266 



BENNIES LAST WORKS- 



VII. 



In his capacity of advising* engineer to the Admiralty, 

 Mr. Renriie embraced every opportunity which his posi- 



mathematics and astronomy, obtained 

 from the son of his teacher, who had 

 studied these branches at Glasgow 

 University. He seems to have been 

 an indefatigable learner, for he also 

 acquired some knowledge of music 

 from an itinerant music-teacher, whom 

 he very shortly outstripped. His 

 mechanical tastes early displayed 

 themselves. Watching some mill- 

 wrights employed in constructing a 

 flour-mill, he copied the machinery 

 which they erected, in a model which 

 he finished as they completed their 

 mill. He also made a model of a 

 74-gun ship, after the drawings given 

 in Mungo Murray's ' Treatise on Navi- 

 gation and Shipbuilding,' which he 

 was so fortunate as to fall in with. 

 At an early age he was employed in 

 herding his father's cows on a hill-side 

 overlooking the Solway Frith, and 

 commanding a view of the coast of 

 Scotland. There he took his books, 

 with a desk of his own making, and 

 while not forgetting the cattle, em- 

 ployed himself in reading, drawing, and 

 mathematical studies. When a little 

 older, his father set him on the cob- 

 bler's stool, and taught him shoe- 

 making, though the boy's strong in- 

 clination was to be a sailor. But 

 large shoals of herrings making their 

 appearance about this time in the 

 Solway Frith, a small fishing com- 

 pany was started by the Allonby 

 people, in which his father had a share, 

 and young Huddart was sent out 

 with the boats, very much to his 

 delight. He now began to study 

 navigation, carrying on shoemaking 

 in the winter and herring-fishing at 

 the time the shoals were on the 

 coast. On the death of his father, he 

 succeeded to his share in the fishery, 

 and took the command of a sloop 

 employed in carrying the herrings to 

 Ireland for sale. During his voyages 

 he applied himself to chart-making, 

 and his chart of St. George's Channel, 

 which he afterwards published, is 

 still one of the best. The herrings 

 having left the frith, Huddart got the 



command of a brig, his excellent cha- 

 racter securing him the 'post, and he 

 made a successful voyage in her to 

 North America and back. His pro- 

 gress was steady and certain. A few 

 years later we find him in command 

 of an East Indiaman. After many 

 successful voyages, in which he hap- 

 pily brought all his ships to port, and 

 never met with any serious disaster, 

 he retired from the service ; having 

 been in command of a ship of greater 

 or less burden for a period of twenty- 

 five years. He now published many 

 of his charts, the results of the obser- 

 vations he had made during his nu- 

 merous voyages. His eminent charac- 

 ter, not less than his known scientific 

 knowledge, secured his introduction to 

 the Trinity House as an Elder Brother, 

 and to the direction of the London 

 and East India Docks, in which situa- 

 tions he was eminently useful. The 

 lighting of the coast proceeded chiefly 

 under his direction, and many new 

 lighthouses were erected and floating- 

 lights placed at various points at his 

 recommendation. Among others, he 

 superintended the construction of the 

 lighthouse at Hurst Point. He also 

 surveyed the harbours of White- 

 haven, Boston, Hull, Swansea, St. 

 Agnes, Leith, Holyhead, Woolwich 

 Dockyard, and Sheerness ; several of 

 these in conjunction with his friend 

 Mr. Eennie, who was always glad to 

 have the benefit of his excellent judg- 

 ment. He made many improvements 

 in ship-building; but the invention 

 for which the nation is principally 

 indebted to him is his celebrated rope- 

 making machinery, by which every 

 part of a cable is made to bear an equal 

 strain, greatly to the improvement of 

 its strength and wearing qualities. 

 This machinery, constructed for him 

 by Mr. Eennie at Limehouse, was 

 among the most perfect things of the 

 kind ever put together. Captain 

 Huddart died at his house in High- 

 bury Terrace, London, in 1816, closing 

 a life of unblemished integrity in the 

 seventy-fifth year of his age. 



