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whilst others have preferred 51°, in the voyage to Australia. And it 

 must be observed, that although there may be many different routes 

 selected as the best by different mariners, each may adopt composite 

 sailing. He, however, who selects the highest latitude makes the 

 shoitest route ; but each makes the shortest possible route under the 

 limitation of not sailing to a higher latitude than that which he has 

 selected as the highest that it is prudent to sail to under the peculiar 

 circumstances of the voyage. Even the same captain chooses a 

 different route under different circumstances. Thus Captain Boyce 

 ventures to 57° with a cargo of copper ore ; but with passengers, some 

 of whom are suffering from the effects of a tropical climate, he does not 

 venture higher than 47°. Captain Peat started on a voyage in the 

 ' Persian,' with emigrants, with the intention of making the favourite route 

 of 5 1 °. In passing the line, however, he had fever on board. At the 

 period when he had to choose his maximum latitude reaction had 

 taken place, especially amongst the children ; this induced him to 

 lengthen his voyage, by fixing on the lower latitude of 46°. Then, 

 again, there is a route out by the Cape, and a route home by the Horn, 

 both ' composite' routes. In fact, there is no practical application of 

 navigation that reipiires of the navigator a clearer perception and a 

 greater amount of skill than voyages in which ' composite sailing' is 

 adopted. 



Imagine that we were assembled together to pass judgment on some 

 splendid work of art — a piece of sculpture, the work of some modem 

 riaxman ; and suppose you were addressed thus by some one present : — 

 " You give the whole of the credit to Flaxman, but none to me, who made 

 the instrument by means of which alone he could have accomplished 

 this work;" your reply would be this : "No doubt your instruments 

 were good, or they would not have been employed by such an artist ; 

 but the merit of making these instruments is of a different order to the 

 talent of the artist who uses them. Place your instruments into the 

 hands of a country stonemason, and, instead of producing such a splendid 

 specimen of art as that before us, he would only have destroyed the 

 valuable block which he had vainly attempted to carve into form." So 

 it is with "composite sailing"; so it is with all other apphauces with 

 which the mariner is furnished. In the hands of such men as Godfrey, 

 Boyce, and Forbes, they have been employed in accomplishing voyages 

 that have astonished the commercial world: whilst in the hands of Captain 

 Potter and others they have served only as an excuse for their own 

 accidents or their blunders. 



For the purpose of further proving that the shipowner cannot too 



