Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/19

 Sergestus, so ably reported by one Vergil. I know that I can never forget it. That regatta cost me many a cruel birching. In these competitions oars only were used. I fancy that sails were not set in those days except when the wind blew abaft the beam, the ancients not being well versed in the art of beating to windward. The swift ships in which Father Æneas, his faithful Achates and his devoted followers, fled from Troy, had, I suppose, but scanty cabin accommodations; and when bold Pilot Palinurus glanced at the compass to see if the helmsman was steering a correct course, no highly polished brass binnacle reflected that skillful old navigator's bronzed and bearded face.

The flagship of Columbus may fairly be classed with the Argo, and so may the Norse galley which brought to the rugged New England coast those hardy salts who built the windmill at Newport and left their indelible marks on the primeval granite rocks of that region.

The Dutch, I think, were the inventors of the sailing yacht proper, and from Holland the finest diversion in the world spread to Great Britain, and became the sport of kings. Quaint old Pepys, in his diary, tells us of a sailing yacht named Mary, which was presented by the Dutch East India Company to King Charles II. in the year 1661. Charles was a tip-top yachtsman, the merry monarch being never sick at sea.