Sloops, smacks, skills, snookers, snippers
The Tatler, Wednesday 17 July 1907
COMPASSED on three sides by the inviolate sea, the little sand-bound harbour stands out like an opal set in a circle of pure gold. On the water as far as the eye can reach, and even farther, many a strange craft plies its way through the cool translucent wave. Here you may see the grim-visaged man-of-war lying side by side with the saucy corvette; the ungainly transport anchored cheek by jowl with the natty Government pinnace. Yachts and yawls, brigantines, barges, barques, bites, biffs, sloops, smacks, skills, snookers, snippers, clippers, cutters, and colliers pass to and fro until the eye of the onlooker wearies of this ceaseless kaleidoscopic show and the jaded holidaymaker seeks the more homely attractions of the Clarence Pier.