s. To these
wooden moulds the metal ribs and frames were afterwards bent. This work
was done on the "bending table" by methods fully described in an article
on ship-building published in No. 784 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. When the
steel ribs were satisfactorily completed, and had been found to be
exactly as designed in the mould loft, they were taken into the shed
where the yacht was being constructed. This shed, by-the-way, was a
harder place to get into than the palace of the Czar. The doors were
kept locked all the time, and watchmen were on duty day and night to
drive away intruders. Only the owners, the architects, and the workmen
were permitted to enter.

The keel, which is made of cast brass in three sections, was bolted to
the lead with great screws from six to eight inches long, and the ribs
were riveted to the keel and steadied across the top with wooden cross
spalls until the deck beams were ready to be put on. The latter are of
aluminium bronze. Everything in the make up of the yacht so far has been
metal, and everything will be metal to the end. Even the stern and stem
are brass castings, and there is no wood in the body of _Defender_,
except the deck, which is of 24-inch light pine. The two or three
partitions inside of her are made of canvas stretched on light pine
frames, and the only other wood on board is in the mast. Even the boom
is metal--that is, since _Valkyrie_ came over with a steel boom.

To the ribs were riveted the plates, which are of manganese bronze,
which is a kind of refined brass, only three-sixteenths of an inch
thick, and the upper two streaks are of aluminium. This aluminium is
said to be almost pure, and is the lightest metal known.

[Illustration: "VALKYRIE."]

_Valkyrie_ is not such a metallic boat as _Defender_. She is of the
composite type. Her stem and stern are of wood, and she is planked on
the outside with American elm below water and spruce on top. This elm is
an excellent wood for yacht construction. It will not decay if kept
under water, but spoils if allowed to be wet and dry by turns. It is
used a great deal in England, and yet, strange as this may seem, it
cannot be bought in the New York lumber market. It is scarcely known
here. It comes from Canada, in the neighborhood of Quebec, and the whole
supply is shipped to England. In Canada the elms are grown in
plantations, and cultivated so that they are straighter and taller than
those we have in the United States. Her