The Falcon on the Baltic E.F. Knight The Falcon on the Baltic Table of Contents The Falcon on the Baltic...........................................................................................................................................1 E.F. Knight.....................................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I. I GET A NEW BOAT.............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER II. THE NEW BOAT LEAKS....................................................................................................5 CHAPTER III. ACROSS THE NORTH SEA.............................................................................................13 THE NORTH SEA TO THE ZUIDER ZEE...............................................................................................17 CHAPTER IV. FROM ROTTERDAM TO AMSTERDAM......................................................................22 CHAPTER V. ON THE ZUIDER ZEE.......................................................................................................30 AMSTERDAM TO THE DOLLART.........................................................................................................30 CHAPTER VI. TO THE DOLLART..........................................................................................................39 CHAPTER VII. THE FRISIAN ISLANDS.................................................................................................46 THE DOLLART TO KIEL..........................................................................................................................46 CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE JADE TO THE EIDER...............................................................................54 CHAPTER IX. KIEL BAY..........................................................................................................................60 CHAPTER X. THE FIORDS OF SCHLESWIG.........................................................................................66 THE BALTIC..............................................................................................................................................67 CHAPTER XI. THE LITTLE BELT AND VEILE FIORD........................................................................74 CHAPTER XII. ACROSS THE GREAT BELT.........................................................................................81 CHAPTER XIII. THE KATTEGAT AND ISE FIORD..............................................................................89 CHAPTER XIV. GILLELIE AND THE SOUND......................................................................................96 CHAPTER XV. COPENHAGEN AND HOME.......................................................................................102 NOTE.........................................................................................................................................................105 i The Falcon on the Baltic E.F. Knight This page copyright © 2003 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • CHAPTER I. I GET A NEW BOAT • CHAPTER II. THE NEW BOAT LEAKS • CHAPTER III. ACROSS THE NORTH SEA • THE NORTH SEA TO THE ZUIDER ZEE • CHAPTER IV. FROM ROTTERDAM TO AMSTERDAM • CHAPTER V. ON THE ZUIDER ZEE • AMSTERDAM TO THE DOLLART • CHAPTER VI. TO THE DOLLART • CHAPTER VII. THE FRISIAN ISLANDS • THE DOLLART TO KIEL • CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE JADE TO THE EIDER • CHAPTER IX. KIEL BAY • CHAPTER X. THE FIORDS OF SCHLESWIG • THE BALTIC • CHAPTER XI. THE LITTLE BELT AND VEILE FIORD • CHAPTER XII. ACROSS THE GREAT BELT • CHAPTER XIII. THE KATTEGAT AND ISE FIORD • CHAPTER XIV. GILLELIE AND THE SOUND • CHAPTER XV. COPENHAGEN AND HOME • NOTE THE FALCON ON THE BALTIC A Coasting Voyage from Hammersmith to Copenhagen In a Three−ton Yacht CHAPTER I. I GET A NEW BOAT IN the summer of '86 I was without my favourite toy, a yacht, and had no intention of purchasing a vessel. I had just returned from a winter cruise about the Spanish Main and through the West Indies, and any voyage more extensive than a boating expedition on the upper Thames was quite out of my mind, when I by chance came across a boat lying at Hammersmith— of all unlikely places— which appeared to me to be singularly adapted for the realization of one of my earliest yachting dreams. For many years I had talked of visiting the Baltic in a small yacht, and I had often taken up the charts and pilot−books of that tideless sea and planned pleasant cruises among the deep, winding fiords and narrow sounds of the Danish islands; and now I saw before me the very boat for the purpose. “The smaller the yacht the better the sport,” is a maxim which, in my opinion, holds good in most waters, but especially so when a cruise on the Baltic is in question. For on all the shores of that sea, even where the map The Falcon on the Baltic 1 The Falcon on the Baltic indicates long, straight stretches of ironbound coast, there are innumerable small artificial havens which have been constructed by the herring fishermen for the accommodation of their shallow craft; and again, on many of the islands, the only harbours are those affording shelter to the ferry−boats which ply to the mainland harbours, as a rule, having no more than three feet of water. Therefore small yachts only can visit these out−of−the−way spots. A cruise among the islands affords some of the fascination of a voyage of discovery; at many of them sea−going vessels never call; and as all the English yachts that enter the Baltic are of considerable tonnage, the English yachtsman knows but little of the charms of the best cruising−ground in Europe. The Baltic is a treacherous sea; settled weather can never be depended on, gales spring up very unexpectedly, and a nasty sea rises quickly on its shallow waters. But a little yacht following the coast has nearly always some snug harbour to run for should bad weather come on; whereas a larger craft with deeper draught must needs stand out to sea and make the best of it she can. The small yacht is certainly the one for the Baltic, but to get her there is a somewhat difficult task. To arrive at the mouth of the river Eider, whence the Baltic can be reached by canal, involves a voyage across the North Sea and a lengthy cruise along the coast of Holland and Germany. Unless the yachtsman has exceptional luck with his weather this journey is likely to cause him a considerable amount of anxiety; for the east coast of the North Sea, with its dangerous shoals, tumbling seas, and lack of harbours to run for, is certainly the last the skipper of a small yacht would select for a pleasure cruise. But once let him reach the mouth of the Eider and he will be more than compensated for his preliminary difficulties and hardships. The yacht at Hammersmith possessed two qualities not usually found together. She was of very light draught and yet she was an excellent sea−boat. She drew something under three feet, and so could enter the shallowest Danish boat−harbour. With her if I saw a port before me I could run in boldly, not needing a pilot, and without troubling my head about the depth of water; for, where any other boat had gone before mine was able to follow. She also looked like a craft that would put up with a good deal of heavy weather, and could be trusted to carry one safely across the North Sea. I saw that she was, in short, the very vessel I required; so I came to terms with her owner, and soon found that I had no reason to be disappointed with my bargain. The Falcon— for so I named her after my former vessel— was an old P. and O. life−boat, and had doubtless made many a voyage to India and back on a steamer's deck. As is the way with life−boats, her bow and stern were alike, and she had far more sheer than is ever given to a yacht. She had been built in the strongest manner by the well−known life−boat builder White, of Cowes. She was double−skinned, both skins being of the best teak, the outer of horizontal, the inner of diagonal, planking. The gentleman from whom I bought her had converted her into a yawl, or, to be more correct, a ketch, for her mizen−mast was well in−board, so that her mainsail was smaller and her mizen larger than is the case with yawls (an advantage as far as handiness is concerned). The water−tight compartments had been taken out of her, a false keel had been fastened on, and she had been decked all over with the exception of a small well. There was no appliance for covering over this well in bad weather, but I have never seen a pint of water tumble into it, so buoyant and admirable a sea−boat did the little vessel prove to be. The Falcon is jury−rigged; too much so indeed, her spars and sails being rather too small. Her mainmast lowers on a tabernacle, a system which I do not like for sea−work, but which proved useful on the Norfolk Broads. She is twenty−nine feet long and of three tons register. When I bought her, the season was so far advanced that I had to postpone my Baltic expedition until the following summer; but I made a pleasant trial cruise in her down our east coast and on the broads and rivers of Norfolk. I succeeded in exploring all the portions of those inland waters which are practicable to a yacht of three−feet draught; but, as might be expected from so long and shallow a boat, she was slow in stays and ill−adapted for the The Falcon on the Baltic 2 The Falcon on the Baltic narrow streams beloved of the East Anglian yachtsman. This cruise over, the Falcon was brought