The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-BuilderOptic, Oliver
General
The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-Builder
Optic, Oliver
Sailing -- Juvenile fiction; Yachts -- Juvenile fiction; Young men -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
It was entered from the standing-room by a single step covered with
plate brass, in which the name of the yacht was wrought with bright
copper nails. On each side of the companion-way was a closet, one of
which was for dishes, and the other for miscellaneous stores. The trunk,
which readers away from boatable waters may need to be informed is an
elevation about a foot above the main deck, to afford head-room in the
middle of the cabin, had three deck lights, or ports, on each side. At
one end of the casing of the centre-board was a place for the water-jar,
and a rack for tumblers. In the middle were hooks in the trunk-beams for
the caster and the lantern. The brass-covered step at the entrance was
movable, and when it was drawn out it left an opening into the run under
the standing-room, where a considerable space was available for use. In
the centre of it was the ice-chest, a box two feet square, lined with
zinc, which was rigged on little grooved wheels running on iron rods,
like a railroad car, so that the chest could be drawn forward where the
contents could be reached. On each side of this box was a water-tank,
holding thirty gallons, which could be filled from the standing-room.
The water was drawn by a faucet lower than the bottom of the tank in a
recess at one side of the companion-way. The tanks were connected by a
pipe, so that the water was drawn from both. At the side of the step was
a gauge to indicate the supply of fresh water on board.
Forward of the cabin, in the bow of the yacht, was the cook-room, with a
scuttle opening into it from the forecastle. The stove, a miniature
affair, with an oven large enough to roast an eight-pound rib of beef,
and two holes on the top, was in the fore peak. It was placed in a
shallow pan filled with sand, and the wood-work was covered with sheet
tin, to guard against fire. Behind the stove was a fuel-bin. On each
side of the cook room was a shelf eighteen inches wide at the bulk-head
and tapering forward to nothing. Under it were several lockers for the
galley utensils and small stores. The room was only four feet high, and
a tall cook in the Sea Foam would have found it necessary to discount
himself. On the foremast was a seat on a hinge, which could be dropped
down, on which the "doctor" could sit and do his work, roasting himself
at the same time he roasted his beef or fried his fish. Everything in
the cook-room and the cabin, as well as on deck, was neat and nice. The
cabin was covered with a handsome oil-cloth carpet, and the wood was
white with zinc paint, varnished, with gilt moulding to ornament it.
Edward Patterdale, who was to be the nominal owner and the real skipper
of this beautiful craft, intended to have several framed pictures on the
spaces between the deck lights, a clock in the forward end over the
cook-room door, and brass brackets for the spy-glass in the
companion-way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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