V. MEMOIR OF HER MAJESTY'S STEAM SHIP THE MEDEA, 



DURING A SERVICE OF NEARLY FOUR YEARS. 



BY THOMAS BALDOCK, LIEUT. R.N., K.T.S. 



HAVING been enabled to lay before our readers a set of plan drawings of the splendid steam 

 ship of war Medea, we annex a brief memoir of facts connected with that vessel, and her perform- 

 ance under a variety of circumstances, which may we trust be interesting to those who take into 

 consideration the extraordinary revolution which the steam engine is accomplishing in nautical 

 affairs ; not only in abridging time and space, and thus bringing distant nations into close com- 

 munion with each other, but in its scarcely less important application, when allied to our fleets 

 as a powerful auxiliary in war : and although the philanthropist will not view these con- 

 sequences with the same complacency, that attends the contemplation of the benefits which 

 the agency of steam confers upon mankind, yet this subject may be favourably considered, 

 under the conviction, that the most effectual way of preserving peace, is to be prepared at all 

 times for war. The change, therefore, which the steam engine must effect, in the tactics of 

 naval warfare, cannot be viewed with indifference in a country whose " best bulwarks are her 

 wooden walls." 



Previous to the year 1 830 the Government only possessed a few small steamers, which were 

 principally employed for the purpose of towing ships in and out of harbour, and other trifling 

 services on the coast, with an occasional voyage to Lisbon or Gibraltar. These vessels were 

 built very strong ; and although it became necessary, in the first instance, to employ them 

 in the conveyance of the Mediterranean mails, on the adoption of steamers for that service, 

 they were removed to other duty as soon as more competent vessels could be built expressly 

 as packets. 



About the year before mentioned, the Admiralty having judiciously determined to add a 

 small squadron of steam cruizers to the navy, gave directions for the construction of a steam 

 ship of war, at each of the king's dockyards, the form, scantling, and internal arrangements, 

 being left in a great measure to the judgment and skill of the master shipwright of the yard 

 at which each vessel was designed and built ; well considering, that although many private 

 steamers then existed, even of the size suitable for war purposes, which vessels, from the ex- 



