142 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



The whole system of stowage may be placed under the four 

 following heads, viz.: — the Ordnance, Victualling, Medical, ^nd 

 Mechanical departments. This mechanical branch includes the 

 boatswain's and carpenter's departments, by which the rigging and 

 hull are kept in an efficient state. 



Here the lecturer referred to the drawing of a seventy-four gun 

 ship, shewing the internal arrangements, the principal part of 

 which were minutely explained, from the poop-deck down to the 

 orlop-deck ; and, having arrived at the lowest platform, he then 

 described the principle upon which the required capacity of a 

 ship's hold may be estimated, and accurately subdivided, that 

 she may be enabled to receive stores and provisions of every kind 

 for any given number of men, for a given period. 



The principle on which Mr. Chalfield proposes to do this, is 

 by calculating the Jiet cubical content, as well as the net weight, 

 of powder, shot, provisions, water, &c. ; he then finds the additi- 

 onal space occupied by the vessels in which provisions, &c. are 

 respectively contained, and the loss of room sustained by the 

 figures of those vessels. Thus, it appears that bee/'is stowed in 

 barrels containing 38 pieces of 8 lbs. each ; but a barrel of beef, 

 including beef, salt, and pickle, amounts to 499 lbs., out of which 

 the cask alone weighs 69 lbs., which leaves 430 lbs. for the beef, 

 brine and salt; or 126 lbs. for brine and salt. Hence in the 

 article beef, the tare of pickle and salt amounts to 40 per cent, 

 on the primitive weight, and a further tare of 23 per cent, should 

 be added for the weight of the cask, making altogether 63 per 

 cent., on this article of provision. It was stated that the loss on 

 stowage was still greater, viz. 143 per cent, on the original cubi- 

 cal content of the article beef. The lecturer knew of no other 

 principle, upon which correct calculations can be made, in order 

 to predict with accuracy, the entire weight of, and space occupied 

 by, all the provisions, &c., for a man-of-war for a given period. 

 He deemed it important to act upon that principle, for he thought 

 it often happened, that a ship's hold was quite capacious 

 enough to receive every thing, but that an injudicious mode of 

 partitioning off'the various compartments cramped the stowage of 

 some and left unnecessary room in others. This opinion was 

 confirmed by extracts from official documents. 



The lecturer concluded by observing, that the beauty of every 

 system is the harmony of its parts : it is so in Nature, and it is 

 the same in the works of Art. It was his wish to shew that 

 naval architecture admits of being harmonized, with great practical 



