38 Mr, Knowles in Defence of Sir Robert Seppings. 
riders,” sald to have been recommend- 
ed by the same gentleman, is as new 
as the former. Earl Stanhope, by pa- 
tent dated 9th of April, 1807, proposes, 
in building vessels which he denomi- 
nates ‘Stanhope weatherers,” either 
to plank them inside and out, or to 
omit the inside planking, and increase 
the outside ; aad he goes on by stating 
“this latter method is the ancient me- 
thod, and, in my opinion, it ought to 
be revived.” In the San Juan Nepo- 
meceno, of seventy-four guns, built at 
Ferrol in the year 1781, and captured 
by Lord Nelson in 1805, riders were 
laid ali fore and aft in the hold in a 
diagonal direction ; and, further, it was 
always the custom in this country to 
lay the breadth and top riders diago- 
nally. I have answered this point 
under the supposition that Captain 
Cowan had recommended diagonal 
riders; but the fact is, that he made 
no such proposal, nor is the word dia- 
gonal used throughout his letter, ex- 
cept in reference to driving the bolts 
and tree-nails diagonally, a plan which 
he strongly recommends, but gives 
the credit thereof to Capt. Cartier, of 
the Navy. 
3dly. Horizontal timbers. As these 
are not introduced into the new method 
of ship-building, it may appear irrele- 
vant to notice them; but as, by an 
abuse of terms, the shelf pieces, which 
are placed without the clamps, at a 
considerable distance from the frame, 
are called by the writer horizontal 
timbers, it may be right to state, that 
these have been long employed by the 
French. As a proof, the lower-deck 
beams of L’Hébe, captured by the 
British in the year 1782, were secured 
by shelf-pieces; these were removed 
when she was repaired in the year 
1806. And further, Mr. Boswell’s 
patent method of building ships, dated 
1802, (not 1806, as incorrectly stated,) 
bears no similitude either to the dia- 
gonal framing invented by Sir R. Sep- 
pings, or in the application of shelf- 
pieces. 
4thly. Cross-planking. Placing of 
planks diagonally has been practised 
for more than a century past, in par- 
tial cases, by the French, and other 
foreign nations, see Dupin’s excellent 
memoir ‘De la Structure des Vais- 
seaux Anglais,” inserted in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions for the year 
1817, also ‘‘ Bouguer’s Traité du Na- 
vire,” published in 1746, page 154.— 
In Mr, Machonochie’s pyespectus, 
[Aug. f, 
published by Egerton in 1805, coaks 
are not mentioned, or even alluded 
to; onthe contrary, he proposes to lay 
the decks the same thickness ‘‘as at 
present, but to be divided into three 
layers; one layer diagonally from 
starboard to larboard, another from 
larboard to starboard, and a third as 
at present, fore and aft: this (says he,) 
by tonguing the two under strata, and 
jointing and caulking the upper, would 
produce a platform of 
strength.” That coaks were used by 
the ancients, in works of civil archi- 
tecture, we know from Wood’s ac- 
count of Balbec, as quoted by Sir R. 
Seppings, in his paper on ship-build- 
ing, inserted in the Philosophical 
Transactions for the year 1820, where 
it is stated that “ the pieces composing 
the shafts of the lofty columns were 
joined together without cement, by 
pins of iron let into sockets.” In giv- 
ing this quotation, itis not my inten- 
tion to rob General Bentham of the 
inerit of invention, in applying a 
known principle to a new object; as 
he certainly is the first upon record 
who introduced circular coaks of wood 
in ship-building. In many instances 
the wooden coaks are now substituted 
by those of cast-iron. 
5thly. The bolting of thick strakes 
over the joints of the timbers, at the 
first and second futtock-heads, has 
been practised in the British navy 
for time immemorial, and is esta- 
blished by an order of the King in 
council in 1745; and, by the same 
authority, two strakes, two feet three 
inches in breadth, the lower se- 
ven and a half, and the upper six 
inches in thickness, are to be placed 
next the timbers, on each side, in 
ships of the line of seventy-four guns ; 
these may be considered as doing the 
offices of side keelsons. 
6thly. Circular sterns. There is 
among the models belonging to the 
government, one of a floating battery, 
pierced for twenty-four guns, having 
a circular stern. This model is at 
least fifty years old; and, on reference 
to page 10 of Sir R. Sepping’s letter 
to Lord Melville, it will be seen, that 
the late Capt. Larcom, in 1798, gave it 
as his opinion, “that ships should have 
circular sterns.” What claim, then, 
has the author of “the Precursor,” 
which was published in 1813, to this 
recommendation ? 
One circumstance remains to be no- 
ticed, which is, the wilful misrepre- 
sentation 
incredible’ 
a om ES 
