Fig. 3.—'The Lady Hermione.' Deck plan.
The first contrivance which claims attention is that for keeping the rudder fixed at any desired angle (figs. 4 and 5A). In his account of his cruise in the yawl 'Rob Roy' the late Mr. Macgregor says that he had never seen any really satisfactory method of accomplishing this object; but the difficulty has been solved by Lord Dufferin, who, indeed, has had fitted in many of his previous boats an apparatus similar to that in the present one. On the deck aft, about a couple of feet in advance of the rudder-head, are fitted two brass stanchions. These support a brass bar which on its lower side is indented with notches similar to the teeth of a saw, and of a depth of about half an inch (A, fig. 4). On the tiller there is fitted a brass tube or cylinder made so as to slide backwards and forwards within a limit of some eight or ten inches, and bearing on its upper surface a triangular fin of brass (A, fig. 5). When it is desired to fix the tiller in any particular position, the cylinder is instantaneously slipped back until the fin catches one of the notches of the bar, and the tiller is thus securely fixed. The tiller is unlocked by simply flicking forward the cylinder with the hand, the locking and unlocking being done in a second. The toothed brass bar, it may be mentioned, is curved so that the fin may fit into any desired notch, no matter at what an angle it may be desired to fix the rudder (A, fig. 4). The cockpit of the yacht being somewhat small, it was found that when there was a lady passenger on board the movement of the tiller interfered with her comfort, and, in order to obviate this difficulty, a steering-wheel has recently been fixed on the top of the cabin immediately in front of where the helmsman stands (fig. 6). When the wheel is used a short tiller is employed, with steel tackles leading from it through pulleys and fair-leads to the wheel itself. The axis of the wheel carries a brass cap fitted with a screw, by half a turn of which the steering apparatus can be locked or unlocked, and the helm fixed in any position. If it is desired at any time to substitute steering with the tiller for steering with the wheel, the process is very simple. A brass handle of the requisite length, and bearing a cylinder and fin as above described, is screwed on to the short tiller, and the tiller ropes are cast off, the whole operation being performed in a few seconds. The wheel, the stand for which slides into brass grooves on the cabin top, can also be unshipped and stowed out of the way in a very short time.
Fittings of 'The Lady Hermione.'
We now proceed to examine the gear for letting go the anchor, which, though difficult to describe, will readily be understood from the drawing (fig. 7). The anchor, a Martin's patent, when stowed, rests upon two crescent-shaped supports, which project from the bulwarks just forward of the main rigging (A, A', fig. 7). These supports are fixed to a bar or tumbler lying close to the inside of the bulwark, and arranged so as to turn on its axis (B, fig. 7; and C, fig. 12). Fixed to the tumbler inboard there is a small bar which fits into a socket attached to the covering board. On the socket is a trigger (C, fig. 7, and D, fig. 12) from which a line leads along the inside of the bulwarks to within easy reach of the cockpit (D, fig. 7). By pulling this line the socket is made to revolve, so as to release the arm; the weight of the anchor forces the tumbler to turn on its axis, bringing down with it the crescent-shaped supports, and the anchor falls into the sea.
This operation having been completed, it will probably be thought that now at last the crew must leave his point of vantage, and go forward to stopper and bit his cable. But no; we have not by any means yet reached the limits of ingenuity displayed in this extraordinary little ship. The chain cable runs out through a hawse-pipe in the bow, and across the hawse-hole a strong steel plate or compressor, with a notch cut in it to fit the links of the cable, runs in grooves. By pulling a line which leads to the cockpit this compressor is drawn over the hawse-hole, and the cable is thus effectually snubbed. When the anchor has to be got up, or it is required to let out more chain, the compressor can be drawn back by another line which also leads to the cockpit. These two contrivances for letting go and stopping the anchor, together with the apparatus for weighing it without leaving the cockpit, which will now be dealt with, get rid of that fruitful source of discomfort in boats manned by one hand—namely, the necessity of the solitary mariner's having to go forward to deal with his ground tackle at a time when perhaps he has other pressing calls on his attention in connection with the management of his vessel.
Equally as ingenious as the means of letting go the anchor is the machinery employed for weighing it. The windlass used is an ordinary yacht's windlass, except that on its outer end on its starboard side it carries a cogged wheel (fig. 8). Close alongside the windlass there rises from the deck a spindle cut with an endless screw (A, fig. 9), the threads of which take the teeth of the cogged wheel. This spindle runs through the deck, and has at its lower extremity a cogged wheel (B, fig. 9), fitting into another cogged wheel attached to a shaft, which runs aft on bearings in the ceiling of the cabin to the cockpit (C, fig. 9). At the cockpit end it is furnished with a large wheel (D, fig. 9, and fig. 10), on turning which the motion is communicated through the shaft and a system of cog-wheels (figs. 9 and 11), to the Archimedian screw rising up through the deck forward, and this screw in its turn revolves the windlass, and the anchor comes merrily home. The slack of the chain, as it comes in, drops perpendicularly through the hawse-pipe to the chain-locker below, and requires no attention or handling. The machinery for getting the anchor possesses great power, and, even when the anchor has a tight hold of the bottom, the wheel in the cockpit can be turned almost with one finger. The wheel is made to ship and unship, and when not in use is hung up to the side of the cabin. As a general rule, especially when weighing in a crowded harbour, the anchor is simply hove up close to the hawse-hole until open water has been gained, the ropes carefully coiled down, and everything made snug and shipshape. The vessel is then laid to, or the helm fixed so as to keep her on her course, as circumstances may determine, and the crew goes forward to do the one thing he cannot perform from aft, the catting and fishing of his anchor. Suspended from the head of the mainmast is a tackle of the kind known to seamen as a 'Spanish burton,' with a long iron hook attached to its lower block. In fishing the anchor this burton is first overhauled, and, leaning over the bow, the operator fixes the hook in a ring let into the shank of the anchor at a point where the anchor exactly balances itself when suspended horizontally. He then passes the various parts of the fall of the tackle through an eye at the end of a fish-davit—similar in shape to the boat-davits used in large ships—which stands up from the deck close to the bulwarks, a little forward of the supports for the anchor already mentioned (A, fig. 12). By pulling on the hauling part of the burton the anchor is raised close to the end of the davit, and the davit, by an ingeniously arranged spring, on a lever at its base (B, fig. 12), being pressed with the foot, can be swung round until the anchor is suspended immediately above its resting-place, into which it is then lowered, the crescent-shaped supports already referred to having been previously placed in position, and the trigger locked. Here it rests in perfect security, and is ready to be let go by pulling on the line attached to the trigger. On the port side a second anchor is carried, an Admiralty pattern, weighing about fifty pounds, and secured in precisely the same way as the starboard or working anchor, though in weighing it the windlass is used with an ordinary ratchet, as the windlass barrel on the port side is not connected with the shaft previously described. It may here be mentioned that the starboard barrel of the windlass can also be used in the ordinary way, as the spindle with the endless screw already mentioned is made with a joint, so that it can be disconnected from the cogged wheel and laid down flat on deck out of the way whenever necessary (C, fig. 8; and D, fig. 9).
We now pass on to what is the most important thing in all single-handed sailing boats, the arrangement of the halliards and sheets in such a manner that all operations connected with making and shortening sail can be performed from the cockpit. In 'The Lady Hermione' this essential principle has been carried out to its fullest extent. At the foot of the mainmast on each side is a brass fair-lead fitted with ten or twelve sheaves (figs. 13 and 14). Through these sheaves all the halliards (except, of course, those connected with the mizzen) are rove, and then led aft over the top of the cabin to within a few inches of the cockpit (fig. 3). Here they are belayed to a large belaying-pin rack which crosses the cabin top in front of the steersman and within easy reach of his hand (fig. 15). The frame of this rack is pierced with horizontal holes for the ropes to pass through, after which they are belayed to the pins, while the falls are allowed to drop down on to the cabin floor, where they are snugly coiled away in a box with a number of compartments which has been made to receive them. The object of passing the halliards through holes in the belaying-pin rack is to afford a straight pull when getting up sail, and to prevent the ropes from flying away out of the steersman's reach when they are let go. 'The Lady Hermione' is, or rather was originally, fitted with all the running rigging that would be employed in the largest-sized yacht, and this will give some idea of the number of ropes that have to be dealt with by one person:—main and peak halliards, two topping-lifts, tack tackle and tack tricing line, topsail tack, sheets, halliards, and clew line, jib and staysail halliards, and jib and staysail down-hauls. As originally rigged, main, peak, and jib purchases were employed for getting the mainsail and jib well up, but the introduction of the gipsy winches mentioned in the next paragraph rendered these ropes unnecessary, and they have consequently been dispensed with. The system employed, however, has always worked without the slightest hitch, and enables whoever may be sailing the boat to attend to all the halliards without leaving the helm. On the belaying-pin rack each pin has the name of the rope for which it is intended engraved on a small brass plate, so that no confusion can arise as to what part of the gear it may at any time be desired to deal with; though, after a little practice, whoever is sailing the boat knows the lead of each rope by instinct. At the foot of the mizzen-mast fair-leads, similar to those near the mainmast, bring the gear of the mizzen to within reach of the cockpit. The jib and staysail sheets also lead aft, through bull's-eye fair-leads fixed inside the bulwarks, and are belayed to cleats screwed on to the coamings of the cockpit.