Intelligence and Miscellanies. 371 



INTELLIGENCE AND MISCELLANIES. 



I. American. 



1. Temporary Rudder, fitted at sea, to the Liverpool 

 Packet Britannia, by her commander, Charles H. Mar- 

 shall. — The public papers have recently informed us, of the 

 circumstances which led to the invention of this rudder, and 

 of the great satisfaction expressed by the passengers, in the 

 skill and intrepidity of Captain Marshall, which so soon res- 

 cued them from an anxious situation. 



Capt. Basil Hall, (so well, and so advantageously known, 

 in both hemispheres,) in a letter to the Editor, dated, New 

 York, Nov. 5, 1 827, mentioned this rudder, as "the best thing 

 of the kind he had ever seen," and kindly forwarded a draw- 

 ing, of which the annexed figure is a copy, intended to exhibit 

 the rudder in its connexion with the ship. Captain Hall's 

 opinion, from his high standing as a nautical as well as scien- 

 tific man, being a very decisive recommendation of the utility 

 of Captain Marshall's invention — a letter was addressed to 

 the last named gentleman, requesting his permission to make 

 the drawing public, and asking any additional information 

 which might be necessary to elucidate the subject. 



The following is his reply : — 



New York, Nov. 15th, 1827. 



TO B. SILLIMAN, ESQ. 



Dear Sir — I received your letter a few days since, and I 

 can assure you, I feel great pleasure in giving you every pos- 

 sible information respecting the fitting of my temporary rud- 

 der, and in order to give you a full idea of its construction, I 

 must beg your acceptance of a wooden model, fac simile, 

 of the original ; it has been examined with great interest since 

 my arrival, and I believe pronounced, without a single excep- 

 tion, the best thing of the kind ever adopted. I consider the 

 knowledge of this, so simple, so easily made and requiring so 

 little material, and one that can be shipped in a tolerably mod- 

 erate sea, particularly valuable to all nautical men. I was not 

 more than twelve or fourteen hours in making it and fitting it 

 to its place, and I found it would stear, wear, and stay the ship 

 with as much ease as the former one. You will observe the 

 piece across the top of the rudder post, that is intended to 

 fit under the carlings of the deck, provided it is necessary to 

 have any thing to keep it down, and if it is necessary to have 

 any thing to sink it down to its place 5 the end of a chain ca~ 



