NATURE 



369 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER S, 1S72 



NA VAL SCIEXCE * 



MR. REED, who has hitherto been known to the 

 naval world principally as, a successful ship- 

 builder, and as the writer of two valuable works on ship- 

 building, comes before it now in the additional character 

 of editor of a magazine, which, under the title of Naval 

 Science, professes to embrace all branches of science 

 relating to naval affairs. How far this profession will ba 

 fulfilled, as the magazine, advancing from number to 

 number, gathers strength with increasing age, remains to 

 be seen ; but at present it is impossible to avoid the 

 remark that a very disproportionate part of the two num- 

 bers now before us, and more especially of the first, is 

 occupied with articles devoted to the study of naval archi- 

 tecture. The superabundance of papers relating to this 

 subject is one which, from Mr. Reed's antecedents, 

 might fairly have been expected, and is to be expected in 

 the earlier numbers, until the editor gathers round him a 

 statT competent to write on the many other scientific topics 

 which present, or should present, equal interest to, and as 

 directly concern, our naval oflicers. Such subjects as the 

 stabiHly or the rolling of ships, ably and in most respects 

 agreeably as they are treated, have, from their theoretical 

 point of view, absolutely no connection with the duties of 

 a naval officer, however much they may appeal to his 

 desire to be fully acquainted with whatever bears, even 

 remotely, on his profession. It is, of course, important 

 that, with these new ships which have points of maximum 

 and vanishing stability, the commanding officer, and not 

 only he, but every executive officer, should familiarly know 

 the limit of inclination which his ship must never be 

 allowed to exceed ; but, practically speaking, it is of no 

 more consequence to him to know the mathematical 

 reason of this than it is to know the geological forma- 

 tion of a submerged rock ahead. The relation between 

 the period of a ship in the trough of the sea and the 

 period of the waves amid which she woidd be rolling, has 

 even still less to do with the practical duties of a seaman 

 who is unable, under any circumstances or in any degree, 

 to alter either " the metacentric height," " the radius ot 

 gyration," or " the period of oscillation " (p. 199) ; but who 

 is able, so long as the ship is not a helpless wreck, to keep 

 her out of the trough of the sea, the position to which 

 these experiments and calculations refer. We by no 

 means wish to imply that the study of such questions as 

 these is of no importance to the naval officer ; on the 

 contrary, we are very decidedly of opinion that whatever 

 gives him a clearer insight into the meaning of the rules 

 by which his conduct has to be guided, renders him a 

 more intelligent, and therefore a more capable officer ; 

 what we would say is, merely, that they have not such 

 paramount interest as to render it desirable to devote to 

 them at least half the space in a magazine of Naval 

 Science. Saying this, we must also add that we are for- 



* " Naval Science: .1 Quarterly Magizine for Promoting the Improve- , 

 meiit of Nav.il Arcliilccture, Marine Engineering, Steam Navigation, and 

 Seamanship." EilileJ by K. J. RecJ, C.B., Slc. Nos. I. and II., 3vo. 

 Lockwood & Co ) 



tunate in having in Mr. Reed one who represents for one 

 scientific branch what should be represented in all 

 branches. 



The remaining space has been allotted to more varied 

 papers, some of which are of considerable ability. Amongst 

 these we would specially mention one on " Naval Tactics," 

 which contains a very interesting resume of the subject, 

 and permits us to hope that in a future number the writer 

 will enter more fully into a discussion of the probable 

 and possible effects of the several formations ; for though 

 no certain result can be arrived at till war has actually 

 tested them, it seems to us that much knowledge may be 

 gained by a consideration of the different methods of 

 attack and defence, as opposed to each other. 



We have, again, a valuable contribution to navigation 

 in an article on " Rhumb and Great Circle Charts," 

 which illustrates the important application of the Great 

 Circle principle to windward sailing, in a manner more 

 lucid and satisfactory than we remember to have seen 

 in print before. But in treating of its more general 

 relations to navigation and to the conduct of a long 

 passage, the writer would seem to have momentarily over- 

 looked the geographical as well as the meteorological con- 

 straints which are everywhere put on it ; thus, for instance, 

 in the outward passage to Australia, the great circle route 

 leads through latitudes dangerous or impassable from ice, 

 whilst the steadiest streak of westerly winds is to the 

 north rather than to the south of the 45th parallel. A 

 previous article from, if we mistake not, the same pen, 

 enters on the long-ve.xed question of " The Rational 

 Method of Teaching Navigation." There can be little 

 doubt that the author is right as to the rationahty of the 

 method ; — as to the utter irrationality of the method which 

 has been hitherto generally adopted, the difficulty which 

 has stood in its way has been the absolute impossibility of 

 adapting it to the necessities of the service, and of giving 

 very young boys the requisite grounding in elementary 

 mathematics, in the given time and amid the bustle and 

 disturbance of a sea life. We may fairly hope that this 

 difficulty is about to vanish, now that Mr. Goschen recog- 

 nises the advisability of materially increasing the age for 

 the entry of naval cadets. It is on this that the hope of 

 any real improvement in the state of naval education 

 must principally depend. When a youngster at the age 

 of fourteen is thrust into a world of peculiar hardship and 

 excitement, he must have an extraordinary aptitude if he 

 follows up book-learning one step more than he is obliged 

 to do. It appears in the evidence before Admiral Shad- 

 well's Committee that about seven hours a week is a good 

 average amount of study under instruction ; it does not 

 appear in the evidence, but it is none the less true, that a 

 young boy's attendance at study iri the forenoon, after he 

 has kept the morning or middle watch, is for the most part 

 corporeal rather than mental, from which he derives little 

 or no profit. When the present system has been entirely 

 done away with, and been replaced by some other, such, 

 perhaps, as that recently proposed by Captain Goodenough, 

 we may hope that our young naval officers, as they grow 

 into manhood, may possess a fair groundwork of the more 

 essential parts of an exact education. But until some 

 such radical alteration has been made, until a real, how- 

 ever moderate, amount of accurate grounding becomes 

 the rule and not the exception amongst our young officers, 



