AERONAUTICS IN RELATION TO NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 51 
separate most easily from the water, but the difficulty, which he has touched upon here, is that 
they are not suitable at all for rough water. 
This whole subject of aeroplanes is a very live one, and we are going to do a great deal 
of flying. There being so much water on the face of the globe, and the water always being 
perfectly level, it constitutes the natural place upon which to alight if this one proposition 
that Mr. Richardson has treated of here can be solved. 
A great deal of work has been done in England by the Admiralty, and within the last 
few weeks we have learned from very direct sources regarding the valuable work of Lieu- 
tenant Port, who was over here and who has been continuously at work on this problem 
in England. He has finally succeeded in designing a boat that will cope with the roughness 
of the waters (you remember that, practically speaking, they have nothing else over there 
but rough water) and that will separate itself from the water and rise with considerable 
ease. It is certainly very necessary that this problem be solved, and the best that we can all 
do together is none too good. 
When the Naval Advisory Board about two months ago were taken to the Southern 
Proving Grounds, they were given an exhibition of a flying boat that was launched from 
the North Carolina. The water was rather rough at the time—it was stated afterward that 
it was about as rough as it had ever been—when a flight was undertaken by our flying 
corps, and that flight was very successful, although there was apparently some difficulty in 
getting off. Still, there was possibly greater difficulty in alighting on the rough water. Care 
had to be taken to create a lee, and the aircraft came around and alighted on the water in 
the lee of the big ship. Otherwise, probably it would have been very difficult for the aero- 
plane to have alighted at all. 
We are maintaining a hangar and have been flying with hydro-aeroplanes for upwards 
of three years. We are flying today. We are located on the Great South Bay, which is 
very shallow, where we have probably about as smooth water as there is in this vicinity; but 
I want to emphasize, before sitting down, that if any of us can contribute to this point of 
getting a successful hydro-aeroplane boat, or a framework which will more easily part and 
separate from the water, and still be seaworthy, a very great advance will be made. 
THE PRESIDENT :—Is there any other gentleman who wishes to discuss the paper? If 
not, on your behalf I will express our thanks to the author of this paper. 
We will now proceed to paper No. 5, entitled, “The Power Forging of Chain Cables,”’ 
by Naval Constructor F. G. Coburn, U. S. Navy, Member. 
As Mr. Coburn is not present, the Secretary, Mr. Cox, will give a very brief abstract 
of the paper. 
THE SECRETARY :—It is very regrettable that Naval Constructor Coburn is not here, be- 
cause, as you will see in looking over his paper, he has given a great deal of careful thought 
and study to the matter, and no doubt if he were here he could give us some interesting in- 
formation other than that which is contained in the paper itself. 
The paper has been printed and distributed, and I will merely read a few of the para- 
graphs that may seem particularly interesting. 
