His Majesty* s Ships of War. 287 
exceed tliat of its weakest parts/' and consequently, that 
partial strength produces general weakness." 
Three 74 gun ships, now at sea, have already been rebuilt 
at Chatham on the principle abjut to be explained ; and, 
from the favourable reports of those ships, the Lords of the 
Admiralty have given their orders for the building of several 
new ships upon the same principle. 
To shew, in as clear a light as possible, the advantages of 
the application of this new principle to ship building, it may 
be necessary, for the information of those who are not ac- 
quainted with that art, to give the following general outline 
of the structure of a ship on the old principle. 
1st. The frame of a 74 gun ship is formed of more than 
eight hundred different timbers, placed at right angles to the 
keel, which may be considered as the back bone of an animal, 
and the frame timbers its ribs. Each rib is composed of seve- 
ral pieces of the thickness of fourteen inches, or thereabouts. 
Between the several divisions of the frame, or ribs, is a space 
from one to five inches wide. 
2diy. The whole exterior frame is covered with planks of 
different thicknesses, or to carry on the figure, the ribs are 
covered by a skin of greater or less substance from the ex- 
treme ends of them to the keel or back bone. 
The inside of the frame is also almost entirelv lined with 
planks ; within which is another partial range, as it WTre, of 
interior ribs, at a considerable distance from each other, termed 
riders. 
3dly. Across this frame are pieces of timber called bearns^ 
united together so as to be of sufficient length to reach from 
one side of the ship to the other. 
P p 2 
