The Press., 1899-05-11
YACHTS OF ANTIQUITY.
Queer and Costly Pleasure Craft o1
 Classical Times.

Queer and Costly Pleasure Craft of
 Classical Times.
 Most historical records dealing with the sport of yachting commence with the we'll known quotations in Evelyn and Pepys. Reference to Thucydides and Polybius, however, proves beyond doubt that small craft built for pleasure purposes only were common enough with the wealthy Hellenes as far back as five centuries ago. The early de- cades of the Nineteenth century are but dimly lit up while the previous centuries are enveloped in almost total darkness. Here and there we come across occasional data, in old prints and books, but connected history does not exist, and plenty of scope is left for the imagination.
 Suetonius is our authority for the statement that the luxurious Romans well knew and appreciated the pleasure to be derived from roaming about the seas This writer describes at some length the display of luxury on board the Emperor Caligula's yachts. Along the upper decks there were built what would correspond with the modern deckhouses, which were fitted most sumptuously with paintings, statues and mosaics in the principal apart ments, while the bath rooms contained baths of bronze and marble, and even 8 library of books was carried on board. Covered walks ran alongside these deck houses, with fruit trees and rows of vines planted in fiowerpots, which leads one to surmise that the Romans were fair weather sailors rather than daring navigators of choppy seas.
 Of the earlier Grecian yachts, how ever, our knowledge is more scanty. All the existing evidence from written sources, supplemented in a few isolated cases by evidence from material sources, still leaves ample room for deduction and conjecture
 The sails used on Grecian ships were sometimes made of linen, but more often of the fiber of the papyrus and various other rushes. Thus even the American invention of ramie cloth would appear to have been forestalled. The edges of the Grecian sails were bound with hide, system which if adopted nowadays, though perhaps not conducive to speed, would insure a ves- sel sailing with sails of the same di- mensions as given in the Yacht Racing association certificate. The skins of the hyena and the seal were in particular request. since sailors considered these a sovereign means for keeping off light ming. Topsails, as part of the ordinary rig, apparently came into use about 50 A. D. The ancient mariner, who knew that he increased the ships speed by carrying sail as high as possible, attain ed his object by hoisting up the yard. but seemingly did not understand the cause of this phenomenon.
 The style of rigging used on the earliest Greek vessels can be gleaned fairly accurately from the Boneric poems. The mast (histos) was support ed at its foot by prop (hispcdede) and held by two forestays (protonoD and a backstay (epitonos). The mast carried yard (epikrion), by means of hich the sail was hoisted. When the mast was lowered. the hispodede was obvious ly kind of taEernacle-it lay in rest styled histodoke. The presence of hal yards and brailing ropes is implied, while different terms are used for the running gear. though no definite infor- nation is given as to it's nature. The mast and yards were generally made of fir and occasionally of pine
 The outer planking of the hull was covered with mixture of tar and wax. some paint being usually melted with the latter. Sometimes sheathing oi lead covered the outer planking, layers of tarred sailcloth being placed between the wood and the metal. Wooden pegs and bronze nails were used for holding together the timbers of ship, while girdles of cable fastened horizontally round the ship were frequently used tc strengthen the hull externally At the bottom of the hold gravel or stone bal last was usually carried, while the bilgewater was emptied out by means of an Archimedean screw, which was worked by kind of treadmill.
 Students of Virgils "Eneid" will re. member particularly spirited account of race between four Trojan men-of war off the coast of Sicily. But the earliest recorded yacht race, in the mod. ern sense of the word. was one in which Charles II, took part The Merry Mon arch had pleasure boat built for him after Dutch model (the word yacht o, jaght seems to be of Dutch origin). but with improvements, and the little yes sel earned the appreciation of Samue Pepys, the diarist, who, as secretary tc the admiralty, may be supposed to have been keen judge, and who described her as ''very pretty and as ''one of the finest things that ever saw for neat
 ness and room.
 On Oct. 1. 1861, the king sailed he1 | against his brother, the Duke of York yacht, for 100 guineas, from Greenwich | to Gravesend and back, and won his ] wager.-Pall Mall Gazette