SECTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 91 



obtained by exchange, may be reckoned among the valuable addi- 

 tions to our collection in this department. These are oval -shaped boats 

 about 5 A feet long and two-thirds as wide, the depth being abort L8 

 inches. The Boyne oorracle is made of leather, fastened to a basket 



like frame of willow withes, while the Scotch OOrraole is constructed of 

 breadths of tarred canvas drawn over a light framework of thin, flat, 



wooden strips. . Bach of these oorracles has a single thwart, placed 



nearly amidships, upon which the occupant sits to paddle the boat. 



(l.'i) Among the interesting novelties received by the Museum during 



the current year might properly be included a model of a Belgian Ash- 

 ing sloop, which was purchased at the International Fisheries Exhibi- 

 tion at London, and which represents the peculiar style of boats used 

 for beam- trawling, v\m\, from certain ports on the coast of Belgium, but 

 particularly from Ileyst and Blankonberghe. This boat, which is de- 

 signed for landing on a beach, and is, therefore, Hat-bottomed, and like 

 the Dutch bomschuited, very broad and full, differs, in the form of its 

 hull and its rig, from any other fishing boat used by man at the present 

 time. This model is rendered doubly interesting by having attached 

 to it the peculiar forms of tishing apparatus used by the Belgian boats, 

 and also because there are a number of figures of fishermen in it. 



(14) The collection has been enriched by an accession of four water 

 color sketches of ships of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth 

 centuries, which are of especial interest as being connected with the 

 early history of America. One of the sketches represents the ships of 

 Columbus, according to the highest French authority, which by the 

 closest students of naval architeeture of that period are believed to 

 be the most accurate and reliable. Another very interesting sketch 

 is that of the Mayflower under sail, on her passage from England to 

 America in 1G20. This is probably the most accurate sketch of the 

 Mayflower that has ever been made, since it is derived from a study 

 of many years of the various peculiarities of the English and Dutch 

 vessels of that period. A third sketch represents a "carrack" of the 

 sixteenth century. Hippus, the Tyrian, is credited with having first 

 devised carracks, which are described as vessels of great size, de- 

 signed for both trade and war. The same name was given also by the 

 Portuguese and Spanish to a class of vessels which they sent in the 

 sixteenth century to the East Indies and Brazil, and which doubtless 

 visited other parts of America. These vessels were large and full, of 

 great depth, and were designed for fighting as well as trade. The 

 tourth sketch is that of a Spanish " galleon" of the sixteenth century 



1520). In their traffic with America, galleons were much used by the 

 Spanish as treasure ships during the sixteenth century. They were 

 always heavily armed, but it is said that owing to their unwieldiness 

 they generally fell an easy prey to their assailants. 



(15) D. J. Lawlor, naval architect, Chelsea, Mass., has presented the 

 Museum with a fine collection of 17 models of various styles of vessels. 



