PHILOSOPHICAL 
TRANSACTIONS. 
/ 
XV. On a new principle of constructing His Majesty's Ships of 
W ai\ By Robert Seppings, Esq. one of the Surveyors of His 
Majesty's Navy. Communicated by the Right Hun, *SVr Joseph 
Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S, 
Read March lo, 1814. 
Notwithstanding the rapid improvement in almost every 
other branch of the arts and sciences within the lastcenturv, it 
will scarcely be credited by persons not conversant with ship- 
building, that little or no advancement has been made during 
tliat period in naval architecture, so far as relates to the dis- 
position of the materials which compose the fabric of a ship, 
whereby alone strength and fixedness of the parts can be 
obtained. 
This will appear the more extraordinary in Great Britain, 
when it is considered that our very existence as a nation 
depends upon our naval superiority ; and when it is further 
understood that a deficiency of oak timber, but more particu- 
larly that cf a large scantling, calls for such an application of it 
as will reduce its consumption, and make up for the deficiency 
of its size. 
It is not improbable, that the responsibility W'hich w^ould 
attach to an individual who should attempt an innovation in a 
pp 
MDCCCXIV. 
