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the policy of retaining the smaller vessels in commission, or a portion of them during the 

 continuance of peace while the larger ones are to be laid up, be adopted, then the question 

 arises as to which will be the most economical measure for the government to pursue. Either 

 to suffer our uncommissioned ships to decay at our wharves, and when wanted if worthy 

 to repair or partially rebuild them ; or, at a comparatively small expense, preserve them against 

 decay so that at any time they may, with a small outlay on short notice, be re-commissioned 

 for any public emergency? The answer cannot be mistaken, and the process is cheap, simple 

 and certain. 



It consists, in the first place, of divesting such vessels of their entire rigging and spars, 

 closing them water-tight on all sides, filling them with a saturated solution, either of common 

 salt,, copperas, or such other antiseptic substance as may be preferred, and sinking them in 

 fresh water, or in docks containing any solution similar to that with which they had been 

 previously charged, even with or below thoir main decks, to suit the exigencies demanded by 

 the occasion ; but copperas will be decidedly better than the others- mentioned, for the reasons 

 before stated. 



Piers may be constructed in some of our navigable fresh water streams, such for instance 

 as the Potomac or James rivers, to protect them from ice, and they could be raised and fitted 

 for service at the pleasure of the government in a very short time. 



The material used in this manner for the preservation of ships would cost a mere trifle 

 if compared with the ordinary expenses of repairs to which our marine as now managed 

 is subject. 



The solution so applied may when ships are wanted ba transferred to earthy reservoirs 

 on shore, and always be ready for repeated future use. 



There could be no decay in the timber of ships so treated ; the copper in or on their 

 bottoms would remain entire, or undecomposad ; or, if without copper sheating, they would 

 be exempt from the depredations of insects ; and, if copperas be the antiseptic used, such 

 vessels would when brought into active service be strictly entitled to the name of ironsides : 

 they would be very nearly incombustible as well as imperishable. 



Timber that has been previously air-seasoned will be more speedily saturated than if 

 r-ecently dressed or water-seasoned. 



It should be here remarked that common salt doss not change the properties of the 

 woody constituents ; it merely combines or rather mixes with tloe fluids, and penetrates into 

 the soluble portions in such manner as to prevent the action of copperas and alum ; they fix 

 or change the soluble permanently insoluble substances. 



