Towards 6 p.m. the north-westerly breeze, which had been blowing since noon, increased considerably, so much so, that first one and then the other of the larger yachts gave up and turned tail before it might become too late, the last to say good-bye being the largest of the three. This yacht, a well-known hard-weather vessel of over 40 tons measurement, after trying to signal a last advice to the little 'Wyvern' to return, put her helm down (though she was well past the Kish Lightship), and made herself snug for the dusting she was in for on the journey back to Kingstown.
On shore, at both club-houses, the greatest alarm was being felt not only for the 'Wyvern's' safety, but also for the welfare of her three larger sisters, and the anxiety on the 'Wyvern's' account increased still more when her three companions put in their appearance again at their moorings. During the evening and through the night the wind increased to a whole gale, and the meteorological report next morning proved anything but pleasant reading, whilst among the old salts and those best acquainted with the capabilities of small yachts little hope was felt of ever seeing the 'Wyvern' again.
On the evening of the next day the writer left Kingstown for Liverpool in his yacht, and fell in with the Mersey 10-tonners making the best of their way down river. The nearest yacht hailed informed him that the 'Wyvern' had arrived all safe, and had made a very fast passage across to the Sloyne. A few days after, meeting the skipper, a full account of the trip was given, and there was no limit to the eulogies he had to bestow on the yacht. During the night the sea had increased the further they sailed from under the lee of the land, but for all that the only time any seas were shipped was when off Holyhead. Twice only had they to free the yacht of water, and on those occasions very little had gone into the cabin.
The 'Wyvern' was not a yacht of large displacement; she inclined, indeed, rather the other way. Those who have seen the 'Naiad' or 'Pastime' hauled up out of water (two of Dickenson's old crack 10-tonners which now frequent the South Coast ports) will have a better idea than any words can give of the 'Wyvern's' style of model and midship section. Built for length on deck, there was no necessity for shortening up the water-line, and her sternpost had no very great rake. Her buttock lines were as easy and fair as could be, giving her a slightly hollowed entrance with a nice clean run aft. Her extreme draught was not much over 5 feet, and her keel ran almost straight from the heel of the sternpost to the foot of the stem—that is, with very little if any rocker (or rounding) to it. Dickenson had a very admirable method of finishing off the after end of his yachts, and their counters were all light, and neatly put on. The 'Wyvern's' counter was particularly so. She was flush-decked save a large cockpit, which opened into the cabin, and which was surrounded by a 5-inch combing. This was the only weak or vulnerable part about her; for if a really heavy lump of water had filled it, there was nothing to prevent the cabin being swamped. Her fittings below were of the simplest description, though very comfortable. The sofas on each side of the saloon formed lockers and berths, and beyond these a pantry and a fitting for a lavatory, which was forward on the starboard side, with the usual two square lockers at the after ends of the sofas, were all the furniture of any consequence she contained. She had wood floors, iron not having come into fashion at that time, and carried the greater part of her ballast inside to the tune of 3 tons of lead and 10 cwt. of iron. Her outside ballast consisted of a 14-cwt. lead keel, which was considered in those days a very heavy keel for so small a yacht. She was one of the first small yachts of 6 tons or under that was fitted with a flush deck and ordinary skylight, and in every way she looked the picture of smartness. When she was first built her principal antagonists about her own size were the 'Adèle,' a small 5-ton yacht also by Dickenson, the 'Pet,' 5 tons, built at Douglas, Isle of Man, in 1871, and a very fast 3-tonner, the 'Barracouta,' built by Bishop in 1860, for Mr. J. M. Hannay. She was altered in 1874 into a yawl in order to race in the 5-ton class, which was at that time just beginning to be popular.
Among the most celebrated of the early 5-tonners were three yachts, the 'Pearl,' 'Torment,' and 'Arrow.' Of the three, the 'Pearl' and 'Torment' were the best known, and are still held in loving memory by many a yachting enthusiast. The 'Torment,' owned by that well-known yachtsman the late Secretary to the Royal Irish Yacht Club, was raced from the day of her birth, some time about the year 1850, and was always a leader of the van. Her racing career lasted not much less than twenty years, and it was only the lead keels and the deep bodies given to the later yachts that brought it to a close. It is when looking back on such good old warriors as the 'Torment' and the 'Mosquito,' among the larger racers, that lovers of the sport whose incomes are limited must agree that the old days were good indeed. It was not necessary then to be the fortunate possessor of a new vessel each season to enable the lover of yacht racing to win prizes and keep well in with the flyers of the year. When an old boat appeared to be not quite up to the mark, or lacking in the requisite turn of speed, little was done to make her beat some new comer beyond a few alterations, which as a rule took the form of doctoring up one or other of her ends, or, perhaps, lengthening her out amidships. The most remarkable example of how a yacht's racing life could be made to outlive many competitors and leave her a winner to the last, by effecting alteration after alteration on her hull, was that of the old 'Arrow,' which belonged to Mr. Tankerville Chamberlayne. Alas! the days when an alteration was quite sufficient to keep a yacht successful have long since passed away, and from the present outlook seem as if they will never again return.
The 'Pearl,' like the 'Torment,' was a hard nut to crack for all the new aspirants to fame which were built to beat her, and she kept her position as the fastest of the 'Mosquito' fleet for an untold number of years. She hailed from Fairlie, that birthplace of hundreds of fast, powerful winners, so dear to the hearts of all Scotch yachtsmen, and so well known in almost, every corner of the globe. She was owned and built by Mr. Fife early in the sixties, and after ending her racing career in the Clyde has found her way over to France, where she is as much appreciated as she was in the height of her day in Scotch waters, and has kept up her reputation of being a difficult boat to beat. Her dimensions were: length, 25 feet; beam, 7 feet; and draught, 4 feet. There were many yachts built to beat her, among them being the 5-tonners 'Hilda' and 'Viola,' designed, owned, and built by Mr. Inglis. This well-known yachtsman also launched a very pretty schooner of 8 tons called the 'Cordelia,' now, unhappily, lying at the bottom of the sea. She, like his other two ventures, was designed to race in the 5-ton class, and also to put the wee 'Pearl's' nose out of joint. They were all three big boats, fully decked, and veritable ships when compared with the 'Pearl.' They drew a foot or two more water, had big midship sections, and were in every way larger and more powerful yachts. Their success, however, was only partial, and it was a question whether, after all, the old boat did not in the long run hold her own.
The 'Arrow's' reputation was only of short duration in comparison with the 'Torment' and 'Pearl,' but she was a remarkably small boat, and very like them in the main features of her design. She was got out originally to play a part very different from that in which she proved herself so successful, having been built and launched for a fishing-boat to trawl in the Thames; but her speed, like that of the Liverpool 10-tonner 'Wonderful,' showed up so conspicuously when sailing in company with other fast boats that she was forthwith bought, turned into a yacht, and made to fly a racing burgee. As may be supposed, both the 'Torment' and 'Arrow,' as well as the 'Pearl,' were only half-decked boats with waterways round them.
In the year 1873, Mr. Stowe, of Shoreham, built the 'Diamond' to the design of her owner, Mr. W. Baden-Powell. She won some few races under his flag, but the chief reason of her name appearing in these pages is that she was, if the writer is not very much mistaken, the first of all the yachts of 5 tons and under in the south of England to go from port to port and race, her owner and his friends living on board. The 'Diamond' was a decided advance on the boats of her tonnage stationed between the Thames and Southampton; yet she looked small indeed when moored alongside the yachts of a year or two later date. Her length was 26 feet, with a beam of 7 feet, and an extreme draught of 4 ft. 6 in. She ran her fore and aft lines right fair to her taffrail, and had a long counter, part of which was submerged when she was down to her load-water-line. With such a small draught of water her height under the deck was necessarily low; she had however a high fixed coach roof, which helped her out of that difficulty to a certain extent. The cabin was roomy and made up four berths, but her weak point, like that of the 'Wyvern,' was her immense cockpit, which was almost as capacious as her cabin.
In 1874 the late Mr. Charles Weguelin illustrated in a prophetical manner what were to be the dimensions and proportion of length to beam of the yacht of the future. The 'Alouette' was a 5-tonner, 33 ft. 7 in. in length from stem to sternpost on deck, 5 ft. 9 in. in beam, and with an extreme draught of 6 feet. She was built from Mr. Weguelin's design by Robertson, of Ipswich, but was not a great beauty to look at out of the water. Her body was long and full, and her displacement naturally large, though nothing like that given to vessels constructed on similar dimensions during the ensuing decade. Her chief antagonists were yachts of quite an opposite design, beamy, and of no great draught, besides being of a greater tonnage, such as the 'Virago,' 6 tons, 'Rayonette,' 8 tons, and 'Zephyr,' 9 tons. Against these the 'Alouette' was very successful, but her course was run as a successful racer when the season of 1876 ushered in one of the late Mr. Dan Hatcher's most triumphant achievements. Mr. Weguelin was so satisfied with what his 5-tonner had done that he set to work, and in 1875 placed the design of a 40-tonner in the late Mr. Ratsey's hands, who launched from his yard the 'Christine,' the counterpart of the 'Alouette,' only twice her size; that is, by doubling all the dimensions of the 5-tonner, the 'Christine,' a 40-tonner, was the result. The 'Christine,' however, did not fulfil the expectations of her designer, and though her length approached as nearly as possible to that of the 60-tonners of her date, still she could do nothing with them.
Before saying farewell to the 'Alouette,' it is as well to remember that, notwithstanding her small amount of beam, she was a grand sea-boat. On one occasion she sailed from Southampton to Algiers and made a very good passage, considering that she had to face some very heavy weather on her journey. It has become the custom to run down the seaworthiness of the yachts built under the old rule, but the number of examples that could be produced, if time and space permitted, of what the old 5-tonner would go through, and that at her ease and without any fuss, would more than astonish many who now, in the faith they bestow on the boat with three beams to her length, forget the comfort and safety in which they were carried about by the old boats of five to six beams to their length. The 'Alouette' was wrecked at Algiers in 1890. She broke adrift from her moorings during a gale of wind, and was smashed up into matchwood. Nothing was saved from her.