SHIP. 



There we see the Great Harry, the wonder of the 

 sixteenth century, a most terrific looking monster. 

 Her bow and poop are of prodigious height, the 

 signal lantern on the latter being nearly level with 

 the round tops. She has an immense beak, with 

 bow and stern balconies ; six round towers at the 

 angles of the poop, gangway, and forecastle, like 

 the turrets of a chateau ; four masts, with tops 

 literally round, like inverted cones, and abundance 

 of streamers from every spar. Even at the begin- 

 ning of the seventeenth century, a vessel con- 

 structed by the duke of Northumberland, a 

 schemer of that day, and then esteemed a miracle 

 of perfection, measured fifty-four feet more on 

 deck than at the keel, and was thirty-three feet 

 high at the bow, fifty-one at the stern, and only 

 twenty-eight in the middle. It is true that, very 

 shortly after, a ship, launched in England, and 

 called the Royal Prince, was very little different 

 from those of our day, except that she was every 

 where encrusted with carved work and gilding. 

 Yet this is a solitary and uncopied example, for 

 builders still clung pertinaciously to their inequali- 

 ties, excrescences, and inflections, down to a late 

 period of the last century. Indeed, in most nations 

 of Europe, a liigh poop and inflected topside are 

 still partially continued, though no longer to 

 the extravagant degree which characterized the 

 fashion at its height, when it was not unusual to see 

 a ship taper upwards to half her extreme breadth. 

 In the United States of America alone is this 

 custom entirely abolished, experience having shown, 

 what theory may also demonstrate, that it is 

 vicious in every respect; that, while nothing can 

 be urged in favour of tumbling in, as it is well 

 called, but that it brings the guns nearer the 

 centre, and hinders the smoke of the lower from 

 incommoding the upper decks, it adds greatly to 

 the difficulty of draughting, and the expense of 

 timber and construction, at the same time taking 

 from the spaciousness of the upper deck, increasing 

 the crankness of the hull and the insecurity of the 

 masts, by allowing no spread to the shrouds which 

 support them. The long-established custom, too, 

 of making the deck rise into a little mountain abaft, 

 with the sole view of accommodating the com- 

 mander and other great men with better quarters, 

 has been as little respected in that republican 

 country. They have reduced the whole topside to 

 one uniform, unbroken level. Hence there are no 

 obstructions to catch the wind; and, moreover, the 

 vessels, being lighter at the extremities, pitch and 

 perform their vertical motions with more ease. 

 Hence, too, they are less exposed to camber, or 

 become broken-backed, a bending downwards of 

 the extremities, which takes place in all vessels, 

 more or less, at the moment of launching, and 

 which is promoted when at anchor by the down- 

 ward pressure of the cables, and at all times by 

 the unsustained gravitation of the extremities, 

 from their extreme sharpness, counteracted at the 

 centre by the accumulating pressure of the resisting 

 fluid in an upward direction. The American 

 schooner a model peculiar to that country, is of 

 the simplest form, carrying the greatest breadth 

 before the centre; the bow is very sharp, and the 

 draught forward inconsiderable, but increasing 

 towards the stern, where it becomes double. With 

 great length and breadth, furnishing stability to 

 bear a large surface of sail, and great depth to take 

 hold of the water and prevent drifting, the burthen 

 and const'f|uent displacement of the schooner are in- ! 



considerable, a large part of the bottom consisting of 

 mere dead wood. Above water, her form is straight, 

 low, and unbroken, offering no obstacle to the 

 wind; the masts are long and tapered, and the 

 sails, like the body, adapted to approach the wind, 

 which the schooner does within forty or forty-live 

 degrees, just twenty degrees nearer than the best 

 equipped frigate; and she will sail in rnodtMt. 

 weather as fleetly by the wind as from it. Unli - -. 

 indeed, in gales, when her excessive speed, in con- 

 junction with her wedge-like form, tends constantly, 

 as she runs over the water, to raise the bow, and, 

 by counterpoise, to depress the stern, to tli<- 

 danger of being overtaken by a pooping sea, the 

 schooner going large is also victorious. It may be 

 possible, in smooth water, with a vessel like the 

 flying proa, or with a double boat of capacity to 

 bear a single man, to surpass the speed of the 

 schooner; but not with any vessel capable of 

 traversing the sea, whether moved by natural or 

 artificial agents. If it be considered that, in 

 doubling the velocity of a body moving through a 

 fluid, that body not only impinges on twice as many 

 particles of the fluid, but on each of them with 

 twice its former force, so that the resistance 

 increases as the squares of the velocity, it may well 

 be wondered how a speed of twelve, thirteen, and- 

 even fourteen sea miles the hour, has at length been 

 attained. 



Let us now proceed to the leading object of this 

 article to give an idea how, in our day, a ship is 

 built, masted, rigged, and, finally, manreuvred; 

 premising, simply, that it is not so much our desire 

 to suggest new notions to those who are familiar 

 with the subject, as, in accordance with the plan 

 of this work, to convey a plain yet palpable idea to 

 those to whom it is yet a mystery. The nicest and 

 most difficult operation in ship-building consists in 

 forming the draught. This is done, in Europe, by 

 representing the form of the proposed ship in three 

 distinct points of view. The first is called the 

 sheer plan, and gives a complete view of the side: 

 here are represented the length, depth, rake of the 

 stem and stern; the wales, waterlines, decks, 

 ports, masts, and channels. The body plan shows 

 the breadth, having described upon it every timber 

 composing the frame of the ship; those running 

 from the place of greatest breadth forward being 

 described on the right hand; those running aft, on 

 the left. Lastly, there is the half breadth, or hori- 

 zontal plan, showing the whole as if seen from 

 above. To construct these draughts is exceedingly 

 intricate and laborious; and, when finished, they 

 convey no very clear idea of the intended ship. 

 The American builders have a very different mode, 

 very easy and satisfactory. They begin by making 

 a wooden model of the proposed construction, the 

 thing itself in miniature. Here the length, breadth, 

 bulk, all the dimensions, and most minute inflexions 

 of the whole, are seen at a single glance; the eye 

 of the architect considers and reconsiders the 

 adaptation of his model to the proposed object, 

 dwells minutely on every part, and is thus able tc 

 correct the faults of his future ship, at the mere 

 expense of a few chips, and while yet in embryo. 

 We shall now state what are the essential qualities 

 of a good ship, and how they are attained. In a 

 ship of war, the great object is speed, connected, 

 as far as may be, with ease of movements, and 

 capacity to accommodate her crew and carry a large 

 supply of water and provisions. One point, more- 

 over, is especially to be looked to; this is, that the 



