ite! The clink of an anchor-chain, the "Yo-ho!" of a well-timed
crew, the flapping of huge sails--I love all these sounds, yes, even the
shrill squeal of a pulley thrills my ear with pleasure, and grateful to
my nostrils is the odour of tar.

Meanwhile we are sailing on to Sheerness; and no wonder that the Rob Roy
fixes many a sailor's eye, for the bright sun shines on her new white
sails, and her brilliant-coloured flags flutter gladly in the wind as the
waves glance and play about her polished mahogany sides, the last and
least addition to the yacht fleet of England.

Rounding Garrison Point, at the mouth of the Medway, our anchor is
dropped alongside the yacht 'Whisper,' where the kind hospitality to the
Rob Roy from English, French, and Belgian, at once began, and it ceased
only at the end of my voyage.

After our tea and strawberries, and ladies' chat (pleasant ashore and ten
times more afloat), the blue-jackets' band on board the Guard-ship gives
music, and the moon gives light, and around are the huge old war-hulks,
beautiful, though bygone, and all at rest, with a newer, uglier frigate,
that has no poetry in her look, but could speak forth loudly, no doubt,
with a very heavy broadside, for her thundering salute made all the
windows shudder as she steamed in gallantly.

The tide of visitors to my yawl began at Sheerness. Among them I caught
a boy and made him grease the mast. His friends were so pleased with
their visit, that when the Rob Roy came there again months afterwards,
they brought me a present of fresh mussels, highly to be esteemed by
those who like to eat them--everybody does not; but then was it not
grateful to give them thus? and is not gratitude a precious and rare gift
to receive?

The internal arrangements of the Rob Roy yawl are certainly peculiar, for
they were designed for a unique purpose, and as there is no description
(at least that I can find) of a yacht specially made for one-man voyages,
and proved to be efficient during so long a sail, it may be useful here
to describe the inside of the Rob Roy. Safety was the first point to be
attained, as we have already mentioned, and this was provided for by her
breadth of beam (seven feet), her strongly bolted iron kelson, her
water-tight compartments, and her double skin, the outer one being of
polished Honduras mahogany, and the inner of yellow pine, with canvas
between them; also by her strong, firm deck, her undersized masts and
sails,