Down Channel in the Vivette by E. Keble Chatterton Chatterton, antiquarian and scholar of old ships and old ways, had already published his well-known Sailing Ships and Their Story, when in the years just before World War I he acquired the 25-foot cutter Vivette, a miniature of the great Edwardian yachts of the day, and decided to make a two-year voyage down the English Channel to the West Country. He was, he confessed, a land-bound animal, and made no famous passages in deep water. But he found adventure enough poking along from port to port, and his book Down Channel in the Vivette, published in 1910, is justly celebrated in the small circle who know it,for its very English joy in commonplace things, and sense of adventure discovered in small matters. Here he and his cruising companion, the artist Norman Carr, try out a bit of deepwater seamanship learned, of course,from their extensive reading of one of the classics of sea literature. Off Plymouth the breeze freshened and a lumpy sea got up. Had we passed here twelve days later we might have got the wind more southerly, in which case we should have had most of the accidents of time and air that were present in 1588 when the Armada came running up Channel past Rame Head---or Ram 's Head , as one sees it called on theearlycharts. "The very next day ," says the old chronicler, "being the 20th of July about high noone, was the Spanish Fleete escried by the English, which with a South-west wind came sailing along, and passed by Plimmouth." As we sped on across Bigbury Bay we soon realised we were carrying all the sail that we needed, and sometimes the puffs would come down so viciously for a few moments, that I had to run the little ship into the wind until the worst of the squall was passed. As the day declined we thought that the breeze might moderate, but instead of that it only increased, and finally we decided to roll in some more of the main, as we could not carry in any comfort all that we had. For a time we ran along with greater ease, but the nearer we approached to Bolt Tail the worse it became. There is something of a swell off the coast between Bolt Tail and Prawle Point at the best of times, and to-day we expected to have our full enjoyment of excitement. We got it.
RUNNING PAST BoLT TAIL
Inset shows method of towing warp
SEA HISTORY 57, SPRING 1991
With the wind now in the direction of about north-west, having backed a little, the water off Bolt Tail was considerably disturbed, and the waves with all this open drift were quite awe-inspiring as they rolled up astern and threatened every moment to come aboard us. What a conirast to the day when we had passed here last, bound west, and we lay becalmed in Bigbury Bay with not even a suspicion of an air to give us steerage way! For an hour and more we spent an anxious time. Once we lowered staysail, but we soon had it up again when the squall passed, as we might as well run on and get it all over. But at last something had to be done, and what we did was so effectual, and, as far as I know, has never been tried before on a small yacht, that the experiment may not be without interest to yachting men. The success is entirely owing to the inventiveness, or rather the adaptabi Ii ty, of the mate. Whilst we were lying in Fowey harbour we had discussed the voyage of the
EKTERI NG SALCOMBE HARBOUR
celebrated Captain Slocum, who had sailed single-handed round the world in a small vessel. In his book, the reader will probab 1y remember, SI ocum says that when running across the ocean with a nasty big sea following he used to pay out two thick warps astern from either quarter, and the result was that just when the waves looked their worst, and were about to break over his ship, the warps somehow seemed to prevent the worst from ever happening. We decided, therefore, to see if there was anything in the idea for ourselves, so before leaving the Cornish port we selected a ten-fathom warp of about two inches in diameter, and made it fast to the thwarts of the dinghy, stowing it in the boat in such a manner that by the assistance of a boat-hook we could easily throw the end overboard and let it tow astern. Although Slocum had two warps for the ocean, we reckoned that one would be adequate for our purpose. Therefore when off Bolt Tail, and the waves were in all reality threatening enough, we concluded that this would be an ideal opportunity for putting our experiment to a test: so overboard the warp went. The immediate result of this manoeuvre was twofold. Firstly, it caused the yacht to be more buoyant and "corky," so that she ran, if more slowly, yet more sweetly and with an absence of drag: her motion through the water was cleaner and with less resistance. Secondly, when the waves towered up astern, and seemed about to carry out their threats, the warp bisected and cut deep into the former, so as to take away the
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