Page:Yachting wrinkles; a practical and historical handbook of valuable information for the racing and cruising yachtsman (IA yachtingwrinkles00keneiala).pdf/91

 In the course of the same paper Mr. Stephens also says: "To us familiar with it [the centerboard] from our earliest knowledge of the water, the striking characteristics of the type appeal with little force; but if, with our knowledge of the sea, of naval instruction, and of the strains and stresses to which every vessel is subjected, the idea were laid before us, for the first time, of a vessel with the entire backbone and floor construction cut away for the middle third of her length, devoid of deck frames almost from mast to rudder-post, with a great box amidships open to the sea, and with a thin, movable plane projecting deep below the bottom, it would be strange if the majority would not condemn on sight a combination so unmechanical, so lubberly, and so dangerous."

But Mr. Stephens gives the other side of the question also. He says: "In the hands of competent and honest shipwrights the centerboard coasting schooner has disproved all theories as to the non-utility of the type for sea-*going purposes: in a hull of moderate first cost and running expense it has carried swiftly, safely and profitably its cargoes of coal, lumber, sugar, firewood, barley, bricks, or general freight, both on the lakes and on the Atlantic, up and down the 'Beach,' across Nantucket Shoals, and around Hatteras in winter, light or loaded, taking in and landing its cargoes in localities inaccessible to