The Locust, 



confirm what I say. It is absolutely indestructible by the 

 powers of earth, air, and water. Its strength far surpasses 

 that of the very best of our Spine Oak. It is to this timber 

 that the American ships owe a great part of their superiority 

 to ours. The stantions round the deck are made of Locust ; 

 and, while much smaller than the stantions of Oak, will 

 resist a sea three times as heavy as the Oak will. The tiller 

 of the ship is made of Locust, because it demands great 

 strength and is required not to be bulky. For the same 

 reason, the martingales of ships are made of Locust. The 

 Locust is rather a rare timber in America ; but sometimes 

 the futtocks or rihs of ships, are made of Locust; and if a 

 ship had all its ribs, and beams, and knees of Locust, it 

 would be worth two common ships. Further, as to ship- 

 building, that important article, the TRUNNELS, w^hen 

 they consist of Locust, make the ship last, probably, twice 

 as long as if the trunnels consisted of Oak. Our Admiralty 

 know this very well, or at least they ought to know it. 

 These trunnels are the pins, of which so many are used to 

 hold the side-planks on to the timbers of the ship. 

 Trunnels is said to be a corruption from tree-nails ; but I 

 do not believe it. However, we know what these things 

 are : we know that they are an article of the very first im- 

 portance in ship-building j we know that the hardest of our 

 Spine Oak is picked out for the purpose and, with all that, 

 we know that the trunnel is the thing that rots first : for the 

 water, or, at least, the damp, will get in round the trunnel, 

 and between it and the plank ; and if water or damp hang 

 about Oak, the Oak will rot. All the American public ships 

 are built with Locust trunnels, and so are all the merchant- 

 ships of the first character. 



329. Some of our own public ships have, I fancy. Locust 

 trunnels brought from America; and I have been informed, 



