"Well," said he, "we beat her all to nothing in a calm, or next door to
it, last night in the _Lily_, and I'm thinking we could run her under
water in a breeze like this here, with such a jump of a sea as we shall
get when we rounds to on our road back. What's your idee, my lad?"
"I think we could," replied I. "She is so long and narrow that she must
be a regular wet one close-hauled, as I expect we shall see shortly. If
I remember rightly, all her prizes were won in light winds or smooth
water; and though I do not believe we could do anything with her in a
staggering whole-sail breeze in _smooth_ water, I fancy we could give a
good account of her in a Channel match. But you must bear in mind, Bob,
that the _Lily_ is the larger craft of the two."
"That I deny," retorted Bob. "Heavier we may be as to tonnage,
accordin' to the way tonnage is measured; but she's got double our
power. I'll bet my 'lowance of grog for the next month to come that
she's got good seven ton or more of lead stowed away under her cabin
floor; whilst we've got two, besides the trifle in our keel; and
_power_, as you know well, Harry, is what tells in a breeze. Take us
all round, and, in spite of our difference of tonnage, I reckon we're
pretty much of a size, and consequently a very fair match, so far as
that goes. I should like to be alongside of her in the _Lily_ in such a
breeze and such water as this."
By this time we were close to the light-ship, still leading, and in
another minute we shot under her stern and hauled up on the port tack.
We now felt the full strength of the breeze, and I was somewhat alarmed
to find how fresh it was blowing. But we were as stiff as a house, and
could have carried half as much sail again, had there been more to set.
We lowered our centre-board just before hauling up, and now we found
ourselves tearing along in a manner which perfectly astounded me.
Our long, slender, pointed tubes appeared to offer no resistance
whatever to our passage through the water. The motion was delightfully
easy and gentle, the tubes piercing the body of each wave, as it rolled
towards us, without the slightest shock, and lifting us gently and
easily over the cap of it just as it seemed upon the point of coming in
upon our deck. There was not an atom of spray; we were as dry going to
windward as when running free.
With the _Emerald_ it was very different. Her huge mainsail was almost
too much for her now that she was hauled close upon a wind; and as we
looked astern, we could see her taking plunge after plunge, and sending
her sharp bows clear through the seas at every dive, until her jib and
foresail were wet half way up to their heads, whilst her lee-rail was
completely buried in the boiling surge.
Now that we were close-hauled, the _Emerald_ walked up to us, though by
no means so rapidly as might have been expected. There was no
comparison between the powers of the two craft, yet, though we certainly
dropped to leeward a little more than she did, it was _only_ a little;
and the difference in our speeds was very trifling, considering the
great difference in size between the cutter and ourselves.
About a quarter of an hour after we rounded the light-ship, the
_Emerald_ passed us close to windward. She presented a most beautiful
sight, at least to a nautical eye, as she swept by. She was heeling
over to such an extent that the water was up over her deck, on the lee
side, nearly to the skylights and companion; and her immense sails were
driving her so irresistibly through the short, jumping seas, that she
had no time to rise to each as she met it. Her bowsprit plunged deeply
into the advancing wave, her sharp bows cleft it asunder, and then, as
they rose through it, amidst a blinding shower of spray, the water
shipped forward, rushed foaming aft and to leeward like a swollen
mountain torrent, until it mingled with the water which flooded her
decks to leeward.
As soon as she was past us, her crew hauled down a couple of reefs in
her mainsail, and set a smaller jib. This, of course, relieved her very
materially, and, if anything, rather increased than diminished her
speed, as she kept sailing round and round us with ease, until we were
well over towards Weymouth Roads once more, and it had become perfectly
evident that we needed no looking after.
As soon as he was quite satisfied of this, Lord--made the best of his
way to the anchorage, and brought up, having had such a dusting as ought
to have satisfied him for some time to come.
As for Bob and myself, we were as pleased with our novel boat as it was
possible to be. She proved to be a perfect success in every way; and
when we took the tubes to pieces to stow them away, we found that, so
accurately had the joints been made, that not a drop of water had
penetrated to the interior of either.
One alteration, however, we resolved to make, and that was in the size
of the sails. The boat was stiff enough to carry much larger sails than
we had provided for her; and as we did not know but that a time _might_
come when speed would be a matter of the most vital importance to us, we
determined to furnish her with sails as large as it was prudent to
carry.
We also decided to alter her rig somewhat, by substituting what is known
among the initiated as a "sliding gunter" for a gaff-mainsail. This
gives you a mainsail and jib-headed topsail in one, whilst it does away
with the gaff altogether, whereby you obtain a much flatter standing
sail; indeed, when this sail is properly cut (and it is not a difficult
sail to shape), there is nothing to beat it in this respect.
Accordingly, we despatched an order to Lapthorn that night for the new
suit of sails, and also for a balloon-topsail for the _Water Lily_, the
dimensions of which satisfied even Bob, greedy as he was for canvas.
Meantime, the remainder of our stores were ordered, received, and
shipped, and ten days after our arrival in Weymouth Roads we had
everything on board which we could think of as necessary or likely to be
in any degree useful to us on our voyage.
But when all was shipped, we found we had made a mistake somewhere in
our calculations, and not only had rather more room than we expected,
but our little craft still floated rather higher than her regular
load-line. We therefore took in half a ton more lead ballast, which
brought her down to within an inch of her proper trim, and with that we
determined to rest satisfied.
Volume One, Chapter V.