We thus secured a _very_ small
displacement, a light buoyant hull, extraordinary stability, and a fair
amount of _power_.

The hull was divided into three compartments by bulkheads with wide
doors which, if necessary, we could close _water-tight_. In the _fore_
compartment we decided to place _nothing_ except the smallest and
lightest cooking-stove we could find. In the midship compartment it was
intended to stow our ballast, water-tank, provisions, the chain-cables,
and in fact everything which we could possibly place there, leaving only
a narrow passage amidships to pass to and fro. The after compartment we
intended to make our cabin, and there we arranged also to sling our
hammocks. It will easily be understood that there was not an inch of
spare room anywhere; but as our lives would be spent almost entirely on
deck, we did not mind that very much.

Having designed our craft, the next question was, who should build her?
Bob was strongly in favour of having her built in the town, so that we
might oversee the laying of every plank, and the driving of every nail;
but I knew there were firms who could safely be trusted to honestly put
the best of work and material into the little vessel without being
watched; and I determined to put her into the hands of a very celebrated
firm of London boat builders.

Accordingly, Bob and I ran up to town, taking my sister with us for a
holiday, and on the morning after our arrival, having seen Ada safely
disposed of for the day with some friends of ours, we two men set out
for the building-yard.

I placed our design in the hands of the principal, telling him at the
same time that we wanted a boat of those dimensions, and, if possible,
built on those lines, and that she was intended to keep at sea in _all_
weathers.

He looked rather surprised at the last stipulation; but after carefully
examining the drawing, and asking us our reasons for certain little
peculiarities of shape, he confessed that, as far as his experience
went, he could frankly say he had never seen a model better adapted for
the purpose.

"And yet, gentlemen," said he, "she will be wonderfully fast, for, in
the first place, her _hull_ is of such a shape that it will offer but a
trifling resistance to forward motion; and, in the next place, these
overhanging top-sides will, give her such extraordinary stability, as
soon as she begins to heel over, that you will be able to carry enormous
sails."

We were ver