The Cruise of the Snark | Page 8

inside,
while I shall journey around on the outside. But of this, more anon. We
threaten to be of the one mind before the voyage is completed. I am
confident that I shall convert him into making the journey on the
outside, while he is equally confident that before we arrive back in San
Francisco I shall be on the inside of the earth. How he is going to get
me through the crust I don't know, but Roscoe is ay a masterful man.
P.S.--That engine! While we've got it, and the dynamo, and the storage
battery, why not have an ice-machine? Ice in the tropics! It is more
necessary than bread. Here goes for the ice-machine! Now I am
plunged into chemistry, and my lips hurt, and my mind hurts, and how
am I ever to find the time to study navigation?
CHAPTER II
--THE INCONCEIVABLE AND MONSTROUS

"Spare no money," I said to Roscoe. "Let everything on the Snark be of
the best. And never mind decoration. Plain pine boards is good enough
finishing for me. But put the money into the construction. Let the Snark
be as staunch and strong as any boat afloat. Never mind what it costs to
make her staunch and strong; you see that she is made staunch and
strong, and I'll go on writing and earning the money to pay for it."
And I did . . . as well as I could; for the Snark ate up money faster than
I could earn it. In fact, every little while I had to borrow money with
which to supplement my earnings. Now I borrowed one thousand
dollars, now I borrowed two thousand dollars, and now I borrowed five
thousand dollars. And all the time I went on working every day and
sinking the earnings in the venture. I worked Sundays as well, and I
took no holidays. But it was worth it. Every time I thought of the Snark

I knew she was worth it.
For know, gentle reader, the staunchness of the Snark. She is forty-five
feet long on the waterline. Her garboard strake is three inches thick; her
planking two and one-half inches thick; her deck- planking two inches
thick and in all her planking there are no butts. I know, for I ordered
that planking especially from Puget Sound. Then the Snark has four
water-tight compartments, which is to say that her length is broken by
three water-tight bulkheads. Thus, no matter how large a leak the Snark
may spring, Only one compartment can fill with water. The other three
compartments will keep her afloat, anyway, and, besides, will enable us
to mend the leak. There is another virtue in these bulkheads. The last
compartment of all, in the very stern, contains six tanks that carry over
one thousand gallons of gasolene. Now gasolene is a very dangerous
article to carry in bulk on a small craft far out on the wide ocean. But
when the six tanks that do not leak are themselves contained in a
compartment hermetically sealed off from the rest of the boat, the
danger will be seen to be very small indeed.
The Snark is a sail-boat. She was built primarily to sail. But
incidentally, as an auxiliary, a seventy-horse-power engine was
installed. This is a good, strong engine. I ought to know. I paid for it to
come out all the way from New York City. Then, on deck, above the
engine, is a windlass. It is a magnificent affair. It weighs several
hundred pounds and takes up no end of deck-room. You see, it is
ridiculous to hoist up anchor by hand-power when there is a
seventy-horse-power engine on board. So we installed the windlass,
transmitting power to it from the engine by means of a gear and
castings specially made in a San Francisco foundry.
The Snark was made for comfort, and no expense was spared in this
regard. There is the bath-room, for instance, small and compact, it is
true, but containing all the conveniences of any bath-room upon land.
The bath-room is a beautiful dream of schemes and devices, pumps,
and levers, and sea-valves. Why, in the course of its building, I used to
lie awake nights thinking about that bath-room. And next to the
bathroom come the life-boat and the launch. They are carried on deck,

and they take up what little space might have been left us for exercise.
But then, they beat life insurance; and the prudent man, even if he has
built as staunch and strong a craft as the Snark, will see to it that he has
a good life-boat as well. And ours is a good one. It is a dandy. It was
stipulated to cost one hundred and fifty dollars, and when I