Dec. i6, 1905.] 
L 
FOREST AND STREAM 
497 
A Very Ancient Egyptian Boat. 
About twenty-five years since there was disinterred 
and brought to light on the coast of Norway a vessel 
which excited much interest at that time and ever since, 
and on it and the things found in and about it much 
study and erudition have been bestowed. The Anti- 
quarian Society of Norwair took the investigation _ in 
hand, and a book published with the title “The yiking 
Ship,” beautifully and very fully illustrated, gives a 
very minute account of every article included in the 
find. These illustrations include a well executed draw- 
ing of the vessel herself, showing the lines and details of 
construction. The vessel is supposed to have been built 
.somewhere between nine and eleA'en hundred years 
since, and considering this, was in a remarkably well 
preserved state. The vessel is of surprisingly good and 
symmetrical form, and it will be remembered that a 
fac-simile of her was in 1893 sailed across the Atlantic 
and exhibited at the Chicago fair. Some years since, 
the sailing master of a schooner yacht told me that one 
of the small boats with which the yacht was equipped 
had been built from the lines of the Viking Ship, and 
was the fastest rowing boat belonging to her. 
The writer was in Egj^pt last March and saw in the 
museum at Cairo two boats prominent among the ex- 
hibits. These were ascribed to a period 2,300 years 
B.C. They were therefore four times or more older 
than the Viking craft, more interesting consequently 
in this one matter of age, and not less so in some other 
features. The ends of the stem and stern were jagged 
and broken off, and in the one of which I took meas- 
urements the keel was partly gone, six or seven feet of 
the upper strake on the port side was broken away, but 
the form was otherwise w-ell preserved. In an interview 
with the courteous curator, I was shown a book, printed 
in German, which gave an account of these boats, with 
an illustration (a iDerspective view), but was told that 
nothing' had appeared which would accurately .give the 
form of the boat. I noticed at once that the under- 
water bodies of these t'wo boats had, in conspicuous 
degree, the essential features which have been^ com- 
monly introduced into modern yachts only within the 
last fifteen years; and with the cordial assent of the 
gentleman in charge of the exhibits (Emile Brugsch, 
Bey), I engaged to take off the lines, which are here- 
with exhibited. The boat was, I was told, origiiplly 
employed to convey to its destination a mummified 
bodj9 and was then treated as a sacred vessel, and 
buried beneath the sands of the desert, from which it 
was disinterred about eleven years ago. I was in- 
formed that Mr. Carnegie had purchased one-of these 
boats, and had it sent to this country, and that it was 
on exhibition somewhere — Chicago, I think. 
The construction is peculiar; there are no frames, the 
planks are about Sin. at greatest width, of sycamore, 
2;.4in. thick, fastened together by flat dowels driven 
edgeways through one plank into another, and again 
by flat dovetail pieces of the form illustrated let into 
the inner side of the planking. There are eleven 
thwarts (5 x 2in.) in the boat, each one let into the top 
of the second strake. 
The boat, it will be seen, has a form very easy for 
propulsion, and a very small wetted surface. The curve 
of areas shov/s a nicely graduated under-water body, 
somewhat fuller in the forebody than accords with 
modern practice, but scarcely admitting of amendment 
in the after end. Given a different sheer, and a finish 
to the stern somewhat conventionalized, you have an 
up-to-date looking boat, and with or without these 
changes, if you put on a boat of this form a bulbed fin, 
such as came into use in 1891, you have at_ once a 
promising racer for this date, in a form conceived and 
built to over four thousand years ago. With the bulbed 
fin admitted, few men of competent judgment will, I 
think, be found to question that we have here for 
racing purposes a form superior to anything existing 
in modern times previous to 1890. 
In this connection it may be stated incidentally, that 
by the recently adopted racing rules, the little vessel 
would have a permitted draft of 5ft. S54in-_ 
To further carry out the idea of adaptation to racing. 
it may be stated that such a boat would, by the rule, be 
allowed to carry 408 sq. ft. of sail in the i8ft. class, ar 
S55ft. if sailed in the 21ft. class. 
Her dimensions are; 
Length — 
Extreme, to the broken ends 32ft. 2in. 
L.W.L., as drawn 21ft. 2111. 
“L” as per racing rule 20ft. 4io.. 
Breadth — 
extreme 7 ft-. 
L.W.L 6 ft. 4111 '.. 
Draft as shown ift. 3^2111'- 
Displacement T^V'i cu- f-t- 
JOHN HySLOP. 
Boston Letter. 
German-American Race. — The communication of the 
Kaiserlicher Y. C. has been received by the Eastern Y. 
C. and, as had been expected, it had to do with a chal- 
lenge for the first series of races to be held at Marble- 
head. In greater part, however it treated of conditions- 
to govern the holding of the trophy, and to the several 
clauses in the agreement between the clubs of both coun- 
tries. The conditions were first proposed by the Eastern 
Y. C., some of which were accepted by .the Kaiserlicher 
Y. C. and suggestions were made in regard to others by 
the German club. In the main the two clubs agree, al- 
though there are some other points which will receive 
further consideration. It is thought that by the first of 
the year all conditions will be settled upon, when a deed 
of gift for the cup may be drawn up, under which a chal- 
lenge may be accepted. 
Douglas Schooner to be Launched. — The 50ft. water- 
line schooner, which has been built at Lawley’s for Rear 
Commodore Alfred Douglas, of the Boston Y; C., was 
launched from the east shop last Tuesday morning. The 
new schooner is a well-turned, wholesome looking craft, 
and has good accommodations for crusing. 
Kiowa Sold. — Mr. B. B. Crowninshield has sold the 
35-footer Kiowa for Mr. Charles L. Eaton, of the Boston 
Y. C., to Mr. W. H. Bradbury, of the same club. 
Katherine II. Solp.- -Dormer Governor ’ Frank W. 
Rollins, of New- Hampshire, has sold his 46ft. waterline 
auxiliary yawl Katherine II. to Mr. Joseph J. Tootle, of 
St. Joseph, Mo. Katherine II. was formerly Alborak, 
one of the 46-footers brought out in i8gi. ..She was de- 
signed by the late Dr. John B. Paine for Gen. Charles 
J. Paine. 
New^ Boats. — There is building at Lawley’s, from de- 
signs of Mr. Fred. D. Lawley, a 102ft. cruising power 
yacht for Mr. H. F. Hanson, for whom the cruising 
power yacht Elkhorn was built a year ago. The new 
boat will be 102ft. over all, 94ft. waterline, 13ft. 6im 
breadth and 5ft. draft. She wull be propelled by a six- 
cylinder Standard engine of 300 horsepower, and her 
gasolene tank wdll have a capacity for thirty-four barrels, 
which will give her a cruising radius of about 1,000 mile.s 
at full speed. It is expected that she will show 16 miles 
an hour. This boat in outline is much like Elkhorn, ex- 
cept that there is more sw-eep to the bowc There is a 
deck house forw^ard, which is used for a dining room 
and the crew’s quarters run underneath this. The galley 
is next aft, and then comes the engine room. The tank 
is placed in a compartment formed by two water-tight 
steel bulkheads. Aft is the main saloon, .forward of 
wTich is the owner’s room. There is a double stateroom 
in the after part of the boat, below the after deck, in 
which the head room is 4ft. gin. 
There is also building at the same yard a fast cruising 
launch for Mr. Ernest B. Dane. 'This boat will be named 
Needle. She is of the Scout and Mirage type, having a 
low trunk, which is broken forward, the helmsman stand- 
ing in the deck. She will be equipped with a Standard 
engine of 100 horsepower, which will give her a speed 
of 15 miles an hour. 
In the same shop the keel is set up for an auxiliary 
yawl for Mr. J. H. Cromw'ell, of New York. This boat 
will be 84ft. over all, 57ft. waterline, 20ft. breadth and 
4ft. draft. She will be equipped with a 30 horsepower 
engine. 
British Letter. 
Fixtures for 1906. — It is satisfactory to know that the 
fixture list for British regattas will be on a more satis- 
factory basis next year. The proposal of Mr. W. P. 
Burton, owmer of the 52-footer Britomart, that the 
season should open with the Clyde Fortnight instead 
of with the Thames and East Coast races has been 
agreed to by the Clyde clubs, and a list has been drawn 
up which should prove far more satisfactory than any 
\vc have had of recent years. To commence with the 
Clyde means the saving of a fortnight, and this jpst 
makes all the difference in relieving the strain which 
has been put upon owners and crews by jamming up 
the fixtures so close as they were before and yet having 
idle time in June and part of July for those yachts which 
did not go do Kiel or the Clyde. In the present fixture 
list Kiel regatta is ignored — and rightly so, as the 
Germans have quite enough boats to run their own 
races now, independent of outside help. Ostend and 
Antwerp are included, but they are really British fix- 
tures, as they are almost entirely run by British yachts. 
The chief thing about the new list of fixtures is that 
it permits of the yachts working the coast in a much 
more systematic method than hitherto. Starting with 
ihe Clyde on June 2, they then go on to Belfast, Kings- 
town and Plymouth ; thence on to Dover, the Thames 
and Flarwich. On July 14 the Royal Thames has its 
annual races from the Nore to Dover, after which fol- 
low Ostend and Antwerp. The rest of the season 
follows the ordinary routine, Ramsgate, the Solent and 
the West of England regattas. The new arrangement 
should prove a great success. 
First-Class Racing. — There is but little doubt that an 
attempt will be made next season to form a big class 
to sail under Y. R. A. rules and time allowances out 
of such boats as we have already, together with the 
cutter building at Gosport. It will certainly be a mixed 
class, as it will be chiefly composed of yachts which 
have been sailing under handicap conditions, and many 
of them are widely separated in years and tonnage._ The 
following have been mentioned as the most suitable 
vessels: Kariad, Navahoe, Bona and Susanne, all bona 
fide racers when they were built; the Nicholson cutter 
and the fast cruisers Cicely and White Heather. Whether 
such a class would prove a success on Y. R. A. time 
instead of handicap remains to be proved. Bona and 
White Heather would sail on level terms, but nobody 
who knows the boats could doubt that Bona, although 
ten years old, is more than a match for the Fife yawl. 
Kariad is an unknown quantity, and the new cutter can 
hardly be called a first-class yacht as she is building 
to Lloyd’s requirements. However, owners seem to be 
tired of handicap racing, and anything in the direction 
of a return to class racing would be more than wel- 
come. The schooners would not have much of a look 
in except on odd days and the bulk of the prizes would 
probably go to Kariad, Navahoe and Bona. There is 
some talk of converting White Heather from a yawl 
to a cutter, but nothing is yet settled, neither is it 
known whether Bona, Kariad or Cicely will be in com- 
mission. It is a pity such fine vessels are kept hauled 
up when they would be such valuable additions to the 
racing fleet. The last news of Bona was that her 
owner was trying to sell her, and that people had been 
to inspect her with a view to purchase. It is to be 
hoped that Mr. Donaldson may change his mind when 
he finds there is a prospect of class racing and fit out 
once more the boat he has raced so many seasons with 
such conspicuous success. The experiment of forming 
a class under Y. R. A. allowance is certainly well worth 
trying, and will be almost sure to lead to others, build- 
ing to the class when it becomes more stable, although 
nothing much will be done that way unti} the new 
rating rule is finally decided upon. 
E. H. Kelly. 
All communications for Forest and Stream must he 
directed to Forest and Stream Pub. Co., New York, to 
receive attention. We have no other- oMce. 
