Genre:

Essay

Relevant illustrations:

eng.

Subjects:

Skill, Nationalism, Popularization, Steamships, Mechanics

    Claims that the 'immense superiority' of the yacht America over all English yachts is 'the result of American science and skill', especially in the 'cut and set of her sails'. After detailing the arrangement of the yacht, acknowledges that 'I may have been too technical in this description for the ordinary reader', but insists that 'there are plenty of nautical men who will be obliged for the description'. (306). Boasts that when the grand old yacht was 'sold at auction' in 1871 a half-share of it was 'bought by General Benjamin F. Butler [i.e. the author, who was later charged with using public money to recondition the yacht]' (307). Concludes that now that the 'taste of yachting gentlemen [...] turns toward steam-yachts [...] it is to be hoped that the genius of the American builder and the craft of the American mechanic will soon produce some steam vessel which shall maintain a like supremacy in that branch of the American marine' (308).