| Show FOR FUN WATE 11 the interesting development of pleasure craft FROM RAFTS TO SPEEDY YACHTS A curd curtis traces the evolution of ol 01 tile modern elaborate Ua borate contrivances foi for marine amazement Ama ement lorillard guzu rions houseboat INCE the time when the driml primitive man discovered the simple device of fastening two logs together BO so that one would steady the other in the water and so serve as a 1 vehicle from shore to shore down to the present day there has been a very slow march of im provement pro in naval architecture to bo be sure the present swift luxurious pleasure craft is far in advance of the primitive raft but it haa has taken many ages to develop it and century after century haa elapsed without seeing any I 1 improvement in pro our own century is nothing it if not progressive gres sive and science is taxed to produce pleasure craft no less than for any other purpose the steps by which the present development has been achl achieved eved are tire how flow ever interestingly few and the really rl character of some of the tile most 1 luxurious luxurious ux urious of these craft la Is well worthy of notice our savage on his two logs found it necessary to use a stick or pole to push himself along and when he lie could not touch bottom with it be he used it to bent beat the water with flence netice the paddle and then the oar which with hardly a modification furnish the motive power for small boats bo it the world over the canoe the row 1 boat t the racing shell with its feathery 1 lightness Ight ness and spidery outriggers are naso absolutely primitive in principle ingenious as they may be in adaptation and luxurious its they may bo be in their fittings the rowboats among the thousand islands lands in ili the tile st lawrence are probably the tile ut best and most comfortable in the world 1 here there they are the everyday ve v hides for social und and lin business siness calls and are us as indispensable sa its gondolas io in venice light strong and AS safe as a boat can be they are fitted up as handsomely and often as expensively as a s millionaires millionaire carriages the 1 be next step in the development came when the savage stuck up the branch of a tree foi for a favoring wind to blow on and threw it 0 overboard when the wind w ind was ad verse this device grew grow into the sail and lu in time the ingenuity of man enabled him to sail almost against the wind yeteve yet een the modern racing yacht with its enormous spread of canvas and its intricate rigging riBS inSi call c be b made to accomplish little more tb thau a u the skillful sailors from phoenicia n eta did with t elmr I 1 beir sailing galleys tile next important step witt s when steam was applied to navigation and the development since then haa has been manifold greater than all that had been accod ix fore the only three steps taken were first when man pushed himself along on that mould would float and support his weight second when he found the tile wind would do the work for him and third when be he applied the tile expansive force of steam to machinery that would drive a wheel full of paddles and later litter a it screw all three of tl these e devices are more used today than ever before not only do ner chants go down to the sei rea in ships but pleasure plea sure seekers dare the perils of the deep in all borts sorts of contrivances to make a it II 11 liht of the different kind kinds of pleasure craft I 1 in n n use se now would take much space but it is worth while to enumerate some of the closes such on as the canoe ca loe tho tile rowboat rowboats the common sailboat the catamaran the sloop and schooner yachts the steam launch the steam yacht and the twit the modern canoe I 1 ij the result of per effort t to 0 combine the least weight and re resistance with the tile greatest power oata obtainable anable from wind or puddle paddle these raft craft are so f frail rail that they arc are incapable of re resisting si shock and tho the only safety there Is in them is resultant from the skill of the navigator so great it 14 this skill that canoeists today go where no other sailors can call go skimming along the edge of dan ger from which w alch any other boat would be compelled to fly tho the rowboat Is only worthy of notice I 1 in it this connection because of its development into the racing shell which has lias been brought to even a more dangerous frailty this however howe er Is never ne er taken into rough water or perilous places the ordinary sailboat too Is too well known to require de description crip tion I 1 it t is built in a it thousand forms ull all familiar and all pra practically ti cally alike I 1 i the catani catamaran aran Is a curious thing that is not in general use enough to be familiar to everybody even on the water front it is is modification of the primitive raft in ili that the two logs are represented bytho by two long jong slender cigar like floats on which w holcli ia Is a skeleton platform supporting a mast and sail it is capable cap abla of great speed but sailing it Is very wet fun it I 1 is is very 0 safe fe in ili that it can h hardly ardly 1 bo be upset an and d is buoyant enough to skim kim over cry very rough water indeed it cannot be swamped and so long aa it holds together guther to it will support consid erable weight columns and volumes have been written 0 of f t the fie speed and luxury of modern yachts lits KO that Rny anything thing that I 1 could nay gay would be uninteresting repetition of the steam J L rr r IME LonILL ARDS launch and the houseboat however less im haa bal been printed A recent example of the houseboat has attracted considerable notice it la Is the one built last la st year by mr pierre lorillard and is a sort of summer palace on A steel scow shaped hull bull I 1 it 1 Is s raid sald to be the finest of the kind in th this i s country where there are comparatively fewer houseboats than in england there are however many of them on oil the western rivers where they usually drift down str eamand and employ to go upstream up tho the owner and his family or guests having a comfortable summer homo homa on board sir mr lorillard IA rillard haa has an engine and a screw on his boat but commonly no motive power Is supplied on board they seem to afford the happiest kind of a combination of the tile pleasures of leisurely travel and of staying at homo home at the same time thi the steam launch Is a wooden contrive once nee and la is rapidly growing in favor it Is not long since steam engines engine s were tw WOO ponderous to put into small boats and the tad fuel used was as too bulky and too heavy he aay to carry on a small en mil scale settle the machinist however has learned to make his eli engines gines lighter and simpler and kerosene and naphtha have been substituted for coal BO so that now a 22 foot open boat can be readily propelled by steam no doubt there is aawar always danger in a boat perhaps more than t there ere is in on land certainly the more people know about bouts boats of any kind the more careful they become hut but as an man has always enjoyed going on oil the tLe water berhar nil all the more localism localise lo calise tse of the clet clement neut of D danger so ho e win will all aun continue t I 1 lia e ta to d do 0 the next step in development will undoubtedly be the application of electricity to the screw propeller aa as a motor this can bo be and has been done but the fume same difficulty exists as lad bad to be overcome in the tile case of steam launches storage bat te terie ries can be used readily enough to supply the power but they are too bulky and heavy for a small boat this difficulty will however in all probability be obviated hoon and the electric launch will probably lo 10 the safest handiest and most comfortable pleasure craft in tho the world DAVID A contis |
