SECTION Ol*' NAVAL AftCttlTECTURE. 89 



rig consists of a single short, stout mast, stepped almost amidships, 

 and having a strong rake lorward. Upon this is spread a large settee 

 sail, which tacks down to the bow. 



The "machva" is credited with being the swiftest of Indian sailing 

 craft, and a claim has been made that boats of this type could beat 

 English .yachts. Dr. McDonald, secretary and curator of the Victoria 

 and Albert Museum, Bombay, says, "The fishing boats of the Koukan 

 are considered to be amongst the swiftest sailing vessels known." It is 

 believed by the native fishermen that the sailing qualities of their boats 

 are materially improved by the shape of the keel. It would appear, 

 too, that they are correct, strange as it may seem, for Biddle, in his 

 *' Model Yacht Building and Sailing," tells us that " some experiments 

 were tried with this type of vessel a few years back. The arch was 

 filled up and the sailing qualities of the craft immediately destroyed." 

 He also sajs " They do not go to windward so well as an English yacht, 

 but in running and reaching they cannot be surpassed, especially in 

 smooth water." Dixon Kemp, however, in " Yacht and Boat Sailing" 

 (4th edition, p. 350), expresses the opinion that the stories about such 

 craft beating boats of English design must be taken with considerable 

 allowance. 



The following interesting account of the ceremonies attending the 

 launching of a new boat of this class is given by Dr. McDonald : 

 " When a Koli builds a new boat, or ' machva,' he gives a dinner to 

 his friends and relatives on the occasion of its being first launched. 

 The fermented juice of the palm tree is freely drunk by the guests in- 

 vited on such occasions. The women, too, honor new boats with rev- 

 erence and break cocoanuts upon the boat's bows, pretty much as cham- 

 pagne bottles are broke at home on like occasions." 



Other models in this collection of East Indian boats, particularly the 

 Madras " masulah " boat, and two of those used at the Maldives and 

 Aden, are interesting as showing the peculiar method of sewing the 

 l)lanks together with coir twine, which is a characteristic feature of 

 many of the fishing craft used by the natives of the East. 



(8) We have obtained from the Government of Greece a collection 

 of the fishing boats of that country, consisting of one full-sized speci- 

 men and two models. It is interesting to note that two of these boats, 

 a fishing skill", and a sloop from the island of Sciathos, resemble craft 

 used in the United States. For instance, the skill' might be easily taken 

 for one used by gunners in the Chesapeake and its tributaries, while on 

 the New England coast sloop boats could perhaps be found which 

 would not be very much unlike that employed by the Grecian fisher- 

 men. The most interesting model in this collection is that of a Grecian 

 boat employed in the net and seine fisheries. It is sharp aft, and finely 

 proportioned. Its striking peculiarity, however, is a projecting cut- 

 water or "ram", which se^ms to be the last surviving relic in the 

 Grecian boats of the " ram's head," or cutwater, which adorned the 



