Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/278

of above five tons pay one shilling per ton per annum towards the maintenance of lights. The warrant entitles the yachtsman to several valuable privileges, while still further favours are extended to him as a matter of courtesy. He may, for example, use man-of-war moorings if these are not required at the time for Government purposes. When he cruises abroad, the production of his warrant will free him from all such harbour and other dues as are paid by merchantmen, but not by men-of-war. In some parts of the world, in Brazil for example, a warrant is almost indispensable; for a yacht unprovided with it would be treated as if she were a merchantman, and her owner would be put to considerable inconvenience. When the author called at Bahia with his eighteen-ton yacht the Falcon, his Admiralty warrant ensured him the most courteous treatment on the part of the authorities. His vessel was accorded man-of-war rights; permission was given him to anchor in the man-of-war ground instead of in the crowded mercantile anchorage, and he was permitted to go off in his boat to the yacht, or to land at the arsenal steps, at any hour of the day or night, the sentries having received instructions always to open the gates and let him through. Now the skipper of a merchantman cannot, or at any rate could not in those days, leave his vessel or go on board of her after 8 P.M., without a special licence from the Customs House, which I understand was not readily granted. Another very vexatious rule