last yacht owned by Commodore Stevens, would not rank very high in the present fleet of magnificent steamers, schooners, sloops and cutters. She was the finest and fastest yacht of her day, having many of what are now termed "modern improvements," such as outside lead, a heavily weighted main centerboard, also a forward centerboard, a hollow main boom ninety-five feet long and nine feet in circumference at its greatest girth, built of white oak staves, with doweled and keyed edges, iron bands and longitudinal iron trusses. Her main sheet was fitted with a rubber compressor.
Her former sailing-master is on record as saying: "She would work within seven points, and I have sailed her seventeen knots. On her trial trip with the America along the beach we beat her so badly that Mr. Stevens was in doubt whether it was good policy to send her to England; but as she defeated all the others by as much as we beat her, it was finally decided she ought to go."
The Maria is said to have cost $100,000, a vast sum in those days even for Mr. Stevens, who owned nearly all Weehawken and Hoboken. It must be remembered, however, that she was continually being altered and improved, no expense being spared. The equipments and cabin fittings of all the pleasure craft of that period were plain and economical. The greater part of their cost was expended on hulls, spars and
