



Figure 12. — General plan of the Taurus, a catamaran galley gunboat proposed by 

 Sir Sidney Smith. R.N., to the British Admiralty in the early years of the French 

 Revolution. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum. 

 Greenwich. 



between each pair of tholes (Admiralty Collection of 

 Draughts, The .National Maritime Museum, Green- 

 wich, England). 



Another experimenter with the double-hull type of 

 vessel was a wealthy Scot named Patrick Miller who 

 was particularly interested in manual propulsion of 

 vessels, employing geared capstans to operate paddle 

 wheels. In a letter dated June 9, 1 790, Miller offered 

 Gustav III of Sweden a design for a double-hulled 

 144-gun ship-of-the-line (rating as a 130-gun ship) 



propelled l>\ mally operated capstans connected 



to a paddle wheel between the hulls. She was rigged 

 to sail, with five masts and was to be 246 feet long, 

 63 feel beam, and 17 feet draft; the hulls were 16 feet 

 apart. 



This project was submitted by the King to Fredrik 

 Henrik af Chapman, the greal Swedish naval archi- 

 i'-< I, who made an adverse report. Chapman pointed 

 out in great detail that the weight of the armament, 

 the necessary hull structure, the stores, crew, am- 

 munition, spars, sails, rigging and gear, would greatl) 

 exceed Miller's designed displacement. He also 



pointed out the prime fault of catamarans under sail — 

 slow turning in stays. He suggested that the speed 

 under sail would be disappointing. He doubted 

 that a double-hull ship of such size could be built 

 strong enough to stand a heavy sea. He remarked 

 that English records showed that a small vessel of 

 the catamaran type had been built between 1680 

 and 1700 which had sailed well (this may have been 

 one of Petty's boats), and that "36 years ago" he 

 had seen 8 miles from London, a similar boat that 

 had been newly built by Lord Baltimore and was 

 about 50 feet long; this was a failure and was discarded 

 after one trial. Therefore, said Chapman, the Miller 

 project was not new but rather an old idea. Chap- 

 man's final remark is perhaps the best illustration 

 of his opinion of the catamaran, "Despite all this, 

 two-hull vessels are completely sound when the theory 

 can be properl) applied; that is in vessels of very 

 lighl weight, and of small size, with crews of one or 

 two men." 



A "model" of such a double-hull ship- the Ex- 

 periment, built at Leith, Scotland, in 1786 l>\ |. 



156 



BULLETIN 210: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



