size, as measured by the merchant-ship tonnage rule, as given above, and the length of the course.
To evade the heavy harbor dues, etc., to which merchant vessels were liable under the 1794 tonnage rule, shipbuilders naturally reduced beam, which was penalized twice over, and increased depth, which was not taxed at all, thus creating a vicious type of vessel. Yacht builders followed suit, gradually increasing draught and decreasing beam. Then came the raking sternpost, introduced about 1850 by Wanhill, of Poole, which gave on a given length of keel a much longer water-line. Outside lead followed.
In 1854 the "Thames Rule" was adopted, by which the length on deck was measured and from this length the whole beam was subtracted.
This system did fairly well till heavy lead keels were introduced. Then builders and owners found that with a lot of length and depth yachts could carry sail enough to make them faster and more powerful vessels than their predecessors, the reason being because they were far larger in reality, carrying about 25 per cent. more sail and ballast, whereas if the actual draught of water had been used as a factor in defining the tonnage no such abortions as this rule encouraged would ever have been built.
The apple bow and barrel-like bottom flourished in England until 1851, when
