INTRODUCTION
THE present chapters are the outcome
of some years of varied sea travel. They attempt to
record the peculiarities of the principal types of
sailing-craft in Europe and Asia which I have observed,
or of which I have had experience, and in many cases have
handled for myself; and to consider, to some extent, the
causes which have been at work in the development of
boats and the results attained under the conditions with
which they have had to contend. This book can only
pretend to be a contribution to the literature of the
subject - indeed it would be well-nigh impossible for any
one man personally to know the coastlines of the earth in
sufficient detail, and to study or handle all the
numerous types of sailing-boats, developed with endless
variety and ingenuity in every locality, with sufficient
intimacy to write on the whole subject. I can only hope
here to indicate to those whose tastes are similar to my
own the infinite interest of a study which 'Mast and
Sail' can afford him.
Fate has led me to a city far inland
in a continent of landsmen, and has cut short such
cruises as I had hoped to make in order to render these
observations more complete.
The question of arrangement of subject
has been one of some difficulty. The grouping of
sailing-boats under types is likely to lead to erroneous
conclusions, since the choice of types is apt to be based
on similarities which may be the result of accident or of
mere imagination.
The arrangement of craft, on the other
hand, in alphabetical order is bound to be
unsatisfactory, both on account of the difficulties
occasioned by the true signification of native names, and
also because it brings the most heterogeneous types
together regardless of any geographical or historical
connection.
A geographical division seems,
therefore, the most reasonable. The system of grouping
under the names of the various seas, irrespective of
country and nationality, while it has some obvious
advantages over arrangement by political or other land
divisions pure and simple, leaves still the difficulty of
subdivision. A somewhat arbitrary combination of these
two arrangements has, therefore, been opted in the
following pages. Europe has been placed before Asia on
account of its more immediate interest to the majority of
readers. Yet Asia may well claim precedence for the great
antiquity of its types of sea-craft, which in most cases
can claim a more remote origin than the oldest of those
surviving in the Mediterranean or Norse seas.
My special thanks are due to my old
comrade of Cambridge days and of many a good sea-cruise,
J. F. Rowlatt, for much assistance in completing these
notes; to my old friend Captain Drechsel, late of the
Danish Navy, for much information contained in Chapter
II; to Mr. Colin Archer, of Larvik, for details of
Norwegian types; and to Mr. Robert Duthie of the Scottish
Fishery Board, to whose extensive knowledge and
enthusiastic co-operation I am specially indebted for
much valuable information in regard to the Scottish
Fisheries. To Mr. Alfred Cholmley and to my brother I am
indebted for interesting points in regard to the methods
of Red Sea dhow crews; and to Mr. C. Forster Cooper, of
my old College, for many particulars regarding the
Maldive boats. My acknowledgments are also due to the
authors of the valuable and delightful works of which a
list
is given at the end of the book.
H. WARINGTON
SMYTH
Johannesburg, January 1906
[The second edition may be
easier to find and contains some new drawings, some
old drawings with different captions, and some new
sets of lines. Here is Smyth's commentary. I've also
added two or three new books to the Appendix based on
his updated list of Authorities in the second
edition.]
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND
EDITION
PREOCCUPATION due to the constant
stream of events in South Africa-the grant of
self-government to the Northern Colonies in 1908, the
Union of the separate Colonies in 1910, the war with all
its special demands from 1914, the industrial expansion
and development in every direction after 1919 - "quorum
pars parva fui" - kept me from the possibility of
revising 'Mast and Sail,' and making those alterations
and additions which the passage of time made desirable
for a second edition.
Many requests have come for a new
edition with suggestions for various extensions of the
scope of the book, and for more yarns and illustrations.
Mr. Kipling was good enough to urge its extension to the
Pacific canoes; others wanted a more detailed account of
square-rig types, or of the American schooners of the
Grand Banks. But from the first I have followed out as
far as possible the idea of personal experience and
observation, and have limited the work to the coastal
craft of Europe and Asia with which I had some personal
or practical acquaintance or direct interest. Moreover,
the other branches of nautical observation, to my mind,
call for special qualifications and experience. In things
of the sea above all others it is the reality of personal
contact which is the breath and spirit, and a barge or
trawler master will tell you more of the sea and of ships
in an hour than a steamship company director in a
year-though less about finance or tourist routes.
Mr. Frederick William Wallace and Mr.
Connolly have made first-hand literature of the Grand
Bank schooners. The historian of the square rigger has
been found in Captain Basil Lubbock, who, in his
well-known books beginning with the 'China Clippers,' has
laid all seamen of this and future generations under an
obligation. My friend Sir Walter Runciman has told the
tale of the Tyneside brigs ; Mr. Rex Clements and other
competent writers have told of the practical handling of
the big square-rig ships of the eighties and nineties,
and Mr. Somerscales and Mr. Spurling have illustrated
them in incomparable style.
I therefore feel justified in limiting
the book to its original conception, and I have but
amended or added in accordance with modern changes or
recent observations. I have called into my support a few
additional sketches from my sketch-books, some of a
hundred years ago by my grandfather, Rear-Admiral W. H.
Smyth, R.N., the cartographer of the Mediterranean, and
some more recent ones by my two sons who were too young
to draw or sail a boat when the first edition
appeared.
I have to record my indebtedness to
the 'Yachting Monthly Magazine' for the new 'lines' of
craft published in this issue. That magazine commenced
its career in the year of the first edition of 'Mast and
Sail,' and ever since has kept up a wonderful level of
interest to all who care for boats, bringing solace to
many keen sailors stranded in shore billets or in distant
continents, as well as to the active sailor-men of two
generations, with endless variety of artistry, humour,
and sea experience.
I am also indebted to the kindness of
the well-known American magazine 'Yachting' and of Mr.
Maxwell Blake for permission to reproduce the lines of
Far Eastern craft appearing in Chapters XI and XIII.
[Note: these are detailed on The
Cheap Pages under Chinese
Lugsails and can be purchased from the Smithsonian's
Ship Plans Collection.]
My thanks are due to many keen young
sailormen of the generation which has arisen since the
publication of the first edition for encouragement and
information, and especially to my friends Lionel Elin and
Ralph Swann of the Royal Cruising Club, and to Clifford
Hartford of the Royal Cape Yacht Club, my young and
capable mate for many years in Adventure, Irex, and
Patricia.
CALAMANSAC,
FALMOUTH, June 1929.
Thames
Barges: Frontispiece.