SECTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 93 



Kavy Department made the best time between the trial buoys off Sandy 

 Hook which had then ever been made by any screw shi[), being one or 

 two miles an hour faster than any of the rebel cruisers ; but just when 

 the Government was about taking ber, the fall of Fort Fisher rendered 

 her no longer necessary for her original i)urpose, and, after two or three 

 voyages in the transport and merchant service, she was laid up and 

 offered for sale in New York in the summer of 1S65. 



"In the autumn of 1865 Spain made war upon her former colonies, 

 the states of Chili and Peru, whose independence she had never formally 

 acknowledged, and it soon became known that the South American 

 Republic wauted ships. 



" There was every reason why the owners of the Meteor should be 

 ready to sell her to our South American neighbors whenever they could 

 properly and lawfully do so."* 



Negotiations were carried on with this purpose in view, but when all 

 ready to sail with her stores and crew on board, " the Meteor was 

 seized on the 23d of January, 1866, by the United States marshal, at 

 the instance of Spain," and for about two years was held in litigation 

 by the Government of the United States for alleged infringement of 

 neutrality laws, the final result of the suit, however, being in favor of 

 the owners of the ship. 



Outside of the purpose for which she was originally built the model 

 of the Meteor is interesting as being a ship of unusual speed for the 

 period when she was designed. It is related of her that she has made 

 an average speed of 15^ knots an hour, with a disconnected screw, for 

 a period of 72 consecutive hours. 



In the collection received from Mr. Lawlor are two fine models of 

 steam yachts, which illustrate the advance which has been made in 

 designing these ty})es of pleasure craft. 



(16) In a collection of 5 models of various kinds of sailing and steam 

 craft, ])resented to the INIuseum by Sumner, Swaysey, and Currier, of 

 ]S'ewburyi)ort, Mass., is an interesting model of the screw steam packet 

 Decatur, built about 1844, and which may be considered as a fair rej)- 

 resentative type of the earliest f^rms of screw steamers employed in the 

 United States. 



(17) We have received from John N. Gushing, of Ncwburyport, Mass., 

 a collection of 8 models of merchant vessels (brigs, barks, and ships). 

 Of these two are of csi)ecial interest. One of them is the nuxlel of the 

 brig Palos, of Xewburyport, l)uilt in 1832. From this model, which 

 is one of the best examples extant of the old-style " kettle bottom," a 

 fleet of 12 or 14 l)rigs were built, these being emi)loyed (;hiefly in the 

 European tra<le. '1 hey were extremely full, deep, and narrow, with a 

 great deal of "tumble home" to their top sides. This peculiar shape 

 ■was due chiefly to the tonnag«! laws then in vogue, by which one half 

 of the length of the main beam was taken from the depth of the vessel. 



* Report of the case of the steamship Meteoc, 



