H. WARINGTON SMYTH
MAST & SAIL IN EUROPE AND ASIA


Introduction

Contents

Illustrations:

     Plates

     Diagrams

     Sketches


 

MAST AND SAIL IN EUROPE AND ASIA

BY H. WARINGTON SMYTH (ROYAL THAMES YACHT CLUB)

M.A., LL.M., F.G.S., F.R.G.S.

AUTHOR OF 'FIVE YEARS IN SIAM' ETC. ETC.

 

ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY

E. W. COOKE, R.A.;

W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A.;

W. ROBINS;

SIR W. WARINGTON SMYTH, F.R.S.;

MAJOR NEVILL SMYTH, V.C.;

AND THE AUTHOR.

 

LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1906

Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty


TO MY WIFE FOR SWEET REMEMBRANCE SAKE

 

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.

 
 

CONTENTS / PAGE

 

   Introduction, vii

I. The Life of the Sail, 1

II. The Baltic, Denmark, and Sweden, 20

III. Norway, 43

IV. Holland, 62

V. Scotland, 91

VI. East Coast and Thames Estuary, 127

VII. The South and West Coasts, 179

VIII. France and the Mediterranean, 231

IX. The Indian Ocean, 287

X. The Malay Peninsula, 331

XI. The Gulf of Siam, 359

XII. China and Japan, 396

      Appendix:

         List of Authorities, 425
         Glossary, 427
         Index, 441

 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 

FULL-PAGE PLATES, AT PAGE...

 

•    Thames Barges: Frontispiece.

•     In the Kattegat, 12

•    Scots Zulu, 90

•    Wherry, 126

•    Mount's Bay Lugger, 178

•    Trawler off Havre, 230

•    Dhow beating off Ras Alargah, 286

•    Flood-tide on the Me Nam, 358

•    South China Junk, 396

 


DIAGRAMS

 

At page 56:

Norwegian Pilot-boat Sail and Cabin Plans.

Northland Boat Lines and Sail-plan.

Norwegian Skiff Lines and Sail-plan.

Redningskoite Sail-plan.

Redningskoite Cabin Plans.

Redningskoite Lines.

Norwegian Bank-fishing Vessel-Sail and Cabin Plans.

 

At page 96:

Scotch Fifie-Lines.

Scotch Zulu-Lines.


ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT


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