No. 144.] 99 



discovered that after days and months of study upon the best lo- 

 cality for a single point, which is supposed to be the key to all the 

 rest, does the student find that a change in the position of one 

 power by an alteration of the model, destroys the appropriate de- 

 termination of all others. Thus are we chagrined at the boasted 

 improvements of this ioiproving age in ship building, and our 

 animadversions on the incongruities so manifestly apparent are 

 regarded too often with the most chilling indifference. This want 

 of sympathy in the mass of mankind to the dangers of the deep 

 may, to some extent, have arisen from the dissimilarity to that of 

 any and all other sciences, in its effect upon the mind of man. 

 The mass of mankind are not content to allow those engaged in 

 the construction and management of ships to know which is the 

 best shape, or what are the most appropriate proportions to ac- 

 complish the object designed; hence we say that every man has 

 the imagery of what he regards as the best shape for a ship de- 

 lineated on the pupil of his eye, and the moment his eye falls 

 on a vessel he is ready to pass sentence of condemnation if the 

 ship, and picture, and his eye do not agree ; and in this manner 

 public opinion is manufactured, so that every man has either an 

 opinion of liis own (or that imbibed of another) upon what con- 

 stitutes the well formed ship. We find this pride of opinion in al- 

 most every man we meet, and in every association; and those 

 whose business it is to furnish protection and security to life and 

 property are alike imbued with the same malady. No other art 

 is encumbered with this incubus to so great an extent, and yet 

 none should be more entirely free from its influence. Few can 

 see its deteriorations in the construction, but all may witness its 

 baleful consequences in the management of the vessel in time of 

 danger. In common with this multitudinous mass of opinions de- 

 livered we cannot forbear giving our own views, which may be 

 yielded as a right or regarded as a privilege, we are not particular 

 which. With regard to the attainment of perfection in ship 

 building which many discover in the sl)ips of the present time, 

 we would say that we regard the dangers of the seas as far less 

 hazardous and to be dreaded than the dangers of the ships. The 

 community assume, by common consent, that the ship having the 

 * largest amount of timber and fastening in her construction is the 



