MARINE STK.\M-l-:\(iFNKS. 373 



both to you ami to liiin, for your inspection. Mr. lieiinie said 

 there was a great deal contained in what I had stated to him, 

 and that he would with pleasure forward my views, as far as he 

 could with consistency. 



" I remain, Sir, 



" Your very humble servant, 



" KICHARD TREVITHICK." 



"To THE EIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF 



THE ADMIRALTY, &c., &c., &c. 

 "MY LORDS, 



" About one year since I had the honour of attending 

 your honourable Board, with proposed plans for the improve- 

 ment of steam navigation ; and as you expressed a wish to see 

 it accomplished, I immediately made an engine of considerable 

 power, for the express purpose of proving by practice what I 

 then advanced in theory. The result has fully answered my 

 expectations ; therefore I now make the following propositions to 

 your honourable Board, that this entirely new principle and 

 new mode may be fully demonstrated, on a sufficient scale for 

 the use of the public. 



" I humbly request that your Lordships will grant me the loan 

 of a vessel of about two or three hundred tons burthen, in which 

 I will fix, at my own expense and risk, an engine of suitable 

 power to propel the same at the speed required. No alteration 

 in the vessel will be necessary, and the whole apparatus 

 required to receive its propelling force from the water can 

 be removed and again replaced with the same facility as the 

 sails, thus leaving the ship without any apparatus beyond its 

 sides when propelled by wind alone, and when propelled by 

 steam alone the apparatus outside the ship will receive scarcely 

 any shock from the sea. 



" This new invention entirely removes the great objection of 

 feeding the boiler with salt and foul water, and not one-sixth 

 part of the room for fuel, or of weight of machinery now used, 

 will be required ; it is also much more simple and safe, not 

 only for navigation, but for all other purposes where locomotive 

 power is required, and will supersede all animal power, as the 

 VOL. II. 2 



