The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" Part 24

{270} One of the pranks to be prepared for in a boat is this jibing of the boom, and until by practice you know the exact range of safety for your head in relation to that swinging spar, caution should be the rule.

Long ago I had learned the exact length of the Rob Roy's boom in relation to my nose; for even in the Thames, soon after starting, it had once caught the back of my head, and knocked my face down on the deck, where a b.l.o.o.d.y nose (but no worse result) speedily settled the question as to which must yield when the boom and the captain are at loggerheads. I learned more lessons of this sort when, in 1871, I had a lonely voyage in a "yawl canoe" through Holland and the Zuyder Zee, and Friesland and the Texel. An account of it was published in the 'Graphic' for November of that year.

{272} At a southern watering place lately there were forty ladies each in a canoe on one afternoon.

{275} Bravely they worked to save life on the Goodwin in the fearful gale that came soon afterwards.

{280} The recent legislation for the proper care of the women and the education of the children on barges was much needed, and it was successfully accomplished by our late excellent Home Secretary, who was himself one of the best "oars" at Cambridge, when the late Foreign Secretary of France was another.

{284} The use of the word "b.l.o.o.d.y" is now general among the lowest cla.s.ses all over England. The meaning intended by this is not what scholars would agree to. Hundreds of times the word is employed only for "very," and it is strange how soon one's first shudders at the sound become faint, and even die.

{287} The _Royal Canoe Club_ has elected about 600 Members, including several ladies. Some of the Members are in Australia, India, j.a.pan, China, Canada, and North and South America. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is our Commodore, and he has several canoes. There are also several branches of the Club besides other Canoe Clubs on the Mersey, the Clyde, the Forth, the Trent, the Humber, and four Clubs in America. The Office of the R.C. Club is at 11, Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London, where also is "The Pure Literature Society," with 3600 books and 42 periodicals all good to read and to choose from.

{291} We need not he surprised that sharks should get entangled in the Bay of Biscay. Even at Margate one was caught a short time after I had swam in the water there, and six more sharks were captured in the summer on the English south coast.

{296} As this was being urged upon friends, a telegram came from the Admiralty for "Twenty-five boys from the 'Chichester.'"

{297} A description of these vessels will be found in the Appendix.

{325} The late Professor J. D. Forbes, who used this lamp, says it was introduced into this country from Russia by Dr. Samuel Brown, and that "the jet of burning spirit has such force as to resist the blast of a hurricane."