employment of Oblique Riders. 329 
The explanation which has been given of the universal 
tendency of ships of war, in all common circumstances, to arch 
throughout their length, is sufficient to justify the different 
directions in which Mr. Seppings now arranges his braces in 
the different parts of the ship, since they must necessarily 
afford a greater strength as shores than as ties, and since the 
most permanent and the greatest strain will generally be such 
as to call them into action in this capacity. When, however, 
a ship is compared to an inverted bridge, it must not be 
forgotten how necessary it frequently becomes, to consider 
these braces in a different capacity, and to provide for this 
contingency, as indeed Mr. Seppings has not neglected to do, 
by employing such fastenings, as are extremely well adapted 
to secure their action as ties. 
The shelf pieces, which Mr. Seppings employs, and tlie 
superior strength of the fastenings of his decks to the breast 
hooks and transoms, have so obvious a tendency to counteract 
the causes of arching, that it is unnecessary to insist on their 
utility : the weight and expense of the shelf pieces are pro- 
bably the only drawbacks upon the advantages, which tiiey are 
so manifestly calculated to afford, in resisting both a vertical 
and a lateral strain ; and even in these respects, they appear 
to be preferable to the wooden knees formerly employed. 
The filling up the intervals of the timbers, throughout the 
hold, with wedges of old stuff', is perhaps the most indis- 
putably beneficial of all the alterations which Mr. Seppings 
Jias either introduced, or revived in an improved form. The 
strength, which is thus obtained, acts immediately in the pre- 
vention of arching, and is probably, in this respect, more than 
an equivalent to that of the internal plankiiig, which has been 
