'"'• S20 



Remarks on the Stowage and Sailing of Ships and Vessels, 

 By Commander John Pearse, R. N. 



The following remarks have sprung from ideas formed 

 during, and after a practical experience, as a seaman, of 

 upwards of twenty years' active sea service. I commit them to 

 paper as a seaman ; and solely with the intention of endeavour- 

 ing to show, by a plain statement, what appear to me as 

 errors in the system of stowing and sailing our ships. Perhaps 

 J may venture to assert that, generally speaking, there is no 

 regular system followed, or that the subject is not sufficiently 

 considered on mathematical principles. 



Chapman, in the preface to his Treoftise on Ship- Building , 

 observes that *' In the construction of ships, people usually 

 make attempts at different times to improve the form, each 

 person according to his own experience ; thus after the 

 construction of one ship, which has been tried and found to 

 possess such or such a bad quality, it seems possible to remedy 

 this defect in another. But it often (not to say generally) 

 happens, that the new ship possesses some fault equally as 

 great, and frequently even that the former defect, instead of 

 being removed, is increased. And we are unable to determine 

 whether this fault proceeds from the form of the ship, or from 

 other unknown circumstances. 



" It thus appears, that the construction of a ship with more 

 or less good qualities, is a matter of chance and not of previous 

 design. And it hence follows, that as long as we are without 

 a good theory on ship building, and have nothing to trust to 

 beyond bare experiments and trials, this art cannot be expected 

 to acquire any greater perfection than it possesses at present. 



** At the same time the construction of ships and their 

 equipment are attended with too great expense, not to 

 endeavour beforehand to ensure their good qualities and their 

 suitableness for what they are intended for. The theory then 

 which elucidates the causes of their different qualities, which 

 determines whether the defects of a ship proceed from its form, 

 or from other causes, is truly important ; but as the theory is 

 unlimited, practice must determine its limits. We may conse- 

 quently further conclude, that the art of ship-building can 



