Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/318

 MARK TWAIN

are new absolutely new and unhackneyed than are to be found in any other vessel that swims the seas.&quot;

&quot;This compliment does me infinite honor, dear sir, infinite; and I shall cherish the memory of it while, life shall last. Sir, I offer my duty and most grateful thanks. Adieu.&quot;

No, the German inspector would be limitlessly courteous to Noah, and would make him feel that he was among friends, but he wouldn t let him go to sea with that Ark.

COLUMBIA S CRAFT

BETWEEN Noah s time and the time of Columbus naval architecture underwent some changes, and from being unspeakably bad was improved to a point which may be described as less unspeakably bad. I have read somewhere, some time or other, that one of Columbus s ships was a ninety-ton vessel. By comparing that ship with the ocean greyhounds of our time one is able to get down to a comprehension of how small that Spanish bark was, and how little fitted she would be to run opposition in the Atlantic passenger trade to-day. It would take seventy-four of her to match the tonnage of the Havel and carry the Havel s trip. If I remember rightly, it took her ten weeks to make the passage. With our ideas this would now be considered an objectionable gait. She probably had a captain, a mate, and a crew consisting of four seamen and a boy. The crew of a modern greyhound numbers two hundred and fifty persons.

�� �