It is hard to distinguish with a low-priced binocular on a thick or rainy night the color of a vessel's lights, a white one sometimes appearing with a green or reddish tinge, and a green one looking like a white one. This applies also to lightships and lighthouses, and should make you careful as to your selection of a glass.
Captain Lecky says the proper way to test a binocular for night use is not to stand at a shop door in broad daylight, trying how much the glass enlarges some distant clock-face, but to wait till nightfall and test it by looking up a dark street or passage, and if figures before only dimly visible to the naked eye are rendered tolerably clear by the aid of the glasses, you may rest assured you have hit on a suitable instrument. It is well to go in the first place to an optician, and not to a "shoptician" versed in cheap-jack methods.
Iron ballast should be coal-tarred, painted, or white-washed with hot lime.
Masts and spars should be scraped and sand-papered. If there are any cracks in them, they should be stopped with marine glue before scraping. Apply a coat of wood-filler, then a coat of spar composition. When hard, give a second coat. Never apply varnish when there is much moisture in the atmosphere. In the vicinity of New York, wait till the wind is northwest if you wish to secure the best and most brilliant results.
If your boat is white, when repainting don't forget to mix a little blue with your white lead, raw linseed oil and dryers. This cerulean dash improves the look of the paint, and is far better than black, which produces a ghastly tint.
When for any purpose it becomes necessary or desirable to anchor a small boat on ground known, or suspected, to be foul, it is advisable to scow the anchor. Unbend the cable from the ring; make the end fast round the crown shank and flukes with a clove hitch, and bring the end _a_ back to _s_, and stop it round the cable with a piece of spunyarn; take the cable back to the shackle and stop it as at _b_. When the cable is hauled upon by the part _o_, the stop at _b_ will part and the fluke of the anchor can be easily broken out and lifted. For larger vessels a trip-line is sometimes bent to the crown and buoyed instead of scowing the anchor.