102 [Assembly 



duction, he will oppose the improvement, and tell the builder, 

 that he must have the carrying capacity, even though the vessel 

 did not sail as fast or perform as well; and if the builder dare 

 take the responsibility of departing so far from the last model, 

 (unless dimensions absolutely demand it) as to render it percep- 

 tible, it would be difficult to satisfy the owner, that every long 

 voyage was not consequent upon the change of form; and, unless 

 some great genius in nautical mechanism shall arise, whose pri- 

 vate fortune shall enable him to make improvements at his own 

 expense, the progress of improvements must indeed be slow unless 

 a school of marine architecture shall be established. And although 

 the ship builders of the United States have much to complain of, 

 as barriers to improvements, they have still more in Europe, as 

 we have shown. Let us not boast of perfected art in ship building, 

 so long as unspeakable dread attends the ocean traveller, or while 

 sea sickness destroys the appetite of the passengers and makes 

 them selfish and unsocial, and renders life itself to them almost 

 a burden. Away then with the idea of having attained perfection 

 in ship building, nor let the induction of steam in ocean naviga- 

 tion lead us to suppose that we have accomplished all that can 

 be done; that, having crossed the ocean within ten days, we have 

 reached the altitude, or highest grade of progress ; let us remem- 

 ber, that our sailing ships have attained greater speed than our 

 steamers, and that the law of progress will furnish increasing 

 speed, and consequent safety, inasmuch as they are inseparable. 

 By the law of depreciation we find, that the American line of 

 Atlantic steamers have lost 3 per cent of speed, since their in- 

 duction, and that the English line have lost 15 per cent during 

 the past year, showing the superiority of American models; — but, 

 is this a time to fold our arms at the lulahy of j^ erf ecfio7i, when 

 the shrieks of shipwrecked sufferers come to us from a thousand 

 shores, and death from collision, fire and flood, are sounding daily 

 in our ears. Our ships should be life boats on the largest scale, 

 and we may realize within the next five years, that, for passenger 

 travel a single week is sufficient to ensure the greatest comfort 

 in connection with tlie greatest safety, in crossing the Atlantic, 

 and that sea sickness is a disease, for which the ship builder has 

 the only antidote. 



