THE EXPENSE OF A YACHT. 



759 



after a fourteen days' voyage, the Henrietta winning the race 

 by a couple of hours. This yacht was the property of James 

 Gordon Bennett, Jr., the son of the owner of the New York 

 Herald. During the war her owner freely offered her to the 

 government, and she has done good service. After the victory 

 Mr. Bennett sold her for $15,000, and purchased the Fleet wing 

 for $65,000, re-christening her the Dauntless. This yacht, in 

 another ocean race in 1870, was beaten by the Cambria, an 

 English yacht. These prices show the cost of seeking one's 

 pleasure in a yacht, and yet it is only one item of the expense. 

 To keep one of the vessels costs more than the expenses of the 

 majority of the households in the country. A crew of five 

 men is needed, and it is a question whether, all things consid- 

 ered, more real substantial interest and enjoyment is not 

 taken by a lover of the sea and of sailing in an ordinary sail- 

 boat, which he and a friend or two are amply competent to 

 man and manage, than is taken by the owners of the most lux- 

 uriantly furnished yachts in the world. As pleasure ships, how- 

 ever, the yacht is all that can be desired. Many of them con- 

 tain spacious saloons ; their cabins are almost always paneled in 

 costly woods, and most luxuriantly furnished, and even gas 

 has been provided for them. It is estimated that the yachts 

 of the New York club alone have cost more than $2,000,000, 

 and those of the whole country about $5,000,000. Much of this 

 is the mere luxury of ostentation ; but as the real pleasures 

 there are in thus visiting distant lands come to be better appre- 

 ciated, much of this foolish expenditure will be abandoned. 



