SAILING CRAFT 55 



its ' record-breaking ' events at sea. Baffin's 

 ' Farthest North,' reached in 1616, was latitude 

 77 45' This remained an unbroken record 

 for two hundred and thirty-six years. Cham- 

 plain's own voyage from Honfleur to Tadous- 

 sac in eighteen days broke all previous records, 

 remained itself unbroken for a century, and 

 would be a credit to a sailing ship to-day. 

 His vessel was the Don de Dieu, of which he left 

 no exact description, but which was easily 

 reproduced for the f-ercentenary of Quebec in 

 1908 from the corresponding French merchant 

 vessels of her day. She was about a hundred 

 tons and could be handled by a crew of twenty. 

 The nearest modern equivalent of her rig is 

 that of a barque, though she carried a little 

 square sail under her bowsprit and had no 

 jibs, while her spanker had a most lateenish 

 look. Her mainsail had a good hoist and 

 spread. She had three masts and six sails alto- 

 gether. The masts were ' pole,' that is, all of 

 one piece. The tallest was seventy-three feet 

 from step to truck, that is, from where the 

 mast is stepped in over the keel to the disc that 

 caps its top. She carried stone ballast ; her 

 rudder was worked by a tiller, with the help 

 of a simple rope tackle to take the strain ; and 

 the poop contained three cabins. 



