New Monthly Magazine (Volume 96) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE ROVINGS OF THE RIPPLE; OR, SCENES AND ADVENTURES DUEING MY SUMMER CRUISE. Chapter I. The Description of a Yacht, and a Sketch of some Yachting Gentlemen?How to Kill Time?The O'Wiggins. " Well, old fellow, what shall we do next ?" exclaimed my friend Ashmore, as he and I, with two other compagnons de voyage, sat at table after dinner in the cabin of his yacht, the Ripple. Now, whether to describe our four selves or the yacht first ? Our " Home on the Ocean Wave" shall have the preference. She was a very fine vessel, of about eighty tons?a cutter?and as her owner was not fond of racing, she was well fitted for sea. She was beautiful to look at; and as her old master, Isaac Griffith, always remarked when her qualities were spoken of, " a good 'un to go." In fact, she possessed all the usual qualifications of a yacht, and was a first-rate sea-boat. Her interior fittings, though not gaudy, were thoroughly comfortable; for as Ashmore usually spent five months out of the twelve on board, he had made her as habitable as space would allow. She was his hobby, and, as he had no wife to share his affections, he loved her well. She had a large main and after-cabin, besides three good sleeping cabins, and a small one to be used on a pinch. Then there was the master's berth, the steward's pantry, and the galley, with a good kitchen-range and a fine fore-peak for the crew; indeed, by careful arrangement, in the space of a few feet there were as many people comfortably housed as would require a large mansion on shore. All the arrangements for the table were equally substantial and good; indeed, in every respect, below and aloft, the Ripple was what a yacht should be, and I can say no more in her favour. And now for the freights she bore?the four jovial bachelors who tenanted her a...