The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" Part 22

The outer cylinder of the lamp, being larger than the inner one, has a bottom, _k_, fig. 3, which forms a circular tray of about two inches wide and half an inch deep.

[Picture: Lamp and Pan]

The original form of the lamp which was first brought to notice {325} by the Cook of the Royal Canoe Club, had a detached tray for the bottom, but now, instead of this plan for the admission of air into the lamp, two saw cuts are made, each about an inch long. One of them is shown below _f_, fig. 2, and thus the lamp and tray are united in one compact piece while still there is access for air.

To put the lamp in operation, unscrew its handle from the position in fig. 2, so that it will be as in figs. 3 and 4. Then from a tin flask (which has been packed with the rest of the things in the pan) pour spirits of wine-or, if the odour is not objected to, methylated spirit, into the measure _m_, fig. 5, and from that into the interior of the lamp through the opening at _h_. Next screw in the handle, and place the lamp level under the pan, and pour nearly another measure full into the interior tray. Set fire to this, and shelter it for a few seconds if there be much wind. I used this always with complete success on the Jordan, Nile, Danube, and many other rivers.

In a short time the flame heats the spirits in the closed chamber, and the spirituous steam is forced by pressure down the tube, and inflames at the nozzle, from which it issues with much force and some noise in a lighted column, which is about one foot in height when unimpeded.

This powerful flame operates on the whole of the bottom and lower edge of the pan, and it cannot be blown out by wind nor by a blast from the mouth, but may be instantly extinguished by sharply placing the flat bottom of the measure upon it.

The cover may be put on so as to rest with the flat bottom downwards, and with or without the handle. If tea is to be made with the water when it boils, the requisite quant.i.ty is to be placed in the tea vessel _n_, fig.

5, which has perforated sides, and, its lid being closed, this is placed in the water, where it will rest on the curved side, and can be agitated now and then for a minute, after which insert the handle in the socket of the pan and remove the lamp, allowing the tea to infuse for four minutes, when the tea vessel may be removed and the made tea may be poured out into the cup. The dry tea can be conveniently carried in a paper inside the tea vessel. Salt is carried in the box _o_, and the matches are in the box _p_. Coffee may be best carried in the state of essence in a bottle. An egg-spoon and a soup-spoon are supplied. A flat clasp knife and fork may be had extra.

If bacon is to be fried, or eggs to be poached or cooked _sur le plat_, they may be put into the lid and held by hand over the lamp-flame, so as to warm all parts equally, or the slower heat of a simple flame may be employed by lighting the measure full of spirits and then placing it on the bottom of the upturned pan as shown at fig. 6, where it will be observed that the three legs are placed in their sockets with the convex curve of each turned outward, so that the lid, as a frying-pan, can rest upon their three points.

The spirit-flask contains enough for six separate charges of the lamp, and the cost of using methylated spirits at 4_s_. 6_d_. a gallon is not one penny a meal. The lamp-flame lasts from ten to fifteen minutes, and the weight of the _cuisine_, exclusive of the bag and cup, is about two pounds.

These cuisines, improved by the suggestions obtained in their use, are made at 93, Chancery Lane, London, of the best materials and workmanship, and at the price of two and a half guineas; or if with tin boiler instead of copper, and bra.s.s lamp, 1 12_s._ 6_d_. Many of much larger size (to cook for twenty men) have been used in Australia.

The lamp above described was used daily in my yawl, but the other fittings were on a more enlarged scale, as extreme lightness was not then required.

The Norwegian Cooking Apparatus of another kind entirely will be a valuable adjunct to the yachtsman's stores. By means of this, meat or pudding after being heated for only _five minutes_, and then enclosed in a box which retains the heat, will be found to be perfectly cooked after three hours, though no more heat has been applied to it.

IMPROVED ROB ROY BINNACLE AND COMPa.s.s.

Mr. Dent, of the Strand, has made the Life Boat Liquid Compa.s.s with several improvements suggested from the Rob Roy yawl, and after experiments permitted by the Life Boat Inst.i.tution. These relate to the diagram on the card, the lamp with oil or candle, the reflectors, the ventilation, and the interior colouring of the binnacle, as well as other minor matters. In a second cruise of the yawl with my new binnacle, the great advantages desired were found to be attained. A _fac-simile_ of the new Rob Roy card is given in "The Rob Roy on the Jordan," 6th edition.

SEA DRESS.

After six long voyages alone, a few remarks may be made on water toggery.

Flannel all over to begin with. One grey flannel suit of "Norfolk jacket" and trousers lasted for three trips, but at sea the blue colour answers. Straw hat in sun, red woollen cap in wind, sou'wester in rain, thick boating jacket, and the life-belt over it, and above that an oilskin coat with overall trousers of the same, will defy wind and water.

Woven waistcoat expanding limitless. Shoes and not boots for work, white canvas boots with spring sides for show in port. No braces. Blue seamless yacht jersey a bore, though smart. Collar only with a calico shirt, and on Sundays, when that cylinder of discomfort, a black hat, is exhumed. Watch hanging in cabin, never on the person afloat. Purse with keys in the shelf. Knife and etceteras in leather pockets of the boat.

So clad ye shall be ready to sail or to swim.

SWIMMING FOR GIRLS.

The following appeared in the _Times_, July 3rd, 1878:-

Hundreds of girls in London are learning to swim, but many hundreds more would gladly learn if teachers could be had. A healthful, cleanly, life-saving exercise like this ought not to be stinted of teachers.

The boys have twenty public baths to learn in and the open water in Victoria Park, besides the dangerous, dirty ca.n.a.ls. More than 1500 boys are learning to swim as paying members of the London Schools Swimming Club, which is open to all public elementary schools.

Last year a cla.s.s for thirty girls was begun late in the season, yet twenty-five of these were taught to swim in six lessons, and six of them won prizes.

Only five of the public baths are available for girls and female school teachers. At some of these the charge is threepence for a bathe, and at one it is a penny for members of the club. Twelve girls can be well taught in a cla.s.s. For a lesson of two hours, one teacher charges fifteen shillings and another receives ten shillings, while others are paid two shillings for each girl who is taught to swim twenty-five yards, and the rest are rewarded by watches and other prizes for those who teach the most girls to swim.

Mothers and sisters who can swim will not let their boys be unwashed on the land and drowned in the water.

J. M.

The "London Schools Swimming Club" was formed in 1875, and it has already (A.D. 1880) given instruction in swimming to 12,000 boys and girls, and male and female teachers.

Footnotes:

{3} Shown by dotted lines in the sketch at p. 7. The Rob Roy is of about four tons' burthen, but "tons," we know well, mean one does not know what.

{10} "Swinging for the compa.s.s" is thus performed. The vessel is moored in the bight at Greenhithe, and by means of warps to certain Government buoys she is placed with her head towards the various points of the compa.s.s. The bearing by the compa.s.s on board (influenced by the attraction of the iron she carries) is taken accurately by one observer in the vessel, and the true bearing is signalled to him by another observer on sh.o.r.e, who has a compa.s.s out of reach of the "local attraction" of the vessel. The error in each position due to the local attraction is thus ascertained, and the corrections for these errors are written on a card in a tabulated form, thus:-

For Steer

N. N. E.

N. by E. N.N.E.

And so on. A half point looks a small matter on the compa.s.s card, but in avoiding a shoal, or in finding a harbour, it makes all the difference.

{14} The Reformatory ship 'Cornwall' is at Purfleet. The three vessels are within sight of each other. We shall sail back to each of them in a future page, and have a more leisurely look on board.

{20} The after part of the well is rounded at each side, and it is all boarded up. In the middle is a seat on which a large cork cushion can rest, or this may be thrown over as a life-preserver or for a buoy, while the life-belt to be worn round the waist is stowed away under the seat, and an iron basin with a handle is placed alongside it just over the flooring, below which is seen, at p. 41, a wedge of lead-ballast, and in front of this the water-well, where water collecting from leakage or dashing spray is conveniently reached by the tube of vulcanised india-rubber represented as just in front. This pump hose has a bra.s.s union joint on the top, to which we can screw the nozzle of a pump with a copper cylinder (shown at the bottom), or a piston worked by hand (but without any lever), and when in use the cylinder rests obliquely, so that the water will flow out over the combing, and on the deck, and so into the sea.

{22} Several important suggestions for the implement of the lifeboat liquid compa.s.s were obtained during my use of it in this voyage, and these have been duly appreciated by the Lifeboat Inst.i.tution.

{25} However good the gla.s.s, it is very difficult to make use of it for faint or distant objects on the horizon, and on the whole I found it easier to discern the first dim line of land far off by the unaided eye.

A slight mark, that would not be observed while only a short piece of it is seen in the field of view, becomes decidedly manifest if a large scope is seen at once. The binocular gla.s.s was very valuable, however, when the words on a buoy, or the colour on the chequers of a beacon had to be deciphered.

{26} See page 44 and Appendix.

{32} In yet another, the fourth visit to this stupid shallow harbour (one of the most unpleasant to lie in anywhere), I fixed an oar out at each side as a leg, and could scarcely get rest from the fear that one or other of my beautiful oars would be snapped as they bent and groaned with remonstrances against supporting several tons of weight in the capacity of a wooden leg.

{36} I had lessened her ton and a half of iron ballast by leaving two hundredweight on Dover quay; good advice agreeing with my own opinion that the Rob Roy was needlessly stiff.

{42} The relative positions of all these articles had been maturely considered and carefully arranged, and they were much approved by the most experienced and critical of the many hundred visitors who inspected the Rob Roy.