298 MARITIME OBSERVATIONS. 
Plate IV. 
Figure 4. 
A Bis a long boom, from which are hoifted fe- 
ven jibs, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, each a feventh part of 
the whole dimenfions, and as much more as will fill the 
whole fpace when fet in an angle of forty-five degrees, fo 
that they may lap when going before the wind, and hold 
more wind when going large. Thus rigged, when go- 
ing right before the wind, the boom fhould be brought at 
right angles with the keel, by means of the fheet ropes 
CD, and all the fails hauled flat to the boom. 
Thefe pofitions of boom and {fails to be varied as the 
wind quarters. But when the wind is on the beam, or 
when you would turn to windward, the boom is to be 
hauled right fore and aft, and the fails trimmed according 
as the wind is more or lefs againft your courfe. 
It feems to me that the management of a fhallop fo rig- 
ged would be very eafy, the fails being run up and down 
feparately, fo that more or lefs fail may be made at plea- 
fure; and I imagine, that there being full as much {ail 
expofed to the force of the wind which impells the veffel 
in its courfe, as if the whole were in one piece, and the 
refiftance of the dead air againft the forefide of the fail be- 
ing diminifhed, the advantage of {wiftnefs would be very 
confiderable; befides that the veflel would lie nearer the 
wind. 
Since we are on the fubjec& of improvements in navi- 
gation, permit me to detain you a little longer with a {mall 
relative obfervation. Being, in one of my voyages, with 
ten merchant-fhips under convoy of a frigate at anchor in 
Torbay, waiting for a wind to go to the weftward; it 
came fair, but brought in with it a confiderable fwell. A 
fignal was given for weighing, and we put to fea all to- 
gether; but three of the fhips left their anchors, their ca- 
bles parting juft as the anchors came a-peak. Our cable 
held, and we got up our anchor; but the fhocks the fhip 
felt before the anchor got loofe from the ground, made 
me reflect on what might poflibly have caufed the break- 
ing 
