A long low black schooner, with a narrow beading of white at deck level, and masts that tapered off into fishing-rods.

She was pierced for six guns a-side, and a great tarpaulin cover on the forecastle and another astern hinted at something heavier there.

Her lines and finish were so graceful that I felt sure she was French built, for English builders ever consider strength before beauty.

A very fast boat, I judged, but how she would behave in dirty weather I was not so sure.

Anyway, a craft to make a sailor's heart hungry to see her loosed and free of the seas.