290 



REMARKS ON SHIPS. 



Sept. 



sight. Knowing her to be one of the new build, I altered 

 course, to sail a few miles with her, and see how much she 

 would beat us ; but, to my surprize, she gained on us but 

 little while running free with a fresh breeze, just carrying top- 

 mast studding-sails ; and I was afterwards told by her officers, 

 that though she sailed uncommonly well on a wind, and worked 

 to windward wonderfully, she did nothing remarkable with a 

 flowing sheet. I did not like her upper works ; they ' tumbled 

 home' too much (like some old French corvettes) ; narrowing her 

 upper deck, giving less spread to the rigging, and offering a 

 bad form to the stroke of a heavy sea, whether when plunging 

 her bow into it, or receiving it abeam. However good such a 

 form may be for large ships, which carry two or three tier of 

 guns, I cannot think it advantageous for flush-decked vessels 

 or small frigates, and am quite certain that it is bad for boats. 

 I here allude particularly to that ' tumbling home' of the upper 

 works, which some persons approved of a few years ago. This 

 is not the place, however, for a discussion upon naval architec- 

 ture (even if I were qualified to deal with the subject, which 

 assuredly I am not) ; but I cannot pass over an opportunity 

 of adding my mite of praise to the genius and moral courage 

 of Sir William Symonds and Captain Hayes, who, undeterred 

 by opposition, and difficulties of every description, have suc- 

 ceeded in infusing (if the metaphor may be allowed) so large 

 a portion of Arab blood into the somewhat heavy, though stal- 

 wart coursers of our native breed. Amidst the natural conten- 

 tion of eager candidates for an honourable position, to which 

 they have been accustomed to aspire, and for which some are 

 doubtless admirably qualified, it is not surprising that due 

 credit has not always been given to that originality and justi- 

 fiable daring, of which the merits are attested by the Vanguard 

 and Inconstant. Neither has it always been recollected, how- 

 ever men may have differed in their opinions of this or that 

 individual, as a naval architect, that the two best ships built 

 of late years were constructed by naval officers, self-educated 

 chiefly during the practice of their profession. I am quite 

 aware, that some of those eminent architects who have con- 



