The deck, however, was so curved that the feat would not be easy to perform in rough weather, if the whaleback did roll as do other vessels.
“Ye call that a steamer, do ye?” demanded Caleb, in disgust, when he first caught sight of Number Three; but after he had gone aboard, and seen and understood the advantages the whaleback possessed over the other seagoing craft, he no longer scoffed.
Adoniram first led them to the officers’ quarters. These were finished in oak, and furnished almost as sumptuously as the cabin of a fancy yacht. The suite contained a dining room of comfortable size, and a chart room and offices on the port side of the cabin.
Below deck were the quarters of the crew, forward and aft, and they were as comfortable as those on a palatial ocean steamship.
“It’s a wonderful boat,” Brandon declared, as they examined the engine.
“It is that,” the ship owner assented. “I paid a pretty penny for her, but she’s worth it—every cent. She’ll outride any gale that ever blew, as long as you keep her in deep water. ’Twould be hard to sink her.
“In the matter of ballast,” he continued, “there are arrangements for carrying eight hundred ton of water—water is used altogether for ballast in these whalebacks. Then the engines are of the newest build, too, you see.
“The steam is generated from these two steel boilers, each eleven and a half feet in diameter by the same in length, possessing a working pressure of one hundred and twenty-five pounds. If the engine goes back on you, you will have to get out the oars and row ashore, for there is no chance for raising a sail,” and the jolly ship owner laughed good naturedly.
“Well, I’ve been to sea on a good many craft—most anything that would float, in fact, from a torpedo boat to a Chinese junk—but this takes the bun,” Caleb declared as they stepped upon the dock again.
“Then I take it you’ll try your hand at this?” Adoniram asked slily.