The Cruise of the Snark | Page 6

minds as we get nearer, in a general way
we know that we shall wander through the South Seas, take in Samoa,
New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, and Sumatra,
and go on up through the Philippines to Japan. Then will come Korea,
China, India, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean. After that the voyage
becomes too vague to describe, though we know a number of things we
shall surely do, and we expect to spend from one to several months in
every country in Europe.
The Snark is to be sailed. There will be a gasolene engine on board, but
it will be used only in case of emergency, such as in bad water among
reefs and shoals, where a sudden calm in a swift current leaves a
sailing-boat helpless. The rig of the Snark is to be what is called the
"ketch." The ketch rig is a compromise between the yawl and the
schooner. Of late years the yawl rig has proved the best for cruising.
The ketch retains the cruising virtues of the yawl, and in addition
manages to embrace a few of the sailing virtues of the schooner. The
foregoing must be taken with a pinch of salt. It is all theory in my head.
I've never sailed a ketch, nor even seen one. The theory commends
itself to me. Wait till I get out on the ocean, then I'll be able to tell more
about the cruising and sailing qualities of the ketch.
As originally planned, the Snark was to be forty feet long on the
water-line. But we discovered there was no space for a bath-room, and
for that reason we have increased her length to forty-five feet. Her
greatest beam is fifteen feet. She has no house and no hold. There is six

feet of headroom, and the deck is unbroken save for two
companionways and a hatch for'ard. The fact that there is no house to
break the strength of the deck will make us feel safer in case great seas
thunder their tons of water down on board. A large and roomy cockpit,
sunk beneath the deck, with high rail and self- bailing, will make our
rough-weather days and nights more comfortable.
There will be no crew. Or, rather, Charmian, Roscoe, and I are the crew.
We are going to do the thing with our own hands. With our own hands
we're going to circumnavigate the globe. Sail her or sink her, with our
own hands we'll do it. Of course there will be a cook and a cabin-boy.
Why should we stew over a stove, wash dishes, and set the table? We
could stay on land if we wanted to do those things. Besides, we've got
to stand watch and work the ship. And also, I've got to work at my
trade of writing in order to feed us and to get new sails and tackle and
keep the Snark in efficient working order. And then there's the ranch;
I've got to keep the vineyard, orchard, and hedges growing.
When we increased the length of the Snark in order to get space for a
bath-room, we found that all the space was not required by the
bath-room. Because of this, we increased the size of the engine.
Seventy horse-power our engine is, and since we expect it to drive us
along at a nine-knot clip, we do not know the name of a river with a
current swift enough to defy us.
We expect to do a lot of inland work. The smallness of the Snark
makes this possible. When we enter the land, out go the masts and on
goes the engine. There are the canals of China, and the Yang-tse River.
We shall spend months on them if we can get permission from the
government. That will be the one obstacle to our inland
voyaging--governmental permission. But if we can get that permission,
there is scarcely a limit to the inland voyaging we can do.
When we come to the Nile, why we can go up the Nile. We can go up
the Danube to Vienna, up the Thames to London, and we can go up the
Seine to Paris and moor opposite the Latin Quarter with a bow-line out
to Notre Dame and a stern-line fast to the Morgue. We can leave the
Mediterranean and go up the Rhone to Lyons, there enter the Saone,

cross from the Saone to the Maine through the Canal de Bourgogne,
and from the Marne enter the Seine and go out the Seine at Havre.
When we cross the Atlantic to the United States, we can go up the
Hudson, pass through the Erie Canal, cross the Great Lakes, leave Lake
Michigan at Chicago, gain the Mississippi by way of the Illinois