476 Loss of Life at Sea. |October, 
motion; on the contrary, when it is pushed out of the per- 
pendicular, its effort is always to bring the ship back to the 
motionless condition, and its effort in this dire¢tion is greater 
in proportion to the extent of the disturbance from the per- 
pendicular, a disturbance originated by that other force; 
and in proportion as the ballast or centre of gravity is lower 
does it tend to limit the extent of the motion, which is the 
opposite of the action of a broad plane of flotation. 
In proportion as the stability is derived from the weights 
being placed low, and relatively great as compared with the 
smallness of the plane of flotation, a ship will roll less and 
less. 
Many have seen this fully illustrated in the steadiness or 
freedom from rolling with which a boathook floats in the 
midst of waves. 
This condition is also well illustrated by a floating target, 
which remains vertical because of its studiously low-placed 
centre of gravity and small plane of flotation. 
Let anyone take a boathook and load it still further near 
the hook so as to push it well down into the water, and 
arrange that the stave or wood handle shall be as small as 
will consist with floating the added weight if placed in the 
midst of high waves, it will be found to float, and continue 
to do so nearly upright, the waves as they pass running up 
the stave without inclining it further or rolling it, and why ? 
Because the great weight acting low down with all the 
force of the stability which it gives out, in consequence 
even of the small incline from the perpendicular, is exercised, 
not as Mr. Froude suggests, ‘‘to put the ship or handle in 
motion,” but to prevent further motion except in the vertical 
plane; and the ballast succeeds in preventing motion, 
because the whole plane of flotation, or more properly the 
volume subject to immersion and emersion as the waves and _ 
hollows between the waves pass, and which alone constitutes 
the instrument through which the waves act to put the ship 
in motion, is little or nothing compared to the force of the 
low weight, and to the action of the body low down in the 
undisturbed water, resisting motion. The obvious course 
therefore to be pursued, when it is desired to reduce the 
amount and the rapidity of motion in ships, would be to 
keep the plane of flotation comparatively small, the centre 
of gravity low, and make the depth half the breadth or as » 
great as would consist with general good qualities, and the 
object for which any particular ship might be destined. 
Instead of which two other courses are recommended by 
Mr. Froude and his school, viz., to raise the centre of gravity 
