome to see. Often at +other times we had intentionally lengthened the day’s +journey, in arriving near a destination sooner than it was +absolutely necessary to stop the pleasure of sailing, but now we +ran into Dover as fast as the flying wind would speed us.</p> +<p>The friends who greeted the Rob Roy here knew her well from a +long way off, as she danced lightly over the sea; for hence had +we started months ago, and here was, in one sense, the end of my +voyage, as Ulysses said when he came alone from his raft.</p> +<blockquote><p>“And now two nights, and now +two days were past,<br /> +Since wide I wandered on the wat’ry waste;<br /> +Heaved on the surge with intermitting breath,<br /> +And hourly panting in the arms of death.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Pope’s</i> +‘Odyssey,’ Book V.</p> +<p>“Then first my eyes, by watchful toils opprest,<br /> +Complied to take the balmy gifts of rest;<br /> +Then first my hands did from the rudder part,<br /> +So much the love of home possessed my heart.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Ibid.</i>, Book X.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I went up to the Lord Warden hotel, meaning to write home, +dine, and go to bed after fifty-three hours without sleep; but +while waiting for the servant to bring hot water, and with my +jacket off, I tumbled on the bed for a moment—then it was +three o’clock, <span class="smcap">p.m.</span></p> +<p>Soon (as it seemed) awake again, I saw it was still light, and +with bright sun shining; also my watch had run down, the +water-jug was cold, and it was a puzzle to make out how I felt so +wonderfully fresh.</p> +<p>Why, it was <i>next day</i>, and I had soundly slept on the +top of the bed in my soaking wet clothes for seventeen hours!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Di Vernon—The Gull light—Naked +warriors—Monkey—Medway—Eyes right!—Old +things—Bargees—Street boys—Young +skipper—Scene by night—Barge lingo—Holy +Haven—Sailing solicitor—Margate.</p> +<p>Perhaps a sleep in wet clothes, such as we have awakened from, +was more likely to do harm than any of the blasts and breezes at +sea; but nothing followed, and indeed during the whole of my six +voyages alone there was neither a headache nor any other ache, +not even a cold, and the floating medicine-chest yawl was never +opened.</p> +<p>Dover had been the port of departure and again of arrival, for +my first canoe voyage, and the memory of that delightful tour was +recalled now by seeing a canoe paddling in the harbour. On +closer scrutiny it was perceived that a young lady was its +crew. Now there are several fair Members <a +name="citation272"></a><a href="#footnote272" +class="citation">[272]</a> of our Royal Canoe Club, and we are +quite prepared to ballot for some more, +but the captain had not yet been fortunate enough to see one of +these canoeistes on the water, so at once the dingey gave +chase.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p273b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Paddle and Parasol" +title= +"Paddle and Parasol" +src="images/p273s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This was the lady’s very first essay in a canoe, +nevertheless she succeeded admirably in her effort, for it is far +easier to learn a little of paddling than a little of rowing, as +every neophyte can tell you.</p> +<p>Henceforth I shall always know that a Rob Roy can well be +matched by a <i>Di Vernon</i>, and how much the most gentle +movement afloat can be refined by feminine grace. +A few hints from the older paddler in the dingey were rapidly +taken up by the apt scholar in the canoe, while her friends rowed +beside us in a boat, and at length with that English pluck which +so many English girls possess, she boldly steered into a +steamer’s swell, and then to the open sea, where, before a +soft zephyr murmuring its undertone whispers, we hoisted her +parasol for a sail, and the visitors on Dover pier had a novel +treat in the duet between dingey and canoe.</p> +<p>Fairly rested next day, the yawl sailed by Ramsgate Cliffs +until calm and tide made us anchor in a hot baking sun.</p> +<p>The ‘Gull Lightship’ was not far off, so we +sculled to her in the dingey. This was the very first time +I had myself actually seen the Rob Roy on the water with all +sails set, nor dare I conceal the pride that was felt in looking +at her graceful contour, her smart and sensible rig, and her +snowy sails so beautifully set, as the sunbeams lit them up; +viewed from a little distance, the yawl was only like a toy boat +resting on a sheet of glass.</p> +<p>The men of the ‘Gull’ with its red sides and red +lantern masts, received me with surprise, but with most grateful +thanks for books to read, and then they pressed their visitor to +stop for dinner!</p> +<p>But he could not well feast in comfort while the Rob Roy was left alone and all sails up, and +especially as one of the numerous vessels then drifting past (we +had counted more than forty in sight at one time) seemed to be +borne dangerously near to the little craft.</p> +<p>On this lightship there are seven men, and four more on land +to relieve them regularly. <a name="citation275"></a><a +href="#footnote275" class="citation">[275]</a> In the +course of a lively conversation with their visitor, they said, +“How lonely you must be!” Surely when the men +exiled to a lightship pronounce the Rob Roy “lonely” +there must be something in the charge; but my obtuse perception +has not yet enabled me to find it out.</p> +<p>Meantime the tide had turned strongly, and my row back from +the lightship in the hot sun was one of the hardest pulls I ever +had, so that the lesson will not be forgotten “stick by +your ship in a tideway.”</p> +<p>In passing along the fine gravel beach near Walmer, a curious +sound was heard through the quiet haze; it was distant and +continuous, but like the gabble of 10,000 ducks, and, though +staring hard through the binocular glass, one could only make out +a confused jumble of lightish-coloured forms all in a row afar +off. Soon, however, a bugle sounded the +“Retire,” and then it was plain that +a whole regiment of soldiers was in the water bathing; their +merry shouts and play had resounded along the level sea, and at +the bugle order they all marched ashore in naked array, forming +altogether one of the oddest of martial sights.</p> +<p>The vessels now constantly crossing my course were of all +sizes, and in the quiet air we could hear their various sounds +that seemed to tell in each of a self-contained world, where +every item of life was summarized on board. Men chatting, +women laughing, dogs barking, cocks crowing, and pigs squealing, +a floating farmyard, such is life on the sea. For the Rob +Roy I had tried to get a monkey as a funny friend, if not as a +tractable midshipman, but an end was put to the idea by the +solemn warning of an experienced comrade, who stated, that after +the first two days, a monkey pursues steadily one line of conduct +afloat—he throws everything into the sea.</p> +<p>Rounding the Foreland in a lovely afternoon, we observed how +the corn-fields had become ripe and yellow, that were only +growing and green when our yawl passed the cape before. +Here is the “Long Nose” buoy again, and all the +familiar landmarks, and once more Margate, where the people very +warmly welcomed the little Rob Roy, which they had sped on its +way outward bound with a parting cheer.</p> +<p>The next dawn from its grey curtain rising, saw her +sailing from Margate up the Thames, but so light was the baffling +wind, that we could not reach Sheerness that night, and so had to +anchor in five fathoms not far from Cheney Rock, with dense fog +closing round, and the Nore gong ringing, while my bright little +cabin glowed with comfort, and the newspapers were studied in +peace. Thence sailing into Sheerness and up to +Queenborough, we anchored close by the Coastguard hulk, in safe +and quiet waters. Sunday was a delicious rest, and the +dingey took me aboard the hulk, where a number of sailors and +their large families with them, gave a very remarkable appearance +to the vessel ’tween decks. The children were +delighted to receive books and pictures, and until late in the +dark the infantile menagerie squalled with all its might.</p> +<p>An expedition of river discovery up the Medway seemed to be +worth trying now, for no bonds of time or engagements fettered +that glorious freedom of action which is one of the prize +features of sailing thus. The yawl went bowling along on +this new errand amid huge old hulks, tall-masted frigates, black +warrior-like ironclads, gay yachts, odoriferous fishing-smacks, +and a fleet of steady, brown-sailed, business-like barges. +This is a pleasant and a cheerful river for some days’ +excursion, with a mild excitement in sailing +over banks and shoals, and yet not striking once, although we had +no chart.</p> +<p>The tide helps much, until the high ground near Chatham adds +rock and sylvan scenes to the flat banks of the winding +estuary.</p> +<p>Now we come on a busy industry of peculiar type, thousands of +convicts working on the new seawall, closely guarded by armed +keepers. These poor criminals are paid or privileged +according to their good behaviour, and it has been found that +their labour thus stimulated is very productive.</p> +<p>Once fairly up among the war-ships at Chatham, the Rob Roy +anchors by the Powder Magazine, and while a waterman rows away +for the usual supplies—“Two eggs, pat of butter, and +the ‘Times’”—we inspect the Royal +Engineers as they are engaged alongside at pontooning, and are +frequently pulled up by the command of a smart +sergeant—“Eyes—right,” for they +<i>will</i> take furtive glances at my dingey gyrating so as they +had never seen boat spin round before. This comment on the +dingey’s shape was ventured, too, “It’s for +hall the world like ’alf a hegg.”</p> +<p>Pushing on again, still up the river, the Rob Roy had to beat +against an east wind all through the densely packed brigs and +barges in the narrow bend at Rochester, where the difficulty of +working her added zest to the journey, and +now and then a resounding crash from some great barge drifting +down against other vessels, told me that not every one of the +craft was as fortunate in navigation as the yawl. Before us +is the Cathedral, but it is far too stiff in its sharp outline to +arrest the eye for a moment. On the other side, the fine +old weatherworn and time-eaten Castle rears its great tower, and +challenges a long and satisfying look, especially as this was the +only ancient ruin we had seen in the tour, and so there had long +been a yearning in the mind for such, just as there is when you +travel in Norway or America, until at last the hunger for old +things becomes ravenous and intolerable.</p> +<p>The yawl’s mast will be able to pass under the bridge, +for the tide is low, and beyond it now we are in sunny green +fields, and sailing on smoothly amid quiet villages, rich +pastures, and the exuberant hop-grounds of thoroughly English +Kent.</p> +<p>Three boys bathing from a boat came near, and for a treat we +took them on board, while their hair dripped wet and their teeth +chattered fast after too long a swim, but they had read the name +on my white flag, and they had also read two canoe books, and so +for miles they devoured all that was said and shewn on the yawl; +then thanking much because they were “awfully glad,” +and they rowed home. How pleasant +it is to give pleasure to boys!</p> +<p>The Rob Roy got aground only once in this trip above the +bridge, and that only for five minutes, which, except the bump on +a rock at Bembridge, was her sole mishap of this sort, an +immunity quite extraordinary from the seaman’s dreaded foe, +the shore. The barges that were now floating up the crowded +Medway interested me exceedingly, and acquaintance was readily +made with their inhabitants almost every day for the next three +weeks, until it became evident that “Barge Life” is a +stratum of society quite as full of character and incident as any +other, and wide open for examination by those who would study a +<i>genus</i> of mankind very little known. Large and +important duties are entrusted to these men; rich cargoes are +committed to their honesty and skill; families live on barges by +thousands, <a name="citation280"></a><a href="#footnote280" +class="citation">[280]</a> and the coasting journey of a barge is +by no means an easy thing or a dull one.</p> +<p>We must not judge of them by those great black boxes full of +coals, that float on the water above +London Bridge, with one man and a long oar, and yet even a coal +barge is worth watching. In the dank mist of a dull +November evening it will drift unseen past the Temple +Gardens. Wonderful sounds launch into the fog from an +invisible shouter on board, whose “Tom” or +“Bill” on a wharf ashore instantly knows the call, +and answers. Then there is a colloquy loud, and public in +the extreme, yet utterly private in its meaning to any one +besides the two who are talking. It is only paralleled by +the shrill interjections of London street boys calling to each +other across the Strand, of which the grown-up public cannot make +out one syllable, but which the stratum below them, of three feet +high, is perfectly contented with, discerning every word.</p> +<p>The barges that trade to the Medway are fine, strong +sea-boats; their sailing qualities are excellent, and they are +improved every year by a regatta specially for them, where forty +gay-dressed, bluff and burly craft compete for prizes. In +this match the utmost of skill, sharpened by years of river +sailing, is shewn in the wind and tide, and knowledge of +intricate channels, and among such competitors “fouling is +fair.”</p> +<p>As the yawl glides on the water among hayricks and whetting +scythes, one of these gallant barges floated beside us with the +name on its stern—S.E.C.P.T.E.R.—dubious in import, we allow, +whether it means that the stout matter-of-fact lighter has been +christened as a shadowy ghost, or a royal symbol. The +veriest urchin steers her, with a little fat hand on the heavy +tiller twelve feet long, and a hunch of good rye-bread in his +other fist. Now and then he sings out in a thin soprano, +“Fayther, boat’s a’ead,” and his father, +(hidden below), answers deep-toned, from the cabin, “Keep +’er away, lad.” From him I asked, “How +old is your boy?” and the parent’s head popped up to +see, but it was the child that smartly answered, “Eight +years old.” He looked five. Round the next +reach the barge bears down, and shakes her sails in the wind to +arrest progress a little. They have come near home, but not +to stop. It is only their country house, and up steps the +bargee mother from out her small <i>boudoir</i> in the cabin +below, and jumping heavily into a boat, she pulls ashore to where +a little girl is meekly waiting ready for orders—“Get +the fish directly, Hagnes,” and the daughter runs off +fleetly and back soon, and the mother is speedily aboard +again—all this marketing being done while the barge has +been drifting slowly past, and then her sails are filled to +continue the voyage.</p> +<p>Night fell, and the yawl anchored by a soft green field, with +the bowsprit among the rushes. Bright furnaces +for lime and plaster works show here and there around, and they +roared and blazed up fitfully with waving jets of flame, like the +iron works in Shropshire, while the reflections glittered on the +river, and reddened long reaches in a glow. The barges kept +streaming by in the dark laden with rich commerce, and merry, +singing crews—a very curious scene. To them the Rob +Roy, of course, looked quite as strange, and one hailed us +gruffly—“Who’re you?” answer, +“I’m the Rob Roy!”—“What in the +world did you come here for?” “To look at the +beautiful lights on your river.” In a murmuring +grumble, he said to that, “Too many on ’em there +is—we can’t see where we’re goin’ with +them;” and this is indeed perfectly true, for the light of +these furnaces dazzles by its brightness, which is not diffused, +whereas if no lights were there at all, the men could see well +enough, for it is marvellous how the eye will perceive at least +the bounds between land and water, when practice sharpens keen +vision and no false light is shining. It is, however, quite +true also, that the language of the barge-world is not to be +found complete in Johnson’s dictionary. It is far +more powerful than elegant. Words that are unused ashore +except in anger or the coarsest abuse seem to be the gentle +appellations of endearment between father and son afloat. +But we must not forget that it is the +meaning attached to a word by speaker and hearer, and not that +given to it by a world outside of both, which the word will +represent. <a name="citation284"></a><a href="#footnote284" +class="citation">[284]</a></p> +<p>From the highest point we could reach towards Maidstone, we +soon ran down again to Rochester, and various were the +conflicting verdicts of bargees as to whether or not my mast +would now go under the bridge, for the tide was very high, and I +sailed back and forward, getting opinions, and surveying the +bridge on all sides. At length I determined it could be +done, and my heart beat nervously as the yawl neared the centre +arch—not as to danger, but the dishonour of breaking a +goodly spar at the end of a cruise, and in so trumpery a +feat. It passed clear, however, by inches.</p> +<p>The evening was too fine at Sheerness to think of anchoring, +so with a sudden resolve we set off again to Southend. Here +the advice of a yacht lying near was followed foolishly (get +<i>facts</i> from experts and decide on deeds yourself), for I anchored without sounding, and too late found it +was in shallow water, only eight feet by the lead, and the tide +running out. To bed but not to sleep, for the water sunk to +five feet, and, angry with myself, I roused at one o’clock, +gave out all the rope, sheered off shore by the rudder, and then, +again at rest, gained only six inches of depth; but once more +sounding, there was only six inches to spare under the keel and +with a strong breeze on shore. Therefore, now again on the +move, we fastened the inner end of the cable to the larger anchor +and heaved this out, and then payed out all the chain, and +sheered with the rudder, but still she was in shoal water. +Finally, as the wind increased, I had to haul in both anchors and +shove out into the deep, and thus, by omitting to do right at +once what was easy at the time, the whole night had been consumed +by intervals of wet and needless trouble.</p> +<p>Life in the yawl had now become such a pleasant life, that to +leave it was a duty deferred as long as possible. We ranged +several times up and down the Thames, visiting many an old nook, +well known in former days; Holy Haven for instance; it is now +thirty-three years since we first harboured there in a little +sailing-boat and spent a night with a collier captain, and +learned more of coals and colliers +than one could read in a week. This was done by keeping him +resolutely on the point the man knew all about until he was quite +pumped dry. This nice little refuge-harbour is the one I +like best in all the river, with only one house—no bother +from shore folks, deep channel, and clean sand to anchor +in. If it were not for this narrow and safe retreat, there +would often be hard times in stormy days between Gravesend and +Sheerness.</p> +<p>The first time the Rob Roy went into Holy Haven, we found a +yacht there with a lady and gentleman on board, who of course +(invariable and excellent custom) were hospitable when they read +my flag. Tiny ripples were the only sounds of the evening, +and on looking out on a new day, the round smooth sand was bare +beside me, with a lonely gull preening its soft white wing, and +its calm eye unfrightened, for no one could have the heart to +harm the pretty creature there. The next time of a visit to +this peaceful haven, there was another little craft at anchor, +and in five minutes after we stopped the owner of it sent his +card, with the customary invitation, to come on board. He +was a sailor solicitor who lives on the water in summer (being +wise), but does not venture out of the Thames (being prudent), +and he has a boy “Jim” who hands out cooked things +from an inscrutable forecastle, where he sleeps at +night in a sort of coal-scuttle. Nevertheless the two +together seemed perfectly happy.</p> +<p>By way of variety, the Rob Roy on leaving Margate the next +time set off in the dark night, to sail away under the stars, and +by some curious good luck we managed to pass as close to the buoy +at Reculver as ever one could do in the light. Next time we +came to Margate the place was gay with its Regatta, on a fine +breezy day. It was one of the best managed regattas one +could see, with always something going on, and always the +requisite confusion that prevents anybody from knowing exactly +what <i>is</i> going on. However, the Rob Roy had a +charming sail among the yachts as she towed at her stern the +dingey and a canoe, for the members of our Club are ubiquitous, +<a name="citation287"></a><a href="#footnote287" +class="citation">[287]</a> so two of them are at Margate.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Worcester—Swedish lesson—English +boys—A +prophecy—Letter—Request—Reply—The +‘Dolphin.’</p> +<p>Margate has often been abused, laughed at, and snubbed, but it +has never yet been properly described. How shall I describe +Margate? It is too difficult to do well, and it has been +too often done badly to do it again.</p> +<p>The men’s bathing here from boats with steps, like those +at Malta, is sensible enough. Fine bold swimmers struck out +well beside me in the water while I had my morning dip from the +yawl. As for the epicene bathing—masculine women and +womanish males who partake of “sea-bathing by +machinery”—separate machines, but that is +all—let us ignore them.</p> +<p>Come rather back to France, and let us look at Her Imperial +Majesty the Empress Eugenie in the water, as we have seen her +years ago.</p> +<p>It was at Biarritz, and one day a commotion in the town was +evident, but “What is about to happen?” we asked, being ready for any response +as a traveller ought to be.</p> +<p>“Her Majesty is going to bathe.”</p> +<p>British modesty urged a quiet retreat, but French system being +different, we spectators to the number of some hundreds were +ranged along the sands in two long lines, with a narrow lane +clear between, and grave Gendarmes keeping the ranks in +order.</p> +<p>The usual proceedings one sees at French bathing towns were +all in action round about us. Ladies dressed to the highest +pitch, mingled with others in bathing costume. Gentlemen +walking quite composed and dripping wet with ladies just come out +of the sea and just going in again. Young girls in canoes +boldly paddling, and gaily upsetting the little craft, while they +swam alongside. Rafts with men and women, half-floating as +they held by the sides, and chattered and basked in the +sun. All this difficult interlude on dry-land manners was +conducted with perfect decorum, a telling lesson to Britons who +bathe.</p> +<p>Perhaps, however, we should not like to see our Royal Family +follow the example of what came next. First there marched +out of the Imperial Villa a number of tall, liveried footmen, +each with a tray or basket piled up high with feminine finery, and this procession wended its way to two +pretty little tents hard by the sea.</p> +<p>Next there appeared the Empress and four maids of honour, who +came also to the tents, the Empress going alone into one with a +tasteful blue and silver drapery round it. See, now the +ladies emerge from their disrobing rooms, and walk slowly down to +the water between the double line of inquisitive but respectful +visitors. Each lady has a coat, vest, and trousers of black +silk, with the neatest of little boots, and the most winning of +large-brimmed black straw hats—that of the Empress being +trimmed with a narrow band of red.</p> +<p>When they reached the water five big fellows approached, all +dressed in red flannel. These bathing men each proceeded to +tie an empty gourd, like a water-bottle, a sort of +life-preserver, round the waist of a lady, and then, first +politely bowing, he lifted the lady in his arms, as a nurse +catches up a little child, and so with his fair burden he marched +into the waves.</p> +<p>When they were at about four feet deep the man allowed the +lady to float on her back, and with his arms under her arms he +supported her as each wave rose and fell.</p> +<p>All the time of these strange doings there was a large boat +close to the merry party, and with several men +in it, who kept beating the water with long poles—What is +that for? To keep away the sharks. <a +name="citation291"></a><a href="#footnote291" +class="citation">[291]</a> Such is Majesty afloat. +Yes, they do these things better in France!</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p291b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Empress in the Sea" +title= +"The Empress in the Sea" +src="images/p291s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>And now, near the end of our voyage alone, came the +pleasantest part of it all, because the most useful to +others. We had anchored often beside these three ships for +boys, and always with more delight:—the +‘Worcester,’ for gentlemen cadets; the +‘Chichester,’ for homeless boys; and the +‘Cornwall,’ for lads sent to her as a Reformatory +ship.</p> +<p>Many of the youngsters now on board the first or the second of +these might have been qualified for the third vessel, but for the +conventions of life and the machinery of education that tries to +keep all “wild boys” from being classed as +criminals.</p> +<p>Both you and I might have easily strayed into the police dock +or the gaol cell but for a guiding hand, a mother’s care, a +sister’s love, a father’s rod, a home, a competence, +a somebody caring for us, if not a friend. So don’t +be hard on the boys in the ‘Cornwall’; they are our +natural shipmates, and if by God’s grace we are not yet +with them, thank Him, help them, and be humble.</p> +<p>Brave lads, there is still a chance for you here. +England is to blame as well as you that you have been sucked by +the eddies of life into criminal streams. England also +rescues you. It is but <i>dragging</i> out indeed, but you +are out of the mire. Take heart, you may carry the British +flag proudly yet; the career of the sailor is open to <i>you</i> +also, and who shall say that some gallant three-master may not +yet be commanded by a sailor bred in the ‘Cornwall’ +Reformatory school-ship at Purfleet?</p> +<p>As for the ‘Worcester,’ the lads there are +already well up on the ladder of life. Sometime, if things +go on thus well, we shall have Christian gentlemen as our +sea-captains, for already in many things the waves are better +than the shore.</p> +<p>When the Rob Roy returned from France, we had put on board of +her some fireworks to amuse the ‘Worcesters’ at +Erith, and in a quiet night the rockets sped aloft, and the Roman +candles ejaculated fireballs, and the Chinese floats spat flame +as they blazed on the flowing tide, and the red light made our +sails blush deeply, and the “jack in the box” fizzed +and caracoled over the deck scorching us all inordinately.</p> +<p>When everything pyrotechnic was burned out on the yawl, the +show was yet to begin.</p> +<p>‘Worcester’ was not to be beaten by Rob Roy. +Up sprang the blue-lights from her tops and yards. Ports +blazed with lamps, and skyrockets whizzed into the ether. +Then came best of all from young and gladsome hearts those +ringing cheers, and the lively band roused up the quiet night +waves with “Rob Roy MacGregor O!”</p> +<p>If I know a lad for the Merchant Navy, he shall go to it best +taught by companions as well as by officers, in the school for +sea life aboard the ‘Worcester.’</p> +<p>At Greenhithe the ‘Chichester’ and her +sister ship the ‘Arethusa’ (presented by the Baroness +Burdett Coutts) are for poor lads without home, without friends, +nay, without hope from man unless you and I will help them. +Can we refuse so strong a plea from England’s little +sons? Patriotism, Religion, Duty, and the most unthinking +Love say, No!</p> +<p>Our country just at this time wants more seamen and better +seamen. The Royal Navy needs young England, and the +Commercial Navy <i>will</i> have him, bad or good, ignorant or +well taught. Our Government finding this to be so had +thought of placing Training ships at various ports for the very +purpose of supplying the demand for sailor boys. Doubtless +they would have done this well, but it is better still if by +private effort we can fill the ships. At any rate let us +empty the prisons, the dens of penury, and the kerb-stones, where +the young and prime material, spoiling by ignorance and neglect, +wastes the vigour of our land, pesters this generation with +beggars, poor-rates, and gaols, and infects and ruins the +generation to come after.</p> +<p>Sweden does better by her sons. She teaches them every +one, and, as a Swede told me, “Sweden is not rich enough to +keep ignorant children until they are criminal men.” +Therefore she gives every one the priceless boon of +education as a national gift, so that every Swede owes at least +one debt to his country, and there are no Fenians there.</p> +<p>In England no one is allowed to appear in public without some +clothes. The time will come when we shall not dare to let a +man loose on the thoroughfares in native ignorance—decency +forbids.</p> +<p>We have opened our ship-decks to foreign sailors—more +proud in our boast of being an asylum for the distressed than in +preventing distress among our own people. By all means give +foreigners fair play, but <i>after</i> England’s boys are +cared for. Charity begins at home, our home is +England. English boys are far better sailors than any +foreigners, who no doubt excel us in cookery and silks, and +manners and despotism, but not in the hard duty bravely done, +when storms lash clouds and ocean into one general foam.</p> +<p>To train up English sailor boys philanthropy stepped in just +in time, and in the last few years it has provided more and more +ships. The very boys who are worst off, and most tried by +dire want and misfortune, are those who may be boldest to run +aloft when well taught; and if these British hearts are won +young, and tutored right, and trained +loyal, and warmly clothed in true blue jackets, we shall not have +so many shipwrecks where cheap foreigners skulk as the tempest +roars. <a name="citation296"></a><a href="#footnote296" +class="citation">[296]</a></p> +<p>One day we had a grand treat for the ‘Chichester’ +boys, who marched to a sunny mead at Greenhithe, and romped for +hours and hours in hearty sailors’ play. How they ran +races, jumped in sacks, swarmed up the polished pole, and eyed +the leg of mutton at the top, far out of reach, until sheer +exhaustion with boyish laughter made them slide down! Then, +gathered round cake and tea, and duly stuffed therewith to +concert pitch, they sing our grand old Psalms, our free and +joyous loyal ship-songs, the orchestra of young throats being +directed with all gravity by an urchin—one of +themselves—a miniature “Costa” full of +pound-cake, and with his Jersey pockets bulged out too, but +tuneful enough after his tea. The man’s heart that is +not softened, gladdened, and strung to effort for these little +fellows by scenes like this I do not covet.</p> +<p>The captain of the ‘Chichester’ says:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I receive very pleasing letters from boys +who have left. I send you a copy of the last, just +arrived, which I think is as powerful an appeal in our behalf as +any that could be penned.”</p> +<p>“Ship ‘---,’ off the Isle of Wight.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Please Sir</span>,—I take the +pleasure of writing these few lines to you, hoping to find you in +good health, as we are. We are getting on very well, we are +now off the Isle of Wight. Sir, we like our ship very well, +and I hope we shall have a good character when we come +home. I hope all the Instructors are well.</p> +<p>“Give my respects to Lady Alston, and tell her where we +are. We are having very good weather, and I haven’t +forgot my Bible. C. D. sends his respects to you. +Please sir, will you give my love to Frances. Sir, you must +excuse me for not writing more. I haven’t had +time. Sir, if I don’t see you any more in this world, +I hope I shall Above. Give my respects to Mr. and Mrs. +Macarthy.</p> +<p>“No more at present from your obedient servants,</p> +<p>“A. B. and C. D.</p> +<p>“God be merciful to us as sinners.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And while we speak more of the three ships already named, +because they are nearest, and so are most seen by us Londoners, +remember there are other stout Britons at Hull, sturdy boys in +the Mersey, sea-urchins in the Clyde, and good sailor-hearts in +Ireland and in Welshmen’s breasts, and there are training +ships for boys in all these and other places, <a +name="citation297"></a><a href="#footnote297" +class="citation">[297]</a> so that all may join who wish to help in England’s future, which will much depend +on the next generation of British seamen.</p> +<p>It will be a happy sight, and one by no means out of our reach +to witness, when the gentlemen taught on the +‘Worcester,’ and the mates from the +‘Chichester,’ and the crew from the +‘Cornwall,’ shall man the largest, fastest vessel on +the sea.</p> +<p>The ‘Chichester’ boys make a very appreciative +audience when a visitor addresses them. Then they sing +their hearty thanks with steady voices, and in stanzas of +original poetry spun aboard ship, and sure to mean much if you +can read between the lines; for London boys are both in good +things and in bad the smartest of all.</p> +<p>After pondering on the matter during another sail, the +following letter appeared in the ‘Times’:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The training ship ‘Chichester,’ +lately moored at Greenhithe for the reception of homeless boys, +has already produced some of the anticipated good results, and +several young lads, rescued from a life of sorrow and want, have +been sent out as trained sailor boys.</p> +<p>“But although these boys are approved by the +ships’ captains, it is found that until the boys can be +taught how to steer a vessel, as well as the other duties of a +seaman, they cannot be well received by the rest of a +ship’s crew.</p> +<p>“Steering is not to be learnt by book or precept only, +or in a ship at moorings; and the suggestion is therefore made +that a small vessel, say a cutter of 20 tons, should be attached +to the ‘Chichester,’ as a ‘tender.’</p> +<p>“The boys could then be taught to handle the +tiller by voyages to the Nore. They would also learn the +use of buoys, beacons, and lights. They would have a +powerful incentive to progress in their book-work, and the +‘tender’ would be most useful in carrying officers +and boys and stores to and from London, and thus save +considerable expense.</p> +<p>“This being a new proposal, it will be necessary to have +additional contributions for the purchase of the tender, and as +the funds which provided the ‘Chichester’ were +received principally from the readers of ‘The Times,’ +perhaps we may venture to hope for the same kind aid in launching +the new suggestion. Contributions may be sent to the Hon. +Secretary, Mr. W. <span class="smcap">Williams</span>, St. +Giles’ Refuge, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn +Fields.</p> +<p>“J. M.</p> +<p>“<i>Margate Roads</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We expect much from Englishmen when an appeal is made to their +generous hearts, but it was certainly beyond our hopes that in a +few days afterwards the following letter could be +published:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“In reply to the appeal through your +columns, for means to provide a tender for the +‘Chichester’ school ship, the Rev. C. Harrington, +Rector of Bromsgrove, has presented to the institution the +‘Dolphin,’ a strong, well-built, sea-going yacht of +20 tons, with all her stores complete.</p> +<p>“The committee in accepting this gift, have abundant +reason to thank the kind donor, and the friends of +‘Homeless Boys’ owe another debt of gratitude to +‘The Times.’</p> +<p>“J. M.</p> +<p>“<i>Temple</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>By the desire of the ‘Chichester’ Committee +I joined the ‘Dolphin’ at Sheerness, and with a +regular salt captain, and a seaman from the Bendigo diggings, and +a boy from the ‘Chichester,’ we weighed the +cutter’s anchor to bring the prize to Greenhithe.</p> +<p>The pier-man smiled gladly on the gift yacht. The taut +Guard-ship bristling with big guns seemed to look down kindly on +the little vessel, and even the grim old hulks, otherwise sulky +enough, appeared to wish her well as she loosed her white sails +to a gentle breeze. Yes, and the sun smiled brightly, too, +with a balmy day like summer again.</p> +<p>Barges flocked out, clustering on the water as in my former +visits here, yet the ‘Dolphin’ mingled with them not +as in a mere play, but with a benign and holy purpose in her +gait, for it was the gracious breath of Christian benevolence +that wafted the ‘Dolphin’ on. She was a present +to the homeless boys, and so a gift that shall be one time repaid +by the Friend of the friendless with measure “running +over.”</p> +<p>Yantlet was passed and the Blythe and Jenkin, when sunset +shrouded sleeping Father Thames. Then the ship-lights +sparkled numerous on the stream, and red rays from the beacons +glinted athwart our sail. Swift steamers whisked by in the dark. Tall, gaunt, sailing ships rustled +their dusky canvas, and struggling little tug-boats rattled with +instant paddle as they passed.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p301b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Gift to Boys" +title= +"The Gift to Boys" +src="images/p301s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Clouds withdrew from above as we neared the +‘Chichester,’ and the full moon came out and looked +upon the “gift for boys” with her long pendant +streaming in the mild and onward breeze.</p> +<p>Then, to me silent, lying on the deck as if in a summer eve, +came many-coloured thoughts—the Rob Roy’s rovings by +river and sea in brightsome days and +thundering nights, the good seed sown by the shore, the thousand +incidents of a charming voyage.</p> +<p>But best of them all was the sail in the +‘Dolphin.’</p> +<p>We may begin in faith, and continue in hope, but greatest of +the three is charity in</p> +<p style="text-align: center">THE END.</p> +<h2>APPENDIX. BOYS’ TRAINING +SHIPS.</h2> +<p>There are 18,000 seamen in our Royal Navy, and nearly a +quarter of a million persons of various kinds are employed on +board of British registered vessels. On the subject of +training boys for sea, full and interesting information is given +in ‘British Seamen,’ by Mr. T. Brassey, M.P. In +former editions of ‘The Voyage Alone,’ some of the +Boys’ Training Ships were briefly described, and the +author’s profits from the book have been distributed yearly +in prizes and medals among some hundreds of lads in these ships, +approved for excellence in Seamanship, Smartness, +Scripture-knowledge, Swimming, and “Sums.” In +connection with the continuance of this pleasant work, a brief +description is given here of all the Training Ships for boys, +with the best wishes of the author for their prosperous sail over +the sea of life, and their safe arrival on the happy shore +above.</p> +<h3>ROYAL NAVY TRAINING SHIPS FOR BOYS.</h3> +<p><i>There are Five regular Boys’ Training Ships for the +Royal Navy</i>, <i>accommodating</i> 3400 <i>boys</i>.</p> +<p>The ‘Impregnable,’ and ‘Implacable’ +(with ‘Lion’), at Devonport (for 700 boys); +‘Ganges,’ at Falmouth (500 boys); ‘St. +Vincent,’ at Portsmouth (700 boys); and +‘Boscawen,’ at Portland (500 boys). To each is +attached a brig for cruising during the summer months. The +boys go through a regular course of instruction at school, in +seamanship and in gunnery, till they are “rated,” +after a year or a little more, as 1st Class boys, when they have +a cruise in the brig. With respect to the school +instruction, the principle is to give the more backward boys more +schooling than the more advanced, and to this end the boys are +divided into Upper School and Lower School: the Upper School boys +have one forenoon and one afternoon a week in school, and the +Lower School boys twice that amount. The educational +attainments of the Upper School correspond to Standards VI., V., +IV. of the New Code, and those of the Lower School to Standards +III. and II. Of course there is the division into watches, +as the routine of the ships is modelled on that of a +man-of-war.</p> +<p>With the exception of the band boys entered from industrial +schools, no boys are received who have been before a +magistrate. It is gratifying to find that as many good and +respectable lads as are wanted can be had for this glorious +patriotic service. “The expense incurred in training +seamen amounts on an average to not less than £300 to +£400 for every seaman in the navy:” ‘British +Seamen,’ by T. Brassey, M.P. Longmans, 1877, page +158.</p> +<p>For training young officers there is the +‘Britannia’ (with the ‘Hindostan’) at +Dartmouth, and two sons of the Commodore of the Royal Canoe Club +are among the pupils.</p> +<h4>‘AKBAR.’—(<span +class="smcap">Mersey</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1856.</p> +<p>The vessel is managed by “The Liverpool Juvenile +Reformatory Association,” which has also a girls’ +reformatory and a farm school. The report for December 31, +1877, shews that during the year 79 boys were +admitted between 11 and 17 years of age (all of them under +sentence of a magistrate), and 59 were discharged (of whom 43 +went to sea), leaving 198 in the ship and about 100 besides +“under detention,” or on license elsewhere. The +total number admitted since 1856 was 1393, of whom 731 went to +sea, 130 went to friends, 73 were transferred, and 59 died.</p> +<p>In January, 1878, the ship parted from her moorings in a gale, +and this and repairs caused an expense of about £500. +The ordinary expenditure of the year is about £3800; the +average number on board is 190, and of these 134 could swim.</p> +<h4>‘ARETHUSA.’—(<span +class="smcap">Greenhithe</span>, <i>Thames</i>.)</h4> +<p>Opened August, 1874.</p> +<p>This vessel is the new sister ship of the +‘Chichester,’ and is described below with the other +vessel.</p> +<h4>‘CHICHESTER.’—(<span +class="smcap">Greenhithe</span>, <i>Thames</i>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1866.</p> +<p>This vessel, together with the ‘Arethusa’ (already +mentioned above), is managed by a committee in connection with +the “National Refuges,” an institution which +comprises a Refuge for homeless boys, a Refuge for homeless +girls, a “Farm school and Shaftesbury school,” at +Bisley, Surrey, a “Working Boys’ Home,” and +“Girls’ Home” at Ealing and Sudbury. In +these six homes and two ships are more than 1000 inmates, and the +expense is defrayed by voluntary contributions. The Earl of +Shaftesbury, K. G., is President of the Institution, and Mr. W. +Williams (9, Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square), is the +Secretary.</p> +<p>The ‘Chichester’ was fitted up in 1866, and opened +in January, 1867, for training homeless boys between 13 and 16 years of age for sea life. By the munificent +gift of the Baroness Burdett Coutts, the ‘Arethusa’ +was presented to the committee fully fitted up as an additional +Training Ship, in 1874, and the two vessels are moored close +together near the pleasant hills of Greenhithe, in Kent. +The woodcut on the preceding page, representing some boys on the +topsail-yard of the ‘Chichester,’ appeared in the +<i>Leisure Hour</i> as one of the illustrations of an article on +‘Ragamuffins’ by the present writer.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p308b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Away aloft" +title= +"Away aloft" +src="images/p308s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The number of boys sent to sea from the +‘Chichester’ in the year 1877 was 117, and the number +on board 176. The total number of boys received on the +‘Chichester,’ up to the 31st of December, 1877, was +2165. Number discharged, 2092; sent to sea, 1797.</p> +<p>Besides the number sent on a first voyage, the following +numbers were re-shipped, not counting those who after their first +voyage got ships without coming to the ‘Chichester’ +ship-master. Shipped for second voyage, 686; for third, +451; fourth, 291; fifth, 180; sixth, 108; seventh, 72; eighth +voyage, 55.</p> +<p>The total number of boys received on board the +‘Arethusa’ from 1874 to end of 1877, was 659; +discharged, 450; sent to sea, 386, of whom 102 were so sent in +1877. In July, 1878, there were 400 boys on the two ships +when the annual presentation of prizes took place. The +total expenses for the two ships for the year 1877 amounted to +£10,494 10<i>s</i>. 8<i>d</i>.</p> +<p>I had again the privilege of presenting the sailor boys +‘Rob Roy’ prizes in the Guildhall, in the presence of +the veteran philanthropist the Earl of Shaftesbury, in 1880.</p> +<h4>‘CLARENCE.’—(<span +class="smcap">Mersey</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1863.</p> +<p>This is a Reformatory School Ship for Roman Catholic +boys. The average number on board this vessel is 200, and +the cost £20 per head per annum, paid chiefly by +the Treasury. In the year 1877, 80 boys had been admitted, +of whom 54 were from Liverpool, and the rest from 15 other towns; +47 of them had not been previously convicted, 58 were sent to sea +“on license.” In the preceding three years 192 +had been discharged, of whom 150 were “doing well” at +the beginning of 1878, while 5 were “doubtful,” 8 +reconvicted, 10 dead, and 19 “unknown.”</p> +<h4>‘CLIO.’—(<span class="smcap">Menai +Straits</span>.)</h4> +<p>Certified February, 1878.</p> +<p>This vessel is for 200 boys (from 11 to 15 years of age), sent +under the Industrial Schools Act, or partly paid for otherwise, +and the ship is managed by “The North Wales, City of +Chester, and Border Counties Industrial School Training Ship +Society.” The first boy was admitted in September, +1877, and on the 13th of July, 1878, there were 197 boys on +board; of these, 8 are “voluntary.” About 80 +were from London, 50 from Manchester, 26 from Liverpool, and the +rest from ten other places.</p> +<h4>‘CONWAY.’—(<span +class="smcap">Mersey</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1859.</p> +<p>A new vessel (late the ‘Nile’) was substituted in +1877 for the old ‘Conway,’ but it was rechristened +with the old name, and the cost of alterations was +£6000.</p> +<p>It is managed by “The Mercantile Marine +Association,” and is intended chiefly to supply officers +for the merchant navy. Boys are received from 12 to 16 +years of ago. The average number of boys on board was 138, +of whom 54 joined the merchant service. The number of boys +received since the commencement up to 1877, was +1290, of whom 40 entered the Royal Navy, and almost all the +others went into the Merchant Service.</p> +<p>The report gives no balance-sheet, but says that the school +fees (40 guineas per annum for each boy) “covered the +expenses” (presumably the ordinary expenses), and left a +balance of £283.</p> +<h4>‘CORNWALL.’—(<span +class="smcap">Purfleet</span>, <i>Thames</i>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1859.</p> +<p>This is a Reformatory Ship, managed by “The School Ship +Society.” The boys enter between 13 and 15 years of +age, sentenced to 3 years’ detention under the Reformatory +Schools Act. The average number of boys maintained on board +in 1877 was 218. Comparative cost per head on ordinary +maintenance and management £32. Industrial profits, +£329. Of cases discharged in 1874, 1875, and 1876, +there were doing well (December, 1877) 198, doubtful 5, convicted +of crime 4, unknown 18, dead 12. In July, 1878, the Captain +had heard of 114 boys at sea service, all doing well, and 26 boys +visited in June, equally satisfactory, one of them in command of +a large ship.</p> +<p>An epidemic in 1875–76 caused much trouble and +expense.</p> +<h4>‘CUMBERLAND.’—(<span +class="smcap">Clyde</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established June, 1869.</p> +<p>This is an Industrial School Ship. At the beginning of +1877 there were 385 boys on board, and during the year 133 were +admitted, 105 were sent to sea, 11 to shore employment, 5 to +their friends, 1 to a school, 6 absconded, and 1 died, leaving +389 on the roll for January 1, 1878. From the establishment up to that time, 1343 boys had been +admitted, and 954 had left. Of 432 discharged in 1874, +1875, and 1876, 345 were known to be doing well, 10 +indifferently, 3 convicted of crime, and 16 died of disease and +casualties. The receipts for the year were £7280, +including £500 on contingency account. The ship is +managed by a committee, of which the President is Mr. John Burns, +of Castle Wemyss, who is well known for his important position as +chairman of The Cunard Company (Limited), and for his hearty +liberal efforts on behalf of boys who need a friend.</p> +<h4>‘ENDEAVOUR.’—(<span +class="smcap">Feltham</span>, <i>Middlesex</i>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1866.</p> +<p>This is a “land ship,” with boats on the river, +and the following description of it is from a paper by Captain +Brookes, Royal Marines, the Superintendent of the +“Middlesex Industrial Schools at Feltham,” where +about 800 boys sent by magistrates are trained for the Army, the +Navy, and various other modes of life:—</p> +<p>“The 150 boys composing the Nautical Section are dressed +as sailors, and their everyday life is assimilated as much as +possible to what it would be in a stationary Training +Ship—they sleep in hammocks, live in messes, and are daily +exercised in seamanship on board the full-sized model brig +‘Endeavour,’ built on play-ground. Boats are +provided on the river at Staines for instruction in rowing, and +the boys are taught to swim in a large swimming bath in the +grounds.</p> +<p>“The brig was built in 1866, between which date and the +end of last year 748 boys (about an average of 70 per annum) have +been trained and sent to sea.</p> +<p>“There is a home at Poplar for the reception and care of +boys about to be sent to sea under the charge of the shipping +officer, who is duly licensed by the Board of +Trade. This is a most valuable branch of the school, +offering a home to lads returning from sea, who would otherwise +fall into the hands of low lodging-house keepers.</p> +<p>“The school authorities constantly receive the most +favourable accounts of the lads thus sent to sea, who are well +reported on by captains of ships both as regards character and +ability in seamanship.</p> +<p>“The result of this experiment, now extending over a +period of ten years, proves beyond question that boys can be as +speedily and efficiently trained on board a model training ship +built on land, as on board a stationary one moored in a harbour +or river.</p> +<p>“This opinion has been fully and publicly endorsed by +Captain Burney, R.N., Superintendent of the Royal Hospital School +at Greenwich, where a large model full-rigged ship (most complete +and thorough in all its arrangements) has been built, and by +means of which, he maintains, he can prepare boys for sea as +efficiently as on board a floating training ship.</p> +<p>“In this, as in many other matters, there is a great +deal of popular prejudice to overcome, and perhaps the most +effective way to do so would be by inducing the governing bodies +of such schools as Eton, Harrow, and Rugby to erect model +training ships on their grounds for the use of their boys. +It cannot be doubted that these ships would be as popular amongst +them as their present School Volunteer Corps undoubtedly +are.”</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>[After many visits to the floating training ships, and +inspection of the ‘Endeavour,’ and of the Greenwich +School, where 1000 boys are trained for sea without the expense +and inconveniences of a ship, I fully concur in the opinions of +Captain Brookes and Capt. Burney, C.B., and I consider that the +best mode of training boys for the commercial navy is to have a +light and roomy building on shore with one or more +“tender” brigs for cruising, and plenty of boats, and +a good gymnasium and swimming bath. A floating hulk is more +costly to maintain. It is inconvenient for education from +want of light below, and for exercise all the winter from wet +decks above, and moreover, the need of a “tender” for +each hulk is already acknowledged, so that her sheet anchor is +only sentiment.]</p> +<p><span class="smcap">J. Macgregor</span>.</p> +<h4>‘ENDEAVOUR.’—(<span class="smcap">Land +Ship</span>.)</h4> +<p>About thirty-five years ago, this land-ship, with masts and +sails and guns, was set up at the Norwood Poor Law Establishment, +by the exertions of the late Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Bart., and +one somewhat similar and useful (to a certain extent) was +established in a Union School at Stepney. Of the boys +instructed by this means, 95 out of 100 voluntarily entered the +Army or Navy, but doubtless the supply for sea life is now better +obtained from establishments more distinctly nautical. In +the report of the North Surrey District Schools “the mast +and shrouds” of the Land Ship there are said to be useful +in inducing boys to go to sea. (<i>Times</i>, September 3, +1878.)</p> +<h4>‘EXMOUTH.’—(<span +class="smcap">Grays</span>, <i>Thames</i>.)</h4> +<p>This vessel accommodates 600 boys, and was substituted for +‘The Goliath,’ which was burned two years ago (as was +also the old ‘Warspite’ at Charlton). The +latest report (which is more full and clear than that of several +other ships) deals with the ten months ending the 31st of +December, 1877, when 545 boys were under training. These +were sent from the Poor Law Unions of Poplar, St. Pancras, +Stepney, Marylebone, Woolwich, and others, under the special Act, +which very properly requires Metropolitan Parishes to +contribute towards the maintenance of the ship, whether they use +it or not. A brigantine, the ‘Steadfast,’ is +attached as a “training tender,” and accommodates +thirty boys, who cruise in the Mouth of the Thames for a week at +a time, when ten of them are changed. A causeway from the +shore improves the approach to the ‘Exmouth,’ and a +small house and office near the London Docks enables eight boys +to be taken daily for engagement in ships.</p> +<p>From March, 1876, to December, 1877, 689 boys were admitted, +seventy-nine were discharged to sea service, twenty-one to the +Army as musicians, forty-three to their respective Unions, and +one absconded.</p> +<p>“Every boy in the ship soaps and washes himself <i>all +over</i> every morning with carbolic soap, and then goes through +a plunge bath under inspection, having a clean towel every time +he washes.” The lads are remarkably +healthy—there was not one death in the year. The +charge for maintenance and clothing has been at the rate of +1<i>s.</i> per head per day. The swimming bath is sixty +feet long by thirty feet broad, and the boys are classed by the +number of “bath-lengths” they can swim at a +stretch. At the beginning of the swimming season, 340 could +not swim at all, but there were only 56 in this predicament at +the end of the season. Music is taught carefully, and a +band of about 60 boys plays twice a week for the other boys to +dance. Of 242 boys absent from one to seven days to see +their friends, only one broke his leave, and he absconded +altogether.</p> +<h4>‘FAME.’—(<span class="smcap">Greenwich +Royal Hospital School</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1872.</p> +<p>This land ship is part of the splendid establishment at +Greenwich for training sons of seamen and marines of the Royal +Navy. Candidates must be between 10½; and 13 years +of age, physically fit, able to read an easy sentence, +and with some knowledge of arithmetic.</p> +<p>The origin of the school was in 1692, when, after the victory +of “La Hogue,” an asylum was established for +seamen’s widows and orphans at the suggestion of Queen +Mary, who died before it was accomplished.</p> +<p>In 1712 ten boys were instructed (in the buildings of the +present Naval College, part of which had been erected in 1618), +and in 1783 there were 60 boys. In 1805, there were 200 +boys, and the institution was no longer a charity, but admitted +officers’ sons.</p> +<p>Another school, “The British Endeavour,” started +in 1798 as a private venture in London, was transferred to public +management in Greenwich.</p> +<p>The “Royal Naval Asylum,” for 680 boys and 200 +girls, aided by Parliamentary grant, was amalgamated in 1821 with +the other (the Royal Hospital School), forming a “Lower +School” and “Upper School” for 1000 boys, in +the quadrangle now occupied opposite the Royal Naval +College. In 1841 the girls’ school ceased. In +1860 the distinction between “Upper” and +“Lower” School was given up.</p> +<p>In 1870 industrial work was introduced in addition to the +other instruction, and the splendid land ship ‘Fame’ +was erected in 1872, which, with boats on the river, large sized +moveable models in lofty halls, and a fine swimming bath, +gymnasium, class-rooms, and workshops, are the means for +instructing 1000 boys most admirably under the supervision of +Captain Burney, C.B., and an energetic staff. From the +report of July, 1878, it appears that there were 39 pupil +teachers, and 958 boys between 10 and 15 years of age. +Total 997 in the school. The number of boys admitted during +the year was 334, number discharged 333, of whom 99 went into Her +Majesty’s Service, and 4 died; 329 boys between 13 and 15 +years of age now in the School, have signed continuous service +engagements to serve in the Royal Navy for 10 +years from the age of 18. The boys’ industrial work +in about 30 departments of useful labour is of great value to the +school, so that the annual cost (exclusive of new buildings, but +including all repairs) is under £18 per head.</p> +<p>The punishments are under 1 per cent., and 45 per cent. of the +boys can swim.</p> +<h4>‘FORMIDABLE.’—(<span +class="smcap">Portishead</span>, <i>Bristol Channel</i>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1869.</p> +<p>This is an “Industrial School Ship” for boys +between the ages of 11 and 14 years. During the eighteen +months ending December 31, 1877, 84 boys had been admitted +(including 41 from the London School Board), 18 from Bristol, and +the rest from ten other towns, with 2 “volunteer” +boys.</p> +<p>Of these there had been discharged during the eighteen months, +81 to the Merchant Service, 2 to the Royal Navy, 26 to friends, 5 +to the Army, 13 elsewhere, and 2 died. The number of boys +on board December 31, 1877, was 324. From the commencement +of the ship, 800 boys had been admitted, including 50 +“volunteers,” and of these 366 had gone to the +Merchant Service, and 27 to the Royal Navy, while 11 died. +The receipts for the year, including £1500 from the +Treasury, and £600 from annual subscriptions, amounted to +£8213.</p> +<h4>‘GIBRALTAR.’—(<span +class="smcap">Belfast</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1872.</p> +<p>This Industrial School Ship for Protestant boys is called +“The Ulster Training Ship for Homeless and Destitute +Boys.” The number on board the 31st of December, +1877, was 289, of whom about half could read, write, and cipher +well; 64 had been admitted during the year, nearly all of them +from Antrim, and of these, 33 could not read or +write at all, while only 7 could read, write, and cipher well; 32 +of these had lost their fathers, and 18 were orphans.</p> +<h4>‘HAVANNAH.’—(<span +class="smcap">Cardiff</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1855.</p> +<p>This is an old “man-of-war,” banked round, so as +to be a “land ship,” with a causeway to the shore, +and it accommodates about 70 boys, many of whom have industrial +employment in gardening and as porters, &c. Of the 66 +boys discharged in the three years, 1874, 1875, 1876, 58 were +known to be earning honest livelihoods, 2 were convicted, 2 +unknown, and 4 have died. According to the report of +August, 1878, 68 boys were in the ship, of whom 61 were sent +under the Industrial Schools Act. There were 2 on license, +and 7 appeared to be voluntary cases. The expenditure in +1876 was about £1500, but £200 was earned by the +Industrial Department. In that year 3 boys went to sea, and +in 1878 6 boys.</p> +<h4>‘INDEFATIGABLE.’—(<span +class="smcap">Mersey</span>.)</h4> +<p>This vessel was established in 1864 to train orphan and +destitute boys for sea—boys from the port of Liverpool +having a preference. The report issued in March, 1878, +shewed the average number on board to be 250, of whom 80 had lost +both parents. About 50 boys go out to life each year. +The funds are from voluntary contributions, and about £5000 +a year is expended.</p> +<h4>‘MARS.’—(<span +class="smcap">Dundee</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1869.</p> +<p>This is an “Industrial School Ship,” under the Act +of Parliament, and it has a “tender,” “which +makes men of the youngsters; she has just brought 100 tons of +coals to us from Shields (July 5, 1878).” +The accommodation is for 350 boys. In 1877, 122 boys were +admitted and 95 discharged, leaving 350 on the register, while +“there is great pressure for admission.” Of the +95 boys, 6 entered the Royal Navy, 55 the Merchant Service as +first class boys, 27 went to shore trades (but seven of these +returned and went to sea), and 7 died. One-third of the +boys admitted were unable to read at all; of 309 discharged +during 3 years, 248 were “doing well.”</p> +<p>The expenses in 1877 were about £6800.</p> +<p>Donations and subscriptions about £1700.</p> +<h4>‘MOUNT EDGCUMBE.’—(<span +class="smcap">Saltash</span>, <i>Cornwall</i>.)</h4> +<p>Established June, 1877.</p> +<p>An Industrial School Ship for boys from Devonshire and +Cornwall. The boys admitted up to July, 1878, were 201; 1 +had been discharged, 6 transferred, and 2 died. The number +of “voluntary cases” (from 12 to 14 years old) was 3, +and the number of all on board 195. Half of these could +read “fairly.”</p> +<h4>‘SHAFTESBURY.’—(<span +class="smcap">Grays</span>, <i>Thames</i>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1878.</p> +<p>The School Board for London has found it necessary to have a +training ship of its own. More than 500 boys sent at the +instance of the Board were in training on board the +‘Formidable,’ ‘Wellesley,’ +‘Southampton,’ &c., at distant ports, where +visitation and supervision could not be readily exercised. +After more than six years of experience in regard to training +boys for sea, the Board decided to establish their own ship in +the Thames. The Admiralty was unable or at least declined +to lend one of the few old hulks at their disposal, so the School +Board purchased for £7000 the P. and O. iron +steamship ‘Nubia,’ and at an additional expense of +more than £30,000, she was fitted up and moored in a berth +prepared for her in July, 1878, close to the Poor Law ship +‘Exmouth,’ so as to accommodate 450 boys to be sent +under the Industrial Schools Act at the instance of the +Board. She is ‘certified’ for 350 boys, of whom +70 may be Roman Catholics. The first 6 boys were sent on +board her on August 15, 1878. The vessel was rechristened +with the name of ‘Shaftesbury,’ in honour of one who +is everywhere known as the friend of the hapless and the patron +of everything good. The vessel is longer and narrower than +those of the old “man-of-war” type, and her four +decks are lofty, giving plenty of light and air for educational +and sanitary purposes, although the wider space for drill above +all is necessarily curtailed. The cost of the vessel +(including purchase) is repayable in 50 years by annual +instalments, with interest at 3½ per cent.</p> +<p>The Shaftesbury has now her full number of 500 boys (May +1880.)</p> +<h4>‘SOUTHAMPTON.’—(<span class="smcap">The +Humber</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1868.</p> +<p>The management is amalgamated with that of “The Hull +Ragged and Industrial Schools.” At the beginning of +1877, 234 boys were on board (all of them under the Industrial +Schools Act), and 62 were admitted during the year (30 from 10 to +12, and 32 from 12 to 14 years of age), while 56 were discharged, +of whom 27 went to sea, and 23 were returned to friends. Up +to the end of that year 426 boys had been finally discharged from +the ship. Half of these on entry could not read, write, or +cipher, but all learned to do so. Many of the boys were +sent at the instance of the School Board for London and eight +other School Boards. The expenditure for the year was +£6000.</p> +<h4>‘WARSPITE.’—(<span +class="smcap">Charlton</span>, <i>Thames</i>.)</h4> +<p>The Marine Society established its first ship the +‘Beatty,’ with a crew of 40 boys, 120 years ago, and +it has since sent to sea about 60,000 boys trained for +sailors’ life. The new ship, a fine two decker (late +‘Conqueror’), in substitution for the old +‘Warspite’ (which was burned), and rechristened with +that name, had 156 boys on board in January, 1877. 304 were +afterwards admitted, 43 were sent to the Royal Navy, and 137 to +the Merchant Service, leaving 269 on board at the beginning of +the year 1878. Most of these are orphans or boys deserted +by their parents. Out of 123 boys who returned in that year +from first voyages, 117 had “very good” on their +certificates. The age for admission is from 13 to 16, +height from 4 feet 8 inches; 93 boys learned to swim last +summer. The expenditure during the year was £11,000, +including £3000 for fitting up the new ship.</p> +<h4>‘WELLESLEY.’—(<span class="smcap">South +Shields</span>.)</h4> +<p>Established 1868.</p> +<p>This vessel is for homeless and destitute boys unconvicted of +crime, but who are sent under the Industrial Schools Act, at the +instance of one of the ten or more School Boards which have +agreements with “The ‘Wellesley’ Training Ship +Institution,” or who come individually. From the +report in June, 1877, it appears that in the twelve months +preceding, 91 boys had been received, and 59 were discharged, of +whom 45 went to sea. This left 307 boys on board. Of +the boys discharged during 3 years, 83 per cent. were +“doing well.” Since the commencement of the +Institution 702 boys had been received. About £1000 +had been contributed by the School Boards during the year, and +£90 for “voluntary boys,” each of whom is +received for £20 <i>per annum</i>. The maintenance +account for the year was about £5000.</p> +<h4>‘WORCESTER.’—(<span +class="smcap">Thames</span>.)</h4> +<p>This vessel was moored at Greenhithe in 1862; a larger vessel, +a 72-gun frigate of 5000 tons, and rechristened +‘Worcester,’ was substituted in 1877. The +‘Worcester’ provides properly qualified officers for +merchant vessels, and accommodates 200 boys. The terms are, +for boys from 13 to 16 years old, 50 guineas, and for boys from +11 to 13 years old, 45 guineas per annum.</p> +<p>The Board of Trade allows two years passed on the +‘Worcester’ to count as one year’s sea service, +and Her Majesty gives annually a gold medal to the boy most noted +for good conduct. About 30 boys passed through the ship +last year.</p> +<h4>SUMMARY OF TRAINING SHIPS DESCRIBED.</h4> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Ships</i></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Boys</i></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Royal Naval (besides those for young Officers, see page +306)</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3400</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Voluntary, including two for Officers and one land +ship</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1500</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Poor-law ship</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">600</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Industrial School ships, including one “School +Board” ship and two “land ships”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2800</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Reformatory ships</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">640</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Total</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8940</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>[In this estimate the ‘Fame’ is reckoned for 250 +boys.]</p> +<h3>THE ROB ROY CUISINE.</h3> +<p>This has been designed after numerous experiments with the +various portable cooking-machines which I could procure for +trial, and, as it succeeds better than any of them, and has been +approved by trial in five of my own voyages, and in another to +Iceland, besides shorter trips, and in the Abyssinian +campaign, &c., &c., it may be of some use to describe the +contrivance here.</p> +<p>The object proposed was to provide a light but strong +apparatus which could speedily boil water and heat or fry other +materials even in wet and windy weather, and with fuel enough +carried in itself for several days’ use.</p> +<p>Fig. 1 is a section of the Rob Roy cuisine as it is made up +for carrying. There is first a strong waterproof bag about +one foot high, and closed at the top by a running cord. At +the bottom is the cuisine itself, <i>a</i>, which occupies a +space of only six inches by three inches (when of smaller size), +and has the various parts packed inside, except the drinking cup +<i>b</i>.</p> +<p>Provisions, such as bread and cold meat or eggs, may bestowed +in the bag above the cuisine, and if the string of it be then +attached to a nail fixed in the boat, the whole will be kept +steady.</p> +<p>For use, when it is desired to boil water, the cuisine being +opened, the lower part is a copper pan, <i>c</i>, fig. 2, with a +handle, <i>e</i>, which can be fixed either into a socket in the +side of the pan, or another socket in the side of the lid, as +represented in figs. 2 and 6.</p> +<p>Three iron legs also fix into sockets and support the pan over +the spirit-lamp, <i>f</i>, by which the pan, two-thirds full of +liquid, will be boiled in five minutes.</p> +<p>The lamp is the main feature of the apparatus, and it is +represented in section in fig. 3. It consists of two +cylinders, one within the other. The space between these +(shaded dark) is closed at top and bottom, and a tube <i>b</i>, +fixed through the bottom, rises with one open end inside, and +another (a small nozzle) curved upwards in the open internal +cylinder. Another tube, <i>h</i>, opens into the annular +chamber between the cylinders, and it has a funnel-shaped mouth +at the outer end, through which the chamber may be filled, while +a screw in the inside allows a handle, fig. 4 (in section), to +have its end, <i>i</i>, screwed in. A small hole in the +upper surface is closed by a little cork, which will be expelled +if the pressure within is so high as to +require escape by this safety-valve. The hole may be in any +part of the annular cover (but is not shown in the sketch), and +in such case the hole shown in the handle is omitted.</p> +<p>The outer cylinder of the lamp, being larger than the inner +one, has a bottom, <i>k</i>, fig. 3, which forms a circular tray +of about two inches wide and half an inch deep.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p324b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Lamp and Pan" +title= +"Lamp and Pan" +src="images/p324s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The original form of the lamp which was first brought +to notice <a name="citation325"></a><a href="#footnote325" +class="citation">[325]</a> by the Cook of the Royal Canoe Club, +had a detached tray for the bottom, but now, instead of this plan +for the admission of air into the lamp, two saw cuts are made, +each about an inch long. One of them is shown below +<i>f</i>, fig. 2, and thus the lamp and tray are united in one +compact piece while still there is access for air.</p> +<p>To put the lamp in operation, unscrew its handle from the +position in fig. 2, so that it will be as in figs. 3 and 4. +Then from a tin flask (which has been packed with the rest of the +things in the pan) pour spirits of wine—or, if the odour is +not objected to, methylated spirit, into the measure <i>m</i>, +fig. 5, and from that into the interior of the lamp through the +opening at <i>h</i>. Next screw in the handle, and place +the lamp level under the pan, and pour nearly another measure +full into the interior tray. Set fire to this, and shelter +it for a few seconds if there be much wind. I used this +always with complete success on the Jordan, Nile, Danube, and +many other rivers.</p> +<p>In a short time the flame heats the spirits in the closed +chamber, and the spirituous steam is forced by pressure down the +tube, and inflames at the nozzle, from which it issues with much +force and some noise in a lighted column, which is about one foot +in height when unimpeded.</p> +<p>This powerful flame operates on the whole of the bottom and +lower edge of the pan, and it cannot be blown out by wind nor by +a blast from the mouth, but may be instantly extinguished by +sharply placing the flat bottom of the measure upon it.</p> +<p>The cover may be put on so as to rest with the flat bottom +downwards, and with or without the handle. If tea is to be +made with the water when it boils, the requisite quantity is to +be placed in the tea vessel <i>n</i>, fig. 5, which has +perforated sides, and, its lid being closed, +this is placed in the water, where it will rest on the curved +side, and can be agitated now and then for a minute, after which +insert the handle in the socket of the pan and remove the lamp, +allowing the tea to infuse for four minutes, when the tea vessel +may be removed and the made tea may be poured out into the +cup. The dry tea can be conveniently carried in a paper +inside the tea vessel. Salt is carried in the box <i>o</i>, +and the matches are in the box <i>p</i>. Coffee may be best +carried in the state of essence in a bottle. An egg-spoon +and a soup-spoon are supplied. A flat clasp knife and fork +may be had extra.</p> +<p>If bacon is to be fried, or eggs to be poached or cooked +<i>sur le plat</i>, they may be put into the lid and held by hand +over the lamp-flame, so as to warm all parts equally, or the +slower heat of a simple flame may be employed by lighting the +measure full of spirits and then placing it on the bottom of the +upturned pan as shown at fig. 6, where it will be observed that +the three legs are placed in their sockets with the convex curve +of each turned outward, so that the lid, as a frying-pan, can +rest upon their three points.</p> +<p>The spirit-flask contains enough for six separate charges of +the lamp, and the cost of using methylated spirits at 4<i>s</i>. +6<i>d</i>. a gallon is not one penny a meal. The lamp-flame +lasts from ten to fifteen minutes, and the weight of the +<i>cuisine</i>, exclusive of the bag and cup, is about two +pounds.</p> +<p>These cuisines, improved by the suggestions obtained in their +use, are made at 93, Chancery Lane, London, of the best materials +and workmanship, and at the price of two and a half guineas; or +if with tin boiler instead of copper, and brass lamp, £1 +12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d</i>. Many of much larger size (to cook +for twenty men) have been used in Australia.</p> +<p>The lamp above described was used daily in my yawl, but the +other fittings were on a more enlarged scale, as extreme +lightness was not then required.</p> +<p>The Norwegian Cooking Apparatus of another kind entirely will be a valuable adjunct to the yachtsman’s +stores. By means of this, meat or pudding after being +heated for only <i>five minutes</i>, and then enclosed in a box +which retains the heat, will be found to be perfectly cooked +after three hours, though no more heat has been applied to +it.</p> +<h3>IMPROVED ROB ROY BINNACLE AND COMPASS.</h3> +<p>Mr. Dent, of the Strand, has made the Life Boat Liquid Compass +with several improvements suggested from the Rob Roy yawl, and +after experiments permitted by the Life Boat Institution. +These relate to the diagram on the card, the lamp with oil or +candle, the reflectors, the ventilation, and the interior +colouring of the binnacle, as well as other minor matters. +In a second cruise of the yawl with my new binnacle, the great +advantages desired were found to be attained. A +<i>fac-simile</i> of the new Rob Roy card is given in “The +Rob Roy on the Jordan,” 6th edition.</p> +<h3>SEA DRESS.</h3> +<p>After six long voyages alone, a few remarks may be made on +water toggery.</p> +<p>Flannel all over to begin with. One grey flannel suit of +“Norfolk jacket” and trousers lasted for three trips, +but at sea the blue colour answers. Straw hat in sun, red +woollen cap in wind, sou’wester in rain, thick boating +jacket, and the life-belt over it, and above that an oilskin coat +with overall trousers of the same, will defy wind and +water. Woven waistcoat expanding limitless. Shoes and +not boots for work, white canvas boots with spring sides for show +in port. No braces. Blue seamless yacht jersey a +bore, though smart. Collar only with a calico shirt, and on +Sundays, when that cylinder of discomfort, a black hat, is +exhumed. Watch hanging in cabin, never on the person +afloat. Purse with keys in the shelf. Knife +and etceteras in leather pockets of the boat. So clad ye +shall be ready to sail or to swim.</p> +<h3>SWIMMING FOR GIRLS.</h3> +<p>The following appeared in the <i>Times</i>, July 3rd, +1878:—</p> +<p>Hundreds of girls in London are learning to swim, but many +hundreds more would gladly learn if teachers could be had. +A healthful, cleanly, life-saving exercise like this ought not to +be stinted of teachers.</p> +<p>The boys have twenty public baths to learn in and the open +water in Victoria Park, besides the dangerous, dirty +canals. More than 1500 boys are learning to swim as paying +members of the London Schools Swimming Club, which is open to all +public elementary schools.</p> +<p>Last year a class for thirty girls was begun late in the +season, yet twenty-five of these were taught to swim in six +lessons, and six of them won prizes.</p> +<p>Only five of the public baths are available for girls and +female school teachers. At some of these the charge is +threepence for a bathe, and at one it is a penny for members of +the club. Twelve girls can be well taught in a class. +For a lesson of two hours, one teacher charges fifteen shillings +and another receives ten shillings, while others are paid two +shillings for each girl who is taught to swim twenty-five yards, +and the rest are rewarded by watches and other prizes for those +who teach the most girls to swim.</p> +<p>Mothers and sisters who can swim will not let their boys be +unwashed on the land and drowned in the water.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">J. M.</p> +<p>The “London Schools Swimming Club” was formed in +1875, and it has already (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1880) +given instruction in swimming to 12,000 boys and girls, and male +and female teachers.</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote3"></a><a href="#citation3" +class="footnote">[3]</a> Shown by dotted lines in the +sketch at p. 7. The Rob Roy is of about four tons’ +burthen, but “tons,” we know well, mean one does not +know what.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10"></a><a href="#citation10" +class="footnote">[10]</a> “Swinging for the +compass” is thus performed. The vessel is moored in +the bight at Greenhithe, and by means of warps to certain +Government buoys she is placed with her head towards the various +points of the compass. The bearing by the compass on board +(influenced by the attraction of the iron she carries) is taken +accurately by one observer in the vessel, and the true bearing is +signalled to him by another observer on shore, who has a compass +out of reach of the “local attraction” of the +vessel. The error in each position due to the local +attraction is thus ascertained, and the corrections for these +errors are written on a card in a tabulated form, +thus:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: center">For</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center">Steer</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>N.</p> +</td> +<td><p>N. ¼ E.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>N. by E.</p> +</td> +<td><p>N.N.E.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>And so on. A half point looks a small matter on the +compass card, but in avoiding a shoal, or in finding a harbour, +it makes all the difference.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14"></a><a href="#citation14" +class="footnote">[14]</a> The Reformatory ship +‘Cornwall’ is at Purfleet. The three vessels +are within sight of each other. We shall sail back to each +of them in a future page, and have a more leisurely look on +board.</p> +<p><a name="footnote20"></a><a href="#citation20" +class="footnote">[20]</a> The after part of the well is +rounded at each side, and it is all boarded up. In the +middle is a seat on which a large cork cushion can rest, or this +may be thrown over as a life-preserver or for a buoy, while the +life-belt to be worn round the waist is stowed away under the +seat, and an iron basin with a handle is placed alongside it just +over the flooring, below which is seen, at p. 41, a wedge of +lead-ballast, and in front of this the water-well, where water +collecting from leakage or dashing spray is conveniently reached +by the tube of vulcanised india-rubber represented as just in +front. This pump hose has a brass union joint on the top, +to which we can screw the nozzle of a pump with a copper cylinder +(shown at the bottom), or a piston worked by hand (but without +any lever), and when in use the cylinder rests obliquely, so that +the water will flow out over the combing, and on the deck, and so +into the sea.</p> +<p><a name="footnote22"></a><a href="#citation22" +class="footnote">[22]</a> Several important suggestions for +the implement of the lifeboat liquid compass were obtained during +my use of it in this voyage, and these have been duly appreciated +by the Lifeboat Institution.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25"></a><a href="#citation25" +class="footnote">[25]</a> However good the glass, it is +very difficult to make use of it for faint or distant objects on +the horizon, and on the whole I found it easier to discern the +first dim line of land far off by the unaided eye. A slight +mark, that would not be observed while only a short piece of it +is seen in the field of view, becomes decidedly manifest if a +large scope is seen at once. The binocular glass was very +valuable, however, when the words on a buoy, or the colour on the +chequers of a beacon had to be deciphered.</p> +<p><a name="footnote26"></a><a href="#citation26" +class="footnote">[26]</a> See page 44 and Appendix.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32"></a><a href="#citation32" +class="footnote">[32]</a> In yet another, the fourth visit +to this stupid shallow harbour (one of the most unpleasant to lie +in anywhere), I fixed an oar out at each side as a leg, and could +scarcely get rest from the fear that one or other of my beautiful +oars would be snapped as they bent and groaned with remonstrances +against supporting several tons of weight in the capacity of a +wooden leg.</p> +<p><a name="footnote36"></a><a href="#citation36" +class="footnote">[36]</a> I had lessened her ton and a half +of iron ballast by leaving two hundredweight on Dover quay; good +advice agreeing with my own opinion that the Rob Roy was +needlessly stiff.</p> +<p><a name="footnote42"></a><a href="#citation42" +class="footnote">[42]</a> The relative positions of all +these articles had been maturely considered and carefully +arranged, and they were much approved by the most experienced and +critical of the many hundred visitors who inspected the Rob +Roy.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44"></a><a href="#citation44" +class="footnote">[44]</a> In the sketch at page 41, the +cook of the Rob Roy is represented as he works when rain compels +him to shelter himself in the cabin under a tarpaulin, and the +hatch inclined upwards. But usually—indeed, always +but on two occasions—he sat in the well while he tended the +caboose.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50"></a><a href="#citation50" +class="footnote">[50]</a> I have read numerous books, +pamphlets, and discussions on this subject, some of which are +wonderfully clear in explaining what is perfectly easy to +understand, while they are exceedingly ingenious in overlooking +the only difficulty, which is, how a man on one vessel is to know +whither another vessel is steering to. (March 1880.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote52"></a><a href="#citation52" +class="footnote">[52]</a> +“<i>Caution</i>.—During strong winds, between W.S.W., +round westerly, and N.N.W., the coast to the eastward of Ailly +Point is dangerous to be on, and shipwrecks are of frequent +occurrence; vessels therefore of every description at that period +should keep a good offing, and when obliged to approach it, must +do so with great caution; for although the general mass of the +above banks appear to be stationary, yet great attention must be +paid to the lead, and in observing the confused state of the sea +in the various eddies, so as to guard against suddenly meeting +with dangers which may be of recent formation. The lights +for the purpose of pointing out the position of the headlands and +dangers between Capes Antifer and Gris-Nez at night, are so +disposed that in clear weather two can always be seen at a time, +and the greater number of the harbours have one or more tide +lights shown during the time the harbour can be entered.</p> +<p>“It is important to notice that along the coast, between +Cape de la Hève and the town of Ault (a space of 67 +miles), the wind, when it blows in a direction perpendicular, or +nearly so, to the direction of the coast, is reflected by the +high cliffs, neutralizing in great measure its original action to +a certain extent in the offing, depending upon the strength of +the wind. It follows from this, that a zone is formed off +the coast and parallel to it (except in front of the wide +valleys, where the direct wind meets with no obstacle), where the +wind is light, the sea much agitated, and the waves run towards +the shore. On the contrary, when the wind forms an acute +angle with the coast, the reflected wind contributes to increase +the direct wind near the shore.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote55"></a><a href="#citation55" +class="footnote">[55]</a> As a precaution, I always put on +the life-belt when I had to reef, as one is liable then to be +jerked overboard; also in strong winds when we ran before them, +because in case of getting over board then, it would be difficult +to catch the yawl by swimming; also at night when sailing, or +when, sleeping on deck, as one might then be suddenly run +down. But with all this prudence it happened that on each +of the three occasions when I did fall into the water, I had not +the life-belt on. The Life-Boat Institution had presented +to me one of their life-jackets—an invaluable companion if +a long immersion in the water is to be undergone. But for +convenience in working the ropes and sails I was content to use +the less bulky life-belt. It is conveniently arranged, and +you soon forget it as an encumbrance. Indeed on one +occasion I walked up to a house without recollecting that my +life-belt was upon me when ashore!</p> +<p><a name="footnote60"></a><a href="#citation60" +class="footnote">[60]</a> The account of these paddlings +has been published in ‘A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy +Canoe,’ 10th edition, and in ‘The Rob Roy in the +Baltic,’ 6th edition, both works being profusely +illustrated (Low, Marston and Co., Crown Buildings, Fleet +Street).</p> +<p><a name="footnote77"></a><a href="#citation77" +class="footnote">[77]</a> “Fécamp Harbour is +difficult to enter at all times, and dangerous to attempt when it +blows hard from the westward on account of the heavy sea at the +entrance; for should a vessel at that time miss the harbour and +ground upon the rocks off Fagnet Point, she would be totally +lost.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote78"></a><a href="#citation78" +class="footnote">[78]</a> A mysterious shell-fish +delicacy.</p> +<p><a name="footnote85"></a><a href="#citation85" +class="footnote">[85]</a> Thick paper round my parcels of +books within happily kept them dry.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98"></a><a href="#citation98" +class="footnote">[98]</a> Very few authors can write books +suitable for men with weary bodies and sleepy minds. It is +remarkable to see how much attention these men will pay to the +words of the Bible and the ‘Pilgrim’s +Progress.’ No doubt such readers often read but the +surface-sense of both these books; but then even that sense is +good, and the deeper meaning is better, while the language of +both is superb.</p> +<p><a name="footnote102"></a><a href="#citation102" +class="footnote">[102]</a> If men’s vices are matched +by dogs’ failings, several of our best virtues are at least +equalled by those in canine characters; especially courage, +fidelity, patience, and forgiveness. It is hard to believe +(even if indeed we are at all warranted in believing) that these +noble animals are done with existence when they die. It is +harder still to see a man cruel to a dog, without feeling pretty +sure that the man is not the better of the two. The dog +life to be seen at the “Home for lost dogs” is a +study for any thoughtful man.</p> +<p>Six empty collars hang in my own room. Each of them +belonged to successive dogs called ‘Rob,’ who cruised +with me until they were lost or killed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote110"></a><a href="#citation110" +class="footnote">[110]</a> The soldiers liked these so much +that it was the fashion to place the +“Emperor’s” picture over each man’s +bed. On one occasion His Majesty happened to notice this +when visiting a guard-room, and he had the whole story explained +to him. The late Prince Imperial also came for a +‘British Workman,’ and probably it was pinned behind +His Royal Highness’ four-poster. He was a member of +the Royal Canoe Club, and one of his canoes was saved from the +fire at the palace of St. Cloud.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112"></a><a href="#citation112" +class="footnote">[112]</a> A friend of mine stated that a +French, gentleman of good education called upon him one day, and +happened to look at a French Testament which lay open on the +chimney-piece. “<i>Tiens</i>!” he said, +“<i>Paternoster</i> in the Bible?” when he saw the +Lord’s Prayer in the printed page.</p> +<p><a name="footnote117"></a><a href="#citation117" +class="footnote">[117]</a> A similar Society has begun +operations in France by publishing translations of English papers +on Sanitary and Domestic Management.</p> +<p><a name="footnote119"></a><a href="#citation119" +class="footnote">[119]</a> In this one particular the +canoeist has to trust to the boat-builder. In others, and +in those relating to the rigging and sails especially, I regret +to say that I do not find <i>any</i> builder fulfils those +requirements of strength, lightness, neatness, and simplicity +combined in due proportions, upon which so much of the safety of +a canoe depends, as well as comfort and pleasure in using it +during the many days’ constant work of a long voyage. +The proper rigging of a canoe, so as to be neither fragile like a +toy nor clumsy in its small details, is well attended to at the +Model Dockyard in Fleet Street.</p> +<p><a name="footnote121"></a><a href="#citation121" +class="footnote">[121]</a> This hankering after Egypt once +more ripened into the cruise of the “Rob Roy on the +Jordan,” of which the sixth edition appears in April, +1880.</p> +<p><a name="footnote128"></a><a href="#citation128" +class="footnote">[128]</a> These four gentlemen, admitted +to the amateur contests declined to row against four English +watermen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote142"></a><a href="#citation142" +class="footnote">[142]</a> I recollect that old Westminster +Bridge was a very dangerous one for a boat to sail through, +because the joints between the <i>voussoirs</i>, or lines of +stones under the arch, were not horizontal as in most other +bridges, but in an oblique direction, and several times when my +mast has touched one of these it was borne downwards with all the +power of a screw.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150"></a><a href="#citation150" +class="footnote">[150]</a> I found that a common Scotch +plaid, if it was in an inclined position, resisted wet longer +than any other material permeable to air, and it could be readily +dried by hanging it from the mast in the wind.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151"></a><a href="#citation151" +class="footnote">[151]</a> There was another method of +cooking under shelter, and we employed it on the only other +occasion when this had to be done, namely, to shut up the cabin +and to cook inside it, using the portable “canoe +cuisine,” which is described in the Appendix. But as +this is meant to be employed only on shore, it does not answer +well on board, except in a calm; and, moreover, the heat +generated by the lamp was too much in a small cabin. Even a +single candle heats a small apartment, and it is well known that +a man can get a very good vapour-bath by sitting over a +rushlight, with blankets fastened all round.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152"></a><a href="#citation152" +class="footnote">[152]</a> The best, according to my taste, +were those of “Irish stew,” “Stewed +steak,” “Mulligatawny,” “Oxtail,” +and “Vegetable soup,” all in the order named. +“Preserved peas” were not quite so good; but the +other viands were all far better than can be had at any culinary +hotel, and were entirely without that metallic or other +“preserved” flavour so soon discovered in such +eatables, and even by a palate not fastidious. This +experience was fully confirmed afterwards in my Canoe Cruises in +Holland, in the Orkneys and Shetland, and in the Red Sea, Jordan, +Nile, Abana, Pharpar, and Lake of Galilee.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156"></a><a href="#citation156" +class="footnote">[156]</a> Frenchmen have a trick of +anchoring thus to escape a breeze. We have seen them anchor +on the African coast merely to avoid a hard-looking cloud, +whereas the real danger was in anchoring there at all.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159a"></a><a href="#citation159a" +class="footnote">[159a]</a> See Frontispiece.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159b"></a><a href="#citation159b" +class="footnote">[159b]</a> We shall hear of this pinch +again further on.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160"></a><a href="#citation160" +class="footnote">[160]</a> This latter construction is +found to be very convenient, because the cargo is at one end of +the vessel and the machinery, and paddle-wheels, and steering +apparatus are all at the other end, so that orders can be readily +given to both by the captain. The “Express” +Company on the Seine has sixty of these steamers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161"></a><a href="#citation161" +class="footnote">[161]</a> It was, however, only an +adaptation of the same principle I had used in Swedish lakes, +when my course was towards a bright sun so dazzling in the water +that I invented the plan of covering my eyes with my straw hat, +and steering the canoe by the bright reflection of the sun on its +cedar deck, which was of course by no means so unpleasant as the +beams of light glancing from the water itself. Surely it +would not be impossible to make the needle of a mariner’s +compass itself steer the ship at least within half a point. +The motion of the needle could connect one or the other of two +electro currents, and so set in instant action a powerful +purchase to act on the tiller.</p> +<p><a name="footnote171"></a><a href="#citation171" +class="footnote">[171]</a> First thoughts of people and of +countries are more striking, they are only by chance at all +true. I recollect asking an American, after his visit to +the English House of Lords, what struck his attention most; and +he said, “Their lordships don’t seem to brush their +hair.” Another clever traveller, from the same land +of our cousins, was asked what he noticed of our manners in +London, and he replied, “I observe it is the fashion here, +when a gentleman sees his friend on the other side of Pall Mall, +he shakes his umbrella at him and calls out, ‘D’ye +do, old fellow?’”</p> +<p><a name="footnote188"></a><a href="#citation188" +class="footnote">[188]</a> The Rob Roy came there again +next summer, up the Thames, and by the canal, and the river Wey +and the Arun, and so to Southsea, with fifteen canoes, five dogs +and a cockatoo—such fun.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192"></a><a href="#citation192" +class="footnote">[192]</a> After so much experience of the +yawl, tried in all points in all kinds of wind and weather, it +may well be supposed that numerous improvements had been noted in +my book as desirable. These, however, we need not here +particularise, as the various descriptions given at intervals +through this book shew what the Rob Roy is in her latest and best +arrangements.</p> +<p><a name="footnote195a"></a><a href="#citation195a" +class="footnote">[195a]</a> The fall of each halyard was +coiled and put under the taut part. A small coil looks +neatest, but the fall of it is sure to kink if coiled close, +being wet and dry ten times in a day. Before nearing +harbour, or in preparation to lower sail +“handsomely,” I found it well to cast the coil loose +on the hatch, else a kink would catch in the leading sheave.</p> +<p><a name="footnote195b"></a><a href="#citation195b" +class="footnote">[195b]</a> This was forthwith invented and +used and shewn to hundreds of people. After some time the +very identical thing was patented, and it is now used by +thousands. Most of our canoes have these “tumbling +cleats,” and they are used for the cords of blinds, +&c., in many houses, including my own.</p> +<p><a name="footnote197"></a><a href="#citation197" +class="footnote">[197]</a> This is shewn in the sketch on +the preceding page; the bar presented a very smooth surface for +the bottom of the dingey to run over when it was shipped under +the hatch, or hauled out in a hurry. Moreover, the wood was +convenient to stride across in getting from the well to the +cabin, and it was far more pleasant and <i>warmer</i> than metal +to hold on by during violent lurches of the sea.</p> +<p><a name="footnote206"></a><a href="#citation206" +class="footnote">[206]</a> A foreign sailor, examined as to +a shipwreck case in Court, was asked, “How did you know it +was the coast of England?” He said, “Because a +lifeboat came out to us.” Rule Britannia!</p> +<p><a name="footnote208"></a><a href="#citation208" +class="footnote">[208]</a> Three hundredweight of ballast +was thrown off at Cowes, besides what we took out at Dover, and +still the yawl was stiff.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211"></a><a href="#citation211" +class="footnote">[211]</a> Other inventors, knowing the +experimental turn of my crew, had sent me several instruments and +things of various sorts to try in practice, and to report +on. One of these was a beautiful little anchor made of +bronze, and in form very peculiar and apparently an improvement, +indeed an admirable novelty to look at. This, too, I heaved +overboard for trial, but it simply dragged through the soft mud, +and proved quite useless.</p> +<p><a name="footnote240"></a><a href="#citation240" +class="footnote">[240]</a> He had wisely fitted a +centre-board in his 14-feet canoe at my suggestion. This +sliding keel answered well for sailing, and all our large canoes +are now thus fitted. Mr. Berthons’ portable canoe can +be carried flat under one arm. Canoe sails are dangerous +unless they can be lowered in an instant. So are the sails +of a frigate in a sudden squall. The +‘Eurydice,’ which I saw in Portsmouth harbour, is a +warning for ever.</p> +<p><a name="footnote242"></a><a href="#citation242" +class="footnote">[242]</a> To anchor for the night, riding +by tide or stream, is not pleasant; for then the wind may cross +your hatch, and blow the rain in sideways, whereas if you ride at +anchor to the wind alone, the draught comes always from the +front, and so it can be better provided for, and the boat does +not roll much even if she pitches.</p> +<p><a name="footnote244"></a><a href="#citation244" +class="footnote">[244]</a> Revelation xix. 7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote246"></a><a href="#citation246" +class="footnote">[246]</a> It was hung on the port mizen +shroud. To hang it in front of you is simply to cut off two +of your three chances of possibly seeing ahead.</p> +<p><a name="footnote250"></a><a href="#citation250" +class="footnote">[250]</a> I think that in a port like +Newhaven the look-out man in charge ought to come to the +pier-head when he sees a yacht entering in rough weather, and +certainly there is more attention to such matters in France than +with us.</p> +<p><a name="footnote260"></a><a href="#citation260" +class="footnote">[260]</a> The singular volcanic eruptions +in Iceland occurred also on that day.</p> +<p><a name="footnote261"></a><a href="#citation261" +class="footnote">[261]</a> The numerous vessels met now +were some of those we had been with in the morning, and they +looked even more in number, for we crossed and recrossed each +other frequently, and this part of the Channel is a highway for +nations.</p> +<p><a name="footnote267"></a><a href="#citation267" +class="footnote">[267]</a> In the winter this old sailor +was drowned, the last of six brothers, all of whom were +drowned.</p> +<p><a name="footnote268"></a><a href="#citation268" +class="footnote">[268]</a> This event is depicted on the +cover of our book, being a copy of the illustration in the +excellent penny periodical, ‘The Boy’s Own +Paper’ (October, 1879), one of a score of serials and a +thousand books at the ‘Pure Literature Society,’ 11, +Buckingham Street, Strand.</p> +<p><a name="footnote270"></a><a href="#citation270" +class="footnote">[270]</a> One of the pranks to be prepared +for in a boat is this jibing of the boom, and until by practice +you know the exact range of safety for your head in relation to +that swinging spar, caution should be the rule. Long ago I +had learned the exact length of the Rob Roy’s boom in +relation to my nose; for even in the Thames, soon after starting, +it had once caught the back of my head, and knocked my face down +on the deck, where a bloody nose (but no worse result) speedily +settled the question as to which must yield when the boom and the +captain are at loggerheads. I learned more lessons of this +sort when, in 1871, I had a lonely voyage in a “yawl +canoe” through Holland and the Zuyder Zee, and Friesland +and the Texel. An account of it was published in the +‘Graphic’ for November of that year.</p> +<p><a name="footnote272"></a><a href="#citation272" +class="footnote">[272]</a> At a southern watering place +lately there were forty ladies each in a canoe on one +afternoon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote275"></a><a href="#citation275" +class="footnote">[275]</a> Bravely they worked to save life +on the Goodwin in the fearful gale that came soon afterwards.</p> +<p><a name="footnote280"></a><a href="#citation280" +class="footnote">[280]</a> The recent legislation for the +proper care of the women and the education of the children on +barges was much needed, and it was successfully accomplished by +our late excellent Home Secretary, who was himself one of the +best “oars” at Cambridge, when the late Foreign +Secretary of France was another.</p> +<p><a name="footnote284"></a><a href="#citation284" +class="footnote">[284]</a> The use of the word +“bloody” is now general among the lowest classes all +over England. The meaning intended by this is not what +scholars would agree to. Hundreds of times the word is +employed only for “very,” and it is strange how soon +one’s first shudders at the sound become faint, and even +die.</p> +<p><a name="footnote287"></a><a href="#citation287" +class="footnote">[287]</a> The <i>Royal Canoe Club</i> has +elected about 600 Members, including several ladies. Some +of the Members are in Australia, India, Japan, China, Canada, and +North and South America. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is our +Commodore, and he has several canoes. There are also +several branches of the Club besides other Canoe Clubs on the +Mersey, the Clyde, the Forth, the Trent, the Humber, and four +Clubs in America. The Office of the R.C. Club is at 11, +Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London, where also is “The Pure +Literature Society,” with 3600 books and 42 periodicals all +good to read and to choose from.</p> +<p><a name="footnote291"></a><a href="#citation291" +class="footnote">[291]</a> We need not he surprised that +sharks should get entangled in the Bay of Biscay. Even at +Margate one was caught a short time after I had swam in the water +there, and six more sharks were captured in the summer on the +English south coast.</p> +<p><a name="footnote296"></a><a href="#citation296" +class="footnote">[296]</a> As this was being urged upon +friends, a telegram came from the Admiralty for +“Twenty-five boys from the +‘Chichester.’”</p> +<p><a name="footnote297"></a><a href="#citation297" +class="footnote">[297]</a> A description of these vessels +will be found in the Appendix.</p> +<p><a name="footnote325"></a><a href="#citation325" +class="footnote">[325]</a> The late Professor J. D. Forbes, +who used this lamp, says it was introduced into this country from +Russia by Dr. Samuel Brown, and that “the jet of burning +spirit has such force as to resist the blast of a +hurricane.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">london</span>: +<span class="smcap">printed by william clowes and sons</span>, +<span class="smcap">limited</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">stamford street and charing cross</span>.</p> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOYAGE ALONE IN THE YAWL “ROB ROY” ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 27235-h.htm or 27235-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/3/27235/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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