solutely necessary
for your hospital scheme. Take an instance. Miss Dearsley tells me the
men stay out eight weeks, and then run home. Now suppose your cruiser
meets one of the home-going vessels, and the captain of this vessel
says, 'There's a dying man fifty miles N.W. (or S.W., or whatever it is)
from here. You must go soon, or he won't be saved. What are you going to
do if you have a foul wind or a calm?"

"But that dying man would probably be in a _fleet_, and what I wish to
see is not a single cruising hospital, but that _all_ our mission
vessels in future should be of that type, _i.e.,_ one with every fleet."

Cassall broke in, "Yes, yes, by all means; but, I say, could you not try
steam as well? Why not go in at once for a steamer as an experiment, and
then you can whisk round like a flash, and time your visits from week
to week."

Blair rose in his seat wearing a comic expression of despair and terror.

"Why, we're driven silly now by people who offer us ships, without
saying anything about ways and means for keeping the ships up. My dear
Cassall, you do not know what a devourer of money a vessel is. Every
hour at sea means wear and tear somewhere, and if we are to make our
ships quite safe we must be constantly renewing. It's the _maintenance_
funds that puzzle us. If you give us a ship without a fund for renewals
of gear, wages, and so on, it is exactly as though you graciously made a
City clerk a present of a couple of Irish hunters, and requested him not
to sell them. The vessel Fullerton has in his mind will need an outlay
of L1,200 a year to keep her up. Suppose we invest the necessary capital
in a good, sound stock, we shall get about 4 per cent for money, so that
we require L30,000 for a sailing ship alone. As to the steamer,
whew-w-w!"

"A very good little speech, Blair, but I think I know what I'm talking
about. After all, come now, the steamer only needs extra for coal,
engineers, and stokers. You don't trust to chance at all; you don't care
a rush for wind or tide, and you can go like an arrow to the point you
aim at. Then, don't you see, my very good nautical men--Blair is an
absolutely insufferable old Salt since he came home--you can always
disengage your propeller when there is a strong, useful wind, and you
bank your fires. Brassey told me that, and he said he could always get
at least seven knots' speed out of his boat if there was the least bit
of a breeze. Then, if you're in a hurry, do