Page:The history of yachting.djvu/89

Rh The following is the description of a sloop 32 feet in length: 8 feet 9 inches breadth; 2 feet 3 inches deep below the gunwale. The length of the keel was 25 feet 6 inches. The keel, or sole, was 5 feet three inches wide, and 2 inches thick; floor-timbers, 3 inches by 2 inches; spaced, 1 foot 6 inches; stem, 6 feet 5 inches high; 4 feet 9 inches rake; 13 inches wide at head, 10 inches at bottom, 3 inches on fore-side, and 4 inches on after-side; stern-post, 5 feet 9 inches high, 1 foot 10 inches rake, 2 feet wide at heel, 1 foot at head, 7½ inches on fore-side, and 1½ inches on the after-side. Sloops of this kind were carried by ships; and used to run out anchors, to bring off water and provisions, and generally used as tenders. Here we find a similarity between the sloop and cutter; as a cutter may also be a ship's boat or a powerful sea-going vessel.

Another class of sloop was length over all 42 feet; breadth, 9 feet; keel, or sole, 7 feet wide; stem, 5 feet 6 inches high, and 6½ feet 6 inches rake; stern-post, 7 feet high and 2 feet rake. These sloops were rigged with two masts: mainmast, 24 feet long; gaff, 12 feet 6 inches, and main-boom 21 feet long; foremast, 15 feet long; gaff, 10 feet; boom, 11 feet 6 inches long. It will be noticed that these vessels carried no bowsprit. From this, too, it appears that a sloop of that date, and during the seventeenth century, sometimes carried two masts.

The largest sloops, which sailed to the Cape Verd Islands, were in length 55 feet; breadth, 12 feet 6 inches; stem, 8 feet 6 inches; and stern-post, 9 feet 6 inches high.