ROYAL TAG JIT- CLUB SQUADRON. 159 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE QUEEN S YACHT. YACHTS OF THE R. Y. CLUB, THEIR BUILD AND RIG. 

 COMPARISON WITH AMERICAN YACHTS AND PILOT-BOATS. SEAMAN 

 SHIP. CUT OF SAILS. THE NAVY-YARD AT PORTSMOUTH. GUN-BOATS. 



STEAMERS. NAVAL FORCE OF GREAT BRITAIN. EVENING AT PORTSEA. 

 CURIOSITY. ABOUT BOASTING AND SOME ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS. 



CONVERSATION WITH A SHOPKEEPER ON &quot; THE GLORY OF ENGLAND.&quot; 



IN crossing the Solent, on our return to Portsmouth, we saw 

 the Queen s yacht, and passed through a squadron of the 

 Royal Yacht-Club yachts. The former was a large, heavily- 

 hampered, brig-rigged steamer, with great plate-glass ports, 

 and a large oak-coloured house on deck, less seaman-like in 

 appearance and more in the American style than most En 

 glish steam-vessels. The yachts were as sweet craft as I can 

 imagine, most of them over two hundred tons in burden and 

 schooner-rigged; but, whether one or two-masted, spreading 

 more canvas for the length of their hulls than I ever saw be 

 fore. They were all painted black, and their ornaments and 

 deck-arrangements struck me as being more simple, snug, and 

 seaman-like than those of most of our Union Clubs yachts. 

 The reverse is the case aloft. My guess was that they would 

 be more than a match for any thing on our side in light 

 winds, but that in bad weather, particularly if working to 

 windward, they would do nothing against a New York pilot- 

 boat. Like all the English small craft, when going before 

 the wind, the cutters and schooners always hauled up the tack 



