proportion of power to resistance and weight moved is likely to be obtained.

If time permits, a towing-post should be fitted in the bow for veering the surf-line and this may be suddenly required to take great strain when the boat is struck by a breaker.

Besides possessing the buoyancy due to lightness of material, it would be a great advantage for the boat to be fitted with light air-tanks filling all unoccupied space and so reducing to a minimum the capacity for shipping and holding water. In fact, an extreme type of surf-boat would somewhat resemble the Esquimo's kayak, in which the boat has a cover, the only opening of which is gathered tightly around the occupant's waist.

Great sheer is important, and the upper strakes should flare somewhat at bow and stern to prevent their dipping under when the opposite end of the boat is lifted high on the side of a breaker. The flare of upper strakes, however, should not amount to such bluffness as will increase resistance to cutting through the crest cf a wave. To permit the boat to rise and fall quickly in response to the swell, weights should be kept out of the extreme ends.

The underwater body of the boat should offer as little lateral resistance as possible to the water. Should she, in pulling out to meet a breaker, be inclined slightly from the normal and be carried back, however little, her keel, rudder-post and run would be resisted and retarded by the dead water on the front of the breaker, while the bow would be swept rapidly around turning the boat more and more broadside on, until the gunwale dips and it finally rolls over. The coxswain must in such a case attempt to pry the stern around with his steering-oar and the crew make every effort to get way on the boat and surmount the breaker before the turning action has culminated in a capsize. If the bottom of the boat is rounded and smoothed off in every direction, the water has very little hold either for turning it against the leverage of the steering-oar, or to roll the boat over should it broach-to. In fact, a light dory has been known to be swept broadside on for a long distance before a breaker without capsizing. The smooth bottom offered so little resistance to the dead water on the shore side of the breaker that there was very little tendency to trip the boat up.

High freeboard, high roomy thwarts and favorable positions for oarsmen and coxswain to exert their strength, are all important qualities. The modern navy whale-boat is a great im

provement over the old one in these respects. It is, however, necessarily a compromise; and with very little alteration it could be greatly improved for passing the surf. Its propelling power should be nearly equally spaced about the center of buoyancy, which may be accomplished by placing an additional thwart in the stern sheets and leaving the forward thwart vacant. Passengers should sit on the bottom of the boat between thwarts; all unnecessary weights and gear should be removed. The coxswain should have a grating lashed over the stern sheet benches to give him a good foothold. Swivel rowlocks should be used; there is great danger of fouling the oars in the surf and it would then be very difficult to free one from an inserted rowlock before it had caused the boat to broach-to. Stretchers and boat-breakers should be lashed down and all other unnecessary gear dispensed with.

The subject of oars merits consideration. The steering-oar should be broad, stiff and not too long. Its exact length depends upon the boat and the height of the coxswain's platform; eighteen feet may be regarded ordinarily as a good length. A longer oar may be used to advantage at sea and its need may be felt at times in the surf; for example, when the stern is raised on the crest of a breaker and the blade of the oar barely reaches the water in the trough. On the other hand, when the boat is in a dangerous position and being carried back, a long oar is worse than useless, as it is almost impossible to keep its blade from catching in the dead water, where it tends to turn her broadside on. The other oars should also be light and stiff to permit easy handling and quick application of power. On troubled water, either at sea or in the surf, oars which exceed a certain length dependent upon the beam and freeboard of the boat are a nuisance. They cannot be handled quickly, wear the men out and are certain to strike on the back stroke or foul each other. If, in addition, they are springy, by the time the power is well applied in one direction, the boat may be turned or tilted and most of the stroke lost. No hard and fast rule can be given for the length of oars; that had better be determined by actual test in each particular boat. It will seldom, if ever, however, be found advisable to employ in a single banked boat, an oar longer than twice the beam at the thwart plus the freeboard at the oarlock.

Whichever way of landing is adopted, a conical drag, towed ten to twenty fathoms astern, will be of great assistance. It

should have a tripping line to invert it when it is not required to check the boat. Too much reliance should not be placed upon the drag, however, for though it will always assist to keep the boat pointed fair to the breakers when the line is hauled in briskly. by a couple of men, there is not the positive assurance of holding the boat that is given by a surf-line attached to a well-bedded anchor planted outside the surf.

There are occasions when the use of such a surf-line and anchor is invaluable. Among them may be noted the landing in a large or unwieldly boat; landing with a weak or inexperienced crew, or in high surf where it is necessary to return, or in any case where it seems pretty certain that the crew will be unable to maintain control over the boat with their oars. On the other hand there are certain disadvantages connected with the use of the surfline. There is a current along almost every beach and if the surf is wide, a boat going out may drift down so far that when the dangerous breakers are reached, the line to the anchor leads. broad off the bow and tends to turn the boat rather than steady it head-on to the breakers. Should a boat using a surf-line be capsized in the outer surf, the coils of line will probably knot and tangle so as to prevent the boat from drifting in.

Whenever the line is used, a hatchet should be kept close to the bowman's hand with which to cut the line should it become necessary. In going in where the surf is wide or there is a current, the line may be used to pass the outer breakers and then abandoned. If a bucket is tied to the end, it may be picked up again and used on going out. The anchor should be buoyed with spare oars or other gear so as to recover it should the boat be obliged to abandon the line or to cut it in coming out.

All unnecessary articles are taken out of the boat. The water-breaker is tightly plugged and lashed down, as are the stretchers and buckets for bailing. The men shift into light clothes without shoes. If the weather is sufficiently cold to require it, dry clothing may be carried in the air-tanks, which should, however, be carefully inspected and all unnecessary articles removed. A hatchet, copper tacks, sheet lead, and roll of felting should also be carried for use in case the boat is stove. If the beach is distant, it may be possible to go under sail, or to be towed by another boat so as to keep the men fresh. The presence of a second boat would also be of great assistance, if it was used to distribute oil over the water abreast

the landing, for although the quieting effect of oil is much less marked upon a surf than upon deep sea waves, there is abundant evidence that its value is considerable, especially in the comparatively deep water where the outer and most dangerous breakers form.

A second boat lying outside would be an encouragement to a crew pulling out from shore, and might be of great assistance to the probably exhausted men after their trip through the breakers.

In going out, the time of start, though important, is less so than when coming in, as it may be possible to pull half-way out without taking water on board or meeting dangerous surf. If a surf-line is used, take the boat up the beach until it appears that when carried down by the current and hauled out at the same time it will reach the dangerous space with the line fair to the anchor. Station two active, powerful men to haul in the line, as more progress will be made in this way than if they took The four after-oarsmen steady the boat, standing in the water opposite their thwarts, oars apeak. Put the passengers aboard, haul taut the line, and commence walking out the boat, the coxswain at the stern. As soon as the boat leaves the bottom the men climb in and take their oars, pointing them to prevent drift until ready to start. The intention is to so time the arrival of the boat at the outer line that no heavy breakers will be met at that point. Varying width of surf and speed of boat may make this difficult of attainment.

oars.

At the start the men, pulling and hauling, force the boat rapidly through the water. Irregular waves splash into the boat; later they become too large to be pulled through without taking much water on board. It is then best to check headway, tauten the line, and peak oars as the breaker passes. So the boat works out, obviously passing many more breakers than when coming in. Gradually the filling boat becomes sluggish, difficult to pull and steer. In this condition it may be capsized if only slightly turned, and it may now be better to go back, bail out, and try again, than to struggle on and risk an almost certain capsize in the heavier breakers.

A properly pointed boat may succeed in passing through a breaker that it cannot hope to ride. The water may fill it to the thwarts, in which condition it will capsize at a touch, but once clear of the breakers it may be bailed out and enabled to meet the waves of any ordinary sea in safety.

The form of anchor commonly used throughout the world from the beginning of the last century up to about 1875 was, in most essentials, that shown in Plate 80. It is true that doublefluked anchors resembling those now so familiar were proposed as early as 1850, but they were slow in making their way, and it was not until about the year above-named that they began to come into anything like general use. They are now almost universally used by steamers, and the prejudice which long existed against them in the minds of seamen is rapidly dying out.

When an old-fashioned anchor is let go in water fairly deep, it strikes the bottom crown first, and immediately falls over until it rests on the end of the stock, the arms lying horizontally. From this position any drag of the chain to one side capsizes or "cants" it, pulling the stock down horizontally upon the bottom and pointing one of the flukes fair for biting. As the drag continues, the fluke is forced into the ground, and if the anchor is well designed, the heavier the pull the deeper the fluke goes down -provided sufficient length of chain is given to keep the pull approximately parallel to the bottom. For this reason, quite as much as because of the "cantenary" that comes from a long scope, it is important to use plenty of chain, particularly when the anchor is taking the first hold. In good holding ground, anchors frequently bury themselves completely. This tendency of the old-fashioned anchor to work into the ground under a pull is one of its most valuable characteristics, and one not possessed by any of the "double-fluked" types, using this term to designate the general type in which the two flukes are in the same plane and act together in holding.

The principal advantages of the double-fluked type are, first, an enormous gain in convenience of handling and stowing, and second a freedom from danger that the ship may ground on some part of the anchor when swinging over it in shallow water.