Curvilimal Sterns of Ships. 219 



so many serious and decided impediments, increases in a very high 

 degree the advantages likely to result from the general application 

 of the new form. To take the example of a man of war becalmed 

 in the Bay of Gibraltar, or at the entrance of the Baltic, — situations 

 in which our gallant seamen have sometimes been exposed to the 

 irritating and destructive effects of raking fires from gun-boats, — 

 is it not apparent, from the preceding experiments, that a ^ghip 

 with a curvilineal stern, so circumstanced, would be enabled 

 effectually to resist any attack of this kind *. And that even if 

 the vessel so acting on the offensive should vary her position with 

 the facility that a steam-boat is capable of imparting, could not 

 the guns at the quarter and stern-ports be as readily made to fol- 

 low her ? Nor would it be possible for the attacking vessel to take 

 up any position in the neighbourhood of the stern, without having 

 a gun or guns ready to resist her. This is an advantage which 

 ships constructed on the old principle never possessed ; and I have 

 been assured by a gallant Admiral, who for a considerable time 

 held a command in the Baltic, that the ships of his squadron, 

 when convoying merchantmen through the Belt, have frequently 

 been obliged to heave out warps, in order to bring them round to 

 get a gun to bear. Sometimes, indeed, when from the facility 

 with which the gun-boats could be moved from one situation to 

 another by means of their sweeps, the warping of a ship would 

 prove ineffectual, it was found necessary to form the armed boats of 

 the squadron into a line of defence for the merchantmen. These are 

 difficulties which may again occur, and for which, in a time of 

 tranquillity and peace, and when the merits of every plan can be 

 rigorously and impartially examined, we ought to prepare. The 

 same distinguished officer has more than once assured me, that if 

 the call of his country should again place him in the Baltic, he 

 would most unquestionably apply to the Admiralty for round-stern 

 ships. 



It is not, however, to be supposed, in a profession where a 



* Since this was \vriUen, the llcvenpe of 74 guns has aflfordeW, before 

 Algipis, a very satisfactory example of llio groat advantages to be derived 

 •from the curvilineal Blern, in resisting an attack from gun-boats. 

 Q 2 



