290 Mr. De la Fons on Mooritig Skips. 



tempt at securing it by such means must prove abortive, as 

 nothing of sufficient strength could be driven with so limited 

 a space to work in. 



Mooring-blocks are likewise objectionable in shallows, as 

 where a vessel draws much water she is liable to run foul of 

 them, and thereby sustain considerable damage, — an evil that 

 is avoided by making mooring-anchors with only one fluke. 



The idea that the buoy would from its tendency upwards 

 act as a spring upon the cable is incorrect, as the weight of 

 the chain would reduce it to an equilibrium, unless it were 

 made of an enormous size, so large as to endanger small craft 

 that might come in contact with it. 



There is an oversight in the method proposed for mooring 

 the vessels, which, if secured to it in the way described (viz. 

 by a strong hoop round the centre of the buoy), a very trifling 

 strain, by elongating the hoop, would crush it nearly flat ; but 

 this error might easily be obviated by passing a bar through 

 the buoy with the ring at the top for making fast to. 



Having shown in the preceding observations that no an- 

 chorage can be relied on unless it take firm hold in the ground, 

 it will be evident, and it has been admitted by every nautical 

 man who has inspected it, that the safety mooring is constructed 

 upon pi'inciples of perfect security, and that it could only fail 

 by the breaking of the chain. The security of the mooring is 

 effected by means of a pile strongly fastened to the mooring- 

 chain, which pile with the chain attached to be driven perpen- 

 dicularly into the bed of the waters, at any station where it 

 may be required. The piles should be about five or six diame- 

 ters in length, and may be driven to the depth of several feet 

 into the earth, according as the nature of the ground may re- 

 quire : this can be done at any anchorable depth, and without 

 the aid of a diving-bell, by means of a newly-invented appa- 

 ratus, which cannot be described without the assistance of 

 drawings. The pile should be of a porous kind of wood, as 

 when swoln by the absorption of moisture it would require im- 

 mense perpendicular action to raise it, — a description of force 

 to which it never would be subjected; — and being driven j^?/s/« 

 with the bottom, its stability could not possibly be affected by 

 a vessel riding as she usually does at an angle of about thirty 

 degrees. 



Every practical man that has been consulted upon the sub- 

 ject, agrees, that if these permanent moorings were laid down 

 in the roads, numbers of lives, as well as property to an im- 

 mense amount, would be annually saved ; as when a large ship 

 drives, not only is she in danger, but as she bears down upon 

 the others, they also to avoid the impending danger are com- 

 pelled 



