MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 47 



required to move it at the same rate with oars. Its capacity is such that 

 fifty persons can be seated in the hold, while thirty more may be lashed to 

 and sustained upon the deck, giving it a greater capacity for saving life in 

 case of shipwreck than any other improvement yet brought before the 

 public. It is provided with water-tanks and bread-lockers of sufficient size 

 to meet the wants of a full load of persons under any ordinary circum- 

 stances. The air-chambers in the stern and stem would keep it buoyant, 

 even if it were stove in, and cause it to right itself in case it should lie over- 

 turned. Buoyancy is further promoted by a bag of cork attached to the 

 sides below the gunwale, which also serves as a fender to prevent injury to 

 the boat should it be thrown against the side of a vessel in a heavy sea. 



The hold of the boat is divided into two compartments by a bulkhead, 

 through which an aperture is made for entrance to the rear compartment 

 from the front, should it be necessary to keep the main hatch closed during 

 a heavy sea. By this means the boat is prevented from being filled with 

 water while loading in a storm. 



The boat may be lowered into the water from the vessel with perfect secu- 

 rity, even during the running of the heaviest sea, and instantly released 

 from the davit-hooks by means of a novel eye-bolt, invented by Mr. Camp. 

 The peculiarity of this eye-bolt consists in having the upper part, against 

 which the fall-hook bears, made movable upon a pivot and sustained by a 

 catch, which can be removed, even under a heavy load, so as to allow the 

 hook to be freed by a slight effort on the part of a person operating both 

 bolts at the same time, thus setting the boat adrift upon the water with per- 

 fect safety. The advantages of having a boat entirely inclosed, so as to 

 protect its omipants from the wash of the sea, and provided with means of 

 propulsion to enable it to be navigated to the shore from the wreck, are 

 apparent. In heavy weather it may be steered from below deck, there being 

 a small raised hatch, with a window in front, for observation ; and a binna- 

 cle, compass, and all the requisites for navigating the craft in any direction. 

 In addition to the propeller, a mast and sails are lashed to the deck, ready 

 for use in favorable weather. 



NOVEL STEAMSHIP. 



A steamship of most remarkable form and construction is now in the pro- 

 cess of completion at Baltimore, by Messrs. Ross & Thomas Winans, the 

 well-known engineers. The form of this vessel is so different from any hith- 

 erto constructed, that it is not an easy matter to describe its peculiarities. 

 Premising, however, that its shape is like that of a cigar, sharp at both ends, 

 and one hundred and eighty feet long, and sixteen feet in diameter in the 

 centre, unbroken in its continuity, except by the wheel-house, which passes 

 around about six feet of its entire centre, above and below the water-line, and 

 over the top as well as under the bottom of the vessel, the following simple 

 description may be understandable : 



Take two elongated and sharp-pointed sugar loaves, and place them but- 

 ends together ; put a stick through the centre of the two but-ends, which 

 imagine to be the shaft of the water-wheel, which passes into the two sugar 

 loaves, and is driven by engines at each end of the shaft. Thus it will be 

 seen that it is two entirely separate vessels, united only by the shaft of the 

 water-wheel, and by the wheel-house, which is built completely around the 

 vessel, extending about three feet on each side of the wheel, and raised about 



