The Sailing Boat: A Description of English and Foreign Boats

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 CORACLE. ' We flared to think, we dared to say, that he could frame a boat, And many others said the same, but questioned?would it float?' Eliza Cook. History informs us that the coracle is one of the earliest forms of boat ever constructed in Great Britain. One of the most cnrions circumstances connected with the study of British boat-building is, that, at the present day, boats (i.e. coracles) are carefully made and constantly used, in parts of England, Wales, and Ireland, almost identical in size, form, construction, and materials, with those in use nearly nineteen centuries ago. And, however mean and insignificant the contrivance . of the coracle may appear in the great yards of British boat- builders, and on the wide world of waters, it is a stubborn fact that the coracle is now, as it was then, fully adequate to (he purpose for which it was intended. We are told that some of the coracles of the ancients, composed of two hides and a half, were large enough to contain three men, with a week's provisions; others were large enough only for an armed man and a rower. As coracles of this construction are mentioned by Herodotus, the pattern was probably derived from the Phoenicians, particularly as Sidonian and Phoenician vessels were almost round in form. (') It is evident that coracles were known and used by the Saxons, for Sidonius Apollinaris (a Gaulish bishop of the fifth century), writes?' The Saxon corsair, whose pastime it is to plough the British sea in a boat made of skins and stitched together.' In the time of Henry V., light boats, framed with wicker or thin timber, and covered outside with leather, were carried by ship to the wars, to enable the soldiers to pass the waters which might be in their way on their marches. Such were also the N...