CATALOGUE OF THE WATERCRAFT COLLECTION, 47 



This was a wooden, carvel-built, two-masted, keel schooner, with 

 moderately sharp bow, somewhat strongly convex at top, but 

 much finer below ; raking curved stem ; no head ; sharp floor extend- 

 ing above water line; long lean run; square stern; moderate sheer; 

 cockpit aft; deck forward of cockpit nearly flush with rail, except 

 for the bow chock forward and the low quarter rail aft of main 

 rigging. 



Dimensions of vessel. — Length over all, 85 feet 6 inches; beam, 

 22 feet 6 inches; tonnage, 96 tons old measurement; bowsprit, out- 

 side, 30 feet; foremast, above deck, 68 feet 3 inches; fore-topmast, 

 heel to truck, 32 feet; foreboom, 27 feet; foregaff, 26 feet 3 inches; 

 mainmast, above deck, 69 feet; maintop mast, 34 feet 6 inches; 

 main boom, 57 feet 6 inches; main gaff, 29 feet 3 inches. Scale of 

 model, about one-sixteenth inch equals 1 foot. The model was made 

 by one of the sailors of the expedition and is believed to be a fairly 

 accurate representation of the vessel. 



This schooner was originally the pilot boat Independence.^ of New 

 York, but was renamed the Flying Fish after being purchased as 

 a tender for the Wilkes expedition. Her rig was reduced before 

 sailing. She was probably built about 1830 to 1835, and represents 

 the style of vessel — with " cod's head and mackerel's tail " — used 

 by the New York pilots of that period. On the southern cruise, 

 while under the command of Lieut. William M, Walker, she reached 

 the highest southern latitude of any vessel of the Wilkes expedition. 

 She is referred to in " Thulia. A Tale of the Antarctic," by J. C 

 Palmer, United States Navy, New York, 1843, 



The Flying Fish was condemned at Singapore, after four years' 

 service on the expedition, as unfit to continue her voyage, and sold 

 for $3,700, Wilkes says of her: "As a vessel of her class, she was 

 almost faultless," 

 Deposited by Mrs. E, H, Du Hamel. Cat. No. 76,317 U.S.N.M. 



MERCHANT VESSELS. 



STEAMERS. 



Model of James Kumsey's steamboat. 



The boat and machinery were invented by James Rumsey, of 

 Berkley Springs, Va., in 1784, and experimented with in the follow- 

 ing year. 



James Rumsey, who invented this device for propelling a boat by 

 drawing in water at the bow and ejecting it forcibly at the stern by 

 means of a steam pump was a working bath tender at Berkeley 

 Springs, Va. In 1784 he constructed a crude model of a steamboat 



