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The last of the Thames wherries.
CHAPTER XI.
BOAT-BUILDING AND DIMENSIONS.
Tue ‘trim built wherry’ of song has been improved off the face of the Thames. Originally it was purely a passenger craft : it contained space for two or more sitters in the stern, and was fitted for two pair of sculls or a pair of oars at option. Larger wherrics were also built, ‘randan’ rig (for a pair of oars with ‘a sculler amidships, or three pairs of sculls at option). Such boats were the passenger craft of the silent highway before steamers destroyed the watermen’s trade. When match racing came into vogue, wherries began to be constructed for purely racing purposes ; they had but one seat, for the sculler, and were carried as fine as they could he, at either end, with regard to the surf which they often had to encounter. Their beam on the waterline was reduced toa minimum ; but at the same time it was necessary, for mechanical purposes, that the gunwale, at the points where the rowlocks were placed, should be of sufficient
