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.
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.
CHAPTER XVI.
The life-raft—A travelled hen—Prussian adventure—American—Going up-stairs—Portsmouth—Fair visitor—Cruises—A review—Questions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.