530 Notes of the Month on [May, 
stating two or three points, which, if true, are decisive. In the first 
place, it says that none of the steam vessels pay, except such as are 
merely used for passage boats, the room taken up by the machinery 
being so great as to preclude any considerable freightage. This of itself 
would be decisive. And the only remedy, namely, the reduction of the 
size of the machinery, seems to be almost hopeless, if we are to judge from 
the failure of all attempts of the kind. Inthe next place, a steam power 
will, like the power of a horse, draw twice as much as it will carry, at 
least on the water ;—thus a steam vessel of half the power towing, will 
answer the purpose. Thirdly, there is a great loss of power by having 
none but engines of one particular kind of force on board ; while the cir- 
cumstances of wind and tide, currents, &c., vary the necessity for its use. 
The hundred horse power goes on pushing away alike in a wind and out 
of a wind, with tide or against tide. 
The application of steam engines, to vessels going the East Indian voy- 
age, has been shown to be unfit for ships of any considerable size, be- 
cause such vessels cannot be moved but by a great power, which takes 
up great room for its machinery and for its fuel. Next, the sailing vessel 
can take advantage of so many points of wind, from the use of which the 
steamer, even with sails, is precluded, that in a voyage of three months 
the sailing vessel will probably beat the steamer ; and, thirdly, for the 
line-of-battle ships no engine in common use could be adopted with any 
reasonable security of its not being rendered useless by shot, when of a 
size to act on one of those enormous fabrics. The plan proposed is 
this :—That the man-of-war should have a launch fitted up with a small 
engine, which is to be employed to tow her in calms, or bring her out of 
action if disabled or under a battery. The same service would be ren- 
dered to the East India ship, she having twice to cross the line, and 
each time being delayed by the tropical calms. A launch, with a small 
engine, which would move her three miles an hour during those calms, 
would probably shorten the average voyage three weeks or a month. 
The same principle might be applied to all our coast trade, which might 
be towed from port to port with an extraordinary saving of expence in 
point of rigging, crews, &c. The memoir states also, that an immense 
waste of power occurs in the attempt to give great swiftness to the 
steamer, from the resistance of the water, which increases in a prodi- 
gious proportion above the velocity. The resistance to the velocity of 
four miles being to that of ten, something near the numbers ten and twa 
hundred. 
A valuable suggestion has been made by Martin, the artist, for erect- 
ing beacons along the edges of the Yarmouth and other sands on the east 
coast, and which might be applied to the whole circuit of the island. He 
proposes, that on the edges of these shoals, a succession of metal boxes 
shall be sunk to form a foundation, in which three metal columns are to 
be fixed, meeting each other at the top; and from this centre of the 
triangle a metal basket is to be hung, large enough to contain a light 
and the two men who are to take charge of it. The project seems a 
little fanciful, from the difficulty of securing the beacons on the sands, 
which themselves frequently shift in the violence of a furious sea. The 
situation of the watchers, too, would be by no means enviable; but it would 
probably be filled by discharged sailors, or old fishermen. The advan- 
tages of having lights along the sands would, however, be incalculable, 
