twenty-five per cent. in the actual cost of the vessel if built anywhere in the neighborhood of New York. Moreover, he got a boat capable of being classed in the highest standard at Lloyd's and good for a quarter of a century's hard cruising. Having seen the boat put together, he never felt anxious about straining her in a squall. There was no skimping of quantity in material to procure a flimsy kind of lightness. Hull, spars and rigging were all scientifically adapted to the heaviest strains they were likely to encounter, and a sufficient margin of extra strength was added in case of emergencies. The schooner has been in commission now for several years, her owner living aboard her practically all the year round. He has cruised south as far as the Caribbean Sea and north to Labrador. He is his own skipper, and a better seaman and navigator never broke a biscuit on his knee or drank grog out of a pannikin.
The only objection that can be made against iron or steel yachts in the larger classes is that their bottoms foul so rapidly. So far as their capacity to resist stress and strain is concerned, nothing can be said against them. The first English iron yacht was the Mosquito, designed by Tom Waterman and built on the Thames in 1848. The first American iron yacht was the cutter Vindex, designed by Mr. A. Cary Smith in 1870 for Mr. Robert Center.
