SHIP. 



ship float sufficiently high above water to run no 

 risk of receiving seas in her lower ports in time of 

 action. In order to he secure of this, the constructer 

 must make an estimate of the whole weight of the 

 ship, including body, spars, armament, men, and 

 munitions, and must so model the bottom that it 

 will have displaced an equal weight of water when 

 arrived at the desired depth. But in the merchant- 

 man, of which we now particularly speak, the 

 primary consideration is, to attain the greatest 

 capacity to carry cargo, combined, as far as pos- 

 sible, with safe and easy movements and rapid 

 sailing. Now, the only way to combine these 

 qualities with any success, is to imitate a form 

 which has stood successfully the test of experience. 

 This the builder does when he forms his model, 

 guided by a tasteful and accurate eye, accustomed 

 to notice the forms of vessels, and to mark parti- 

 cularly those which have been distinguished for 

 their good qualities. 



Among the admitted and well established prin- 

 ciples of construction, is the leading one, that the 

 greatest breadth must always be before the centre, 

 and consequently the bow be more blunt than the 

 stern. Some of our best builders place this point 

 only one third of the length from the stem. Ab- 

 stractly, it would seem most important that the 

 bow should be adapted to divide the water with 

 the least possible resistance; but experience has 

 proved that it is far more essential to facilitate the 

 escape of the displaced water along the side of the 

 vessel; for when once a passage is opened for the 

 ship, the fluid tends to re-unite abaft the point of 

 greatest breadth, where, instead of offering resis- 

 tance, it presses the ship forward, in its endeavour 

 to recover its level and fill the vacuum constantly 

 opening behind her. Without recurring to Sir 

 Isaac Newton for the demonstration by which he 

 has shown the mathematical truth of this principle, 

 it may be sufficient to instance the fact, familiar to 

 every seaman, that a log tows infinitely easier by 

 its bigger end ; nor do we find a trifling concurrent 

 testimony in the forms of the finny tribe, which an 

 unerring nature has adapted to divide the element 

 they move in, by a shape gradually diminishing 

 from head to tail. As it is, then, less essential 

 that a ship should be sharp forward than aft, there 

 is a further advantage in having the bow full 

 towards the edge, that it may check her in 

 descending into the waves, not abruptly, but 

 gently ; pitching being the most dangerous to hull 

 and spars of all a vessel's movements. Though 

 sharpness towards the sternpost is vitally essential 

 to fast sailing, yet care must be taken to leave the 

 buttock full towards the surface, in order to check 

 the stern gently in descending, and, when scudding 

 before a gale, to lift it in timely season, on the 

 arrival of a sea. To hit the exact mean in this 

 respect, so as not to retard the sailing, on the one 

 hand, nor, on the other, to endanger the safety of 

 the ship, requires all the skill of the architect. 

 The midship floor should be nearly flat, in order to 

 render the ship buoyant and stable, or capable of 

 bearing sail. It has been suggested that, since 

 stability is in proportion to the length, an elonga- 

 tion of ships might be productive of increased 

 speed; but, though they would thus be enabled to 

 carry more sail without an essential increase of 

 resistance, yet it may well be questioned whether 

 this advantage would not be more than compen- 

 sated by the corresponding increase of difficulty in 

 turning, manoeuvring, and rising to escape the 



breakings of the sea. There must also be a loss of 

 compactness and strength proportionate to the 

 increase of length, so that such vessels may be 

 only adapted to the smoothness ol a lake, or to the 

 purposes of privateers and smugglers, who are 

 desirous to procure rapid movements at whatever 

 sacrifice. An increase of breadth may produce 

 equal advantage without any sacrifice; for, inas- 

 much as stability increases as the cubes of the 

 breadth, by adding one quarter to the breadth you 

 gain a double stability, and, by consequence, a 

 capacity to bear twice as much sail, with but one 

 fourth of increase in the resistance. If it be re- 

 membered that the pressure of the water increases 

 in descending from the surface, and that from this 

 cause and the augmented difficulty of displacing it, 

 the resistance offered to a ship in advancing, is 

 three times as great at the lower as at the upper 

 half of the immersed section, there can be no doubt 

 that, if the law for measuring tonnage left his 

 dimensions optional to the builder, the excess of 

 depth now used would be transferred to the breadth. 

 This being the case, it is deplorable that our 

 government should so long have retained the old 

 rule for the measurement of tonnage. This takes 

 only into consideration the length and breadth at a 

 single point, and, consequently, furnishes no stan- 

 dard whatever to judge of the capacity: hence, the 

 merchant may have his ship made as deep as he 

 pleases, and carry her breadth down to the floor 

 itself, without any increase of tonnage t and one of 

 three hundred tons may be thus made to carry 

 three times as much as another of equal measure- 

 ment, formed for speed and beauty. Now, as a 

 ship's port charges are determined by her registered 

 tonnage, this is a direct bounty 'for building ugly 

 and disproportioned ships, and an equally direct tax 

 upon every digression from the model of a bread- 

 tray. Great detriment to the appearance, speed, 

 and safety of our freighting ships results from this 

 absurdity. But to return to our subject; an ex- 

 treme in breadth, as in length or depth, is also 

 dangerous. All extremes are here to be equally 

 avoided. In civil architecture, an extravagance 

 may be an eye-sore to men of taste, and render the 

 projector ridiculous; but in naval, it too often 

 proves faial to human life. 



Keeping, then, all these principles in view, as 

 far as the tonnage law and the interests of the 

 merchant permit, the builder proceeds to form the 

 half model of his proposed ship, making it of the 

 usual relative dimensions (a quarter of an inch to 

 the foot). When satisfied with his performance, 

 he takes asunder the horizontal sections of plank 

 of which the block was originally formed, and he 

 has before him all the waterlines in miniature. 

 Having marked these on the floor of the moulding 

 loft, he has all the necessary data, and proceeds to 

 draught the entire frame. This done, pine moulds 

 are formed of all the different parts, and the pre- 

 paratory labours are complete. The scene now 

 changes from the moulding loft to the ship yard, 

 and the builder turns his attention to the materials 

 The timber most in request is oak, pine, chestnut, 

 locust, cedar, elm, beech, &c. The felling and 

 choice of timber is in itself an art. The tree 

 should be taken in the second era of its growth, 

 when it has attained maturity, without approaching 

 the period of decay. It should be killed, by re- 

 moving a ring of bark, at the beginning of winter, 

 when the sap is down, and left to dry and harden 

 before it be cut down. When felled, the timber 



