SAILING CRAFT 67 



creased to eight on the mainmast of a full- 

 rigged ship, and they were better cut and set 

 than ever before. Yachts and merchantmen 

 cannot be fairly compared in the matter of 

 their sails. But it is worth noting that the 

 old ' white-winged days ' never had any sort of 

 canvas worth comparing with a British yacht- 

 ing 'Lapthorn* or a Yankee yachting ' Sawyer* 

 of our own time. Hulls, too, have improved 

 far beyond those of the old three-decker age, 

 beyond even the best of the Vikings'. 



Such broad divisions into eras of shipbuilding 

 are, of course, only to be taken as marking world- 

 wide nautical advances in the largest possible 

 sense. One epoch often overlaps another and 

 begins or ends at different times in different 

 countries. A strangely interesting survival of 

 an earlier age is still to be seen along the 

 Labrador, in the little Welsh and Devonshire 

 brigs, brigantines, and topsail schooners which 

 freight fish east away to Europe. These vessels 

 make an annual round: in March to Spain 

 for salt ; by June along the Labrador ; in Sep- 

 tember to the Mediterranean with their fish; 

 and in December home again for Christmas. 

 They are excellently handled wherever they go; 

 and no wonder, as every man aboard of them 

 is a sailor born and bred. 



