for the
consideration of those whom it may concern.

The accommodation on board is not nearly so good as in an English yacht,
partly owing to the little height between decks, consequent upon her
very small draught of water, and partly owing to the great space taken
up by the case for the centre-board; besides which, it should be
remembered that a yacht is not used as a home in America in the same way
as in England. The great, and, I might almost say, the only quality,
transatlantic yachtsmen care about is speed; and I think my yachting
friends at Cowes must admit that they have proved that they know how to
attain their end, and that Mr. Steers, the builder of the "America," is
second to none in his craft; unless the "Black Maria" some future day
assume a practicable rig, and, crossing the Atlantic, earn the victor's
laurels, in which case Steers will have to yield the palm to the worthy
fraternity, who are at one and the same time the owners, builders, and
sailers of the subject of this chapter.

I believe it is very generally considered that the wind-up of a day's
sport is by no means the least enjoyable portion of the twenty-four
hours, when it comes in the shape of good fellowship and good cheer; and
upon the present occasion we had both alike undeniable of their kind.
The commodore's cellar is as rich a rarity in its way as the Bernal
collection, and, from the movement of the corks, I should imagine it was
upon an equally large scale. I do not purpose inflicting a bill of fare
upon you; but, having, in the foregoing pages, made a promise to furnish
the proper recipe for Toddy and Chowder, I consider this the proper
place to redeem that promise, under the guidance of my hospitable host,
who initiated me fully into the mysteries of mixture, proportion, &c.,
by making both before me.

Whether it is of great importance to adhere exactly to the recipes, I
cannot pretend to say; the soup was pronounced on all hands to be most
excellent, and some of the knowing ones declared it was unusually good.
We afterwards found out a good reason for its superior excellence. It
appears that the commodore had given some instructions to the steward,
which he evidently had not understood, for, upon asking that functionary
towards the end of dinner for a bottle of fine old Madeira which had
been kept back as a bonnebouche, he gave a wild stare-of astonishment,
and said he had put it all into the chowder. This little addition, I can
te