Page:The history of yachting.djvu/204

 88 The foregoing particulars are taken from the History of the Royal Society, by Thomas Birch, D.D., published in 1756. It is interesting to note that the objections raised by "most of the company and especially the seamen" to this first catamaran, are those that experience has confirmed, and that accordingly debar these swift vessels from contending in modern sailing-matches. The use of the word "match" in describing the first contest between more than two vessels is also of interest, showing as it does that the term was then introduced which continues in England to the present day—as applied to yachts; also—since "by way of strategem" they had "taken two empty barrels aboard them with design to take in ballast at sea, and to fill these up as soon as they came to work against the wind"—that the idea of water for shifting ballast, introduced on board of yachts about the middle of the last century, was by no means a modern device.

Petty built several "double bottomes ships," and experimented in other directions. Evelyn records, under November 30, 1661, "At the Royal Society Sir William Petty proposed divers things for the improvement of Shipping, a versatile keel that should be on hinges, and concerning sheathing ships with thin lead." The "versatile keel" points to the centre-board, but there appears to be no record at that time of its being applied, although the lee-boards of the yachts from Holland had attracted attention.

Sir William Petty was born at Rumsey, a small