Page:The history of yachting.djvu/295

 Rh —and two other prizes, but was found too small for this service. She remained the property of the Crowninshields until 1815, when she was sold for a fishing vessel and finally broken up at Lynn. This little vessel is believed to have been the first yacht that sailed under the American flag.

Here we find the beginning of a custom that continued both in the United States and Great Britain until the last quarter of the nineteenth century—the disposing of yachts after their days of giving pleasure had ended—to fishermen and pilots. They proved useful vessels; for, though built for speed, they were well constructed and rigged and safe for sea-voyages—the type of vessel a seaman likes.

There has been a good deal of controversy as to who first devised the centre-board. Whoever it was he really is not entitled to much credit for originality, as the centre-board is simply the lee-board of Holland substituted for the sliding keel in the trunk, or well, used by Schank. It seems highly probable that many different persons may have adopted this idea at the same time, and that a number of small boats and skiffs were probably fitted with the centre-board; but the first authentic record of the centre-board is a model made by Mr. Molyneux Shuldham, R. N., in 1809 while a prisoner of war at Verdun—still to be seen in the museum at Ipswich, England. This "revolving keel," as Shuldham called it, is hung on a bolt like the lee-board, and works in a trunk similar to Schank's, the trunk being lined with copper ribs, thereby adding