Packet boat

“ These merchants pointed out that it would be easy to collect a number of sailors who were accustomed to find themselves entangled in the ice, and whom experience had taught how to make the best of such a situation. A few such men were hastily brought together, and added to the crews of two of the Packets, each of which was also provided with an ice-boat. At Heligoland preparations were made for more carefully organized attempts to reach the mainland. ”

“ The mast and rigging stand out in clear black outline against lingering daylight as we swing south four points. The look-out aloft turns from his post and scans the wake curving to our sheer; anon, he wonders at the coming of a mate to share his watch. Passengers, on a stroll, note unusual movement about the boat-deck, where the hands are swinging out lifeboats and clearing the gear. As the carpenter and his mates go the rounds, screwing blinds to the ports and darkening ship, other passengers hurry up from below and join the groups on deck; an excitement is quickly evident. ”

“ His couple of 12–pounder carronades were double-shotted, and as the lugger sheered up under the stern of the “Cornwallis” she got such a storm of grape and canister along her decks as took the heart out of her for boarding; while as she fell away in some confusion the Packet’s starboard guns came to bear, and were discharged at short range with terrible effect. ”

“ They are carvel-built—that is, the planks are placed as in a ship. Boats in general are clinker-built—that is, the planks overlap each other; but as they are difficult to repair, the other simpler method is employed. A ship generally carries seven boats—two or more large, and the rest small. They are suspended by cranes, or davits, in a row outside the rigging, on either side of the ship, and another astern, so that they can be directly lowered into the water. A smart crew will man and lower a boat in the space of a minute, and be away in chase of a whale. ”

“ Then they have the platform, as in the case of the double canoe, and sometimes they have a sort of upper deck, or pilot-house, on the platform, where the captain stands to direct the movements of the craft. All these forms of boats are steered by means of paddles, and not with a rudder."
"I wonder somebody in the civilized world does not take something from these savages in the way of boat-building," said Frank, as soon as the Doctor paused. ”

“ They want to drive their vessels for every bit of speed that is in them, at least until reported from Fire Island. The slower boats, the ocean tramps, too, look with disfavor on shipping a pilot far out at sea, for it meant only an idler aboard, to be fed until the mouth of the harbor was reached. So the rivalry between the pilots gave way to cooperation. A steamer was built to serve as a station-boat, which keeps its position just outside New York harbor, and supplies pilots for the eight boats of the fleet that cruise over fixed beats a few score miles away. ”

“ When the landing is effected each carrier may seize his bag, sling it over his shoulder with a lanyard, and experience no hindrance until he actually fills it, when, of course, the weight of the water will become a burden. The bags will lie flat in the boat’s bottom, accommodating their form to that of the space they occupy. If it is necessary to carry sail they serve as ballast ”

“ That cargo was not right to go outside the Heads with, as the vessel, considering her length, was not fit to carry it. If the cargo had been stowed in the forehatch it would have put her more on even keel. It was a great mistake to place that wooden awning on the boat. If a gale of wind were blowing, the wind would get under the awning, and if the vessel were lying over, it would help her to go over further without doubt. It would keep her down when she was down. If the Alert had had another mast and sail on it, her head could have been brought up to the wind and sea. ”

“ The manner of arranging the boats in a ship of this character, is as follows: Three boats, ready fitted, are kept swinging in the cranes alongside the ship; these are called the starboard, larboard and waist boats. Each is manned by six men, including the officer, and each has its regular crew. The captain commands the starboard, the first mate the larboard, and the second mate the [Pg 113] waist boat. The third mate commands the captain’s boat, when the latter does not go. ”

“ The boats are really iron boxes, which, when traffic is carried, say from Leeds to Goole for shipment, are placed in a hoist, inside which there is a cage with a cradle, in which the boat is secured. When the boat has been raised to the height of the shoot it turns over automatically and discharges the coal or other cargo into the ship through the shoot or spout employed for that purpose. The boat and cradle, having resumed their original position, are then lowered back again to the canal-level by the same hydraulic arrangement employed to raise them. ”

“ In the forepart a stout stick some ten feet long stands up as a mast and supports a small sail, and amid-ships a short rail, supported on two uprights, enabled the two men who form the crew to hold on when much knocked about by the waves. A single paddle seems to serve as a rudder, but it is not easy to understand how such a rude substitute for a boat is able to work out to sea against the breeze which commonly sets towards the shore. ”

“ Parcel-post boats have blue-and-white striped sails and a yellow sort of box in the centre of the boat to distinguish them. The letters do not go by water, but are carried by men overland.
There have been so many accidents on the river this season, owing to its fulness, that we determined to go ashore whenever we came to a rapid, and to take our luggage with us. We duly instructed the captain and also the red-boat men on the subject, but, to our surprise, on the third day we discovered that we had already come up one rapid, and before we knew it we were into a second. ”

“ Any one can make a floating hotel that will pay expenses, if he puts enough money into the saloon, and charges for private baths, suites of rooms, and such like; but in these days of competition and low freights every square inch of a cargo-boat must be built for cheapness, great hold-capacity, and a certain steady speed. This boat was, perhaps, two hundred and forty feet long and thirty-two feet wide, with arrangements that enabled her to carry cattle on her main and sheep on her upper deck if she wanted to; but her great glory was the amount of cargo that she could store away in her holds. ”

“ One will often see at a glance as much as might occupy some pages to even briefly describe. In a few turns of the eye I had taken in these two men and their little ship. The boat seemed to me a very fine specimen of the Deal lugger. Her forepeak consisted of a forecastle, the deck of which was carried in the shape of a platform several feet abaft the bulkhead, which limited the sleeping compartment, and under this pent-house or break were stored the anchors, cables, and other gear belonging to the little vessel. ”

“ Along each side of the cargo box ran a narrow walk, about eighteen inches in width, with cleats nailed to the deck twenty-eight or thirty inches apart, to prevent the feet of the crew from slipping when poling upstream. Of the motive power of these boats, Captain H. M. Chittenden, U. S. A., in a recent work on the navigation of the Missouri River in early days, says:
"For the purposes of propulsion the boat was equipped with nearly all the power appliances known to navigation, except steam. ”

“ There were life-rafts on the top deck, of a homelike sort of model, in the form of two benches with the air-tanks under the benches. If anything happened to the ship, you could go floating off with all the comforts of a seat on a bench in the park—if too many [74] did not try to have seats at the same time. It was a fine night for anybody to spot us, but just as fine a night for us to spot them. And a ship cutting out devious courses at twenty-one knots, or whatever she was logging—she is not too easy to hit. To lay out for the ten and eleven knot cargo boats is more economical. ”

“ Sir Edward Harland
The place of the old cargo boat was in course of time taken by the so-called “tramp,” the modern [Pg 31] cargo carrier—a good wholesome ship, a large carrier, with sufficient power to take care of herself in all weathers. With modern machinery a tramp can go to the ends of the earth without replenishing her coal supply. One remarkable change has taken place which would have shocked the shipowners of fifty years ago; steamers no longer carry sails and the tendency is to do away with masts. The “standard” ship has only one mast, which is only used for signalling. ”

“ Those fearful noises are loudly re-echoed by all the other men, who strain themselves so vigorously at the oars, that the boat, flying forwards, almost keeps way with the wave, on the back of which it is the object of the steersman to keep her. As she is swept impetuously towards the bar, a person seated in the boat can distinctly feel the sea under him gradually rising under a sheer wave, and lifting the boat up—and up—and up, in a manner exceedingly startling. ”

“ There is a tug-boat taking out to its moorings the light-ship on which the safety of many other ships will depend.
There also are the ‘fast-sailing’ steam trawlers and carriers coming from, or going to, the fishing-grounds off Iceland and north of the White Sea—the representatives of the whalers of a hundred years ago—there the scurrying pilot boats and revenue cutters. And there is a great ocean liner riding at anchor and waiting the turn of the tide to allow it to enter the dock and discharge the cargo it has brought from the other side of the world. ”

“ Again we hauled out and gave the Phoenix her biannual face lifting, using the Cruising Club’s slip. I arranged, at last, to replace the faulty chain plates that had been much on my mind for a reason which is obvious: there are two things that must not fail on a seagoing yacht—the masts and the rudder. The chain plates hold the shrouds that support the mast. Period.
I laid in a supply of essential navigation aids for the next stage of our trip—pilot books, light lists, tide tables, and nearly a hundred charts, enough to get us to Durban, South Africa. ”

“ Because, in the first place, they transfer from the vessel to their own boat whatever they think worth taking, then they bind the crew hand and foot, they attach to everyone’s neck a four-and-twenty-pound ball, a large hole is chopped in the vessel’s bottom, and then they leave her. ”

“ We put the Pactolus through her paces, I can assure you; carried sail till all was blue. Luck sent us strong and favourable winds. In the dead of night I would often see the steamer's officers, dressed and wandering around the decks, or gathered in a group and holding low conversation; the ship would be scuppers under, the deck at a dangerous angle, masts and yards buckling and groaning, a spread of motionless canvas rising aloft as hard as a board; the whole hull humming like a top, as she raced through the water at a fourteen-knot clip. ”

“ At 5 o’clock the enemy prepared themselves for a great effort. The great guns roared out with redoubled fury, the 195musketeers planted in the tops of the Privateer sent a storm of balls on the deck of the Packet, and at the same moment the French captain laying his ship alongside the “Prince Ernest” hove his boarders into her in great numbers.
“My choice little crew,” as Captain Petre called them, were perfectly prepared to receive their enemies, and harassed them with pikes and cutlasses as they struggled up the boarding nettings. ”

“ In coming alongside of a yacht at anchor, all persons who are not guests of the captain, or especially invited, or of some rank or consequence, should come to the port gangway. The starboard side of a vessel at anchor is the captain's side, as is that side of the deck which is the windward-side when she is under way. Ladies always come on board on the starboard side, if the yacht be large enough to enter into all these niceties of quarterdeck etiquette. ”

“ In those seas any vessel of such a class was far more likely to be a privateer than a peaceful trader; and Mr. Nicholls, who was well aware of this, turned the hands to quarters and cleared the ship for action while the stranger was still hull down on the horizon.
293A short time made it plain that the “Walsingham” was the inferior sailer, and that the other vessel was overhauling her fast, keeping her wind until she got upon the Packet’s quarter, about two miles away, when she fired a gun, and hoisted a blue English ensign. ”

“ When the boat is at one of the landing stages, the platform is lowered to the level of the rails on the pier, and the carriages and trucks are run on to the deck by means of the small hauling engine, which works an endless chain running the whole length of the deck. ”

“ All four set sail in company; but almost before they had weighed anchor they were suddenly enveloped in a dense fog, in which they separated. At the same time the wind shifted again into the north-east, and rose quickly to a strong gale, with showers of snow and sleet, against which the four Packets beat vainly throughout two nights and a day, when, finding it absolutely impossible to make progress, they returned once more to Yarmouth. ”