96 The Life Worth Living 



the boat he builds if he has had sufficient 

 experience to understand the language of 

 the sea. 



I planned a schooner yacht of ocean- 

 going tonnage, yet of such light draught she 

 could thread her way amid the labyrinths of 

 sand shoals, mud-flats, marshes and creeks 

 that make the home of the wild fowl in Tide- 

 water Virginia. 



Five things I tried to express in this boat 

 solid comfort, safety, economy, utility and 

 beauty. I planned her 80 feet long, 20 feet 

 beam, and 3 feet draught; and the lowest 

 estimate I could get on her in New York and 

 vicinity was $11,000, without sails. 



This sum was beyond my purse. I came 

 down to the Chesapeake and found Mr. E. J. 

 Tull, of Pocomoke, Maryland, an efficient 

 builder of merchant work boats. He built 

 her hull. Her iron and brass work I had 

 done in New York, and her sails were made 

 at Crisfield. When she was finished and 



