Stepping on board 'The Lady Hermione,' the visitor, however much he is accustomed to yachts, is struck by the number and apparent complication of the contrivances which meet his eye (fig. 3), the interior of the vessel looking, as a witty naval officer once observed on being shown over her, 'something like the inside of a clock'; but, after a few explanations, the usefulness and practical efficiency of the various devices become evident. The principle which has been adhered to throughout in the rigging and fittings is, that all operations connected with the handling and management of the boat shall be performed by one person without the application of any considerable physical force. It has also been laid down as a _sine quâ non_ that everything shall work perfectly in all weathers and under all conditions of wind and sea. The result of the owner's ingenuity is, that the sails can be hoisted and lowered, the sheets attended to, the anchor let go and weighed, and the tiller fixed and kept fixed in any desired position, without the necessity of the one person, who composes the crew leaving the cockpit. The arrangements for carrying out these objects will now be described in detail. [Illustration: FIG. 3.--'The Lady Hermione.' Deck plan.] The first contrivance which claims attention is that for keeping the rudder fixed at any desired angle (figs. 4 and 5A). In his account of his cruise in the yawl 'Rob Roy' the late Mr. Macgregor says that he had never seen any really satisfactory method of accomplishing this object; but the difficulty has been solved by Lord Dufferin, who, indeed, has had fitted in many of his previous boats an apparatus similar to that in the present one. On the deck aft, about a couple of feet in advance of the rudder-head, are fitted two brass stanchions. These support a brass bar which on its lower side is indented with notches similar to the teeth of a saw, and of a depth of about half an inch (A, fig. 4). On the tiller there is fitted a brass tube or cylinder made so as to slide backwards and forwards within a limit of some eight or ten inches, and bearing on its upper surface a triangular fin of brass (A, fig. 5). When it is desired to fix the tiller in any particular position, the cylinder is instantaneously slipped back until the fin catches one of the notches of the bar, and the tiller is thus securely fixed. The tiller is unlocked by simply flicking forward the cylinder with the hand, the locking and unlocking being done in a second. The toothed brass bar, it may be mentioned, is curved so that the fin may fit into any desired notch, no matter at what an angle it may be desired to fix the rudder (A, fig. 4). The cockpit of the yacht being somewhat small, it was found that when there was a lady passenger on board the movement of the tiller interfered with her comfort, and, in order to obviate this difficulty, a steering-wheel has recently been fixed on the top of the cabin