r by timber and plank by
plank, I added to her free-board twelve inches amidships, eighteen
inches forward, and fourteen inches aft, thereby increasing her sheer,
and making her, as I thought, a better deep-water ship. I will not
repeat the history of the rebuilding of the _Spray_, which I have
detailed in my first chapter, except to say that, when finished, her
dimensions were thirty-six feet nine inches over all, fourteen feet
two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her
tonnage being nine tons net, and twelve and seventy one-hundredths
tons gross.

I gladly produce the lines of the _Spray_, with such hints as my
really limited fore-and-aft sailing will allow, my seafaring life
having been spent mostly in barks and ships. No pains have been spared
to give them accurately. The _Spray_ was taken from New York to
Bridgeport, Connecticut, and, under the supervision of the Park City
Yacht Club, was hauled out of water and very carefully measured in
every way to secure a satisfactory result. Captain Robins produced the
model. Our young yachtsmen, pleasuring in the "lilies of the sea,"
very naturally will not think favorably of my craft. They have a right
to their opinion, while I stick to mine. They will take exceptions to
her short ends, the advantage of these being most apparent in a heavy
sea.

Some things about the _Spray's_ deck might be fashioned differently
without materially affecting the vessel. I know of no good reason why
for a party-boat a cabin trunk might not be built amidships instead of
far aft, like the one on her, which leaves a very narrow space between
the wheel and the line of the companionway. Some even say that I might
have improved the shape of her stern. I do not know about that. The
water leaves her run sharp after bearing her to the last inch, and no
suction is formed by undue cutaway.

Smooth-water sailors say, "Where is her overhang?" They never crossed
the Gulf Stream in a nor'easter, and they do not know what is best in
all weathers. For your life, build no fantail overhang on a craft
going offshore. As a sailor judges his prospective ship by a "blow of
the eye" when he takes interest enough to look her over at all, so I
judged the _Spray_, and I was not deceived.

In a sloop-rig the _Spray_ made that part of her voyage reaching from
Boston through the Strait of Magellan, during which she experienced
the greatest variety of weather conditions. The yawl-rig then adopted