42 Mr. Major's Analysis of British 



consideration of the forms, calculations, and equipments of 

 ships, is not yet introduced in the official duties of the profes- 

 sional superintendents of His Majesty's Dock-yards. As op- 

 portunity may offer for completing them, numerous other 

 calculations, and the details of those here presented, which 

 are in my possession, will be added to the present. 



The computations of ships here given, form but a small part 

 of the digest of His Majesty's ships of war, proposed by me to 

 the Navy Board in October 1821 ; as that work would require 

 constant attention in calculating the elements of all sea-going 

 ships at the Dock-yards. The present tables will, however, 

 tend to reduce to precision and certainty, what is often un- 

 known, as we may witness in looking at the extensive altera- 

 tions which some of our English ships have required. In the 

 Annals of Philosophy for November 1825, may be seen the view 

 which I have taken of the best mode of pursuing the study 

 of naval architecture : my plan is there explained at large. 

 In the numbers for the following January and June may also 

 be found additional remarks on a digest of the Navy. 



It is to be regretted that the centres of gravity of some of 

 His Majesty's ships have not been found by experiment, as it 

 will be seen, by referring to the article on Ship-building in the 

 Edinburgh Encyclopedia, that no objection to the mode, on 

 the score of accuracy, now exists. Some writers have pre- 

 tended to give the exact stability of ships without obtaining 

 the centre of gravity of the entire vessel ; but such pretensions 

 are only vain and nugatory : at the same time the metacentric 

 calculations here presented, as used in the French tables, are 

 extremely serviceable as estimates of the stability of vessels. 



The form of exhibiting the results of the calculations of 

 British ships of vvar has been taken from the French Marine 

 Ordinance of 1 786, as a general viexv of the powers and capa- 

 cities of the ships is well given by that description of table : for 

 this purpose also, the averages of different estimates have been 

 taken. The corresponding French tables, reduced to English 

 measure, are also given for the purpose of comparison ; as they 

 contain the types from which our 84-gun ships and 46-gun 

 frigates have been built, — two numerous classes, amounting 

 together to fifty or sixty in number : the French Franklin^ or 

 English Canopus, having been the model of the one, and the 

 Hebe frigate, the model of the other class. The elements of 

 the Franklin will be found in the third column of the table of 

 French ships of the line, as when captured she carried only 

 eighty guns, four guns having been omitted at the ports of the 

 admiral's cabin. The elements of our 46-gun class are those 

 of the 18-pounder frigates in the French tables. For further 



guidance 



