SHIPPING IN THE CHANNEL. 13 



The first we pass is a Dutch galliot, all resplendent 

 in brilliant-coloured paint. She looks more like a play- 

 thing than ought else. Yet there are few safer sea- 

 going vessels in the world. Some years ago, when 

 doubling the Cape of Good Hope in 42 south latitude, 

 when it was blowing so hard and fiercely as it knows so 

 well how to do on that inhospitable ocean, one of these 

 galliots, probably not over two hundred tons, was in our 

 company for two days. Although the vessel I was on 

 board of was a large transport, the little brilliantly 

 painted Dutchman to all appearance was making better 

 weather than ourselves. Their crews are, as a rule, most 

 able, hardy sailors, worthy descendants of him who first 

 mounted the birch-broom at the foremast -head. Next 

 in our course, and close by, is a French lugger, also 

 a weatherly craft, which has most probably seen many 

 a heavy blow about Ushant and the Channel Islands ; 

 but how different does her crew look ! That old man 

 with the weather-beaten face, dressed in scarlet shirt, 

 and his feet shod in sabots, must be the bond fide 

 Johnny Crapaud, and how he sucks at his pipe, from 

 long use burnt as black as coal ! How many pounds of 

 tobacco, could any one tell, has it taken to accomplish 

 this ? A youth, evidently learning some of the 

 mysteries of fishing-net manufacture, an untidy lad 

 at the tiller, and a very vociferous, unknown breed 

 of dog, apparently make up the entire crew. 



But here comes a different type of craft. Forty 

 years ago, if sighted in the equatorial portion of the 

 Atlantic, she would have been suspected of carrying 

 ebony ; as it is now, she is only a harmless fruiterer from 

 the western islands. That she can sail, no one who 

 looks at her spread of canvas, clean run, and taut rig, 



