and her lifeboat dingey.

Next we had to consider the capacity for comfort; not for the sake of any
luxurious ease which could be expected, but so as to take proper means to
preserve health, maintain good spirits, and to economize the energy which
would undoubtedly be largely taxed in downright physical muscular work,
and which now would be liable any day to yield if overwrought by
long-continued anxiety, wakefulness, and exertion.

For this purpose the actual labour bestowed upon maintaining the outward
forms of a (partially) civilized life must be a minimum, and the action
required in times of risk or danger must be as little encumbered as
possible; and as every arrangement came frequently under review, and
improvements were well considered in meditative hours, and many were put
in practice during a stay at Cowes, where the very best workmen were at
command, it may not unreasonably be asserted that for a solitary sailor's
yacht the cabin of the Rob Roy is at least a very good specimen of the
most recent model, and perhaps the best that has been devised as a basis
for the next advance.

Although at present I have no radical improvements to suggest upon the
general plan, it is, of course, open to the refining experience of
others; and I do not apologize for speaking of the fittings of a little
boat as if they were mere trifles because it held only _one_ man, when
they may in any degree be useful to yachts of larger size, and thus to
that noble fleet of roaming craft which renew the nerve and energy of so
many Englishmen by a manly and healthful enterprise, opening a whole new
element of nature, and nursing a host of loyal seamen to defend our
shores.

From the sketch given at p. 23, and one partly in section at p. 41, it
will be understood that the Rob Roy is fully decked all over except an
open well near the stern which is three feet square, and about the same
in depth; a strong combing surrounds both the well and the main hatchway
as a protection in the sea. {20} This well or after compartment is
separated from the next compartment by a strong bulkhead, sloping forward
(p. 7) to give all the room possible for stretching one's limbs and a
change of posture, and also so as to form a comfortable sloping back
inside in the cabin, while it supports a large soft pillow, the whole
being used as a sofa to recline on while reading or writing, or finally
being converted into a bolster by lowering it when the crew is piped