For attaining speed, and thus diminishing the tedium and the risk of an Atlantic voyage, Mr. Wynans, of Baltimore, has invented a cigar-shaped boat, as it is called, though it is pointed at both ends. Various causes have hitherto prevented his final experiment with his boat, but he hopes to be able to make with it an average speed of at least eighteen miles an hour.
Crossing the Atlantic has become so common, and sea-sickness making the trip so disagreeable and dangerous to many people, attention has been turned to inventing a method of construction which shall destroy the cause for this malady, by keeping the saloon always on a level, notwithstanding the pitching and rolling of the ship in a high sea. Mr. Bessemer, the inventor of the new process for making steel, has invented a boat, which he is now constructing, and which he thinks will make it perfectly feasible to cross the Atlantic without the necessity of paying the usual tribute to old Neptune. The general idea of his ship may be thus described: The saloon for passengers is to be balanced upon a frame work similar in principle to that by which the lamps on ship-board are supported. An outer circle swings upon pivots at each end of its diameter, and within another circle supports the lamp, which is swung upon pivots at right angles with those in the first. However, then, the ship may pitch or roll, the lamp remains perpendicular, the circles adjusting themselves to meet the motion of the ship. This idea is to be applied in the construction of the saloon, so that it will remain constantly on a level, and as Mr. Bessemer has a plenty of money to construct a dozen of ships for an experiment, the public may expect before long to hear of a trial. The first ship of the kind is reported as on the stocks, and to be rapidly approaching completion. Nor is this the only style of ship suggested to obviate sea-sickness. A Russian, M. Alexandroiski, proposes a new form of stationary ship-saloon, which differs from that of Mr. Bessemer in having the cabin float in kind of a tank placed between the engines, instead of being hung on pivots. This invention, it is stated, has been tested by the Russian Naval Department, and is reported to have been found entirely satisfactory, the rolling motion of the vessel being completely counteracted. With the success of one or the other of these plans, an ocean voyage, even in a rough sea, will become a pleasure trip, like sailing in a painted ship upon a painted ocean; the wildness of a storm even may become merely an exciting spectacle, like looking at the representation of a hurricane in a theatre, with the further advantage of having it real and life-like.
Perhaps the change which has been brought about in our feeling with regard to the ocean is shown more in the yachting of modern times than in anything else. The idea of making a trip across the Atlantic is no longer considered an almost foolhardy undertaking, but even our yachts have made it a field for their races, and a match across the Atlantic has become not an unusual thing. The owning of yachts has become so general among our rich men, that yacht-building has become a regular branch of naval architecture, and constant improvements are being made in their models, and greater luxury displayed in their fitting up. George Steers, who has been mentioned before for his improvements in the model of the steamship, made his first reputation by the construction of the yacht America, which was sent over to England, and proved the fastest vessel in the regatta on the occasion of the first World's Fair in London. This yacht, after her victory, was bought by an Englishman, and never used again, being left to rot at her moorings. However, she changed the yacht models of Europe.
OCEAN YACHT RACE.—THE HENRIETTA, VISTA AND FLEETWING.
A yacht race across the Atlantic was one of the sensations of the year 1866. Three yachts entered the contest, the Henrietta, the Fleetwing and the Vista. They started from Sandy Hook one day in December, and though the season had been unusually stormy, and they encountered gales almost all the way, so that frequently they were forced to sail under bare poles, and the Fleetwing lost several of her sailors, who were washed overboard, yet they arrived safe at Cowes on the same day, after a fourteen days' voyage, the Henrietta winning the race by a couple of hours. This yacht was the property of James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the son of the owner of the New York Herald. During the war her owner freely offered her to the government, and she has done good service. After the victory Mr. Bennett sold her for $15,000, and purchased the Fleetwing for $65,000, re-christening her the Dauntless. This yacht, in another ocean race in 1870, was beaten by the Cambria, an English yacht. These prices show the cost of seeking one's pleasure in a yacht, and yet it is only one item of the expense. To keep one of the vessels costs more than the expenses of the majority of the households in the country. A crew of five men is needed, and it is a question whether, all things considered, more real substantial interest and enjoyment is not taken by a lover of the sea and of sailing in an ordinary sail-boat, which he and a friend or two are amply competent to man and manage, than is taken by the owners of the most luxuriantly furnished yachts in the world. As pleasure ships, however, the yacht is all that can be desired. Many of them contain spacious saloons; their cabins are almost always paneled in costly woods, and most luxuriantly furnished, and even gas has been provided for them. It is estimated that the yachts of the New York club alone have cost more than $2,000,000, and those of the whole country about $5,000,000. Much of this is the mere luxury of ostentation; but as the real pleasures there are in thus visiting distant lands come to be better appreciated, much of this foolish expenditure will be abandoned.
