eered for the purpose of avoiding
other vessels (these must take care of their own safety), yet it has to
be carefully managed by the rudders (one at each end), so that it may
drop the chain in a proper part of the river for the next steamer of the
Company which is to use it. When two such boats meet from opposite
directions, and both are pulling at the same chain, there is much time
lost in effecting a passage, and again when the chain-boat and all its
string of heavy craft arrives at a lock, you may make up your mind for a
long delay. It is evident that we do not require this particular sort of
tug-boat on the Thames below Teddington, for the strong tide up and down
twice every day carries along thousands of tons of merchandize at a rapid
pace, and one or two men will be enough to attend upon each barge. In
fact we have the sun and moon for our tugs. These draw the water up, and
the tide is the rope which hauls our ships along.

To manoeuvre properly with the Rob Roy in such a case as this with the
chain-boat required every vigilance, and strong exercise of muscular
force, as well as caution and prompt decision, for I had sometimes to
cling to the middle barge, then to drop back to the last, and always to
keep off from the river-banks, the shoals, and the trees. On one
occasion we had to shift her position by "kedging" for nearly half a
mile, and this in a crowded part of the Seine too, where the current also
was swift. On another occasion the sharp iron of a screw steamer's frame
ran right against my bow, and at once cut a clean hole quite through the
mahogany. Instantly I seized a lump of soft putty, and leaning over the
side I squeezed it into the hole, and then "clinched" it (so to speak) on
the inside; and this stop-gap actually served for three weeks, until a
proper repair could be made.

The lovely precincts of St. Cloud came in sight at dawn on the last day
of June, prettier than Richmond, I must confess, or almost any river-town
we can boast of in England; and here I was to rest while my little yawl
was thoroughly cleaned, brightly varnished, and its inside gaily painted
with Cambridge blue, so as to appear at the French Exhibition in its very
best suit, and then at the British Regatta on the Seine.

Some days were occupied in this general overhaul, during which the
excellent landlady of the hotel where I slept must have been more amazed
even than she declared, to see her guest return each day clad in