FITTING OUT A FIFTY-TONNER TO GO FOREIGN
BY E. F. KNIGHT
There is no reason why ocean cruising should be confined to those who
are fortunate enough to possess big steam yachts, or schooners of
considerable tonnage. A good 50-tonner, or even a smaller craft, is
probably as safe under any circumstances as the larger vessel; she can
go where the latter cannot, and in many ways gives her owner better
sport.
When a man really fond of the sea--and he must be so to undertake the
task--sets to work to fit out a 50-tonner for a lengthy voyage, to the
South Atlantic for example, his method must necessarily be somewhat
different from that of the owner of the large yacht. He has to rely a
good deal on his own wits, for much of the work of preparation is
quite out of the line of his shipwright and of the ordinary nautical
tradesmen with whom he has to deal. He is not likely to employ one of
the regular ocean-going skippers, who would of course know exactly
what was required, and the yachtsman making ready for his first
expedition of this nature is sure to do some things wrong; but he will
gradually pick up many wrinkles to help him on another occasion.
Such a voyage must to a great extent be an amateur business, by which
I mean one to be undertaken only by a pleasure sailor of experience,
accompanied by friends of like tastes; for I can imagine nothing so
remote from an amusement as for a novice to sail away on a vessel of
this size with a purely professional skipper and crew on whom he has
to implicitly rely. He is completely at the mercy of his servants;
hands who are well enough when carrying their employer about in home
waters and on short foreign cruises are apt, unless they are
exceptional men indeed, to take advantage of his ignorance and
helplessness in many ways when the vessel is thousands of miles from
home and on coasts where--and they are thoroughly well aware of
this--he cannot discharge them, since it would be impossible
satisfactorily to replace them. To travel in such a fashion would be
productive of so much annoyance and anxiety as to sicken one for ever
of the sea. With a larger vessel it is of course a different matter; a
first-class skipper is engaged, the crew is carefully picked, all is
properly ordered, and a discipline not altogether feasible on the
small craft is maintained; and yet I have heard it whispered that
discord and trouble are not always absent even from the big vessel on
a lengthened cruise.
There is no man I would rather have at sea with me than the honest
British yachting tar of the right sort; but it is difficult to get him
to ship for a long voyage on a small craft, and as a rule one has to
put up with an inferior article. The owner of our roaming 50-tonner
therefore, if he wish to enjoy any comfort and have an easy mind, must
know sufficient to be entirely independent of his crew; and if he is
not his own skipper--which he ought to be--he should at any rate be
entered on the ship's papers as captain, and every man on board should
sign articles under him. Should the skipper choose to leave the
vessel, the owner must be capable of taking his place. The men must be
made to understand that their employer can do without them; that, in
case of their attempting any nonsense, he is quite prepared to put all
hands on shore and ship a crew of any sort of foreigners in any port
if necessary; if he cannot do this, he had far better stay on shore,
or only cruise in home waters. But when once the owner has attained
this absolute independence, he will find there is no more fascinating
pursuit than that of navigating his little vessel across the seas from
country to country, to whatsoever corner of the world he may fancy to
betake himself.
It is important that our cruiser should be so rigged and fitted out
generally as to be capable of being handled by as small a crew as
possible. Every trick of tackle, purchase, and what not that can
economise labour should be taken advantage of, and it is astonishing
how few men can then work a vessel. One does not do everything in
recognised yachting fashion when making ocean runs; there is
comparatively little work to do, and the large crew that is required
on the Channel cruise is not necessary on the long voyage. For several
good reasons the owner should keep his crew as small as is compatible
with the safety of the vessel. Crowding is thus avoided, a matter of
moment when one is sailing the tropical seas; for there the
confinement of several men on a small yacht is unhealthy for them,
despite all arrangements that may be made for their comfort. When the
mouths are few, it will be easier to carry a sufficiency of supplies,
and the question of water, more especially, will not be so difficult
to deal with; it will moreover be a much less troublesome business to
get one's complement of men made up in a foreign port in the event of
desertion or dismissal.
It must be remembered that the owner is very likely to have a few
disturbances and to get rid of some of his men in the course of such a
cruise. It would be strange if it were otherwise. It is a monotonous
life for the hands cooped up in the small vessel. If they have no
other reason for becoming discontented, they will do so merely because
they have too much to eat and too little to do; there will be
dissensions; each man will reveal what bad qualities he may possess;
there may be that fearful thing a sea lawyer on board, but he should
not be permitted to stay long. This period of trouble, however, will
probably be only of short duration--else such a cruise would be a
purgatory; the worthless are weeded out, others are shipped; and it is
a man's own fault if he has not soon gathered around him a compact if
miscellaneous crew, willing, cheery, ready to go anywhere he may
choose to take them.
It is my opinion that there should not be a single yacht sailor on
board the foreign-cruising 50-tonner. It is difficult, as I have said,
to get the right ones, and it will be bad for the owner if he fall in
with the wrong ones--men who have been spoilt by foolish employers,
for instance; a numerous class, I fear. We all know them.
Smart-looking fellows enough may-be, but shirkers of honest work, they
prefer to ship on show yachts belonging to owners who like to exhibit
themselves and their vessels in the fashionable yachting ports each
season, but who are not sailors in any sense of the word, and have no
real love of the sport, following it only for the swagger of the
thing. Men who have served such owners would prove a great nuisance on
an ocean cruise, and would not be likely to go far. I have heard such
hands grumbling on a friend's yacht because they were to pass one
night at sea instead of in some port where they happened to have
friends. They look to frequent tips from the 'governor's' visitors,
and to other less legitimate perquisites; these they cannot get in
mid-Atlantic, so it is not the place for them.
Hands from fishing-boats, sailing barges, and small coasters are the
best men for the foreign cruiser of small tonnage. Among these one is
not likely to come across spoilt and pampered mariners, and they are
accustomed to roughing it, and to the shifts of short-handed craft.
But were I undertaking a lengthened tropical voyage, I think I should
ship my English crew simply for the run over to my first West Indian
or South American port, and there engage a negro crew. These blacks
are excellent fore-and-aft sailors, easy to manage, and always happy
and ready for any amount of hard work if kindly but firmly treated;
while they are, of course, far better fitted than white men to
withstand the debilitating influence of sultry climates, an influence
which, as everyone knows, has caused the ruin of many a good British
sailor, driving hitherto sober men to injure their health by excess
whenever they get shore leave.
And now for our vessel, of what sort should she be? She must, of
course, be of fair beam. We are beginning to believe in beam again,
and are returning to the wisdom of our ancestors, recognising the fact
that beam is not incompatible with speed, whilst it is indispensable
for comfort both on deck and below on an ocean cruise. I remember,
when we sailed away in the 'Falcon' to South America twelve years ago,
yachting men shook their heads at our beam; I was assured that I
should never get more than six knots an hour out of such a tubby
craft, more especially as she was snugly sparred and could fly so
little canvas. She had a length of 42 feet to a beam of 13 feet. As it
turned out, we often got nine knots out of her, and made one voyage of
2,000 nautical miles in ten days, the current, it must be said, being
favourable to us on this occasion. But the proportionate beaminess of
the 'Falcon' is not necessary for the bigger craft, and the beam of
our 50-tonner should be about a quarter of her length.
When choosing my vessel I should prefer, for other reasons than
economy, to buy an old one that had been well cared for to building or
purchasing a new one. Tropical climates soon develop defects in wood,
and though it may be impossible to detect any flaws or signs of early
decay in a new vessel, the timber of which she is constructed may have
been put in sappy, and she may be ready to break out into dry rot on
the slightest provocation. Tough old human beings who have weathered
the ailments of youth are not likely to fall into consumption, and so
it is with the ship. If she has knocked about for years and shown no
symptoms of decay, then she has proved herself to have been put
together of the right stuff, and she will remain sound in her good old
age.
If one came across some old teak vessel, such as my 'Alerte' was, a
quarter of a century old, constructed by a good builder in the strong,
honest fashion of those days, not put together in a hurry, but
leisurely; with not a plank in her that was not well seasoned and
selected, and that had not been lying in the builder's loft for a year
before it was used, and with timbers and deadwood stouter than are
employed now, and if, after careful examination, she proved from stem
to stern, from deck to keel, as sound as when she was put on the
stocks, even in those treacherous and usually ill-ventilated corners
inside the counter, then that vessel is the one to be possessed of by
the man who would go foreign; for she can be more safely trusted than
many a brand-new craft, scamped, pleasing to the eye, but of unsound
constitution, like some fair pulmonary with the germs of disease
latent in her bones. The 'Alerte' was a vessel of this good old
sort--I say was, for after I had left her, this yawl, which properly
cared for would have completed her century of cruising, was lost by a
piece of wicked negligence off the West Indian island of Trinidad, and
is now lying at the bottom in one hundred fathoms of water.
A yawl is the favourite rig for the cruising 50-tonner; personally, I
should prefer a ketch, the easiest vessel afloat to handle. A 50-ton
ketch requires a very small crew indeed; a couple of men on deck can
tackle any job that turns up. But a yawl is nearly as handy as the
ketch. Two of us used to knock about for days at a time on the
'Alerte' in the South Atlantic, and she was a 56-ton yawl, with
somewhat heavy spars. We never had any difficulty with her; but when
we were short-handed, we used to employ 'un-yachty' methods. We could
only hoist our mainsail by using our mast-winch, which we also
employed for hauling out the reefing tackle when shortening sail.
There are many little dodges that soon occur to a sailor, and I have
no doubt that if one man who knew what he was about were left alone in
mid ocean on such a vessel, he would have little difficulty in taking
her into port.
There should, of course, be a good supply of sails on board, not
omitting a stout storm trysail and a handy spinnaker. The latter
should have a boom short enough to pass under the forestay when topped
up, so that it has not to be unshipped for a gybe. Such a spinnaker
will be more effective than a big one on an ocean cruise. It can be
carried when the wind is strong and the sea high--an important matter;
for how often one has seen a fore-and-after, that has been rolling
gunwales under when running under mainsail and head-sail alone, skim
along steadily with dry decks as soon as the little spinnaker is put
on her to balance the other canvas? When we left England with the
'Alerte,' we had with us her racing spinnaker only. We soon discovered
we had made a mistake. Short-handed as we were, we often refrained
from using it when it would have been of service; for the unshipping
of its mighty boom was a heavy bit of work. Then we had a small boom
made, and used the balloon-foresail as the working spinnaker. One man
could handle this, and it was seldom allowed to lie idle when the
breeze was aft.
It is better thus to provide oneself with a sail that can serve both
as balloon-foresail and spinnaker, according to how the wind may be,
than to encumber oneself with a large square-sail, such as yachts were
wont to carry, and such as one still sees on revenue cutters.[17] But
there is a square-sail of another sort that should be found in the
sail-locker of every little foreign cruiser; this is the small stout
storm square-sail, a sail which would be seldom used, it is true, but
which, on certain occasions, would prove of inestimable advantage.
[Footnote 17: The 'Navahoe,' before returning to America, ordered a
square-sail from Tilley, of Southampton.]
With the 'Falcon' we once ran on before a favourable gale till the
gale became a hurricane--a River Plate pampero--and then the sea was
dangerously high, so that we were unable to do what should have been
done hours before; that is, bring her up into the wind and heave to.
Not daring to attempt this now, we had to make the best of the
position, and run on under trysail and storm jib. The steering was a
most difficult and anxious matter; there was considerable danger of
broaching to, and our lives depended upon the watchful skill of the
helmsman. The trysail had no boom, and was ever violently gybing,
while so low was the body of the sail that it lost the wind when we
were in the trough of those great seas. Now that was the very time
when we needed the little storm square-sail. Under that snug bit of
canvas the vessel would have steered with far greater ease and safety;
there would have been no risk of a gybe; the tendency to broach to
would have been much lessened, and a topsail of this sort, moreover,
is, like a jib, a lifting sail, and helps to keep a vessel afloat.
Hoisted well up, as it should be, right under the forestay, it is high
enough to catch the wind between the seas.
If the owner does not carry a storm square-sail, he should have a boom
to his trysail.
When the yachtsman, having purchased his 50-tonner, begins to fit her
out for the ocean cruise, he is certain to discover that he will have
to make considerable alterations in the arrangement of her ballast.
The vessel that hitherto has been cruising in home waters only is sure
to have a great deal more ballast in her than is necessary or
advisable for his purpose. In the first place, when on a long voyage,
he is not going to crack on as if he were racing for a cup. He will
most probably have reduced his vessel's spars before starting, and has
no ambition, when he is on the ocean for weeks at a stretch, to carry
the huge spread of canvas under which his craft was wont to stagger in
the Solent.
The ocean rover, who loves blue water for its own sake, is a quiet
plodding sort of person, in no extreme hurry to reach his port. He
wishes to be as comfortable and free from anxiety as possible, and,
like the master of an East Indiaman of the olden time, is more likely
than not to make things snug each sunset and take in his kites--the
big topsail for example--as he does not approve of the watch below
having to be summoned on deck at each squall.
So our foreign cruiser, snugly sparred and moderately canvased, need
not be nearly so stiff as when she used to fly up and down the
Channel, straining and quivering as if acutely jealous lest any other
craft should outstrip her; and she can now be relieved of a
considerable portion of her ballast. It is of such importance that the
50-tonner should be light and buoyant, so that she may leap over the
Atlantic storm waves and not plunge into their curling crests, that I
think the less ballast one can do with the better. I lay stress on
this, because I know that the usual wiseacres and others, who frequent
the shipwright's yard to proffer all manner of advice to the yachtsman
while he is preparing for his voyage, will shake their heads if he
speaks of lightening his craft to the extent I should advocate, and
warn him that a perilous crankiness will be the result. There is, of
course, a limit to this lightening process which must not be
overstepped; but that limit--at any rate so far as my practice is
concerned--does not, as a rule, find favour in the eyes of the
forementioned advisers.
If the vessel be ballasted with lead when she comes into one's
possession, the weight can be reduced to the exact amount that is
required by selling a sufficient quantity of the lead and substituting
the same bulk of iron, the specific gravity of one metal to the other
being roughly as 11 to 7. A spare chain, spare anchors, and any iron
implements not liable to be damaged by damp, can with advantage be
employed as ballast in this way, but must, of course, be stowed so
that they can be got at without difficulty. Whilst adjusting the
ballast it is necessary to remember that, unlike the coasting yacht,
the ocean cruiser will have to be laden with a considerable quantity
of water and other stores--probably some six tons weight of these.
The question of what boats should be carried on the ocean-going
50-tonner is one to be considered carefully. The ordinary yacht's gig,
that does very well to land passengers in Channel ports, is not
adapted for our purpose; she would be cumbersome, occupying too much
room on deck, and, most probably, would not be a sufficiently good
sea-boat. A shorter dinghy of lifeboat shape, with plenty of sheer and
a pointed stern, will be found much more serviceable, especially if
one has to effect a landing on small oceanic islands or at other
exposed spots where access is rendered difficult by heavy surf. The
boat should be beamy and rather shallow; for if she is too deep she is
likely, while lying on deck, to get very much in the way of the main
boom, which will have to be topped up to an awkward height to clear
her; or, worse still, she may even make it impossible for the main
boom to be swung sufficiently forward when the vessel is running
before the wind--a terrible nuisance on which it is unnecessary to
dilate. I believe one of the principal reasons why the revenue cutters
carry their large square-sails is that they could not otherwise get
any speed out of them before a fair wind, to such an extent do their
boats cramp the boom and prevent the easing off of the mainsheet.
In my opinion one cannot do better than carry a medium-sized Berthon
collapsible in addition to one's big dinghy. A Berthon occupies very
little room, and is so easily dropped into the water and hoisted on
board again that she is sure to be used on many occasions when one
would not take the trouble to put the heavier boat out. I was once
shipmate with a delightful Berthon which had an iron centreboard and a
balance lugsail. We gave her plenty of work in every port, creek, or
river we entered; for she sailed admirably, and was one of the
handiest little craft possible. She contributed a great deal to our
enjoyment of the cruise.
A few remarks on that most important subject, the commissariat, may
not be amiss. When fitting an ocean-going 50-tonner for the first
time, one asks oneself with considerable misgiving how it will be
possible to find room for all the necessary stores. I remember coming
down to the 'Falcon' one morning, when we were getting her ready for
her South Atlantic voyage, to find the quay, alongside which she lay,
covered with barrels, sacks, cases, &c., the provisions for five men
for nine months, which I had ordered from London. I stood aghast
before this mighty mass, the bulk of which appeared to exceed by far
the capacity of my vessel's hold; but it is wonderful what an amount
of stowage room there is in the lockers and corners of a beamy
vessel; however much is put into her, there seems to be place for
more. I was much relieved in my mind to get my tons of stores snugly
stowed out of sight, and all below the water-line too, so serving as
good ballast. On the 'Alerte' we found no difficulty in carrying
nearly a year's supply of provisions for thirteen hands.
As for water, extra tanks will have to be fitted up in all convenient
places. On the 'Alerte' we had a gallon tank under the saloon table,
while the cabin fireplace was removed and a large tank was built into
the space thus gained. We carried 600 gallons in all, which ought to
suffice for the longest run one is likely to make, allowing for calms
in the doldrums and unforeseen delays. All the drinking water should
be in tanks below. To carry any weight of water in casks on deck is a
mistake for various reasons; but of course it is well to have some
breakers on deck to hold any rain-water that may be caught on the
voyage.
It is my firm opinion that one should carry plenty of good salt meat
when bound on a long cruise, and rely as little as possible on tinned
provisions. The temperature is very high on small vessels in the
tropics, and this does undoubtedly in time set up some sort of
chemical change in tinned meat--a change which, though it may not be
perceptible to the senses, can be productive of much ill health. The
salt meat should be of the right sort too. It is not advisable to go,
as I myself once did, to even the best of butchers in a seaport town
and have fresh meat salted down. This is excellent at first, but it
will not keep long on the small vessel. It is far better to procure
the older, much-travelled, well-tested salt meat, less tasty though it
be. The good firms of purveyors empty the cask, examine each piece of
beef, and repickle it, before sending it on board; such beef will keep
through the longest voyage and in any climate.
It is certain that no sort of food will remain sweet and wholesome so
long on a small as on a big craft. It is amongst other things
essential to have the supply of biscuit divided into a number of
hermetically sealed tins. The best made bread locker will not prevent
maggots, weevils, and other loathsome insects from swarming among the
biscuit as soon as the 50-tonner reaches the tropics, and the better
the quality of the biscuit the more rapid and complete will be the
spoiling of it. It must not be forgotten that tinned ship's bread can
only be procured in England, so a sufficient supply must be laid in
before one sails.
This brings me to another point. It is not only advisable to take from
England all the biscuit wanted, but also, if possible, all the tinned
meats and suchlike stores. If more be needed in the course of the
voyage, it should be sent out from England and transshipped. In the
ports of the West Indies, of the Indian Ocean, or indeed on any
tropical coast, though one may come across honest ship-chandlers--I
have frequently been lucky enough to do so myself--it will be found
that, even with them, prices are apt to be exorbitant; while their
goods are often of inferior quality, or, when of good brands, old and
damaged. With the dishonest ship-chandlers, who are not rare, one is
likely to have still worse experiences. Were I again to fit out a
yacht for a lengthy cruise, I should take everything of this sort with
me, or make arrangements with a good English firm to send me out
relays of supplies to certain places at which it was my intention to
call. I should only rely on the ports for fresh meat, vegetables,
fruit and suchlike perishable commodities.
Neither should one go to the ship-chandler of the foreign harbour for
rope, blocks, canvas, or boatswain's necessaries of any description.
Provision should be carefully made against running short of these;
plenty and to spare should be taken from home.
On an English 50-ton yacht it is usual to carry on all the cooking in
the forecastle; but when the vessel is on tropical seas it is very
uncomfortable for the hands forward to have a fire burning for the
greater part of the day in their close quarters. On the 'Alerte' the
fire was only lit once a day in order to cook the dinner, a large
spirit stove being employed for the preparation of breakfast and tea,
to boil water, and so forth. A good spirit stove is indispensable on
our 50-tonner. On the 'Falcon' we used even to cook our dinner with
one. Spirits-of-wine is among the few things that can always be got of
satisfactory quality and at moderate cost in every foreign port. I
have never found difficulty in procuring this in any part of the
world, and as a rule considerably cheaper than methylated spirits in
England.
I have always preferred a spirit to a paraffin stove. I have never
come across a sea cook yet who could deal satisfactorily with the
latter. The lampblack is apt to make a terrible mess of the pots and
pans and everything else, including the sea cook. I know that, if the
lamp is properly trimmed and the stove is carefully looked after, this
should not happen. But somehow or other it generally does happen;
consequently paraffin is not suitable fuel for the sea-going stove,
and the cleanly alcohol, though a little more expensive, is far better
for the purpose.
On plenty of smart West Indian and other foreign sloops and schooners
of about the size of our 50-tonners, it is customary to do all the
cooking on deck; and I do not see why this method should not be
adopted on our small ocean-going yacht when she is at sea in fine
weather or lying at anchor. A tiny temporary galley or fireplace--very
'un-yachty,' it must be confessed--might be fitted up on deck forward,
and if the cook be a West Indian negro of the right sort, he will
probably be found as clever as an Indian 'bobbachee' on the march at
turning out a capital meal without the aid of cumbersome stove or
oven--and that, too, without making any mess whatever, so that the
skipper need feel no anxiety for his spotless deck and sails.
[Illustration: The Drogue, off the Kullen Head.]