618 On the Personnel, Materiel, ami [JUNE, 



sail of the line. We, therefore, think that our own navy, at the present 

 time, is too small to secure with permanency our immense colonies, and 

 to continue the chain of communication with our numerous and distant 

 posts : this remark applies with double force when we look at tho 

 resources of America. The incompetent fleet of Lord Sandwich, who 

 succeeded Lord Hawke as premier of the Admiralty in 1770, was the 

 cause of the loss of most of our West-India islands, together with the 

 southern states of North America, in J779. At that time (August 1779) 

 the French and Spaniards rode triumphant in the Channel, and passed 

 Plymouth, although we had 1 35 ships of the line.* At present, accord- 

 ing to the Admiralty accounts, we have only J13 ships of the lino, 

 although we have double the extent of colonies to protect. 



Ships are not to be built in a short time : the timber must be procured 

 from abroad, for our own forests are exhausted ; shipwrights are not 

 always to be procured ; and naval stores, in general, especially hemp, can 

 only be had, in great quantities, from the powers in the Baltic, which have 

 often been, and may again be inimical to us. 



We now proceed to speak of the sailing qualities of our ships of war, 

 which are of the most shameful description. We quote, as proof of this, 

 if proof be needed of what every body knows, a paragraph from Mr. 

 Knowles's work " On the Dry Rot," Preface, p. 4 : " Until recently" 

 (alluding to the establishment of the School of Naval Architecture in 

 Portsmouth Dock-yard) " the theoretic construction of ships has not been 

 cultivated, or considered in this country a matter of sufficient importance ; 

 and to this may be attributed the practice of copying or imitating the 

 lines of those constructed by foreign nations." We have no good ships of 

 our own construction, except in the cases in which we have copied foreign 

 vessels ; and, as we have not copied any of a late date of construction, we 

 are still half a century behind the rest of the maritime world. Indeed, our 

 fears are so great with regard to the sailing qualities of our ships, 

 that if a grand conflagration of them all were to take place, we should 

 hasten to enjoy the spectacle, and rejoice to see our antiquated models 

 replaced. 



As this subject is of more importance than is generally conceived, we 

 shall enlarge on it. As proof of tho excellence of foreign ships, \ve need 

 only advert to the fact, that all our frigates are copied from foreign models 

 thirty-five being taken from the Hebe, a French frigate ; and twenty- 

 three from the Piedmontaise, or French President. If we only refer to the 

 following French and Spanish ships, which were the fastest sailers and 

 best sea-boats in the navy, the most sceptical and prejudiced reader will 

 te convinced that something must be done in this department of naval 

 science : San Josef, of 1 10 guns ; Gibraltar, of 84 guns ; Canopus, of 84 

 guns, from which we are building eight ships ; Donegal, 80 ; Pompee, 

 80; Genoa, 74; Rivoli, 74; Impetueux, 74; Spartiate, 74; Implacable, 

 now Duguay Trouin, 74. In the same manner, numerous other ships 

 might be cited to shew the excellence of foreign vessels. In no one 

 ipstancehave the French copied from an English model. Whenever they 

 have captured any of our ships, they have generally broken them up, as 

 their bad sailing, when attached to their own ships, has placed. the 

 whole in danger, by the delay which they have caused which, indeed, 



* Vide "Derrick's Memoirs of the B.riteh Navy," p. 161. 



