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will, tliereforc, be proper to give a brief cccount of ihofe 

 btlor.i^'iig to the different clalFcsof fhipping. 



Ships of war, particularly of the line, have ufually fix 

 boats, a!id the number clecnafes with the rate of the (hip. 

 The large ft is called the long-boat, and fometimes the launch; 

 and its principal employment is to convey heavy (lores to 

 the fhip. This boat is generally fiiniidied with a maft and 

 fails, and is occailonally decided, armed, and equipped, for 

 cruifing (liojt diftances againft merchant ftiips of the enemy, 

 or fmugglcrs, or for impreffing feanien, &c. The large is 

 the next lefs boat, and i;i particularly appropriated to carry 

 the principal fea officers, as the admiral, captain, &c. to or 

 from the fhip ; and in confcqucnce of its flender conftruftion, 

 combined with its fmall breadth, is very unfit for fea. This 

 boat never rows lefs t'lan ten oars. The pinnace is fimilar 

 to the barge, but imaller, never rows above eight oars, 

 and is ufed by lieutenants in going afliore, or coming off to 

 the fliip. Cutlers are broader, deeper, and fhorter than the 

 former; they are emplovid on almoft all occafions, as for 

 going afhorc, carrying ilores, provifions, boarding fhips at 

 fea, &c. yolly-boat is the fmalleft boat uftd in any of the 

 fhips in his majelly's fervice. In Plate VI. oi Ships are per- 

 fpeftive views of a man of war's long boat, of a barge, and 

 flat-bottomed boat. 



In an Eaft Indiaman there are four boats, the long boat, 

 tutter, jolly-boat, 3.nA yawl. The (iril of thefe is for conveying 

 ftores and goods to and from the fliip ; the fecond forgoing 

 afhore ; and the others are employed occafionally. 



Ships in the Weft India trade ufe boats in number and fize 

 according to the iflands at which they intend to take in their 

 cargo. Four boats generally belong to a (hip in the Jamaica 

 trade. The largeft, called v^Jlia'lop, will ca-rv from eighteen 

 to twenty hogdieads of fugar. The next lefs in fi^e is ufu- 

 ally called a ten hogjliead boat, from the number of hogdieads 

 it carries ; thefe two are left in the country. The next lefs 

 boat, called a double mofcs, or pinnace, carries two hoj^flteads 

 a ftiort diftance ; and the fmallell boat is called the jolly 

 boat, and is generally fiifpended from the taffrail. 



Ships in the Windward Ifland trade, loading at Barba- 

 does, Martinico, Dominica, &c. generally ufe a flat launch 

 with (Iceeds, each about thirty-fix feet long, one end being 

 upon the boat's fleni, and the other upon the betlch, upon 

 which the fugar hogftieads are rolled ftom the beach into the 

 launch. At St. Vincent's, Grenada, and Tobago, a one 

 hogfliead mofcs is ufed. At Trinidad a launch as flat as can 

 be built is ufed. At Demerara, Berbice, and Surinam, they 

 geiicrally ufe failing craft that will carry from twelve to 

 twenty hogftieads. 



Ships employed in tloe whale. fiftiL-ry have fix or more boats. 



Thefe are very narrow in refpcft to their length, for the pur- 



pofeofpullingfaft;they areftrongbuilt.and (lir.rp at both ends. 



Smaller veffels of one hundred tons and under, have in 



general one boat. 



Baehot, a fiftiing boat on the rivers in France ; it is 

 provided with a maft, oars, fiftiing lines, a ftaff, a pole to 

 faften their boat on the river when they are fifhing, S;c. 



Bal%a, or balfa, a boat, or rather raft, compofed of five, 

 feven, or nine logs or trunks of trees, ufed in South Ame- 

 rica. This boat is fo called from balza or balfa, the name 

 of the wood of which it is conftrufted, but which is called 

 puero by the Darien Indians. The balza is a whitifti fpungy 

 wood, and fo very light that a boy can eafily carry a log 

 four yards long and a foot in diameter. The follovving ac- 

 count of this boat is extrafted from the Relacion Hillorica 

 del Viage a la America Meridional, necho de Orden, de 

 S. Mag, &c. Impreffa de Orden de Rey en Madrid, 1748. 

 The balzas are not only adapted to this river (Guayaquill, 



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but venture to fea, and carry on the trade as far as Payta. 

 Their dimenfions are proportionate to their ufe, or the voyage 

 for which they are intended; fome being only for fiftiing, 

 others for the river trade, bringing fruits, and all forts of mer- 

 chandize from Bodega to Guayaquil, and from thence ex- 

 porting them to Puna, Salto de Tunibez, and Payta ; others 

 are yet more co-iimodioiifty contrived for carrying families, 

 with all their furniture and neceffaries, to their plantations or 

 country houfes. The puero trees, of which they are built, 

 are twelve or thirteen toifes long, reckoning five feet to the 

 toife, and two feet, or two and a half diameter ; fo that the 

 whole breadth of nine logs, of which fome of them confift, is 

 between twenty and twenty-four feet ; and thole of feven or 

 fewer logs are proportionate. 



Thefe logs are faftened to each other only by the bejucos 

 or withies, with which the crofs logs are alfo laftied to them, 

 yet fo fecurely as never to give way, if not worn out by long 

 ufe, though in their voyage to the coaft of Tunibez and 

 Pavta the fea runs vei-y high ; but the negroes neglefting to 

 examine if the bejucos are not too much worn to fuftain ano- 

 ther voyage, before they put to fea, it too often happens 

 that the laftiing breaks, the logs feparate, and both cargo 

 and pafiengers pcrifti ; indeed the Indians, being more aclive, 

 get upon a log andfafely work it to the utareft harbour. 

 One of thefe melancholy inftances happened while we were 

 in the jurifdiftion of Qiiito, and are wholly to be imputed 

 to the fordid negligence of the Indians, who feem to have 

 no fenfibility of danger. 



The tliickeft log of the balza is placed fo as to reach far-, 

 ther than the others ; at the ftern, another log is laftied to 

 this, on each fide, and others to thefe, tiH the intended num- 

 ber be completed, vvhicli is always odd ; the large one in the 

 middle being, as it were, the llay and foundation of the 

 others. The larger fort of thefe vefftls ufually carry about 

 twenty-five tons, v.'i':hout damaging the cargo in confequence 

 of its being too near the water's edge, for the fea never 

 breaks over them, nor does the water fwell between the 

 logs, or ever rife above them, becanfe the whole body of 

 the vehicle accommodates itfelf to the motion of the water 

 in all weathers. 



Thefe rafts work and ply to windward like a keeled veffel, 

 and keep their courfe before the wind almoft as exaftly, . 

 which is the effcft of another contrivance befides the rudder ; 

 fome large planks, three or four yards long, and half a yard 

 broad, called guares, are fet up vertically at the ftern, and 

 alio forward between the main logs. By pulhing fome of 

 thefe under the water, and taking others a little up, the 

 float fads large, bears up, tacks, or lies to, according as 

 the machine is v\-orked ; an invention which has hitherto 

 efcaped the acutenefs of the moft ingenious Europeans ; and 

 though the Indians have indeed contrived the inftrument, 

 yet they are utter ftrangers to the principles of mechanics, 

 and the caufes of its operations. 



Had it been known before in Europe, the lofs of many 

 lives in fliipwreck might have been prevented, as appears by 

 the following, among many other inftances : in the year 

 1730, the Genouefa ftiip of war, being loft in the Vivora, 

 the mariners made a jangada, or raft, to lave their lives, but 

 mifcarried by committing themfelves to the winds and cur- 

 rents, without any fteerage ; and the frequency of fueh. 

 melancholy events induces me to give a minute explanation 

 of this inftrumcnt, from a memoir of Don Jorge Juan, re-. 

 lating to it. 



The direftion in which a fhip moves, when under fail, isia- 

 aline perpendicular to the faft, according to the demonftra- 

 tions of Renan, ia his Theory of Manual Arts, cap.ii. art./.. 

 Beinouilli, cap.i' art. 4 ; and Pitot, fed. ii. art. 13. The 



re-aftica-. 



