NORWEGIAN PILOT BOATS.
The lines of a Norwegian pilot boat on page 384 were drawn by Mr. Colin Archer, of Laurvig, Norway. It is not often that prettier or cleaner water lines will be met with ; and if the flare of the bow were reduced, the fore-foot rounded up a little, a lead keel added, and a suitable sail plan, we think that a very fast and weatherly yacht could be built from the lines. Mr. Archer thus describes the boats : " I doubt if English boats of the same size are as handy with a small crew in all kinds of weather. A pilot and his boy' (technically so called—he may be an old boy ') will go to sea in one of these boats and stay there (perhaps for a week) till he finds a vessel. When this happens, perhaps somewhere between the Naze and the Skaw, the boat goes close alongside, the pilot jumps on board, and the boy' is left to bring the boat home the best way he can. The sail is a sprit, and, notwithstanding the formidable dimensions, one man is supposed to be equal to all contingencies.
" There are no shrouds—only the forestay. They balance on a wind with the foresail and mainsail, but generally carry a jib or two for sailing free, and often a jib-headed topsail hoisted on a long pole."
The mackerel fishing-boat is the same model ; they carry about 600 fathoms of nets, three to four hands. These boats will live a long time in a seaway and keep pretty dry (they are decked) ; but their great " forte " is their extreme quickness in answering their helm, a necessary quality when ships have to be boarded from them in a gale of wind; and they will work to windward through surprisingly narrow places, and at a good rate too. These boats are all oak except the timbers—thirteen to fourteen strokes 1 tin. boards—clinker-built, with juniper treenails with heads, placed about 44in. apart. They look clumsy, chiefly from their upper works spreading so much. If this feature— which, however, gives them an enormous reserve of buoyancy—were altered, they might be made to look well enough, though peculiar. The boats carry about one-third to one-fourth of their total weight in ballast,