82 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



Hull 320 feet long 1 ; 53 feet 8 inches beam, 24 feet 9 inches 

 depth. Tonnage 4,272 B.M. Plating, 8, 7 and 6 inch on hull, 1 

 and 1 inch on spar-deck, 10 and 9 inch on turrets, with teak 

 backing. Forecastle and poop-decks 11 feet high, connected by 

 hurricane-deck 24 feet wide, with iron deck-house between tur- 

 rets ; 2 25-ton 600-pounder guns. Deck 6 feet above water. 

 Ship rig, "tripod" masts; 33,000 square feet of canvas; fitted 

 with 7 boats and 2 steam launches. Engines, 2 pairs trunk en- 

 gines, 900 N.H.P., surface condensers; 2 screws, 16 feet diameter 

 each. Speed on measured mile, full power 14.239 knots; half- 

 power 11,697. Complement of officers and men, about 500. 

 Journal Franklin Institute. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE " CAPTAIN." 



The particulars of the sinking of the " Captain" leave hardly 

 any doubt upon the faults of construction to which her loss must 

 be attributed. Although of 1,000 tons less burden than the " Mon- 

 arch," she had the same heavy armament and thick plating as 

 that great ship, with enormous iron masts, large spars, and an 

 unprecedentedly extensive area of canvas. The " Monarch " has a 

 freeboard of 14 feet; the " Captain," in accordance with the sys- 

 tem of her designer, was built only 9 feet above the water. Thus 

 she was in the first place especially liable to heel beyond the cen- 

 tre of gravity, in consequence of the great weight of the spars, 

 sails, and turrets above deck, and in the second place particularly 

 apt to ship heavy seas on account of the lowness of her freeboard. 

 Being struck by a squall on the port side, she gave a sudden 

 lurch, so that the tops of the turrets were under water, and the 

 wind got so powerful a purchase against the under part of the 

 broad hurricane-deck, which extends from bows to stern above 

 the turrets, that she was unable to right herself, and was actually 

 overset by the weight of her masts. She was a more dangerous 

 vessel than the " Monarch," first, in having disproportionately 

 heavy spars and too much canvas ; secondly, in having too low a 

 sea-board ; thirdly, in having a wide hurricane-deck where the 

 ** Monarch " has only a bridge ; fourthly, in carrying too much 

 weight above the water-line in proportion to her draught. Her 

 loss seems to settle the principle that low freeboard and heavily 

 armed turrets, however applicable to vessels of the monitor class 

 without masts, cannot be safely combined in sea-going vessels 

 designed to spread canvas. N. Y. Tribune. 



WINDWARD GREAT-CIRCLE SAILING. 



Mr. J. T. Towson, secretary of the Liverpool Local Marine 

 Board, read a paper at the meeting of the British Association, 

 " On Windward Great-Circle Sailing," illustrated by the Transat- 

 lantic yacht race. Mr. Towson referred to the tables for facili- 

 tating great-circle sailing constructed by him, and published by 

 the Admiralty 24 years since, in which he pointed out the value 



