,^/H"J^' 



ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHYa 



NOVEMBER, 1825. 



Article I. 



On a Digest of the Plans of Ships in the British Navy. By- 

 John Major, Foreman of Chatham Yardj late of the School of 

 Naval Architecture. 



(To the Editors of the Annals of Philosophy,) 



GENTLEMEN, Chatham Yard, Oct.% 1825. 



Among the many plans that may be had recourse to for 

 attaining a knowledge of the principles of naval architecture, it 

 has appeared tome that none is so likely to produce the desired 

 effect as a digest of the plans of ships in the British navy. By 

 this is meant an analysis of their forms and equipments, and a 

 comparison of their elementary compositions with the sea service 

 of the ships. 



To speak more particularly, I think the following elements of 

 every sea-going ship in the British navy, if calculated and gene- 

 rally made known, would throw more light on this subject than 

 any courses of experiments on resistance, on models of ships, or 

 than any theoretical deductions alone, though conducted by the 

 first rate mathematical genius. They are, the channel service, 

 foreign and light displacements, or the weight of the whole ship 

 when fitted for channel service, foreign expeditions, and the 

 weight of the hull ; the principal dimensions, viz. the length on 

 the load water line, breadth and draught of wa,ter ; the areas 

 of the load water plane and midship section ; the place of the 

 centre of gravity of the displacement, or its distance from the 

 load water line and the middle of the length of the ship ; the 

 centre of gravity of the ship and its contents^ obtained by an 

 experiment, which is here appended ; the height of the meta- 

 centre at the mean height of ports out of water ; the length 

 of masts, and size of the sails, so that the w'hole surface of can- 

 vass, set with different strengths ofwind, might be seen, together 

 with the centre of effort of such sail ; the weight of the metal 



'New Series, vol. x. y 



