Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/22

2 there. The long old Cyclopean wall by the Thames was studded with rings, to which the river barges were anchored.

This wall was called the Effroc Wall. York, in Saxon times, was called Effroc, Legend says that a Duke of Effroc was once drowned at the foot of the wall. The water there certainly was deep enough to drown a duke. At low water it was six good fathoms deep. The excellence of this little anchorage attracted many sea vessels, and the old Dutch tub called the "Vograat" came to anchor at the Effroc Wall. The "Vograat" made the crossing from London to Rotterdam, and from Rotterdam to London, punctually once a week. Other barges started twice a day, either for Deptford, Greenwich, or Gravesend, going down with one tide and returning with the next. The voyage to Gravesend, though twenty miles, was made in six hours.

The "Vograat" was of a model no longer seen now, except in naval museums. It was almost a junk. At that time, while France copied Greece, Holland copied China. The "Vograat," a heavy hull with two masts, was partitioned perpendicularly, so as to be water-tight, having a narrow hold in the middle, and two decks, one fore and the other aft. The decks were flush, as in the iron turret-vessels of the present day,—the advantage of which is that in foul weather the force of the waves is diminished, and the disadvantage of which is that the crew is exposed to the action of the sea, owing to there being no bulwarks. There was nothing to save any one on board from falling into the sea. Hence the frequent losses of men, which caused the model to fall into disuse. The "Vograat" went to Holland direct, and did not even stop at Gravesend.

An old ridge of stones, solid rock as well as masonry, ran along the bottom of the Effroc Wall, and being