Excerpt from The Corinthian Yachtsman, or Hints on Yachting

Who was the first yachtsman, and what sort of a craft was the first yacht? Is a question that is not unfrequently asked by inquirers into the origin of our national sport, and, to the majority of persons, a rather puzzling one.

That yachting as understood at present in England, dates from a comparatively modern period, it would be folly to deny at the same time there is little doubt that, long anterior to the reign of Charles II., who is popularly supposed to have introduced a taste for yacht sailing into England, the inhabitants of these islands disported themselves on the water in boats. Have we not historical evidence to prove that many of our kings and princes, since the conquest, kept sailing boats for their own pleasure? Of course sailing vessels were first used as a means of transport only, but when it was found how much pleasure and enjoyment could be extracted out of such craft, vessels built for the sole purposes of pleasure naturally came into vogue. In the East Indies the Rajahs and their courtiers possessed swift sailing boats, in which they sailed about for amusement at the time of Vasco de Gama, and there is every reason to believe that such was also the case prior to the invasion of Alexander the Great. Readers of Plutarch will also remember many references to pleasure trips by water. Like the Chinese, the natives of India have not altered the form or shape of their sailing vessels in any material degree since they were first visited by Europeans and from careful researches, it is evident they reached their present proficiency in naval architecture centuries before the christian era.

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