572 Navigation, 



some notice of the modern improved methods of 

 constructing Pumps, and other hydrauhc machi- 

 nery of ships, by which the safety and comfort of 

 navigators are greatly secured. 



In addition to the improvements which have 

 been mentioned, some notice might be taken of 

 the various plans for "pxomotmg Siih-marine Naviga- 

 tion, which have been laid before the public at dif- 

 ferent times, and by different persons in the course 

 of the last age; of the attempts to construct Life- 

 boats, iox thesafety of mariners in cases of extremity ; 

 of the improved methods which have been invented 

 for facilitating the guidance of ships on the ocean, 

 and for measuring their progress. But to give an 

 intelligible enumeration of these and of many other 

 modern improvements in navigation would lead to 

 a minuteness of detail inconsistent with the plan 

 of the present sketch. 



Besides many ingenious individuals to whom 

 mariners are indebted for patronizing and aiding 

 their art;, much is also due to some learned and 

 othQX societies , for their useful exertions to promote 

 the same end. But perhaps to no public bodies 

 will the annals of modern navigation be found to 

 ascribe more than to the Board of Longitude, and 

 the Board of Admiralty of Great-Britain. 



From the concurring influence of all the consi- 

 derations above stated, enterprising men have learn- 

 ed, within the eighteenth century, to traverse the 

 most distant seas, with a degree of ease, confidence 

 and expedition, wholly unknown in any former 

 age. A voyage from Europe or America to India, 

 is now performed in half the time that it cost an 

 hundred years ago; and even a voyage round the 

 world is considered at present as an undertaking 

 scarcely more formidable than a voyage from 

 America to Europe at the beginning of the century 

 in question. 



