of stability, mere sail-carrying power being derived from an excess of beam, which was but an additional element of danger. In the search for speed under special local conditions, mainly those of summer racing, the true principles of naval architecture, so apparent in the work of George Steers and others of the earlier designers, were utterly ignored, and a most dangerous and vicious school of designing prevailed throughout American yachting.
"Taking the centerboard sloop and schooner as they were up to 1880—dangerously shoal and wide in model; often clumsily built of soft wood, with the poorest of fastenings; faultily ballasted with stone and iron inside; the hull inherently weak in form from the great beam and lack of proportionate depth; the entire middle portion of keel and floors cut away, with the familiar 'hinge joint' where the mast was stepped, just forward of the trunk; and with the deck construction made worse than useless as an element of strength through the absence of all beams in the middle portion of the vessel and the presence of a great superstructure, the cabin trunk—the accepted laws of naval design and construction fail to give any reason why such craft capsized no oftener and kept afloat as long as they did; and we can only fall back for an explanation on the doctrine of a special providence."
Mr. Stephens is not only a naval
