Curvilinecd Sterns of Ships. 217 



The danger of fire, from the explosions of the guns taking place 

 within board, has been briefly alluded to ; but as the superiority of 

 the curvilineal stern, in this point of view, is strikingly conspicu- 

 ous, it may not be improper to allude to this part of the subject 

 more particularly. 



By comparing Figs. 4 and 5, Plate IV., it will be perceived that, 

 in the old form, (Fig. 4,) the muzzle is twenty-one inches within 

 the rail; whereas, in the new form, (Fig. 5,) the muzzle is eighteen 

 inches beyond the frame of the stern ; — the guns in each being sup- 

 posed in a fore-and-aft direction. It is scarcely necessary to insist 

 on the superiority of the latter form above the former, in relation 

 to this very important consideration ; since an explosion can never 

 take place within board, without obvious disadvantages and danger. 

 When the guns are trained, the evil will be increased in the square 

 stern : — whereas, with the greatest possible angle the case will 

 admit, in the curvilineal stern, the muzzle is never within the 

 stern-frame. These disadvantages in the square stern, arise from 

 the overhanging form of that part of the ship, and from the incon- 

 venient distribution of the timbers of the frame*. 



With respect to the guns at the after-broadside ports of the two 

 frigates, it may be observed, that they are under precisely the 

 same circumstances, their muzzles in both cases being beyond the 



• The form of the square stern being borrowed from a remote antiquity, 

 and before the employment of artillery on shipboard, necessarily brought 

 with it numerous disadvantages. Had the stern been adapted to the guns, 

 instead of the guns to the stern, there can be no doubt but its primitive form 

 would have been assimilated to a curvilineal line. Nor, in this case, would 

 it have presented so massy and cumbrous a figure, or have been so overloaded 

 with barbarous specimens of sculpture, as disfigured our ships of war, even 

 of a modern date. When we refer to the sterns of the Great Harry, or of the 

 Royal Prince, we can scarcely conceive that the essential and proper objects 

 of a ship of war were contemplated by their constructors. In tracing also the 

 history of naval architecture, since the introduction of artillery, wc may clearly 

 perceive the steps by which, in successive periods, the old stern has been 

 shorn of its ornaments, and pruned down to a form more consistent with the 

 purposes for wliich a ship of war is intended. It required, however, another 

 and a greater step to transform it into the curvilineal stern. 

 Vol. XVIII. Q 



