We have seen the beginning of the bowsprit with its enormous rake to carry the artemon; we have watched it continue through the Tudors and Stuarts as practically an additional mast steeved at a considerable angle. Gradually the angle has got smaller and smaller until now in the twentieth century in the latest ships, it is much more nearly horizontal. We saw this spar become divided into two, and later into three parts—flying jib-boom, jib-boom, and bowsprit. To-day, though it is made of iron or steel, it has gone back to be of one piece. We witnessed the introduction of bonnets; they also have gone except in Norway, Norfolk, and the Thames barge. The studding sails which Raleigh spoke of are scarcely ever seen, although in the ’sixties they were prominent features of the clippers when getting every ounce of power out of the ship. No doubt their awkwardness, and the necessity of having a first-class helmsman to prevent the ship swerving suddenly off her course, had most to do with their departure. Convenience, too, in handling so much canvas up the mast led to the introduction of the topsails and topgallants, being cut in half and used double, though on the mizzen a single topsail is frequent. The gradual introduction of skysails during the last hundred years has continued till they are found often on fore, main, and mizzen, while the staysails, which were such characteristic features of the eighteenth century Dutchmen, are now used freely on most of the stays. Nor has the change been confined to the spars, sails, and rigging. Some of the Gallic vessels of Cæsar’s time—so he records—were fitted with iron cables. Then, as the reader knows, rope came in, and hemp remained for centuries until, roughly, 1800. The introduction of the chain, then, has been merely a revival. Lead sheathing was used by the ancients, forgotten for many centuries until the Spanish restored its use in the fifteenth century, and the English in the sixteenth. It was forgotten again until the seventeenth century, when it was introduced afresh. That was another revival. The Romans used bronze nails, and we have revived those again. The Greeks invented the schooner bow, as we saw in Fig. 13. It was forgotten for centuries again and re-introduced, as we saw in the seal of Dam in Fig. 40. Still another revival. In yachts, the last few years have seen the introduction of a reefing gear for furling both mainsail and headsails. The Chinese have had the former for centuries. Quite lately the fashion has come in to build yachts with double-ended “canoe” sterns. That, too, is but a revival of the old Viking shape—roughly. The reader will remember that in the years following the coming of William the Conqueror the tendency was for the ship to have terrific sheer, so that instead of being long and straight she was almost semi-circular. Gradually, century by century, this absurd sheer has disappeared, though reluctantly, until to-day