Page:The history of yachting.djvu/308

 152 be a keelson run on each side of the frame and bolted through the aforesaid knees into the keel.

1em

Witnesses: Elijah Townsend, John Townsend."

This so-called "lee board through the bottom" is the centre-board very much as it exists to-day, and is the first record to be found in America in which it is described. Shuldham and the Swains, who, no doubt, worked quite independently of one another, seem fairly entitled to whatever credit may be due to this combination of the Dutch lee-board and well, or trunk, of Schank.

In the history of Rockland County, New York, Dr. Green, the author, states that the first centre-board vessel of any size built in America, if not in the world, was constructed at Nyack-on-the-Hudson, in 1815, by Henry Gesnor, for Jeremiah Williamson; and notwithstanding the predictions that her failure would be certain and immediate, the sloop, which was named the Advance, was in active service for many years, and proved a good and fast vessel.

The first schooner, as we have seen, was built at Gloucester, in 1713, and the rig soon became a favorite one in the United States. The fishing vessels of Massachusetts Bay held to the original foreand-aft rig, which is used by them at the present day; but the larger schooners of that period were usually rigged with square topsails. Another rig was the brigantine, square-rigged at the fore, and