, our local ship-builder, happened to have a very fine
craft upon the stocks, well advanced toward completion. Now, however,
that it had come about that I was to serve on board that same craft as
"dickey", I was all impatience to see what she was like; so, the next
day happening to be fine, I set off, the first thing after breakfast,
and, walking in to Weymouth, made my way straight to the shipyard. As I
reached the gates I caught my first near view of her, and stood
entranced. She was planked right up to her covering-board, and while
one strong gang of workmen was busy fitting her bulwarks, another gang,
upon stages, was hard at work caulking her, a third gang under her
bottom, having apparently just commenced the operation of coppering.
She was, consequently, not presented to my view in her most attractive
guise; nevertheless, she being entirely out of the water, I was able to
note all her beauties, and I fell in love with her on the spot. She was
a much bigger craft than I had expected to see; measuring, as I was
presently told, exactly two hundred and sixty-six tons. She was very
shallow, her load-line being only seven feet above the lowest part of
her unusually deep keel, but this was more than counterbalanced by her
extraordinary breadth of beam. She had a very long, flat floor, and,
despite her excessive beam, her lines were the finest that I had ever
seen--and that is saying a great deal, for I had seen in the West Indies
some of the most speedy slavers afloat. Altogether she impressed me as
a vessel likely to prove not only phenomenally fast but also a perfect
sea-boat. She was pierced for four guns of a side, with two stern-
chasers; and there was a pivot on her forecastle for a long eighteen-
pounder; she would therefore carry an armament formidable enough to
enable us to go anywhere and do anything--in reason. Having thoroughly
inspected her from outside, and gone down under her bottom, I next made
my way on board, and went down below to have a look at her interior
accommodation. This I found to be everything that could possibly be
desired; the arrangements had evidently been carefully planned with a
view to securing to the crew the maximum possible amount of comfort; the
cabins were large, and as lofty as the shallow depth of the vessel would
allow; there was every convenience in the state-rooms in the shape of
drawers, lockers, sofas, folding tables, shelves, cupboards, and so on;
and the living qu